Well the last of the games just ended and in what has to be one of the best scoreless matches I’ve ever seen Reading held defending champs Manchester United to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford through an unbelievable defensive effort. Even after losing their lone striker, Dave Kitson, to a red card just 45 seconds after he was subbed in, American goalkeeper Marcus Hanneman and the back line were rock solid for the remaining 22 minutes.
The game was also one of several that contributed to this post’s title. Maybe some weird bug got into the bottled water supplied to the teams across the country but Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United all started players on one of the wings who’ve usually figured at full back in the past, respectively John Arne Riise, Emmanuel Eboue and Patrice Evra. Reinforcing this trend, Man U (John O’Shea) and Reading (Andre Bikey) both subbed in defensive players up front towards the end, though O’Shea has seen a good portion of playing time the past 18 months in midfield.
Eboue was an interesting choice for Arsene Wenger on the right side considering he had heralded youngster Theo Walcott available. There was some question about Walcott’s fitness but he looked fine after coming on as a second half sub for the nominal right back. Eboue has the pace and power to be a winger but his crossing and creativity did not impress me.
And though they won 2-1 at the death despite an awesome effort by last minute sub keeper Tony Warner, the Gunners showed the same preference to pass rather than shoot that haunted them the last couple of years. Wenger will surely be happy to get Emmanuel Adebayore and new signing Eduardo da Silva fit to play since Robin van Persie is not at his best as the lone striker.
Evra was a bit more impressive than Eboue on the attacking end, taking the bombastic style shared by teammates Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney as role models. He was more assertive by far, driving into the 18 yard box on every chance.
O’Shea’s placement was required due to injury. Rooney suffered a hairline fracture on his left foot after getting accidentally stamped by Michael Duberry just before half time; no word yet but the England star will surely miss out the national team friendly versus Germany in 10 days and probably both Euro 2008 qualifiers in early September. On the silver lining side, this is not the foot he broke in 2004 and again last Spring. Carlos Tevez will likely need to get in gear for the Red Devils a bit sooner than expected since Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are also unwell and one wonders if Sir Alex regrets selling Alan Smith last week.
If this trend keeps up it doesn’t say much for the summer signings since Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester all went in for big money on midfield additions, out of all of which only Nani got on the field and him due to Rooney’s broken foot.
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