[ENGLAND] No team likes to be bottom, which is why the last place in the English Premier League changed hands three times in 48 hours over the course of this weekend’s round of games. On Saturday Tottenham Hotspur moved up from last place by beating Liverpool, then it was Bolton Wanderers’ turn on Sunday to escape after topping Manchester City. Newcastle United passed the bottom-feeders’ baton back to Tottenham with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa in the EPL’s Monday night game.
Villa’s U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel was beaten twice in the game’s second half by Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins, and both times he was let down badly by his defense. On the first goal, they backed off to allow Martins to shoot left-footed from outside the penalty area low into Friedel’s left-hand corner. On the second goal, his backline stood and watched as Jonas Gutierrez waltzed through the area to the endline before crossing for Martins to knock in his second from a yard out.
Friedel had made a good first-half save from Joey Barton, but had otherwise been untroubled as his team made the early running, Martin Laursen hitting the woodwork for the visitors. “We are getting stronger and fitter and that helps and it showed tonight,” said Newcastle coach Chris Hughton. “We’ve been able to get some results and that breeds confidence.” Villa manager Martin O’Neill said his side was “excellent” in the first half, “but we are instead left to rue the chances we would normally take. They were big moments in the game, hitting the post and Gabriel Agbonlahor missing a chance he’d usually score. But when they scored, it became a fatal blow, not just a setback.” Though not literally a fatal blow, as no one died.
Newcastle soared to the giddy heights of 14th position with the win, an indication of how tight things are becoming in the bottom half of the league, with just five points separating Middlesbrough in eighth from Tottenham in twentieth position. Villa, in fifth place, missed the chance to go third ahead of Arsenal and Manchester United.
In other news affecting a U.S. player in England, Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd has left Watford, the Championship (second tier) club where Jay DeMerit is a regular starter in defense. “It is with some sadness that we have taken the decision that the time is right for a new manager to take Watford Football Club forward,” Watford Chairman Graham Simpson said on the club’s official website. “Both parties feel that his tenure at the club is simply at an end.”
Boothroyd took Watford up to the Premier League for the 2006-07 season, but they came straight back down in bottom place. Last season it made the Championship’s promotion playoffs but lost out to Hull City. This season the team has started poorly and lies 21st in the 24-team league.