[h=1]Five things we learned from watching the Premier League this weekend[/h] Andy Carroll needs Steven Gerrard, Victor Anichebe might solve Everton's goal drought and Stephen Ireland's career is not over
Stephen Ireland and Aston Villa celebrate during their win at Chelsea. Photograph: Olly Greenwood/AFP/Getty Images
[h=2]1) Blackburn fans have a big decision to make[/h]Considering the levels of sustained, poisonous abuse to have been levelled at the Blackburn manager, Steve Kean, by many of his own club's fans this season, it is far from inconceivable that plenty of Rovers supporters will have been genuinely disappointed to see
their team beat the champions Manchester United in what bookmakers declared to have been the greatest upset in the history of the
Premier League.
At the very least many will have been torn between basking in the warm glow of exhilarating, unlikely victory and seething at a dogged win buying even more time for a manager they have long wanted gone. Indeed, a few Blackburn fans seem to loathe Kean so much it would genuinely come as no surprise to hear them argue their side's unexpected festive haul of points from visits to Anfield and Old Trafford were two lost rather than four emphatically gained.
We have all heard the statistics. Blackburn Rovers' record under the managerial novice Kean is far from good, a state of affairs which entitles fans to voice their disapproval and campaign vociferously for his exit. However, the toxic manner in which many have gone about relentlessly whaling him match after match at Ewood Park has often made for genuinely dispiriting viewing. The sight of hastily improvised "Kean out!" banners at a darts tournament in Alexandra Palace is fairly amusing. The sight of snarling mouth-foaming men, their faces contorted with rage as they sprint down the steps of a stand to pelt another man with season tickets, scarves and profanity is not.
But throughout the campaign for his exit Kean has comported himself with a dignity conspicuous by its absence from those pike-wavers rattling the Ewood Park gates. His employers have been simultaneously supportive and unsupportive, refusing to acquiesce to the wishes of the public by firing Kean but also declining to front up and absorb their share of the paying public's opprobrium.
So what now for Blackburn fans, who find themselves with a big decision to make? Do they finally concede that their manager might not be as clueless as they believe, discard the placards and offer their unequivocal support? Or will they use their next home match to campaign somewhat ludicrously for the exit of a manager who has just masterminded a victory over the Premier League champions in their own backyard? Whatever the collective decision, some Blackburn fans are going to end up losing a lot of face when Stoke pitch up at Ewood Park on Monday afternoon. What of it? Football has long been a dab hand at making fools of us all.
BG
[h=2]2) Carroll desperately needs Gerrard to stay fit[/h]Even though Andy Carroll played no part in the negotiating his preposterously large price tag it is constantly used as a stout birch with which to bludgeon him. But, truth be told, the giant Geordie's performances in a Liverpool shirt have been so utterly abject that, if he had arrived at Anfield on a free, many would still consider him a waste of space, if not money. With Luis Suárez consigned to the Naughty Step for several weeks,
Friday night's encounter between Liverpool and Newcastle United was billed as Carroll's big opportunity to prove himself and he did not disappoint those gleefully willing him to fail.
Although the lumbering No9 often gives the impression that he has been blessed with the positional awareness of an unmanned firehose on full blast, he turns 23 this week, has shown much promise and is still learning his craft. Furthermore, in the first hour of Liverpool's match against Newcastle, his team-mates did him few favours, with Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson repeatedly failing to deliver the kind of service provided for him with what seemed like metronomic regularity by Joey Barton at Newcastle United.
At half-time on Friday night Sky pundits Jamie Redknapp and Joe Cole bemoaned the inability of Liverpool's wide men to "stand the ball up" for Carroll to run on to and thump goalwards with his wide expanse of forehead and it was not until Steven Gerrard entered the fray on the hour that Carroll began receiving the kind of service on which he thrives. True, he did not score and on one occasion showed the first touch of a lumbering drunk stumbling across a nightclub dancefloor but he did at least get opportunities and gradually found his range, to the extent that one meaty header eventually crashed off the Newcastle crossbar.
In his post-match interview Gerrard maintained that his team-mate is a good player for whom the goals will eventually come with regularity. Going on Friday night's evidence, whether or not such comments end up in the Big Bin of Predictable Platitudes will depend entirely on the fitness of the man who uttered them.
BG
[h=2]3) The striker Everton need might already be at the club[/h]
Everton's visit to West Brom was a fixture for the most part blessed with all the cutting edge of a saucepan. Shane Long, Peter Odemwingie and Louis Saha spent the majority of the 90 minutes in a fruitless search for chances and then spurning them on the rare occasions they came along. For Everton it is a perennial problem. David Moyes seems to have been light on strikers since joining the club 10 years ago when he was initially spoilt for choice between Kevin Campbell, Tomasz Radzinski, Wayne Rooney, James McFadden, Francis Jeffers and Duncan Ferguson.
This season the Everton manager has had to rely on the mercurial Saha, the inexperienced Apostolos Vellios and Magaye Gueye, and the recently imported Denis Stracqualursi. There is nothing wrong with Everton at the back – they have conceded only seven times in their last nine games – but up front the problems are obvious: in those same nine games they have scored only nine times. They have scored more than one goal only five times in the Premier League this season. They have scored four less than Bolton, for Pete's sake.
The club's money issues are well documented, so it is a good job part of the solution could be at Goodison already. It is nearly six years since Victor Anichebe made his first-team debut at the club. In that time Andrew Johnson, James Vaughan, James Beattie, Marcus Bent, Jermaine Beckford, Yakubu Ayegbeni and Jô have all been and gone but the Nigerian, now 23, remains.
His career has been one not so much hamstrung by injury as hobbled entirely. In 2006-07, his first full season in the first team, he managed five league starts. In 2007-08 he made 10, in 2008-09 five, in 2009-10 six and in 2010-11 eight. An injury with Nigeria earlier this season means he has made only one start for the club in this campaign but he showed enough in his half-hour cameo against Albion – not least with the touch, strength and finish that led to the winner – that he has something to offer Moyes's side.
It is worth remembering just how exciting a prospect Anichebe once was. As early as January 2007 Phil Neville said: "He's a young kid who's frightening the life out of defenders. He's already a beast of a player. He's so strong but he's also clever and quick. He has every attribute you'd want from a centre-forward." Later that year the FA tried (and failed) to persuade him to represent England rather than the country of his birth. It was seen as a hefty blow to the national team.
Injuries,
not least the 11 months out following Kevin Nolan's horrendous tackle on the striker in 2009, have taken their toll since but, if Anichebe can stay fit, then he has a chance of fulfilling some of that early promise and giving Moyes a major boost while doing so. "He is someone we have missed," said the Everton manager. "And he's someone who has got a lot of potential if we get the opportunity to unwrap it."
JA
[h=2]4)
Manchester City's away form is a concern[/h]It was inevitable that, after the joyous orgy of goals that characterised Manchester City's exhilarating start to the season, they would regress towards the mean at some stage. The extent of that regression will concern them, however, because the goals have dried up dramatically away from home. City have collected only two goals and two points in their last four away games; prior to that they took 23 goals and 16 points from six matches on the road. They scored more away goals in injury time at Old Trafford than they did throughout December and a team that are too dependent on the divine talent of David Silva are struggling to penetrate deep-lying home defences.
City's terrifying home form – 26 wins and two draws from 28 games in 2011 – ensures they remain title favourites and they are clearly the best team in a league of desperately poor quality. But the fresh-legged fantasy of the autumn has given way to the wearying, mundane reality of an exacting Premier League campaign.
RS
[h=2]5) Ireland's career is not over[/h]
When it takes a hookah pipe to remind the football community of your existence, it is fair to conclude that you have taken a wrong turn or 20. Stephen Ireland is only 25, yet before this week he had almost been airbrushed out of football. When he was a makeweight in the deal that took the technically inferior James Milner to Manchester City from Aston Villa, it felt like a depressing indictment of football's increased rejection of the unusual. In the last two calender years he has started only 15 out of 76 league games, through a combination of injury and mistrust of an exceptionally complex character.
The 15th of those starts,
at Chelsea on Saturday, may have given his career a second wind. Ireland scored one, made one and was the classiest performer on the pitch, reminding us of the wit and grace that made him such a beautiful player in 2008-09, when he beat Robinho, Vincent Kompany and others to Manchester City's Player of the Year award.
It is too soon to know whether Saturday's performance was a turning point or a poignant reminder of a talent that will never be fulfilled. The perception lingers that Ireland perhaps may need to play at a higher level than Villa, partly to be around players of a similar technical quality and partly to stimulate a character who is repulsed by mediocrity. On talent alone he is good enough for any team in the country.
RS
[h=2]5.1) Nobody does hot, hot funks quite like Hodgson[/h]Blackburn winning at Old Trafford? Sunderland beating Manchester City? Aston Villa winning at Chelsea? All well and good but
this was the highlight of the weekend.
Mancini incredulous at fixtures
