Sunderland fall foul of their own fouls
Sunderland went down to an 82nd-minute Robin van Persie goal at the Emirates, having defended reasonably well for much of the game, as well as creating some chances on the break despite playing without a recognised centre-forward. They can hardly feel unfortunate to have conceded from a free-kick, however, because fouling Arsenal attackers when they threatened to get into goalscoring positions was a key part of their game. David Vaughan, Sebastian Larsson and Wes Brown were all cautioned for tackles in dangerous positions in the second half – they conceded 24 free-kicks in the game, including 14 in their own half.
It took Van Persie a while to step up and take a free-kick – Andre Santos, Mikel Arteta and Theo Walcott had all shot over the bar from deadball situations. It was only the fifth goal from a direct free-kick this season – the fourth was earlier in the game, from Larsson, who Arsène Wenger described as the best free-kick taker in the league after the game.
Lampard's clever passing gives his legs a break
Reports of Frank Lampard's demise may have been greatly exaggerated, but reports that he'll have to adapt his game to survive under André Villas-Boas are proving to be correct. The chalkboard of his passing in the weekend win over Everton shows how his distribution took place all across the middle third of the pitch, extending very deep, as well as towards both flanks. Compared with his display in the same fixture two seasons ago (he was injured for last season's meeting), it shows that he's now much more varied with his positioning within a more fluid Chelsea midfield three, rather than simply breaking towards goal from a centre-left midfield position.
"I like to think I'm running more intelligently these days," he told Champions Magazine in March. "There's no point running for the sake of it, and you don't want to run around for three games a week willy-nilly if you don't have to." It would be interesting to see whether Lampard feels he's running more this season – he might not be making as many powerful forward darts, but he's certainly having to cover a lot of ground off the ball.
Liverpool cross into empty spaces
Kenny Dalglish chose to start without Andy Carroll against Manchester United on Saturday, probably the right decision as Liverpool were able to pack the midfield zone, while Luis Suárez caused Rio Ferdinand problems as the primary striker. It did mean they were without a target man in the box for crosses, however, and as United guarded the centre of the pitch closely with the addition of Phil Jones in midfield, Dalglish's side were probably more likely to create down the flanks. Chris Smalling is not a natural full-back, while Patrice Evra's positioning has been suspect in recent months.
When they did attempt crosses, however, there was frequently no-one looking to get on the end of them. Only two of 22 found a Liverpool player – a rate of 9%, roughly half the Premier League average.
Rovers profit by aiming for Samba
Chris Samba's excellent header at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday was part of an obvious strategy from Blackburn Rovers at corner kicks, to send the ball deep towards the far post towards the Congo centre-back, around 12-15 yards out. All five of Jason Lowe's successful corners were delivered to this spot, and as a result, Samba had 10 touches in the opposition penalty box, more than any other Premier League player this weekend. His bullet header was his 11th headed goal from his 15 overall in the Premier League.
Mancini uses wise heads to preserve City lead
Roberto Mancini is a big fan of introducing experienced players in order to preserve a lead – particularly ones who can keep the ball, help retain possession, and kill the game. Patrick Vieira played that role last season, having often done similar for Mancini at Inter.
Saturday's 4-1 win over Aston Villa was a good example of substitutions to slow the tempo of the game, as Kolo Touré played his first Premier League minutes since February after his drugs ban expired, while Owen Hargreaves made an equally rare appearance. Between the two, 36 of 38 attempted passes were completed. City's other substitution furthered their ability to keep the ball – Yaya Touré was removed for David Silva, perhaps the silkiest passer in the division.
Michael Cox is the editor of zonalmarking.net
