Calum Spence had to be treated for a head injury after being struck by a coin from the Rangers end (photo credit: Getty Images).
Ups and Downs: Mour misery for Jose, Berlin beat Bayern
By Ryan Conway
Another weekend of league football has come and gone. Some narratives have changed while others remain very much the same – for better or worse. Let’s see who is climbing up and who’s sliding down this week.
Up: Hertha Berlin
The German outfit put a halt to Bayern Munich’s unbeaten start to the season with a 2-0 victory over the defending champions on Friday. Goals from Vedad Ibisevic and Ondrej Duda were enough for the victory which sees Berlin move up to third in the table, level on points with Bayern.
Duda continued his own personal purple patch. His strike on Friday marked his fifth of the campaign so far. Ibisevic’s strike also marked his fourth of the young season.
The result was the perfect response for Pal Dardai’s men who last time out lost 3-1 to Wolfsburg. Bayern’s loss also keeps Borussia Dortmund top of the Bundesliga by a point.
Down: Rangers
Steven Gerrard’s second league loss as a manager leaves his side eight points adrift of leaders Hearts. Dolly Menga scored his first goal for Livingston as they beat Rangers 1-0 to leapfrog them and go third in the table.
A poor result on the pitch was made even worse by scenes off it. Police have opened an investigation following assistant referee Calum Spence being struck by a coin which was allegedly thrown by a Rangers supporter.
To compound the rotten weekend, The Gers’ loss on Sunday came at a less-than-ideal time. Rivals Celtic knocked off Aberdeen 1-0 on Saturday to overtake Gerrard’s team in the Scottish Premiership. As well as that, the weekend marked wins for every team ahead of Rangers in the league – not ideal.
Up: La Liga fan investment
The top seven in La Liga are separated by just three points. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona have failed to win their last two league games. Both were beaten on Wednesday before both then could only manage draws on Saturday.
The stutter allowed Sevilla and Atletico Madrid to close the gap on the pair to just one and two points respectively.
Philippe Coutinho’s early goal was cancelled out by a quickfire double from bottom of the table Leganes as the Catalan side suffered a shock 2-1 defeat. For Madrid, they were thrashed by Sevilla 3-0 – a game which could have ended much worse were it not for the hosts wastefulness in front of goal.
Down: Jose Mourinho
We here at Prost International try to find more obscure stories to include on these lists, but Mourinho is determined to stay the course for us.
The United manager has had a week to forget which started with video footage circulating of he and Paul Pogba engaging in a not-so-friendly exchange of words and intense stares at training. The situation which allegedly came about due to an Instagram post from the French international.
His misery was furthered when West Ham put United to the sword in a 3-1 rout leaving the Red Devils 10th in the league, the gap to Manchester City is already nine points and shows no signs of being narrowed in the coming weeks.
Rumours are circulating that The Special One’s time is almost up at Old Trafford. All in all, not a great time to be Jose Mourinho.
Despite contract negotiations with Aaron Ramsey collapsing, Emery has had an encouraging start to life at Arsenal (photo credit: Reuters).
Up: Unai Emery
Arsenal have largely flown under the radar this campaign with other plot points dominating the headlines.
However, it is worth mentioning that since the season started The Gunners have found the net at least twice in all but one league game – their opening clash against Man City – have won five straight Premier League contests, with the last two featuring clean sheets.
Emery also guided Arsenal to a 100% win record in the month of September – six games. Only goal difference is keeping the London side out of the top four at this juncture.
Down: Hamburg Derby
The first Hamburg Derby since February 2011 ended with shared points but also ugly scenes in the stands.
HSV and St. Pauli played out a goalless draw in front of a 57,000 sell-out crowd. Unfortunetly, the game was soured by incidents in the stands as both sets of Ultras forced action from law enforcement.
Flares were set off as well as marches pre-game from both sets of Ultras. Police expected more than 1,000 hooligans to clash during the fixture with the two teams separated by just 6.5 kilometers.
There were reports of butyric acid being spread in the streets as well as stink bombs being set off and excrement being smeared near the away fans’ entrance.
