Week 38: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Chelsea bounce back to the top of the League, the finalists for the Champions League final in Madrid have been decided, and elsewhere there’s fighting in the dressing room, dodgy rulings by the Premier League and Fulham! These stories and more feature in this week’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which can be heard on our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

A great result for Chelsea in a must-win game against a tough Stoke side last weekend. The Blues reclaimed top spot from a battling Manchester United in the Premier League with an emphatic 7-0 thrashing of the midlands side. This game was a potential banana skin for the London side, but they were totally dominant and managed to rack up seven goals without their two lead strikers, Drogba and Anelka, scoring. They must now go into their match against Liverpool on Sunday, as clear favourites and a win would surely be enough for them to see off the challenge of Manchester United and capture the Premier League crown.

European glory for Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and Fulham as they all won through to European finals this week. Bayern were comfortable winners against a poor Lyon side, while Jose Mourinho masterminded a superb defensive display by Inter Milan against Barcelona – what drama there was in that game. The Europa League has often been derided as the poor cousin of the Champions League but the semi-finals had two tension-filled games this week. Atletico Madrid scraped past Liverpool thanks to a Diego Forlan goal while London side Fulham reached their first ever European final after yet another come-from-behind victory, this time against Hamburg. Fulham started out in this tournament in July and have managed to beat holders Shakhtar Donetsk, Italian powerhouse Juventus, Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg and final hosts Hamburg on their way to the final. Amazing stuff indeed.

Bad

A bad decision from the English Premier League to allow Manchester City to look for a new keeper outside the transfer window is sure to upset their rivals for the last Champions League spot, Tottenham and Aston Villa. City lost their first choice keeper, Shay Given, to a dislocated shoulder in their game against Arsenal, and also have Stuart Taylor, their number two, out with a knee injury. But they do have Gunnar Neilsen in their squad. The Faroe Islander may be inexperienced, but he is still employed by Manchester City and that should mean that they can field a keeper for their remaining three games. To misquote Oscar Wilde, losing one keeper is a misfortune; losing anotherA is plain carelessness; but then asking for a replacement is ridiculous!

Barcelona will not be able to defend their title in Madrid later this month after their exit at the hands of Inter Milan. While the media reaction was generally positive towards their performance the fact that Inter Milan were reduced to ten men has been rather overlooked and in particular the way that this sending off came about. Barcelona midfielder Busquets went down as if he had been it by a rock when it was clear that he had hardly been touched. Yes, Inter player Motta was silly but Busquets aided his sending off by going down like a tonne of bricks – definitely outside the spirit of the game.

Ugly

We’ve already mentioned Stoke city, albeit in Chelsea’s fantastic 7-0 win over them. But they make the ugly this week after their Senagalese defender, Abdoulaye Faye, punched Glenn Whelan in the face in a bust up after the game. Whelan was apparently unhappy with Faye wearing flip-flops in the team’s warm up, thinking it showed he was not taking the game seriously – perhaps he had a point if you think about the scoreline. This latest dressing room fight comes after manager Pulis allegedly head-butted striker James Beattie last year and and Fuller slapped his captain Griffin in 2008. Not a harmonious dressing room!

Vocabulary

emphatic: clear, convincing, easy; often used followed by ‘victory’ or ‘win’

banana skin: a game that could be difficult; a match where defeat is possible even though it shouldn’t happen; a game with the potential for a shock result

masterminded: Planned

been derided: Criticised; laughed at

scraped past: Just about won, won – but not easily

dislocated shoulder: when the shoulder joint seperates

bust up: fight; disagreement; argument – usually physical

harmonious: peaceful; calm