This was the week that football remembered George Best, who finally died of his long illness on Friday 25th November 2005 at 12.55 p.m.
A one minute silence was decreed by the Football Authorities and in some grounds a spontaneous one minute applause was given in George's honour.
Those who were not around to witness Best, the player, and who criticised his personal life-style and abuse of his health finally realised just what an icon this man was, as some marvellous footage of his wizardry were shown on TV. Many of those clips featured Spurs, with goals against Pat Jennings, who used to room with Best on Northern Ireland duty. Pat will be attending the funeral, which takes place in Belfast on Saturday 3rd December.
Manchester United paid their own tribute in a Wednesday night Carling Cup tie against West Bromwich Albion, with a very moving homage, in the presence of George's son Calum, who was understandably moved to tears as the crowd held up posters of his Dad in his heyday. United also did the honour of playing a good strength side which duly beat their visitors 3-1.
The game at Upton Park had been a truly entertaining affair too, helped by the first minute goal of Marlon Harewood from Etherington's cross. Modern day hero Wayne Rooney saw to it though that United won, as he scored and took the corner that was headed home by O'Shea.
Liverpool are on a winning run, and the top four has a familiar look about it. However, their game at Sunderland was due to be played on December 17th, when Liverpool are on World Club Championship duty, so Spurs could still creep above them with their own good run before Christmas
Results 26-30.11.05
Arsenal 3-0 Blackburn
A. Villa 1-0 Charlton
Man City 0-1 Liverpool
P'tsmouth 0-2 Chelsea
S'derland 0-1 B'mingham
Wigan 1-2 Spurs
Everton 1-0 Newcastle
Fulham 2-1 Bolton
M'brough 2-2 West Brom
West Ham 1-2 Man Utd
S'derland 0-2 Liverpool
FA Barclays Premiership
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Chelsea 14 12 1 1 33 7 26 37
2 Man Utd 13 8 3 2 21 13 8 27
3 Arsenal 13 8 2 3 22 10 12 26
4 Liverpool 13 7 4 2 15 8 7 25
5 Wigan 13 8 1 4 16 10 6 25
6 Spurs 14 6 6 2 16 10 6 24
7 Bolton 13 7 2 4 15 13 2 23
8 Man City 14 6 3 5 15 12 3 21
9 West Ham 13 5 4 4 17 13 4 19
10 M'brough 14 5 4 5 20 20 0 19
11 Charlton 13 6 1 6 17 18 -1 19
12 Newcastle 14 5 3 6 12 14 -2 18
13 Blackburn 14 5 3 6 15 18 -3 18
14 Fulham 14 4 3 7 16 20 -4 15
15 A. Villa 14 4 3 7 14 22 -8 15
16 Everton 13 4 1 8 5 16 -11 13
17 West Brom 13 3 2 8 13 22 -9 11
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18 P'tsmouth 14 2 4 8 11 20 -9 10
19 B'mingham 13 2 3 8 8 17 -9 9
20 S'derland 15 1 2 12 12 30 -18 5
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