Londonist United: Week Six

Dean Nicholas
By Dean Nicholas Last edited 186 months ago
Londonist United: Week Six
2909_arsenal.jpgPhoto of Emirates Stadium by Herschell Hershey via the Londonist pool

The travails of our fantasy football team of capital-born players. Read previous entries here

Stunned Gooners fans were the rueful subjects for 24 hours worth of mirth by their north London rivals over the weekend. On Saturday, Arsenal were humbled at home by Hull, who came back from a single goal deficit to record the shock of the season by beating Wenger's team 2-1. Sadly, as any Spurs fans with a Wendy Renee album (or Wu-Tang Clan CD, for that matter) know all too well: after laughter comes tears. On Sunday Tottenham posted yet another shoddy performance against a Portsmouth team happy to take the three points, with the ever-reliable Jermain Defoe notching yet another goal and bagging himself 9 points in the fantasy league too. Inevitable as it was that the former White Hart Lane striker would notch another goal against his former paymasters, a harsher blow came via the clean sheet that hate-figure Sol Campbell helped the south coast team achieve.

All in all it was a strange mixture of emotions for the Lilywhite faithful, their surreal weekend perhaps embodied by the crowd's chants: the predictable bromides directed at Sol Campbell for his perfidy (seven years ago, but who's counting) in joining Arsenal broken by the occasional chant of "you don't know what you're doing" in the direction of embattled boss Juande Ramos. Defoe was greeted to an ovation by the visiting supporters when he was substituted - a pointed barb in the manager's direction perhaps, as Defoe, deemed surplus to requirements by Ramos back in January, has scored more than the entire Spurs team this season.

Elsewhere, Carlton Cole's arrest on suspicion of drink driving earlier this week meant he had a point to prove, one he ably underlined with a goal as West Ham were handed three points by a lacklustre Fulham, for whom our very own Jimmy Bullard has yet to score a goal this year. And Chelsea's bright start to the season - they're back on top of the pile - meant Lampard and Terry were among the points once again, the former claiming an assist and the latter a clean sheet, as Stoke City were dispatched with minimal fuss.

Finally, a characteristic Rob Styles gaffe helped the champions Manchester United on their way at Old Trafford as they hosted Bolton, the often-wrong referee the sole individual, amidst 22 players, numerous officials and 70,000+ fans, aggrieved by JLoyd Samuel's fine tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo. The resultant penalty dispatched, a subsequent Rooney strike sealed the points, and the boot-room boys at Londonist United weren't complaining - that clean sheet for Rio Ferdinand was most welcome.

Last Updated 29 September 2008