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Match report: Arsenal vs. Liverpool (Carling Cup).

Milk, Littlewoods, Rumbelows, Coca-Cola, Worthington, Carling…such have been the mutations of the League Cup since it was given over to sponsorship in the early eighties. Whilst these changes have been largely cosmetic and haven’t affected the basic format, there has been a definite decline in the status of the competition over recent years, driven by the top clubs fielding weakened teams in order to concentrate on the Premier League and the Champions League. One of the first clubs to adopt this approach was Arsenal. Whilst this attracted criticism at first, Arsene Wenger’s policy of blooding young talent in this competition is now widely recognized as being a good thing, and gave fans their first glimpses of the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie. 

Dupin went along to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening to see some of the Arsenal young guns and, as a Liverpool fan (slight apologies for the Liverpool-centric flow of articles at present), to see the long-awaited début of Alberto Aquilani, the £20 million signing from AS Roma. Unfortunately, the brightest young gunner, Jack Wilshere, was out injured, but the brief substitute appearance from Aquilani was almost worth the entrance fee alone, as they say.

Liverpool 2 Manchester Utd 0

In the third of the 'big four' clashes this season, Liverpool convincingly beat Man Utd at Anfield to keep within touching distance of their opponents and Chelsea.

The Reds have been in spectacularly bipolar form this season, as evidenced by all ten of their league games producing positive results (something which co-owners Gillett and Hicks, sat uncomfortably side by side today, must at least find gratifying, used as they are to the ‘no-draw’ culture of American sports). Liverpool’s recent run of four successive defeats in all competition was remarkably their worst for 22 years. It didn’t look like a good time to be playing Manchester Utd.

Both teams adopted a 4-4-2 formation. For the home side, Benitez finally showed some courage and picked Kuyt to play with the returning Torres up front. After an excellent performance against Lyon in the mid-week defeat, Benayoun kept his place in the team, playing right midfield, Aurelio was favoured above Babel for the left side midfield position, no doubt intended to help out Insua with the threat of Valencia, who has been finding his feet in the Manchester team of late. Mascherano and Lucas played central midfield with Gerrard absent. For United, it was the usual back five (O’Shea at rightback seems to be set now), Giggs, Scholes, Carrick and Valencia in midfield with Rooney and Berbatov up front.

World Cup play-offs: seeding we could have done without

The draw was made in Zurich today for a number of tasty World Cup qualifying play-off ties but the whole show has been marred by the decision to seed half of the teams involved – something that was neither necessary nor fair. The seeding meant that four of the eight European sides (which FIFA learnedly refer to as the “play-off octet”) would each be guaranteed to face one of four lower-ranked teams, based on the latest world rankings. It is, disappointingly for the neutral, a system that is designed to preclude a Clash of the Titans, leaving you rather with David vs Goliath and that most paradoxical of football pursuits: the search for the ‘potential upset’.

To be clear, none of the four unseeded teams should yet be written off. As FIFA’s own announcement rather curiously points out, “the ranking positions of the unseeded teams does not necessarily reflect their current form”. But it’s a matter of principle. Yes, it’s nice to see the ‘big’ sides represented on the biggest stage. Yet if a big boy like France cannot win its group to earn automatic qualification, then the ‘lottery’ of a runners-up play-off is no more than they deserve. And why is it fair for a minnow like Bosnia to secure passage into the play-offs only to have it weighted against them? Much like the introduction of group phases in European club competition, it is difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to prolong the involvement of established powers.

So, imagining a draw without seeding, QoS conducted a small experiment...

F1 Brazilian GP: Jubilant Jenson

Jenson Button was crowned Formula One world champion and his Brawn team wrapped up a fairy-tale constructors’ title at an incident-packed Brazilian Grand Prix that was memorable for a superb display of attacking driving from the Englishman.

Luck played a part too, as Button’s two title rivals failed in any event to do what they had to do to take the championship to a last-race decider: Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was to all intents and purposes already out of it after a bitterly disappointing 16th-place showing in a rain-fragmented qualifying session had left the German with next to no chance of the top-two finish he was looking for; Button’s team-mate Rubens Barrichello started his home Grand Prix from pole but went backwards during the race, struggling for pace after his first pit-stop and then suffering a late puncture, out of reach of the points he needed to maintain his challenge.

Yet at the end of the race there was no sense of anticlimax, of Button being handed the title on a plate. This was due to a performance from the Brawn man that was every bit worthy of the occasion: his advance through the field to 5th from 14th on the grid featured a succession of fearless wheel-to-wheel overtaking manoeuvres that were all precision and controlled aggression. Mark Webber of Australia won this Grand Prix but it will be remembered rather for Button’s title. And, after all the doubts about whether he would hold his nerve at the end of a tough second half of the season, it is a title that Button has earned, and deserves.

Poll: which is your top US sport?

Poll opened on quantumofsport.com: October 17

Poll closes: errm, just as soon as we really want to launch a different poll

Voting: In the age of electronic democracy, it's one computer, one vote, folks. Click on "View Results" to see the ongoing tallies.

Remarks: QoSer worldinmotion was treated to some baseball recently and very enjoyable it was too. Unfortunately he never got around to writing about it. But it got us thinking here at QoS - what is the best 'typical' US/North American sport? After the baseball tip you can probably guess which way at least one vote is going (although NFL will be pushing hard). But which is your fave? We'd be delighted for readers on both sides of the pond to let us know...

QoS