11-12 End of Season Review: Worst Performance, OTP, Best Performance.
Carrying on with counting up your votes from here (you can still vote for the eight remaining categories!), here are the results for OTP, Worst Performance in a Game, and Best Performance in a Game.
THE HARRY STYLES/LOUIS TOMLINSON AWARD FOR OTP
ADAM JOHNSON & DAVID SILVA
Man City
LIVERPOOL FC & THE GOALPOST
LiverpoolJUAN MATA & DIDIER DROGBA
ChelseaPAUL SCHOLES & RYAN GIGGS
Man UtdMARTIN SKRTEL & DANIEL AGGER
Liverpool
Finalists: JOE HART & VINCENT KOMPANY | ROBIN VAN PERSIE & MIKEL ARTETA | ROBIN VAN PERSIE & THOMAS VERMAELEN
Semi-finalists: EMMANUEL FRIMPONG & #DEEEEENCH| LUCAS LEIVA & TWITTER
THE LOUIS TOMLINSON AWARD FOR WORST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A MATCH
MARIO BALOTELLI
Arsenal vs Man City
JOEY BARTON
Man City vs QPRMARTON FULOP
West Brom vs ArsenalJOHN TERRY
Liverpool vs ChelseaCARLOS TEVEZ
Bayern vs Man CityMario Balotelli, always a headturner, turned stud instead - his stud, on Alex Song’s thigh (it was his sequel to Permanently Scar Players from North London: Part II, with Part I being his head on Scott Parker’s forhead). He made rash challenges aplenty throughout the game, finally being sent off for picking up a second yellow for a needless foul on Sagna. The ensuing loss meant that Man City trailed United by 8 points, and had City not staged their miraculous turnaround, fingers would have been pointed to Balotelli for sinking his team in this game.
On the last day of the season, the fight to stay up was essentially between Bolton and Queen’s Park Rangers and at the time Barton had been sent off, Bolton were the ones home and dry. The premier league's enfant terrible put a knee on Aguero, a fist on Tevez and attempted to headbutt Kompany and rightly saw his marching orders, meaning that QPR had to rely on Bolton to fail rather than their own team to succeed. Barton’s temper has been a problem for QPR throughout the season but to lose his head when so much at stake was beyond stupid.A prominent line that Gooners were thinking during the CL final was “thank god for Fulop”, for, had the West Brom goalkeeper essentially not scored three own goals on the final day of the season and thus gifting Arsenal 3 goals and all three points, it would have been them in Tottenham’s place, sweating on the result of the final. It was the general consensus that his comedy performance gifted Arsenal third place.
Probably still drunk/hungover from Chelsea’s FA Cup final win over Liverpool, John Terry’s performance at Anfield was the stuff of nightmares. At fault for the first three goals Liverpool scored, he was culpable for Michael Essien having an embarrassing “own goal” blot on his copybook. On this embarrassing display, Chelsea fans probably weren’t too fussed about Cahill & Luiz playing in the CL final.
At the pinnacle of his self-serving behaviour, Carlos Tevez refused to come on and play when his team were trailing 2-0 in Bavaria and his manager needed him. A footballer, on such meaty wages as Tevez's, refusing to play football, is blasphemous in this football fan's opinion. What followed was an acrimonious and public falling out with Mancini that threatened to derail Manchester City’s season.
Finalists: JOHAN DJOUROU sees some competition from CARL JENKINSON for the dubious honour of worst performance in Utd 8 Arsenal 2, but Jenkinson at least has the excuse for being young | FERNANDO TORRES channelled Ronnie Rosenthanl in Utd 3 Chelsea 1, and no matter what fabulous goals he’ll score for Chelsea in the future, that miss will always overshadow them | JOHNNY EVANS' off in Utd 1 City 6 allowed the floodgates to open for City to run riot
Semi-finalists: RONALD ZUBAR for Wolves 0 Utd 5 | ROGER JOHNSON for Wolves 2 Bolton 3
THE LIAM PAYNE AWARD FOR BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A MATCH
PETR CECH & DIDIER DROGBA
Bayern Munich vs Chelsea
ASHLEY COLE
Chelsea vs Barcelona (both legs)MICAH RICHARDS & DAVID SILVA
Man Utd vs Man CityLUIS SUAREZ
Norwich City vs LiverpoolROBIN VAN PERSIE
Chelsea vs Arsenal
Di Matteo recognised that Chelsea weren’t as good a side as Bayern, and had a gameplan to foil them. In order for this plan to carry off, Chelsea needed heroes, and that’s exactly what they got in their goalkeeper and striker. Cech pulled off some stunning saves in normal time, looking extra-alert when Bosingwa made some suicidal mistakes. But he surpassed himself in extra-time to save a penalty from former teammate Arjen Robben, before bettering even that to save penalties from Olic and Schweinsteiger in the shoot-out, a perfect example of how hard work and preparation does pay off. And Drogba scored the equaliser just as the curtain was about to come down, ran endlessly, casually gave a penalty (but only so that his teammate Cech could exhibit what a bossman he was, of course) and then nervelessly scored the winning penalty that gave Chelsea the CL after years and years of pursuit. It doesn’t get more heroic than that.
In the two legs in the CL against Barcelona, Cole cemented his status as a world-class fullback with a defensive masterclass. In the first leg, he made a crucial goal line clearance from Fabregas, several vital blocks and even had time to out-skill Xavi. In the second leg, after Terry lost his head, It was imperative that Cole kept his. It was up to Cole as the most senior defender in Chelsea’s ranks to organise the backline, something that he did and then some. Not even pausing the breathe, he threw his body on the line for every challenge for the good of his team. Such dedication does not go unnoticed, and when he hoofed the ball out of the box in the dying minutes of the game, it found Torres. The rest, as they say, is history.
The team performance from Manchester City were uniformly excellent, and special mentions have to go to Aguero, James Milner, Balotelli, and super-sub Edin Dzeko who scored two goals after coming on as a sub. But the crème de la crème in City’s humiliation of their neighbours at their own ground were right-back Micah Richards, who was as excellent going forward as he was defensively, linking up fabulously with Milner to create chance after chance for City. And David Silva twinkled in his performance of the season; United just couldn’t deal with him. Provider of several of the six goals and scoring one himself, the diminutive Spaniard showed why he was worth his weight in Silva gold. #illgetmycoatLuis Suarez scored a stunning hat-trick against Norwich that was capped off with an amazing third goal, one of the best of the season. His first two goals came in the space of two minutes, effectively killing the game, and the last was a lob from over 40 yards out that beat Ruddy. In addition to the goals, he was causing defenders problems throughout the game, dispossessing and running past defenders with ease. Such was the excellence of his performance that he even drew a smile from Kenny Dalglish.In a match riddled with defensive errors, this was a striker’s dream. And van Persie’s hattrick, all crucial goals, inspired Arsenal to stage a comeback at Stamford Bridge. His first goal brought the score to 1-1 when Lampard had scored an early goal, and his second and third, the fourth and fifth goals for Arsenal, won the game then secured the points. The second goal that he scored came from a John Terry slip, but his third and final goal was arguably the most eye-watering of them all.
Finalists: ROBERTO MANCINI raised a few eyebrows when he brought on Nigel de Jong towards the end of Newcastle 0 City 2, a match that his team had to win, but it proved to be a genius move as the introduction of de Jong allowed YAYA TOURE to maraud further upfront and grab two goals for City, meaning they had one hand on the trophy. Flawless calibration from manager and player | WAYNE HENNESSEY pulled off some seemingly super-human saves in Arsenal 1 Wolves 1 that meant his team snatched a crucial point from the Emirates | The title race was blown wide open in Utd 4 Everton 4 and STEVEN PIENAAR was Everton’s driving force from midfield, not to mention scoring the fourth goal
Semi-finalists: THIERRY HENRY for Arsenal 1 Leeds 0 | PAVEL POGREBNYAK for Fulham 5 Wolves 0
Part I was here. And for the sake of interest, I'mma do an onrunning tally:
Good awards (ie gold/silver/bronze)
4 Chelsea (2 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
3 Man City (2 silvas [and both involving David Silva ironically :p], 1 bronze)
2 Liverpool (1 gold, 1 silver)
1 Bolton (1 gold)
1 Man Utd (1 bronze)
1 Arsenal (1 bronze)
Bad awards
2 QPR (2 golds)
1 Chelsea (1 silver)
1 Liverpool (1 silver)
1 City (1 bronze)
1 for Sepp Blatter (silver)
You guys still have eight categories and change the composition of that! You can vote for, including Player, Goal and Match, goooooo.
THE HARRY STYLES/LOUIS TOMLINSON AWARD FOR OTP
ADAM JOHNSON & DAVID SILVA
Man City
LIVERPOOL FC & THE GOALPOST
LiverpoolJUAN MATA & DIDIER DROGBA
ChelseaPAUL SCHOLES & RYAN GIGGS
Man UtdMARTIN SKRTEL & DANIEL AGGER
Liverpool
Finalists: JOE HART & VINCENT KOMPANY | ROBIN VAN PERSIE & MIKEL ARTETA | ROBIN VAN PERSIE & THOMAS VERMAELEN
Semi-finalists: EMMANUEL FRIMPONG & #DEEEEENCH| LUCAS LEIVA & TWITTER
THE LOUIS TOMLINSON AWARD FOR WORST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A MATCH
MARIO BALOTELLI
Arsenal vs Man City
JOEY BARTON
Man City vs QPRMARTON FULOP
West Brom vs ArsenalJOHN TERRY
Liverpool vs ChelseaCARLOS TEVEZ
Bayern vs Man CityMario Balotelli, always a headturner, turned stud instead - his stud, on Alex Song’s thigh (it was his sequel to Permanently Scar Players from North London: Part II, with Part I being his head on Scott Parker’s forhead). He made rash challenges aplenty throughout the game, finally being sent off for picking up a second yellow for a needless foul on Sagna. The ensuing loss meant that Man City trailed United by 8 points, and had City not staged their miraculous turnaround, fingers would have been pointed to Balotelli for sinking his team in this game.
On the last day of the season, the fight to stay up was essentially between Bolton and Queen’s Park Rangers and at the time Barton had been sent off, Bolton were the ones home and dry. The premier league's enfant terrible put a knee on Aguero, a fist on Tevez and attempted to headbutt Kompany and rightly saw his marching orders, meaning that QPR had to rely on Bolton to fail rather than their own team to succeed. Barton’s temper has been a problem for QPR throughout the season but to lose his head when so much at stake was beyond stupid.A prominent line that Gooners were thinking during the CL final was “thank god for Fulop”, for, had the West Brom goalkeeper essentially not scored three own goals on the final day of the season and thus gifting Arsenal 3 goals and all three points, it would have been them in Tottenham’s place, sweating on the result of the final. It was the general consensus that his comedy performance gifted Arsenal third place.
Probably still drunk/hungover from Chelsea’s FA Cup final win over Liverpool, John Terry’s performance at Anfield was the stuff of nightmares. At fault for the first three goals Liverpool scored, he was culpable for Michael Essien having an embarrassing “own goal” blot on his copybook. On this embarrassing display, Chelsea fans probably weren’t too fussed about Cahill & Luiz playing in the CL final.
At the pinnacle of his self-serving behaviour, Carlos Tevez refused to come on and play when his team were trailing 2-0 in Bavaria and his manager needed him. A footballer, on such meaty wages as Tevez's, refusing to play football, is blasphemous in this football fan's opinion. What followed was an acrimonious and public falling out with Mancini that threatened to derail Manchester City’s season.
Finalists: JOHAN DJOUROU sees some competition from CARL JENKINSON for the dubious honour of worst performance in Utd 8 Arsenal 2, but Jenkinson at least has the excuse for being young | FERNANDO TORRES channelled Ronnie Rosenthanl in Utd 3 Chelsea 1, and no matter what fabulous goals he’ll score for Chelsea in the future, that miss will always overshadow them | JOHNNY EVANS' off in Utd 1 City 6 allowed the floodgates to open for City to run riot
Semi-finalists: RONALD ZUBAR for Wolves 0 Utd 5 | ROGER JOHNSON for Wolves 2 Bolton 3
THE LIAM PAYNE AWARD FOR BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A MATCH
PETR CECH & DIDIER DROGBA
Bayern Munich vs Chelsea
ASHLEY COLE
Chelsea vs Barcelona (both legs)MICAH RICHARDS & DAVID SILVA
Man Utd vs Man CityLUIS SUAREZ
Norwich City vs LiverpoolROBIN VAN PERSIE
Chelsea vs Arsenal
Di Matteo recognised that Chelsea weren’t as good a side as Bayern, and had a gameplan to foil them. In order for this plan to carry off, Chelsea needed heroes, and that’s exactly what they got in their goalkeeper and striker. Cech pulled off some stunning saves in normal time, looking extra-alert when Bosingwa made some suicidal mistakes. But he surpassed himself in extra-time to save a penalty from former teammate Arjen Robben, before bettering even that to save penalties from Olic and Schweinsteiger in the shoot-out, a perfect example of how hard work and preparation does pay off. And Drogba scored the equaliser just as the curtain was about to come down, ran endlessly, casually gave a penalty (but only so that his teammate Cech could exhibit what a bossman he was, of course) and then nervelessly scored the winning penalty that gave Chelsea the CL after years and years of pursuit. It doesn’t get more heroic than that.
In the two legs in the CL against Barcelona, Cole cemented his status as a world-class fullback with a defensive masterclass. In the first leg, he made a crucial goal line clearance from Fabregas, several vital blocks and even had time to out-skill Xavi. In the second leg, after Terry lost his head, It was imperative that Cole kept his. It was up to Cole as the most senior defender in Chelsea’s ranks to organise the backline, something that he did and then some. Not even pausing the breathe, he threw his body on the line for every challenge for the good of his team. Such dedication does not go unnoticed, and when he hoofed the ball out of the box in the dying minutes of the game, it found Torres. The rest, as they say, is history.
The team performance from Manchester City were uniformly excellent, and special mentions have to go to Aguero, James Milner, Balotelli, and super-sub Edin Dzeko who scored two goals after coming on as a sub. But the crème de la crème in City’s humiliation of their neighbours at their own ground were right-back Micah Richards, who was as excellent going forward as he was defensively, linking up fabulously with Milner to create chance after chance for City. And David Silva twinkled in his performance of the season; United just couldn’t deal with him. Provider of several of the six goals and scoring one himself, the diminutive Spaniard showed why he was worth his weight in Silva gold. #illgetmycoatLuis Suarez scored a stunning hat-trick against Norwich that was capped off with an amazing third goal, one of the best of the season. His first two goals came in the space of two minutes, effectively killing the game, and the last was a lob from over 40 yards out that beat Ruddy. In addition to the goals, he was causing defenders problems throughout the game, dispossessing and running past defenders with ease. Such was the excellence of his performance that he even drew a smile from Kenny Dalglish.In a match riddled with defensive errors, this was a striker’s dream. And van Persie’s hattrick, all crucial goals, inspired Arsenal to stage a comeback at Stamford Bridge. His first goal brought the score to 1-1 when Lampard had scored an early goal, and his second and third, the fourth and fifth goals for Arsenal, won the game then secured the points. The second goal that he scored came from a John Terry slip, but his third and final goal was arguably the most eye-watering of them all.
Finalists: ROBERTO MANCINI raised a few eyebrows when he brought on Nigel de Jong towards the end of Newcastle 0 City 2, a match that his team had to win, but it proved to be a genius move as the introduction of de Jong allowed YAYA TOURE to maraud further upfront and grab two goals for City, meaning they had one hand on the trophy. Flawless calibration from manager and player | WAYNE HENNESSEY pulled off some seemingly super-human saves in Arsenal 1 Wolves 1 that meant his team snatched a crucial point from the Emirates | The title race was blown wide open in Utd 4 Everton 4 and STEVEN PIENAAR was Everton’s driving force from midfield, not to mention scoring the fourth goal
Semi-finalists: THIERRY HENRY for Arsenal 1 Leeds 0 | PAVEL POGREBNYAK for Fulham 5 Wolves 0
Part I was here. And for the sake of interest, I'mma do an onrunning tally:
Good awards (ie gold/silver/bronze)
4 Chelsea (2 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
3 Man City (2 silvas [and both involving David Silva ironically :p], 1 bronze)
2 Liverpool (1 gold, 1 silver)
1 Bolton (1 gold)
1 Man Utd (1 bronze)
1 Arsenal (1 bronze)
Bad awards
2 QPR (2 golds)
1 Chelsea (1 silver)
1 Liverpool (1 silver)
1 City (1 bronze)
1 for Sepp Blatter (silver)
You guys still have eight categories and change the composition of that! You can vote for, including Player, Goal and Match, goooooo.
