Score-lines from the weekend’s football included a 2-2 draw between West Ham and Arsenal at Upton Park, ahead of Arsenal’s rather more bitter London derby this weekend against Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea trounced Blackburn Rovers 5-0 after a defeat against Aston Villa the week before which keeps them out in front, though in a rather less spectacular points lead.

Barcelona continue to steam ahead at the top of La Liga after winning 6-1 against Real Zaragoza while Real Madrid did themselves no favours, drawing 0-0 away to Sporting Gijon. In Italy meanwhile, Bari made things no easier to Lazio, who are now within four points of the bottom three Serie A teams, and both Inter and AC Milan continued their winning streaks, both in 2-1 victories.

Perhaps the most talked about league match at the weekend, though, was the first meeting of the season of Liverpool and Manchester Utd. With the first clash between the two being at Anfield it was always going to be a match full of controversy, with Michael Owen returning home, this time in the enemy’s uniform. If it had been at Old Trafford, Liverpool fans would have had their backs put up at the inevitable (and uncalled for) decision to bring the Liverpool legend on against them, but at Anfield the stadium erupted in jeers both at himself and Michael Carrick.



1-0 was made from a stunning goal scored by Fernando Torres, who was playing “through the pain barrier”. Rio Ferdinand had clearly picked up on the Spanish centre-forward’s plight and forced him out wide, knowing that he could not shoot across goal. Van der Sar covered his near post, and Torres had no choice but to shoot high into the net, the best reply to such malicious defending.



At 1-0 Ferguson made the choice to bring on Owen for Berbatov, a move which did him no favours and revealed his rather unprofessional desire to annoy and provoke the home crowd. Why bring on a player not used to striking up a partnership with Rooney (who had played a lacklustre game) and who had cost you no money, and take off one who had already threatened to equalise and cost somewhere in the region of £30 million?

The match ended 2-0 after a stoppage time goal, 5 minutes in on the watch that must have been lent to the referee by Ferguson (the amount of stoppage time they have been given to their advantage this season must, without exaggeration, be nearing an hour) when a second attempt at the counter-attack put 20 year-old French man David Ngog clean through, one on one with Van der Sar. His finish was one with the accuracy and cool of a player well beyond his years.