Chelsea 4 Norwich 1
Chelsea were victorious at Stamford Bridge, putting aside their many off-field problems and sending them top of the pile. Endless Court Cases, disciplinary charges and Twitter rows surrounded the Blues, and eleven minutes in, things got worse as Norwich hero Grant Holt scored to put the visitor’s ahead. But after 14 minutes, all was forgotten as Spaniard Fernando Torres headed in to equalise.
It was the start of a torrid afternoon for the Canaries, with the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar, and Juan Mata all on top form and playing well. Frank Lampard still showed us what he can do by doubling Chelsea’s lead with a well taken goal from just inside the box. He has been a wonderful servant to the club, and he still has lots to give.
Eden Hazard continued his scintillating form in front of goal, by scoring Chelsea’s third of the afternoon. The scoring didn’t stop there as Ivanovic thumped in an effort to seal the victory.
Norwich paid for their missed chances, and they will no doubt be frustrated with themselves as they still search for their first league win and have conceded 17 goals.
West Ham 1 Arsenal 3
Arsenal had to come from behind to beat a very physical West Ham United side at Upton Park. The Hammers were blowing their bubbles on 21 minutes as midfield talisman Diame netted from an incredibly tight angle to stick the Irons noses in front.
West Ham’s defence stood strong throughout the first half, but was sliced open by a beautifully weighted cross by Lukas Podolski which found Olivier Giroud, who then tucked it away to score his first Premier League goal for the Gunners.
Arsenal kept mounting on the pressure after the interval, and it was only a matter of time before Arsenal scored a second. That’s what happened. The second half was dominated by Arsenal, with them having an impressive fourteen shots on target to West Ham’s three.
Kevin Nolan missed a sitter for the Hammers, and if he put that away, which he normally does, then the result would have been very different. A plethora of chances were pondered soon after, and it took Theo Walcott to come off the bench to put the Gunners in front and break the deadlock.
Then six minutes later, midfielder Santi Carzola, and perhaps the signing of the season for Arsenal, scored a spectacular goal to put the gloss on the deserved victory.
Manchester City 3 Sunderland 0
Manchester City silenced their critics with a comfortable victory over Martin O’Neil’s Black Cats at the Etihad. A defensive reshuffle saw City claim their first clean sheet of the season, with Richards and Lescott coming in for Nastastic and Kompany.
Sunderland were on the back foot as soon as the fifth minute as Carlos Tevez was brought down when through on goal, the resulting free-kick was turned in by Aleksandar Kolarov from a tight angle. Man City had to wait until 60 minutes to double their lead, although they had chances to score much earlier.
Still, Sergio Agϋero came off the bench to score the second, and the Citizens didn’t stop there. James Milner rounded off a fine afternoon for City, his free-kick took a slight deflection.
Man City will take lots of positives from this game, and I’m looking forward to what they can do when the Premier League returns in two weeks’ time.
Swansea 2 Reading 2
Michael Laudrup’s Swans were swimming in deep water and had to come from two goals down to salvage a point at the Liberty Stadium.
Reading’s first goal could have been prevented and Swans ‘keeper Michel Vorm will be the first to admit it after he let Pavel Pogrebnyak’s shot underneath him. Hunt doubled the lead just before the break with a great volley.
Swansea came out fighting in the second half, and were rewarded with their efforts, Michu scoring his sixth goal this season to pull one back on 71 minutes. Wayne Routledge completed the comeback as the Swans drew level after 78 minutes.
Warning signs are there for Michael Laudrup, and he will need to start digging in to get results, although he shouldn’t alter his philosophy to just get wins, he needs to stick by what he believes in.
West Brom 3 Queens Park Rangers 2
QPR added to the disappointing loss at Loftus Road earlier on in the week at the hands of West Ham with a 3-2 defeat at the Hawthorns. Steve Clarke continues his fine run as West Brom boss and they now have fourteen points on the board.
The pressure is growing on Mark Hughes as QPR boss, although owner Fernandez has described his position as ‘safe’. Morrison opened the scoring as early as the fifth minute. Zoltan Gera doubled the lead before Adel Taarabt netted to draw one back.
The comeback was on, but Mulumbu thought otherwise, increasing West Brom’s lead to 3-1. Man of the match Granero scored a delightful goal for the visitors to make the score 3-2. Then, the best chance of the game came to QPR full back Jose Bosingwa to blast over, and that was to be the last kick of the game.
Under-fire QPR boss Mark Hughes talked to BBC Sport and here’s what he had to say; “In the early part of the game we gave ourselves too much to do. We talk about the fundamentals of defending and we didn’t do that. We didn’t start correctly. We were slow and not dynamic. They produced two good balls and we didn’t deal with them. If you go 2-0 down away from home it’s nigh-on impossible to get back into it. For the vast majority of the game I thought we were in control, but we need to take the defensive errors out of our game.”
Wigan 2 Everton 2
Leighton Baines rescued the point for Everton against his old club at the DW stadium. Kone put the home team in the lead; he put in a real shift and was absolutely superb on the day. The lead didn’t last long though, as a minute later Everton frontman Jelavic scored to pull the teams level. Wigan then went in front again.
Southampton 2 Fulham 2
Martin Jol’s Fulham thought they stole the three points at St Mary’s after coming behind to take the lead. Southampton initially went in front when Fonte guided in a header for it to find the top corner in the fourth minute.
Fulham then equalised on 70 minutes when Jon Arne Riise’s shot struck the foot of Hooiveld who deflected it in. Fulham, who were without star striker Dimitar Berbatov, carried in pressing and were eventually rewarded. Kieran Richardson netted to put the Cottagers in front. Fulham thought they had grabbed the three points, and so did some of the Southampton faithful, who actually left the stadium with time a plenty.
Southampton centre back Fonte scored his second goal of the game to earn a share of the spoils at St Mary’s for Nigel Adkins Saints.
Newcastle 0 Manchester United 3
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United rectified last week’s disappointing loss at Tottenham with a comfortable win over Newcastle.
On 8 minutes Johnny Evans scored a free header to send the Red Devils in front, and seven minutes later the Toons were left fuming again as they conceded from yet another set piece, this time as Patrice Evra found himself unmarked to head United two goals to the good.
Tom Cleverley then rounded off the scoring with an attempted cross which found the back of Steven Taylor’s goal, to finish what was in truth, a walk in the park, Newcastle hardly threatened.
Liverpool 0 Stoke 0
It was goalless at Anfield, although both sides had a chance to capitalise. Pepe Reina’s back passes went astray on a couple of occasions, but the Potters couldn’t accept the gift. All in all, a poor game, and I’m sure Brendan Rodgers will be disappointed with his teams efforts.
Tottenham 2 Aston Villa 0
Andre Villas-Boas’ decision to omit Brad Friedel from the starting line-up ended his 310th consecutive Premier League appearance, meaning he hadn’t missed a game since May 2004, which is a fantastic achievement. So in came France Number one Hugo Lloris, and if truth be told, his distribution was quite poor.
Nonetheless, Spurs kept a clean sheet, and their frontline played well, linking up nicely. Steven Caulker scored his first goal in Tottenham colours, although at the time he didn’t know much about it, as the initial shot by England front man Jermain Defoe ricocheted into the back of the net via his leg.
Tottenham carried on pressing, and Aaron Lennon, who was recently called up to the England squad for their up and coming World Cup Qualifiers, doubled Spurs’ lead with a well taken shot which found the bottom corner.
Team of the Week
Written by Adam May
Follow him on Twitter @Adam132Football
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