What Happened Today In EPL – Aug 30 1992

In this blog series – “What Happened Today”, we are going to revive some of the moments from past which will revive moments of the golden history of the league.

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Weekend fixtures on Saturday saw 10 games played  –

Arsenal                     2    Sheffield Wednesday         1
Chelsea                     1    Queens Park Rangers         0
Coventry City               0    Blackburn Rovers            2
Crystal Palace              1    Norwich City                2
Everton                     0    Wimbledon                   0
Leeds United                2    Liverpool                   2
Manchester City             3    Oldham Athletic             3
Nottingham Forest           0    Manchester United           2
Sheffield United            0    Aston Villa                 2
Southampton                 2    Middlesbrough               1

In a ill marred match between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday, six players were booked as Arsenal won in a bitter battle against Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury. Manager George Graham said: “The referee was lucky that the players showed such a professional attitude.” “I have no complaints about the result,” said Wednesday boss Trevor Francis. “Arsenal like to play a physical game, but they mix it very well with skill and that is the way you win championships”. Under the clampdown on discipline in the Premier League, referee Durkin booked Arsenal’s Wright, Lee Dixon and Steve Bould and Wednesday’s Hirst and Graham Hyde, all for obvious fouls plus Paul Merson of Arsenal for deliberate hand ball. But he turned a blind eye when Hirst, having been flattened by Nigel Winterburn, took out his temper on Arsenal’s Danish midfielder John Jensen. Referee also ignored Wright’s use of an elbow on Nigel Pearson.

IN an extraordinary finish to an extraordinary match Lee Chapman snatched an 87th minute equaliser for Champions Leeds at Elland Road and then thought he had won it when he put the ball in the net again, only to have the score disallowed.

Manchester United  inflicted more misery on Brian Clough as goals from Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs sealed a second successive win for United, and condemned Clough’s woeful looking Forest to a third straight defeat. The performance as much as the result pleased manager Alex Ferguson, registering his first league win at Forest. 

Rare Ferguson/Clough legends pictures https://t.co/KiXMch8p6N

— EPL24x7 (@epl24x7) September 2, 2019

One thing to highlight today was an article by renowned journalist Eamon Dunphy. How football makes a fool of people’s judgement is well known ( Alan Hansen you can’t win anything with kids.. )  but this was another gem from the past. Titled “Great clubs emphasize the impoverishment”, some interesting quotes from his article were as follows –

• With so much money invested, television can still find respected former players willing to talk about the game as if nothing has really changed. But if you watched last Monday night’s live game between Southampton and Manchester United or the frenetic joust between Liverpool and Arsenal the previous afternoon you will have noticed the absence of originality, imagination and poise, qualities which were indispensable once upon a time especially if you wanted to play for one of England’s great clubs. 
• Manchester United won’t be winning the new Premier League. The illusion briefly abroad last winter that Old Trafford’s glorious past was about to be restored seems preposterous today. Alex Ferguson is a decent Man and competent (that word again) manager of resources. Alas. decency  and competence don’t create great teams. The truth is that Ferguson has spent money unwisely on Neil Webb, Paul Ince, Alexei Kanchelskis and now the money  has run out. Which means spending on Dion Dublin’s rather dubious potential instead of £3.6m on Alan Shearer’s proven ability. In Manchester United’s case the money has run out. The club is now a business, the idea of running up a debt, as Matt Busby did to build his great team of the seventies, is out of the question. In fairness to Martin Edwards, United’s Chief Executive the most important man at Old Trafford Alex Ferguson was given £l5 million to spend over the last five years. Now there is a new priority: to rebuild Old Trafford in compliance with the Taylor Report. As a result Manchester United can no longer buy the best players in the game when they become available. 
• Money is a real problem for Liverpool who are, like Manchester United, in the process of complying with the Taylor Report. But, as they watched their team submit to Arsenal at Anfield last Sunday losing comprehensively and without grace Liverpool fans proud of their club’s honored place in the game will have reflected on the character of Souness and wondered if, on this occasion, the torch so gloriously borne by Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish has passed to the wrong man. Those of us more objectively disposed must pose another question: will Liverpool ever be great again? The answer is probably no.
• The truth of this season is that there is no club within touching distance of greatness; those who once aspired to glory are now simply struggling to survive. Any year you can write off Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs is likely to be sad. This year is worse than sad for the question that must be posed in relation to those three clubs is not merely about this year but about the future . . A future with no great clubs, no great managers or players, a future in which the spoils will belong to competent tacticians like Graham and Wilkinson rather than dreamers like Shankly. Busby, and Bill Nicholson who managed Spurs before it was a corporation. The game is gone. There is no need to whisper anymore . . . 

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