2011 is over and in December we sure had lots of football with everyone trying to send off the year as best as they can. There were some great footballing moments. Lets have a look at how the year finished and what happened in December.
Premiership
The month of December was a strange month in the Premier league. So many of the top teams lost matches and dropped points. The month started off with all the big boys winning. Blackburn got a big win at Swansea with Yakubu scoring 4. Wigan had a massive away win at West Brom. All the top teams were looking good and winning mostly. Liverpool did lose at Fulham and Tottenham lost at Stoke.
Then came a big potential title affecting game between Chelsea and Man City. City went ahead very early before Chelsea came back and won the game giving City their 1st loss of the season and opening up the title race. Chelsea then lost their way at Wigan where Wigan got a very late winner and a huge point for them.
When Arsenal visited Man City everyone was hoping that they could make City drop points but Silva made sure City got the win by scoring the only goal of the game. Liverpool were starting to get back into some sort of form beating QPR and then had a big away win at Villa who then started to slip down the table for the rest of the month.
Martin O’Neill was brought in as the new Sunderland manager to replaced the recently departed Bruce at the start of December and in his 1st 5 matches they won 2, lost 2 and drawn 1.
In a huge regulation 6 pointer and what could have been the loser gets fired match for the managers. Blackburn lost at home to Bolton. A big win for Bolton. Steve Kean did manage to keep his job though.
City went back to winning ways before all the big teams dropped points except United. City drew away with West Brom, Liverpool drew at home with Blackburn while Chelsea had back to back draws away at Tottenham and home to Fulham. Then Arsenal drew with Wolves. Meanwhile United had back to back 5-0 wins against Fulham and Wigan.
In the finally games of the month Liverpool convincingly beat Newcastle and continue their push for a Champions league place. Tottenham drew at Swansea and then on the last day of the year there were some unbelievable results. Man United were beaten at home by Blackburn in a great for the neutrals match. Chelsea didn’t manage to take advantage of the United lost and lost aswell in very poor fashion. Villa taking them apart at Stamford Bridge.
The last thing to say is that Van Persie didn’t quite get Alan Shearers record of 36 goals in a calendar year but he did beat Thiery Henry’s Arsenal record of 34 goals in a year. Van Persie managed to get 35 goals and the only goal of the game when Arsenal beat QPR.
Champions League
The Champions League finished at the beginning of December and there were some shocks. In group A Man City had to beat Bayern Munich at home and hope Villarreal could managed to beat or at least hold Napoli to a draw. City did manage to beat a sub strengthen Munich team 2-0 but Napoli also managed to beat Villarreal 2-0. This meant that City are out of the Champions League and by finishing 3rd now enter the Europa League.
In Group C all Man Utd needed to do was to draw with FC Basel away and they would qualify. However unbelievably United lost. Meaning Basel took their place in the knockout stages. United now also have to make do with the Europa League. So shockingly both Manchester clubs have failed early on in their search for the top prize in club football.
Chelsea had to beat Valencia at home if they were to qualify from Group E. Which they did. They beat Valencia 3-0 to win the group due to Bayer Leverkusen drawing with Genk. This meant Chelsea were seeded in the knockout draw.
In Group F Arsenal had already qualified and as group winners. So in their match against Olympiacos they fielded a young inexperienced team. The players might have got valuable experience but they did not get the win. They lost 3-1 but it didn’t matter coz they were already a seeded team in the knockout stage.
So now only 2 English teams are left in the Champions League. How far can they go.
For more info go to
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html
For Champions League Knock out stage draw go to
https://sweetengland.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/champions-league-english-teams-draw/
Europa League
In the Europa League there were 4 English team going for broke to qualify for the knockout stages. In Group A Tottenham needed to beat Shamrock Rovers away by a least 4 goals and hope that PAOK beat Rubin by at least a goal. Tottenham beat Shamrock 4-0 but Rubin managed to battle back from being a goal and a player down to draw and get the vital point to go through and to kick Tottenham out.
Stoke were in Group E and had already qualified for the last 32 of the Europa league. However their last game away at Besiktas would determine who would win the group. This was the toughest group match for Stoke and the result showed. They lost 3-1 despite going ahead, it was going down to 10 men that cost them. So Stoke are through to the Europa league draw as an unseeded team.
In Group H Birmingham needed to win their last game by at least a few goals and hope that either one of Club Brugge or Braga lost by a few goals as well. Birmingham did win their game but only 1-0. However Brugge and Braga drew so Birmingham are out even though they did give a very good unexpected go.
Fulham are in Group K and even though they couldn’t win the group all they needed to do was to beat OB at home and will qualify for the knockout stage. This wasn’t an easy as they thought. Fulham went 2-0 up and looked good for the win before OB came back into the game and then getting a last minute goal to take them through and kick Fulham out.
Meaning Stoke now join the 2 Manchester clubs in the Europa league last 32.
For more info go to
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/index.html
For Europa League Knock out stage draw go to
https://sweetengland.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/europa-league-english-teams-draw/
The FA Cup
The 2nd round was played at the being of December. With all the teams desperately hoping to win their games and be part of the 3rd round where they could have dream matches against the Premiership teams who enter the tournament at the 3rd round stage. There were a few surprise’s in this round with all of them being away results. Wrexham beat Brentford, Swindon beat Colchester. Then in replays Sainsburys beat Grimsby and Fleetwood Town beat Yeovil Town both also away. The 3rd round happens in January.
What was your favorite football result of December?
SweetEngland 