November 3 – Even though Roberto Martínez, the famously ‘mild-mannered’ manager of English Premier League football side Wigan Athletic, was snapped smiling after his team went down by a shocking 4-0 to Portsmouth – the team at the bottom of the league – he said he was ‘very angry’ afterwards.
And so you should be Roberto, so you should be. Face it, your team played so badly that even the worst team in the English Premier League found the back of your net - 4 times. ‘Sometimes the worst angriness is inside’, he was quoted as saying. ‘I can guarantee you that this is one of my most angry days.’
But if the ‘highly angry’ manager deserves even a dash of sympathy or at least a shred of empathy, it’s only because he has had to deal with a particularly horrid week, highlighted by his highly publicized comments insinuating that Man United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, ‘has power over other managers’.
Easy tiger. That’s like throwing a shoe at a U.S. President at a news conference – no matter whether he deserves it or not, it’s going to land you in trouble. And if the Wigan Athletic manager was hoping that a win on Saturday against Portsmouth would ease his publicity nightmare, he was sorely mistaken.
From the start of the game it soon became clear that most of the Wigan Athletic players did not have their heads in the game, as they proceeded to let Portsmouth close in on their goal time after time and send their efforts flying home. Wigan’s chances were not helped by the absence of striker, Marlon King.
King, it seems, was never taught as a young boy that it is wrong to hit women. The talented striker was jailed last week after he punched a young woman in the face after she reportedly refused his advances during a night on the town. I don’t know who it was that said pro footballers are a classy bunch. Not me.
In other English Premier League matches, Chelsea also dished out a 4-0 hiding – to Bolton, while Fulham sent shockwaves through Liverpool by beating the Reds 3-1. Perhaps one of the most surprising results of the previous week was Manchester City’s 0-0 draw with Birmingham. Was there a full moon?
Here are the complete English Premier League Football results from Saturday, October 31st and Sunday, November 1st 2009:
- Birmingham 0-0 Manchester City
- Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham
- Bolton 0-4 Chelsea
- Burnley 2-0 Hull City
- Everton 1-1 Aston Villa
- Fulham 3-1 Liverpool
- Portsmouth 4-0 Wigan Athletic
- Stoke City 2-2 Wolves
- Sunderland 2-2 West Ham Utd
- Man Utd 2-0 Blackburn
