Saturday 1 Chelsea stride on, with a controversial 1-0 win at Liverpool who are denied a clear penalty in the first half before Joe Cole gets the late, deflected, winner. “Sometimes you have the luck of champions,” says José, cupping an ear for the squawks of outrage from Old Trafford and Highbury. Arsenal stay in pursuit after a 3-1 win at Charlton. “No one is playing as well as us,” says Sir Alex following Man Utd’s eighth win in nine, 2-0 at Middlesbrough, though Spurs might contest that after their 5-2 thrashing of Everton. Bolton stop the rot, just, a late equaliser forcing a 1-1 home draw with West Brom. Palace’s 3-1 defeat to Fulham returns them to the bottom three, below Norwich who play 85 minutes with ten men after Marc Edworthy’s dismissal at Portsmouth but still get a 1-1 draw. Wigan regain the lead in the Championship, winning 2-0 at Sheffield Utd, while Ipswich lose by the same score at home to West Ham. In League One Hull’s 2-1 victory over Huddersfield brings them level with leaders Luton, held at home by Sheffield Wed. Yeovil’s 2-0 defeat of Swansea allows them to catch up League Two leaders Scunthorpe, beaten at home by Darlington. The FA will probe a half-time incident during Bristol City’s 2-0 win over Peterborough that makes it a happy new year for City defender Tony Butler, who suffers “eight displaced teeth”.
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
It may be painful, but let's hear it for Chelsea
What’s the hardest three-word sentence to say in English? Come on, Chelsea. But we might as well start practising it. For a while this season, many football supporters will have reviewed with dismay the prospect of the Premiership title, and possibly several other trophies, heading to Stamford Bridge. Victories for a team funded by Roman Abramovich’s, let us say, contentiously acquired wealth would seem to be contrary to the basic principles of sporting competition. A club that two years ago sagged under the weight of debts of close to £100 million incurred by grotesque over-spending under Ken Bates could yet be quadruple winners this season.
It's more than a question of semantics down under, writes Matthew Hall
This has been a long hot summer for Australian soccer fans. Sorry – football fans. The wording is important. Australia kicked off 2005 with the Australian Soccer Association changing its name to Football Federation Australia and decreeing that the game will be officially referred to by its proper name rather than soccer.
With Arsenal's decision to go a deeper shade of red, Steve D Wilson looks at the stories behind commemorative kits
At first glance Arsenal’s decision to wear a dark red home shirt in 2005-06 marks a pleasant change in modern football attitudes. The club will wear the new kit for one year to commemorate their final season at Highbury – it is the colour they originally wore when they moved to the north London stadium from Woolwich in 1913.
Everton and Liverpool are not going to build a ground together. Unless they do. Mark O'Brien reports on the amicable bickering that unites the Merseyside rivals
Given the proximity of Anfield and Goodison Park, it’s not surprising that the idea of a communal stadium for Merseyside’s big two has been suggested on many occasions, despite the objections of both sets of supporters. Until recently, though, it’s been nothing more than a pipe dream, something to fill a slow news day in the local papers, but with Everton’s plans to move to a state-of-the-art arena at the King’s Dock in tatters and Liverpool’s proposed new 60,000-seat ground beset by ever-rising construction costs, the idea of a Scouse San Siro finally began to get some serious consideration towards the end of 2004.