Red card for Van Persie, shock for Dirk Kuyt

Monday 03 November 2008

For some Dutch players in the English Premier League it wasn't a very good weekend.

Dirk Kuyt seemed to have put his team on the way to another three points when he scored a screamer early on at White Heart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool were in total control afterwards, but didn't manage to extend their lead despite some great chances.

Tottenham seemed as hapless as they have been for the past 12 months, but did manage a shock result that gave them the second victory of the season.

First Jamie Carragher beat his own goal keeper and if that wasn't enough injustice substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko scored the winner minutes from the end.

Red for Van Persie
Robin van Persie and Arsenal also had a bad afternoon at lowly Stoke City.

Seemingly unknowing about Stoke's main weapon - the long throws of Rory Delap - Arsenal fell for it twice with Ricardo Fuller and Seyi Olofinjana benefiting from Arsenal's lack of preparation.

Things went from bad to worse when Robin van Persie received a red card for pushing Stoke-goal keeper Thomas Sörensen after he had only been on the pitch for 10 minutes.

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger was furious about the sanction: "It should have been a yellow card. What Van Persie did was unnecessary and Robin knows that, but a red card was out of place," who pointed a much more serious foul by Stoke-defender Andy Griffin.

"When that is not even a yellow card but Robin's foul is a straight red I have to recheck my rule book," Wenger said.

Van der Sar vs Boateng 4-3
Hull City, with George Boateng in the starting lineup, gave Manchester United of keeper Edwin van der Sar a tough afternoon, but thanks to two goals of Cristiano Ronaldo and one of Michael Carrick and Nemanja Vidic the European Champions won it 4-3.

Other Dutch players in the EPL
Andre Ooijer was out with a knee injury of Blackburn Rovers' encounter with West Bromwich Albion, the team of Ryan Donk and Gianni Zuiverloon.

With former Ajax-striker Benni McCarthy scoring from the penalty spot Blackburn gained a 2-2 draw.

Donk and Zuiverlooon both received a yellow card and Donk was taken off at half-time where Zuiverloon played the whole game.

Mario Melchiot played the full 90 minutes as his team gained a very welcome 1-2 victory on the pitch of Portsmouth.