A year of great highs and lows

JAN 6 – What a way for 2008 to end!

Steven Gerrard arrested, then charged with assault. It could mean a jail term for the England star if his lawyers can’t convince the judge that he was not involved in the incident for which he is charged.

Hull City were in shock when the referee awarded them a penalty kick against Aston Villa, in their last game of the year, only to revoke his decision after the assistant referee, with finger on his earpiece as if listening to someone (possibly the fourth official watching a TV screen), tells the ref that the ball had hit the bar and not the Aston Villa player’s hand as the ref had first thought.

Kolo Toure, the only remaining member of Arsenal’s “The Invincibles” squad of the 2003-04 season asks for a transfer, citing a bust-up with ex-captain William Gallas.

Portsmouth turns down 30 million pounds from Tottenham Hotspur for a three-player deal involving Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson and Peter Crouch.

Chelsea continued leaking goals up to the last minute of action in 2008, to end with a draw against yet another team that they would have beaten quite easily under Jose Mourinho’s management.

These are all just the final moments of significance and controversy that highlighted what was surely a monumental year in English Premiership history.

The year began with a young Arsenal side, sans-Thierry Henry, leading the pack with some scintillating performances. They would go on to lead Manchester United by five points, before the unthinkable collapse happened.

Even the exact minute of the start of said collapse is recorded in the history books - 9.54pm (Beijing time), Saturday, Feb 23, 2008. That was the moment Arsenal’s very promising new striker Eduardo suffered a horrible injury resulting from a callous tackle by Martin Taylor of Birmingham.

We all know how there was some short-term recovery thanks to Theo Walcott’s two goals to bring them back into that game but The Gunners then imploded, giving away a penalty and the two extra points in the last seconds of injury time. It all went downhill from then on. And let’s not even start on William Gallas.

Soon, Manchester United and Chelsea overtook Arsenal and the champions took home their 17th top flight title in May. But the top two had another battle in their hands.

On what was to be a historic night for English football, the top two teams in the domestic league earned the right to play in Moscow, Russia for the much-coveted Champions League trophy, ol’ Big Ears herself.

It was an incredible match with great attacking flair, something the Italians of Juventus and AC Milan took no chances with when they played in the final of May 2003.

Of course, this all-English encounter also ended in a penalty shootout when the match finished 1-1, after 90 minutes, and stayed that way through extra-time. But it was exciting nonetheless with two good goals and some dramatic action befitting such a showcase final in European football.

I should add that it was also the first time that England had three representatives in the Champions League semi-finals. Liverpool defeated Arsenal after a breathtaking second leg in Anfield in the quarter-final but were duly disposed of by Chelsea in the semis.

This best-of-England-turned-best-of-Europe final also took away the shine of another extraordinary achievement in a less-glamorous but more prestigious competition called the English FA Cup.

For the first time ever, there were three lower division clubs in the semi-final. Portsmouth stood out as the only representative of the English Premiership. Can anyone even recall a year when there were two teams from lower divisions?

The semi-final line-up comprised Portsmouth (who overcame Manchester United at Old Trafford in the previous round) vs West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City vs Barnsley (conquerors of Chelsea).

It was also the first time in umpteen years that neither of the Big 4 clubs made it into the finals, let alone the semis of this famous competition.

In the end, the Cardiff vs Pompey final received little attention from footie fans outside the UK, in stark contrast to the 2007 FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

Tottenham won the other domestic title up for grabs, the Carling Cup. What a year it was for their fans with Juande Ramos making such an impact, having come in to replace Martin Jol, culminating in the Spurs winning their first trophy in 10 years, only to see Ramos then take them to Premiership depths with their worst-ever start in the new season.

Finally, the two other most significant stories that comes to mind when recalling 2008 are Dubai Does Manchester and Roy “Loser” Keano walks out of yet another team.

Manchester City became the richest club in England last August when disgraced ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra sold his stake to a group from the United Arab Emirates.

These Arabs have access to hundreds of billions dollars and made their intention clear very early on by enticing Brazilian superstar Robinho from Real Madrid to City. They could buy the whole Brazilian team if they wanted to but, somehow, I doubt the British immigration authorities would approve.

So, they aim to take it slow, even providing a lifeline to Mark Hughes, who by all normal conventions should have been sacked by now for grossly underperforming.

About Keane, another ex-Manchester United-thug-turned-manager like Hughes above, the less said the better. No team deserves a manager who would walk out on them and sending his resignation notice via SMS at that!