The weekend kicked off with Manchester United taking on Crystal Palace at Old Trafford and if the game wasn’t tough enough to start with for Palace you then have the decision that was made to really put your side up against it. United had failed to break down Palace until Ashley Young fell over with minimal contact and a penalty was awarded. Young has been criticized for this aspect of his game for many years now and in fact had only been booked earlier in the game for launching himself once more.
Just before the penalty Van Persie had been given a fantastic ball from Rooney but only managed to hit the crossbar with the final effort. That was quickly followed by a chance at the other end by the young man, Dwight Gayle. Gayle did very well as one touch took him past Rio Ferdinand before a chip shot went narrowly wide.
Then the moment of controversy just before half time with both Young and Dikgacoi going for the ball, running shoulder to shoulder, Young went down and a penalty was awarded. I take issue with this on several levels, not least being whether it was a dive or not. Firstly the initial contact, and unlike the first one there was contact, and fall seemed to be outside the box. Second, it wasn‘t a clear goal scoring chance, as it’s stated in the rules because another Palace defender could certainly have covered? Third, United and Rooney in particular stop playing and protest first the penalty award and then the Anderson over the card.
Despite the resulting penalty putting United 1-0 up and Palace 1 man down the second half must have been a disappointment to the United fans who watched their side, so cut throat under Ferguson, struggle for almost all the second half. It was only thanks to another set piece, albeit a fantastic Rooney free kick, that doubled the lead. Okay so the wall never jumped but it still takes skill to get the ball over the wall and back down the other side.
For Holloway it was a great press conference with him not getting in trouble by simply saying his opinion didn’t matter and then spent the rest of the interview saying how proud he was of his sides second half performance.
Newcastle traveled to Villa next up and were desperate to get back to winning ways. Certainly the summer was one to forget for Newcastle fans with few players coming in and with talk of Cabaye leaving now a distant memory it leaves them with nothing to do but get down to business on the pitch.
A simply tap in for Ben Arfa to open the scoring was thanks to the work down the left of sole Newcastle signing, on loan Loic Remy who danced passed Lowton before guiding the ball across the goal with just seventeen minutes on the clock.
Villa’s big man, Christan Benteke equalized with just over twenty minutes to go to tie up the game. Both teams were only separated by goal difference last season and it didn’t look anything between them in this game either. The equalizing goal came after new signing Kozac was substituted on before a corner was taken and neither he nor Benteke seemed to be marked as Krul came out to punch air.
It would however only be six minutes until Newcastle were in the lead again when a Ben Arfa strike was parried by the American Guzan into the path of Goufran who had a reasonably simple tap in.
West Brom finally scored their first goal of the Premiership season to get a draw against Fulham. It was tough on Fulham though who had three goals disallowed, two of which were correct decisions but the one wasn’t. Berbatov was clearly offside for the simple tap in disallowed and rightly so but was onside for the other attempt ruled out. Hugo Rodallega was onside when he scored his goal but Sidwell was offside initially and so when he became active in the play everything became null and void.
Those missed chances would be rued come full time McAuley equalized for West Brom in stoppage time. It was a frustrating afternoon for Fulham fans who saw their side pay the price for not being clinical enough.
Two ex Norwich City players faced off against each other in the dugout as Steve Bruce’s Hull City side welcomed Malky McKay’s Cardiff City. It was the hosts who took the lead after a deep ball into the box from Tom Huddlestone was headed in at close range by Curtis Davis. The equalizer came through Whittingham who finished neatly with a first time shot from almost the same distance as Davis in the first half.
Next up were Spurs hosting Norwich as AVB officially starts life without Gareth Bale. Norwich manager Chris Houghton returned to the club he played for but would not get the success he enjoyed there as Tottenham ran out 2-0 winners. Norwich were on the ropes pretty much all first half and it was surprise and relief that the half time score was 1-0. A beautiful goal from Sigurdsson just before the half hour meant that he scored Tottenham’s first goal from open play in the Premiership this season. Less than five minutes into the second half he scored again to make it 2-0 and that would be how it ended. The only negative would be that the 2-0 score line could have been doubled if not trebled had they taken their chances.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes claimed that this was not about him and getting one back against the club who unceremoniously fired him four seasons ago. That may be true but I cannot help thinking he went to bed Saturday night with a smile on his face as his Stoke City side made the Manchester City side look ordinary.
Pellegrini claimed his side selection was not made with one eye on the Champions League and if you believe that I’ll show you a stonewall Young penalty! Expectations of Champions League progression has been the focus of the last few seasons with Manchester City with Mancini fired because of the failure in it, despite the EPL title and FA Cup haul. With this in mind who can blame Pellegrini for his decision but I am sure the City fans will not want to go down that Arsenal path of the only thing worth winning each season is Champions League qualification.
Speaking of Arsenal they traveled to the Stadium of Light to take on a struggling Sunderland side. Along with Steve Clarke, DiCanio is one manager odds on to be the first relieved of his position. New signing Ozil was quickly repaying the transfer fee with a beautiful cross right in the path of Giroud after 11 minutes for the Arsenal man to score. Sunderland did hit the crossbar shortly after but didn’t draw level until early in the second half. Andy Johnson brought down in the area to win the penalty allowed Gardner to step up and bring Sunderland level despite the first half dominance of Arsenal.
Sunderland did have the ball in the net shortly after but was ruled out for a clear offside. American fans will not be happy with the news that Altidore got hurt in a collision with Flamini but continued on.
Arsenal would restore their lead though through Ramsey who scored a fantastic goal on the volley. Then came a moment of controversy after Altidore got in a tussle with Sagna the American pushed free and slotted the ball home only for the referee to call play back and award a free kick. I have watched the replay several times and had the referee whistled immediately at the coming together I could understand it. However the whistle went a fraction before Altidore got clear and as the referee does have the benefit of allowing play to progress a little before calling it back I think it makes it that much more harsh on Sunderland.
Insult was added to injury as Ramsey scored his second seconds after that Altidore decision. Add to that the suspicion of offside and you can understand why DiCanio got so upset. The referee approached him during the game to say he would send him to the stands. DiCanio stated if the referee wanted to round off a perfect game then he should, so he did.
I had a feeling Chelsea would struggle against Everton and so it proved to be. Fellaini left but Gareth Barry was in with the other signing McCarthy on the bench. Eto’o faced an empty net but his shot was blocked by a sliding Barry, which will be a surprise to City fans who have never seen the guy move so quickly.
The Naismith goal on the stroke of halftime not only was the decider but it means Everton are one of only two teams without defeat in the Premier League so far this season. The other undefeated side play tonight and are their local rivals, Liverpool. A fantastic start to the Martinez era and hopefully it will build next week against West Ham.
The single game on Sunday was a dull affair and it was hardly surprising with Southampton and West Ham scoring only four times between them in six combined games. Andy Carroll was still injured up front for the Hammers which is why I thought a dominant home side could put them to the sword. To be fair it could have been different if not for the dominance of Jaaskelainen who saved, punched or parried everything coming his way.
