Let it snow

It was snow joke as the weekend’s Premier League fixtures were decimated by the unheralded snowfall. Only three fixtures braved the conditions, leading to questions about how credible Chelsea’s excuses were for postponing their game with Manchester United, with cynics suggesting they could not afford to lose the game so did not hesitate to call the game off very early, despite later photographs of the surrounding areas suggesting there would not have been a problem with fans getting to Stamford Bridge.

Sunderland maintained their impressive home record with a slightly fortunate victory against Bolton, and in the process condemned the Trotters to their fourth defeat, leaving the Mackems with the fewest Premier League defeats bar Manchester United. This was a match of meaty challenges, with Gary Cahill and perennial sinner Lee Cattermole perhaps fortunate to stay on the pitch, and Steve Bruce once again was rewarded for ambition; playing his trident of talent up front. Asamoah Gyan went close early on, but Jaaskelainen gathered despite a late deflection. Sunderland took the lead in the 32^nd minute, when Darren Bent expertly took down a deep cross, and fired in a shot before Sam Ricketts could get across. Jaaskelainen palmed out, but only to Danny Wellbeck; flinging himself at the loose ball to dive-head in past men on the line. Aside from this moment of incisiveness, the key moment came just before half-time, when Bolton should have equalised. A Matt Taylor corner was nodded brilliantly back into the centre of goal by Gary Cahill, and the unmarked Zat Knight lunged to stab in from all of four yards, only to meet with the save of the season from Craig Gordon, somehow finding the reflexes to get an arm across strong enough to flick it over the crossbar practically a yard from the goal-line. It called to mind Jim Montgomery’s wonder save for, ironically, Sunderland, in the 1973 FA Cup final versus Leeds, amongst others.

This seemed to be the catalyst for the victory, though Wellback came close to adding to his tally in the second half; coaxing the ball against the outside of the post after Darren Bent had miskicked a Jordan Henderson cross. Bolo Zenden nodded a glorious chance wide late on, and Ivan Klasnic blew two massive chances late in the day, with red and white bodies brilliantly throwing themselves on the line to preserve this excellent victory.

Blackburn lined up without Big Sam, but it was the same old rubbish really. A truly appalling spectacle, this game will be instantly forgotten. Matthew Upson once again made us question how he ever played for his country, while newbie Belgian goalkeeper Ruud Boffin, who looked like a cooler version of Ian Walker, showed signs of perhaps being more reliable than Rob Green, who was missing for the Hammers. The Rovers goal summed the game up after an atrocious first half had finished: a cross slung in by Emerton, Tal-Ben Haim upset his dad by stabbing the ball back into the danger zone, where Benjani missed his kick, and Ryan Nelsen had a scruffy punt at it, which Boffin superbly saved, only for Nelsen to get his knee to the rebound and watch it crawl across the line. Big Sam would have been proud. Morten Gamst Pedersen had a number of free-kicks in dangerous areas, but failed to make the most of them. A scramble at the Blackburn end saw a poor Salgado clearance put back into the box, where it hit Pedersen much like it had hit Ben Haim at the other end, but this time the centre-back coming onto it was Matthew Upson, and he could only hit the post with a cleaner strike. Another familiar aspect was Frederic Piquionne missing glorious chances, but finally class shone through in the form of Scott Parker, whose weaving run beat three defenders and led to Gael Givet moronically giving the ball to the oncoming Junior Stanislas, who buried the equaliser. There was still time for a disallowed David Dunn goal, but this was truly awful.

Mancitti missed the chance to be top at Christmas, despite Carlos Tevez ‘doing a Rooney’ and deciding he will actually stay at Eastlands. Seamus Coleman dinked a ball in for Cahill to bury with his head, before some nice exchanges inside the box led to Leighton Baines curling in with his weaker foot for 2-0 with less than twenty minutes on the clock. Yaya Toure left Phil Neville bleeding, but it was brother Kolo who was to have the worst afternoon. After being culpable in at least one of the goals, Kolo then got himself sent off with two bookings in a minute late on, but not before Yaya had dragged City back into it with his shot that was deflected in for an own goal by Phil Jagielka. Victor Anichebe was also sent off for more innocuous reasons, but the moment of the match came when Tim Howard displayed some magnificent goalkeeping in tackling Mario Balotelli, waiting to tap into an empty net after hitting the post, before throwing himself across to brilliantly save the follow-up effort from Tevez. City were angered that three handball appeals were turned down, but in the end it was their lack of ambition and ineptitude at the back that cost them bragging rights at Yuletide.