OSG Prem: Spurs Lack Character In Loss To Chelsea...

And other stuff...

Fulham lost to Cardiff behind Steven Caulker's efforts in a six-pointer at Craven Cottage
Manchester United took care of a West Brom side that lacks offense
Jay Rodriguez made the one Southampton goal stick in their win over Crystal Palace
Norwich couldn't take advantage of 10-man Stoke and drew 1-1

But the biggest news came from the top of the table...

Chelsea needed Samuel Eto'o to start from the beginning since Fernando Torres injured himself in warm-ups...

And all Eto'o did was this...
((HT: Sky Sports/BPL))


A 4-0 whitewashing that caretaker manager Tim Sherwood was less than pleased with...


It was all part of an interesting Saturday...

OSG Prem: Chosen One Slams Chosen Reporter

((HT: London Telegraph))

There are lines...and there are LINES...

Reporters will go to certain lengths to get a story, but the HQ has seen what the European press do to get people to frequent their websites, buy their newspapers, or mention a by-line...

Chelsea is in a battle for the Champions League and manager Jose Mourinho is more than happy to deflect the pressure off his team and be the center of the universe to get maximum results and maximum effect...

Like titles... a lot of them...

But the players have to be HIS players... evidence the benching and dismissal of Juan Mata...

Samuel Eto'o is one of his guys... for now...

But...

Mourinho was caught on camera at a commercial event as he told a businessman: "I have a team but no striker."
He also joked about Eto'o's age: "I have Eto'o but he is 32, maybe even 35."

He didn't apologize for the joke, and instead went after the reporter who leaked the information


Chelsea now faces Galatasaray in the next round of Champions League play...

OSG Prem: Man United Is Mortal...And It Showed At Chelsea

((HT: NBC Sports/BPL))

Let's face it...

This year's Premier League is a log jam and a half...

11 teams are in the relegation talk. There's a group at the top that will be fighting over each other for the Europa League and Champions League spots...

And, then, there's Man United...

Who really just seem to be adrift of everything and everyone right now...
In the middle with everything happening around them and, seemingly, no way to get out of their own way......

Today's match at Chelsea was another example of that as, without van Persie and Rooney, they're only "okay..."

Losing 3-1 to a Samuel Eto'o hat trick... and how does that ever happen, really...???

Here's the highlights...


As to that whole relegation stuff...

West Ham, Sunderland, and Cardiff, each have 18 points...

Villa (24), Hull (23), Norwich (23), and Stoke (22) are right there...
West Brom (21), Swansea (21), Crystal Palace (20) and Fulham (19) are within three points of the drop.

This will go for a while...

OSG Prem: Belarussians Set Arrest Request For Soccer Team Owner

((HT: ProSoccerTalk/Bird))

Liviu Bird set us up on this one...

Those who follow soccer know about the recent successes of Anzhi Makhachkala and their owner Suleyman Kerimov in the Europa League... right now, they're at the top of the table in Russian soccer... but, probably, not for long...

Here's what it looks like as they win games...
((HT: RT))


Now, after huge losses of Kerimov's Uraliki potash business of somewhere near US$350M, he had to start a massive sell off of talent including Samuel Eto'o and Willian to Chelsea- decreasing the teams budget by US$50-70M to make his own ends meet.

Now, Kerimov is on Interpol Most Wanted List for corruption
And, yes, the following report is in Russian...


Makes you wonder what happens if the New Jersey Nets owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, angers someone back home what will happen...