You can say many things about the top six in the Eredivisie but at present you cannot accuse them of inconsistency. All six of them won their matches, some with a bit more effort than others but the three points were secured all round so there is no let-up in the pressure at the top of the table.
A patriotic FC Utrecht scarf
PSV Eindhoven were of course expected to demolish bottom club RKC Waalwijk. And this is exactly what came to pass as the Philips boys ran out easy 5-1 winners against the cash-strapped Waalwijkers.
FC Twente on the other hand did it the hard way with a hard-fought 2-1 home victory against unfancied NEC Nijmegen. And they left it late too, a Bryan Ruiz goal five minutes from time finally helping them over the line.
Ajax Amsterdam obviously had the same script writers as PSV but were also helped by an early card for an Utrecht player which left them free to dominate the match completely and let lead scorer Suárez get another couple in his runaway bid to become Eredivisie top scorer at the end of the season. It could have ended up even more than 4-0.
Feyenoord ignored their Amsterdam rivals and did it a la Twente. A visit to northerly Groningen is never an easy prospect and the green and whites have rediscovered a bit of form of late. The home team had the better of the play but failed to convert this into goals, narrowly coming off worst in a 2-3 thriller.
AZ Alkmaar meanwhile travelled to Arnhem for their encounter with Vitesse. The match turned into a goalfest for one man: AZ’s top scorer Mounir El Hamdaoui, who smacked home a second half hat-trick to take all the plaudits as well as the points.
Heracles Almelo continued to impress as they faced up to a stiff away match in Friesland against Heereveen, emerging with all three points after goals from Dost and Everton gave them a 1-2 win at what used to be a tough venue.
Elsewhere Sparta and NAC Breda shared four goals in a 2-2 draw in Rotterdam, Roda JC Kerkrade did what was expected of them in the Hague against ADO with a good 1-2 away victory. And lastly, Willem II did themselves some good in their lowly plight with a 2-1 home win over VVV Venlo.
Standings
As intimated above, no change at the top. It’s still PSV now on 65, one ahead of Twente who enjoy a six point cushion over Ajax in third. Then a big leap downwards (11 points) to Feyenoord who themselves are a healthy eight points ahead of fifth-placed AZ. Heracles share the same points total as AZ, three ahead of seventh-placed Utrecht. At the bottom, it is still ‘poor’ old RKC on a meagre 12 points, eight adrift of second last Willem II who in turn trail ADO by two points.
Next week: PSV travel to NAC, Twente go to RKC, Sparta host Ajax and Feyenoord Roda welcome Feyenoord (not literally, probably). AZ have a good chance of all three points at home against Heereveen and Willem II visit Heracles. Elsewhere Utrecht host NEC, Groningen are at home to VVV and Vitesse travel to the Hague to face ADO.
Tags: Eredivisie, football
