Super Saturday Confirms Premier League As Football's True Entertainer

Monday, 7th February 2011 at 13:05pm

The English Premier League is often feted as the world's finest and while that might not necessarily be true, you'd struggle to find a league where you will find more excitement and entertainment on a consistent basis.

There was a time when Serie A was looked upon as the league to be in; nowadays the majority of the world's very best players are found in La Liga albeit mainly in the squads of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The Premier League probably had a claim in the mid- to late noughties but excitement and thrill-a-minute football has always been its preserve.

Despite Manchester United only having lost once this season, the 2010/11 Premier League has been one of the most competitive since its inception in 1992 with several so-called 'lesser' teams recording victories against some of the English game's leading lights.

This season has seen Arsenal beaten at home by Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion, Liverpool humbled by Wolves and Blackpool at Anfield and Chelsea, amazingly, beaten 3-0 at home by Sunderland.

Over the years, the Premier League has seen more than its fair share of incredible matches - Liverpool 4 Newcastle 3 in 1996, Tottenham 3 Manchester United 5 in 2001 and Chelsea 4 Aston Villa 4 from 2008 instantly spring to mind - but rarely has such excitement been shared around a whole day's worth of fixtures.

This past Saturday an amazing 41 goals were scored in eight matches; an average of more than five per fixture.

Two of those matches contained eight goals apiece and a third featured seven. The Stoke v Sunderland game at a mere five goals was dull by comparison....Spare a thought too for the poor souls at Molineux, Eastlands and White Hart Lane; those games yielded just the three goals apiece.

It wasn't just the score lines that grabbed the attention; it was the nature of the games.

In the early kickoff at the Britannia, Sunderland lead twice only to be pegged back on both occasions before German defender Robert Huth struck three minutes into injury time to give Stoke all three points; an great finish to an enthralling game.

At the DW Stadium and the match between Wigan and Blackburn, the away side lead only to concede three goals without reply.

A goal from Chris Samba brought the Ewood Park side outfit back into the match only for Wigan to add a fourth. A late David Dunn penalty kept the home fans on edge for the remaining nine minutes.

Louis Saha found the back of the net four times during Everton's clash with Blackpool, a statistic which only tells a fraction of the story.

Saha gave the Toffees the lead only for Blackpool to level things up. The Frenchman's second of the game put Everton back in front before the visitors stunned the Goodison Park crowd with two goals in two minutes to move into a 3-2 lead.

Saha completed his hat trick 12 minutes later and added his fourth either side of a great strike from Jermaine Beckford.

Three matches, 20 goals. On a normal day either one would have been worthy of the title of 'match of the day' but not on 'Super Saturday'.

That distinction goes to the match at St James' Park where the football lurched from the sublime to the downright ridiculous.

Arsenal were rampant, four goals to the good within 26 minutes and intent on closing the gap to Manchester United at the top. Newcastle were ragged, poor and in the words of manager Alan Pardrew "feeling sorry for themselves" after a tough week.

Then Abou Diaby got himself sent off and the atmosphere changed. Newcastle poured forward in waves, roared on by an energised home crowd. 4-0 soon became 4-1 which in turn rapidly gave way to 4-2; Arsenal was like a punch drunk heavyweight boxer desperately trying to cling on for the bell.

Their cause wasn't helped by some inept refereeing but once Barton had converted his second penalty to make it 4-3 what came next had a feeling of inevitability.

The manner of the equaliser, however, did not. When the ball fell to Cheik Tiote outside the area few expected him to shoot. But shoot he did, smashing a left-footed volley into the bottom corner to send the Toon army ballistic.

The match at St James' beggared belief, induced incredulity and went beyond the realms of rhyme or reason.

What made it even more remarkable is that Tiote's right footed such was the nature of Super Saturday.

At 4-4 - an inconceivable score line at half time - both side had chances to win but even miracles have limits.

It's said that a disillusioned Newcastle fan went to a bookie at half time and asked, "What would you give me for 4-4?"

"A straightjacket," was the reply.

Any more weekends like the one just past and several managers, players and fans involved may just need them but who would bet against it happening again?

And that's why the Premier League is number one when it comes down to pure, unadulterated excitement.

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