The travails of our fantasy football team of capital-born players. Read previous entries here.
The "big four" drew this weekend, every one of them. Must've been a while since that happened, eh? Actually it was just three weeks ago. Indeed, they've racked up enough draws between them to nearly prove correct the usual American complaint that "saw-kerr" sucks because there's never a winner.
London seems to be a specialist in the art of the draw: each capital-based Premier League team ended in a stalemate at the weekend, with Tottenham vs. Man Utd and Stoke vs. Fulham both ending goalless. Despite taking all the possession they could possibly want, Arsenal didn't translate their play into goals and shared a pair of points with Middlesbrough, while the best result came for West Ham, who held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
For the London-based pairing of the Prem's elite, the season is quickly turning sour. Chelsea's impregnable home record has been, er, impregnated not once, but twice, and their unbalanced home form should be giving the maligned Avram Grant a shot of schadenfreude. Arsenal, meanwhile, have looked a team perplexed most of the year, their confidence torn, their talent visible but mercurial, and on any given day the Gunners are either one of the most gifted teams in the League or the most abject. Their psychological frailty won't have been helped by Aston Villa pinching their fourth-place spot this weekend, and a clutch of pundits are hastily predicting that Arsenal will finish fifth or worse come May.
Nothing of interest to write home about for our fantasy team this weekend, either: not a single goal was conjured by anyone in the starting XI, and only Rio Ferdinand's defending prowess and yet another assist by Frank Lampard registered us any points of note. A slip in the league was inevitable, and it's to be hoped the impending Christmas games give ample opportunity for proving that a capital-based side would rule the imaginary league table.
Image by Massimo Usai via the Londonist Flickrpool
