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August 17, 2007

Footie balls-up of the week

By Axegrinder axeblog

The Premiership kicked off last Saturday, and what a thrilling match it was at Villa Park, where Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-1 and Man of the Match, according to page 5 of the Daily Telegraph's Sport supplement on Monday, was that well-known superstar, er, Bish Bash (Blah).

Oddly, brilliant Bish didn't get a mention in reporter Martin Smith's account of the game. But according to the fact box at the end of the report he deserved his Man of the Match award because he: "Blah, blah, blah; Blah, blah, blah; Blah, blah, blah."

Thankfully, the bishes and the blahs were replaced with real copy in the later editions.

Almost as puzzling was Clive Tyldesley's coverage of the Arsenal-Fulham clash on the same page. In his report, Tyldesley named Fulham goalkeeper Tony Warner as the Man of the Match. But not according to the fact box at the end, which gave the honour to Arsenal striker Robin van Persie with a magical 10 out of 10.

Perhaps the Telegraph sports editor is an Arsenal fan. Or, more likely, the sub who handled the copy has van Persie in his Fantasy Football team and wanted the extra points from his player grabbing a Man of the Match award.

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