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How Did That Go, Yaya?
"It's going to be a fantastic game and we know it will be tough, but they have conceded a lot of goals and we have a mentality that we will not be beaten on our own pitch."
Smells Like Team Spirit
Manchester City's manager made errors on Sunday (starting Mario Balotelli being chief among them) and Manchester City's players made errors on Sunday (Samir Nasri dangling his leg and nothing else at Robin van Persie's free-kick, in particular) but it's difficult to argue that a team that comes back from 2-0 down to be level at 2-2 with just minutes left on the clock is lacking team spirit.
Unless you write for the Daily Mail, of course, who splash the headline 'WHERE'S THE TEAM SPIRIT, MANCINI?'
We would suggest that Mancini points to City's ultimately fruitless comeback or perhaps to City's 15 points garnered from losing positions this season in answer to any misguided question about team spirit.
To be fair, the Daily Mail's Ian Ladyman may have cause to question the sub-editor's choice of headline as he writes in the accompanying piece that City's comeback was 'as admirable as it was thrilling', though he loses points by suggesting that 'recently they do not seem to have United's conviction' less than a month after they came from behind to beat Tottenham 2-1.
Ladyman is probably right in concluding that City currently have the better players but United the better team...but somebody at the Daily Mail is wrong to lazily equate that with team spirit.
Glove Song
No wonder Tottenham threw away a 1-0 lead at Everton. According to the Daily Mail's 'In Focus' section on the game, four of their players were wearing gloves. Gloves? In winter? Can you imagine? Poofs.
Invincible
Darren Lewis is a Liverpool fan. If you were unaware of this fact before reading his West Ham-Liverpool match report in the Daily Mirror, you will be in no doubt afterwards.
'Brendan Rodgers has spent the season confounding the doubters,' writes Lewis of a manager who failed to win any of his first five Premier League games in charge of Liverpool.
'He has lifted Liverpool into the knockout stages of the Europa League with the club's reserves,' writes Lewis, three days after nine full internationals started in the Reds side that beat Udinese 1-0.
'He has kept the club competitive with arguably the thinnest squad for many a year,' continues Lewis of a team currently competitive in tenth. Yes, that's tenth.
A gipping Mediawatch read ten paragraphs of fanboy fluff before giving up when Lewis claimed Liverpool have an 'invincible spirit'. 'Invincible' as in 'that which cannot be overcome or mastered'. Mediawatch is pretty much certain that Liverpool have been both overcome and mastered seven times already this season.
Insult To Injury Prone
June 2009: Michael Owen produced his glossy, 34-page brochure, touting himself to potential clubs. Among other things, it included quotes from EMO's personal physio, who claimed that the idea that his patient was injury prone was 'nonsense'.
July 2009: After signing for United, Owen declared that 'If there is one thing that has angered me a bit it is this thing that I am "injury-prone". You constantly read "he's been plagued with injuries" and things like that but the facts just don't support it...If someone jumps on your foot and your metatarsal breaks there's not much you can do'.
August 2012: Now looking for a new club again, after three years admiring the beautifully plastered ceiling in the United treatment room, Owen reassures interested clubs: 'The question mark for potential suitors is injuries. But I know that once I get on a good run of games, I will become immune'.
December 2012: Having persuaded Stoke to sign him, but then going on to play just 57 minutes of the club's first 15 league matches, Owen finally confess that he 'bec[a]me injury prone due to overplaying at a young age'. In particular, he never properly recovered from a serious hamstring injury in 1999 (so, nothing to do with anyone jumping on his foot).
Can players (and physios) be sued for false advertising?
Quote Of The Day
"I like to play with beauty and grace - that has always been my philosophy from a young age. That's how I play and that's what football is about. Plenty of football players play like this and that is what I want to watch. I don't want to watch players puffing around the pitch. You see games where the ball is flying from one box to another and it makes my neck hurt. That is not football for me" - Dimitar Berbatov. We love him.
Worst Headline Of The Weekend
'AVBEE-AW' - The Sun on Sunday. This headline was accompanied by a mocked-up picture of AVB with donkeys' ears. This headline was awful.
Hyperbolic Headline Of The Day
'Manchester Runs Red With Blood' - The Daily Mail.
Non-Football Story Of The Day
'Outrageous pop star Ke$ha had to delete naughty photos she took of unidentified men baring their genitals from her upcoming memoirs - because lawyers feared one of the guys would sue over his naked manhood. The 'Tik Tok' singer has built up a collection of snaps of fans and groupies' "dropping trou" after shows over the past two years - and she wanted to display some in her book.
'She tells Rolling Stone magazine, "Whenever a man came onto my bus, he had to drop trou, and I took a Polaroid of him, just to emasculate him and make sure he knew he was in the vagina jungle. That's what I call my bus. Some of the guys were wearing man-panties - but even if they were free-balling, there were no exceptions; they had to pose for a photo. I really tried to use these photos in my book but I think it's illegal, technically"' - WENN.com.
Thanks to today's Mediawatch spotter Daniel Tilles. If you see anything that belongs on this page, mail us at theeditor@football365.com, putting 'Mediawatch' in the subject field.
