This past Saturday morning, after watching the second half of the Manchester City-Arsenal laser show, my television offered me a dilemma....
TV: Mark, do you really want to watch the Cardiff City match today?
Mark: Yes.
TV: Are you sure?
Mark: I was until you said it that way...
TV: What if I were to tell you that Wrath of Khan is on at the same time?
Mark: Oh man, I love me some Wrath of Khan. But I have to watch the match!
TV: Do you?
Mark: Um...
TV: You know they haven't scored a goal since four matches ago.
Mark: Er...
TV: And their last win was six matches ago.
Mark: Ugh.
TV: <Maniacal laugh>
While I did wrestle with the decision, come 10am the Bluebirds were playing on my iPad.
They did not disappoint.
Cardiff City 1 - West Bromwich Albion 0
- Whittingham (CAR) 65'
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| Ah...not so wounded as we were led to believe. So much the better! |
This was not a beautiful match. What took place on Saturday was two teams throwing whatever they had at each other in a desperate bid to move away from the relegation zone.
There were no shining moments in the first half, but I did think that Cardiff City played more attacking soccer than I had seen in previous matches. They had a siginificant lead in terms of possession time at the end of the half. And unlike most of the previous fifteen matches, I never felt that they were in any serious danger from West Brom.
The second half opened with the score level at 0-0. At some point during the break it started to rain and the commentators had this gem of a conversation...
Commentator 1: Conditions are wretched all of a sudden.
Commentator 2: Are you referring to the weather or the game?
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| Everyone is a comedian |
I should mention at this point that friend of Dragon and Bluebird, Jody Davies (@jodylaforge), was once again in attendance at the match. Thanks for the pics, bud! And does this picture in fact confirm that Santa is a Cardiff City fan?
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| Santa! I know him! |
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| Rising up, straight to the top... (Image Credit: Getty Images) |
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| ...had the guts, got the glory (Image Credit: Alex Morton/Action Images) |
Peter Whittingham looked like he banged his head pretty hard after that play. I couldn't tell how badly he was hurt, but it definitely took him a while to get up.
But get up he did and thanks to that goal and a few critical performances from Bluebirds' goalkeeper David Marshall, Cardiff City earned a much-needed win. At the end of the match, the West Brom away fans broke out into a fight with each other and then ultimately the stadium attendants and the police. That could just have easily been the Cardiff City fans had the results been reversed.
The Bluebirds now find themselves in 15th place with 4 wins, 5 draws, and 7 losses. The table below captures the full Premier League standings as of 12/17/13. The table columns are: Current Position (POS), Last Position (LP), Club Name (CLUB), Matches Played (P), Wins (W), Draws (D), Losses (L), Goals Fielded (GF), Goals Allowed (GA), Goal Differential (GD), and Rankings Points (PTS).
The Bluebirds have managed to put a paper-thin buffer between themselves and the relegation zone. The Baggies (yes that really is West Brom's nickname) on the other hand are left feeling slightly less secure.
Let's stick with the West Brom storyline for another moment, as there were some ominous events that took place after the match. A single win next week could put the Baggies as high as 13th in the league. A loss and wins by two of the lower-ranked teams would put them in 18th.
Apparently the owners of West Brom were not willing to wait a week to see how their manager, Steve Clarke, would fare. He was fired a few hours after the loss to Cardiff City.
Mid-season firings happen in all sports. In the NFL, maybe 2 or 3 coaches each year get fired before the season is finished. But what absolutely blows my mind is that in the 2013/14 Premier League season to date, 5 managers have already been fired!
- Crystal Palace's Ian Holloway
- Fulham's Martin Jol
- Sunderland's Paolo di Canio
- Tottenham's Andre Villas-Boas
- West Brom's Steve Clarke
Mind you, the NFL has 32 teams and the Premier League only has 20. So 25% of the Premier League managers that started this season have been axed!
If you take a look back up at the standings table, you can see that four of these managers were in charge of bottom five clubs. As nuts as it sounds, when you're in a league that has relegation you literally cannot afford to lose matches.
The fifth of the recenlty fired managers might seem like a more confusing case. They currently sit in 7th place, and with a few wins could (mathematically at least) make it to 1st place before the end of the season. So why fire the manager? Well, 7th isn't good enough for some teams as there are financial incentives for finishing in 5th or better. Tottenham are in a bit of a downward spiral in the past few matches and I'm sure the owners were starting to wonder if Villas-Boas was ever a good manager or if having the best player on the planet last season made him look better.
I bring this all up because the next two most obvious candidates for the axe would be West Ham's Sam Allardyce and Cardiff City's Malky Mackay. The Vegas odds on "Next Manager to Leave" stand at 5/2 and 11/10 respectively. If you're wondering, Mackay's odds are more likely because of backroom tension with Cardiff City ownership with which I've elected not to weigh down this blog.
Still it was a great week for the Bluebirds, and Mackay has released a statement today (Tuesday) reiterating his commitment to stay at Cardiff City to make sure they remain in the Premier League next season.
One manager who is unquestionably safe from firing is this guy (points at self). My Cardiff'rent Strokes continue to show modest improvement thanks in part to Peter Whittingham!
- Rank (Last Week): 1,477,881
- Rank (This Week): 1,351,143
- Total Players: 3,100,820
Well that's it for this week. Don't forget to check out Dodgem-X on iTunes and follow the band on Twitter (@DodgemXofficial). And thank you as always for reading Dragon and Bluebird! You can find me on Twitter as well, @dragon_bluebird.
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