Geovanni finds an unlikely home

Hull's Geovanni has gotten pleasant earfuls from the faithful of late. Not so, the players who toil for Newcastle and Tottenham. Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images The Limey's Mailbag Keep the banter flowing to The Limey. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Geovanni, still Geovanni, Geovanni 25 yards out...GOAAAAAALLLLL!!!!! HULL ARE LEVEL AT THE EMIRATES!

Four minutes later and Hull had scored a winner in the English Premier League's biggest upset of the season. Amazingly, Arsenal had led before succumbing to the 2-1 defeat. A combination of converting sparse chances and being quick to pressurize Arsenal's ballplayers, often forcing them inside into a congested defensive zone, saw Hull victorious.

Meanwhile, The Gunners squandered several opportunities, were unlucky with several tremendous long range efforts, stood off Geovanni and conceded their third goal from a corner this season. Questions are being asked about the height of their center backs and the form of Kolo Touré.

Geovanni is a player with obvious creative skill, especially in the long-ball department, so much so that Barcelona paid more than $20 million for him in 2001. But failing to settle at the Camp Nou, he was released on a free, as he was this summer by Manchester City. The boy from Brazil seems to have found home in the unlikeliest of places -- an isolated and fading port city on England's cold North Sea coast.

We are pleased for him, for Hull, and to have witnessed Arsenal lose at home to unfashionable opposition. There's something irksome about a crowd that expects victories and becomes irritated when they're not delivered. And that's not a tangential Yankees reference.

For such behavior though, Old Trafford is in a league of its own. There, even the referees expect home wins. Witness how few penalties are awarded against Manchester United at home. And why on earth did Rob Styles award a spot-kick against Bolton last Saturday? If the United players and the Manchester faithful aren't calling for it, chances are, Mr Styles, it just ain't warranted. Bolton had frustrated United for an hour before Ronaldo exaggerated the effects of Jlloyd Samuel's ball-winning tackle. Indeed, players actually thought that Ronaldo was to be booked for diving when Styles stopped play. Instead, the Portuguese winger converted the first of United's two goals to which The Totters had no reply.

Contrastingly, at St. James' Park, there's little expectation from anyone for a home win. That an away side's opening goal silenced the home crowd is a longstanding soccer cliché. Doesn't apply in Newcastle -- kickoff is the cue for quiet there these days. In eerie silence, Blackburn toyed with the hapless Magpies, thoughtfully dissecting them like a cat might a mouse, and Rovers could have been several goals to the good by halftime. Instead, their 2-0 lead proved unassailable, despite a brighter second half from Newcastle and a Michael Owen conversion from the spot. New caretaker manager, Joe Kinnear, watched from the stands. He had a watching brief. He'll watch the next two games from the stands, too, the result of an unexpended touchline ban awarded by the FA when he was Nottingham Forest manager in 2004. Something the shambolic Newcastle board were unaware of on his appointment.

Fans of Spurs -- currently the EPL's basement club -- might be quieter still than the Geordies were they not busying themselves shouting "you don't know what you're doing" at head coach Juande Ramos. It's the worst league start since 1955 for a club that has only won three EPL games from their last 18 outings. Spurs are missing Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov, but both Roman Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent are capable of goals. Ramos' reputation -- when managing Sevilla, he won the UEFA Cup twice as well as the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de España -- should buy him a stay of execution long enough to establish himself in, and become accustomed to, English football.

At the other end of the table, Chelsea and Liverpool are leading the way with fourteen points each. A 2-0 away win against Stoke City on the weekend continued the Chelsea machine's fine start to the season. Domestically, Luiz Felipe Scolari's team look ruthlessly efficient, recently dispatching much fancied Portsmouth, 4-0, in the Carling Cup and winning at Stoke -- a long away trip against a tall physical side that could've proved to be a banana skin.

However, cracks began to appear this week as Chelsea traveled to Transylvania for their Champions League tie against little known Cluj Napoca. Chelsea landed in Dracula's backyard with a star-studded injury list containing Joe Cole, Deco, Michael Essien and Ricardo Carvalho. After the Romanians shocked Italian giants Roma 2-1 in the previous round, they again performed well, defending resolutely and creating the best chances of the match. Chelsea on the other hand looked toothless up front even before star striker Didier Drogba was stretchered off with a knee injury. Chelsea's fright night continued as both John Terry and Alex picked up knocks and, in the end, the Blues were thankful for the 0-0 draw after Cluj hit the post late on.