The BIG One (and other stories).
6 games since my last blog entry, with one win, two draws and three defeats. We find ourselves in 17th place in the league, a position I would like to see us in at the end of the season. There is no disgrace in a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea, the 0-0 draw at Norwich was probably very important as an away point against one of our lower half of the table rivals. The win against Swansea was outstanding, of course, and only the defeat at Aston villa was really disappointing. As I have posted before, any points against the “top 7” clubs are a bonus, and a point against a poor Manchester United was still a bonus.
Samuel Et’oo scores the opener for Chelsea.
An away point at Norwich was particularly important, not so much for the point gained by us, but the two points dropped by Norwich in a match that they would have pencilled in at the start of the season as one where they would have expected to take all 3 points. Their subsequent 7-0 hammering to Manchester City also did us a big favour as far as goal difference is concerned.
Fraizer Campbell gets on the end of one against Norwich.
Then came the big one - against our closest rivals Swansea. A lot of the readers of my blog are in the USA, and it must be hard for them to understand the full intensity of his fixture. The 2 cities are approximately 40 miles apart. However, away supporters are not allowed to travel independently to this fixture, even in the BPL, because of the risk of violence and other public order offences! There may be many fixtures nowadays which encapture a good family atmosphere, but this defintely isn't one of those!
The game itself was the main feature on Sky that weekend, and was therefore featured all around the world. It probably wasn't much of a game for the neutral, but for those of us who are extremely partisan the 1-0 win from a Steve Caulker goal was outstanding. The bragging rights are ours until the return fixture in February!
Steve Caulker heads the winning goal against Swansea.
The following week involved an away trip to Aston Villa. Despite an early season win over Arsenal, Villa have been struggling for much of the season. The match seemed to be heading for a draw until a stunning free kick in the 75th minute, and a second breakaway goal a few minutes later gave Villa a 2-0 win.
Peter Whittingham and Ben Turner in action at Villa Park.
Then game 2 more big home games against 2 of the biggest club sides in world football - Manchester United and Arsenal.
Manchester United are still a good team, although not quite as fearsome as they were under Sir Alex Ferguson. However, they lack strength in depth these days, and with the exception of Wayne Rooney they are a good, but ordinary, team (in my opinion). We were well worth our point from the 2-2 draw, and yet another fantastic moment of the season was the stoppage time header from Kim Bo-Kyung!
Kim Bo-Kyung heads a late equaliser against Manchester United (pic by Jon Candy)
And so to last Saturday's game against Arsenal - a 0-3 defeat. We have played 5 of the top 7 teams at the Cardiff City stadium this season, and Arsenal were clearly the best of those 5 teams They have an amazing array of talented midfield players, including former Bluebird Aaron Ramsey who has arguably been the best player in the Premier League this season. After not celebrating against his old club when scoring the opening goal, the applause from the home fans was heartwarming and quite a rarity in this day and age.
The Bluebirds played well, but Arsenal were outstanding and a truly great team.
Cardiff vArsenal - (pic by Jon Candy).
The Real Season starts here!
Having played most of the top teams at home already, the season proper starts now. 10 of our next 12 home fixtures are against our rivals in the lower half of the table battles, and we have to take plenty of points from our remaining home games to make sure we stay up.
The next 2 away games are pretty imprtant too, against 2 teams threatened with relegation, in the form of Stoke and Crystal Palace. A win and a draw from those 2 matches would be welcome, but avoiding defeat in both games will probably be acceptable too!
Onwards and (hopefully) upwards!
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