As proof that I watch other stuff than just the Premier League, I was up to watch a few cup games this week… unfortunately none of them were as exciting as your ordinary EPL fixture.

1. Liverpool 1 Standard Liege 0 (1-0 agg. AET)
I wondered if Liege won the toss, but I’ve always got the feeling that Liverpool always choose to attack right-side in the second-half towards the Kop like their last-minute victory against Boro, and famous triumphs like the 3-1 vs Olympiakos and Neil Mellor’s screamer against Arsenal (and indeed the Champions League comeback was attacking to the right). They didn’t in this game, hence it took so long for the Reds to score. And it was a gift from the left-back Dante who switched off at the far post, that incident blighted all his work up until that point, where I had thought to myself that he’d be a future Brazil international.

It’s a shame because I wanted to watch the Belgian champions in the CL. They look to be a more steady side than Anderlecht who had that undesirable CL record of straight losses.

2. FC Midtjylland 0 Man City 1 (1-1 agg, 4-2 on pens)
I didn’t finish watching the game because Man CIty was so boring, Borring ran rings around them in midfield. Shoving Micah Richards in DM was a bad choice; he had just suffered a head injury against West Ham at the weekend, it was his original playing position but he’d long abandoned that, and there were players like Gelson Fernandes who could play there better. I honestly didn’t think City would go through. Jo didn’t look as impressive as expected of him, but I’d wait for the climate to get colder and see since he’s used to it when he played in Russia.

3. FC Zenit St. Petersburg 2 Man United 1
After the second goal by Danny came in I switched the TV off, even though afterwards United’s game improved. There’s a genuine lack of -something- in United’s game the past few matches. Now that Saha has left I don’t have any doubt that Berbatov will get the Number 9 shirt, seeming that Tottenham are trying to get rid of him, and they’ve already got Pavlyuchenko as his replacement. They should stop stalling and grab the money when it’s there.

Well, overall it was pretty disappointing that United lost the Super Cup but I felt Zenit deserved it. They’re in mid-season (made busier by their backlog of league matches after asking the Russian FA to postpone them before the UEFA Cup final which is horrible since Rangers didn’t have something like that), have impressive players who like to get the ball on their feet and Tymoshchuk had a wonderful game as the holding midfielder (if it was someone else Zenit was playing I’d watch it to the end for his play).

Later on it’s back to the Premier League… gimme the fast-flowing league games rather than the cagey knockout games.

P.S. This just in, Ebi Smolarek to Bolton. That is gobsmacking. Bolton don’t look like relegation candidates anymore.