Well what a weekend of English Premiership goodness that was. A goalkeeper scored in the opening seconds, one team finished with nine men, twenty one goals in total with seven for one side.
We knew it was going to be one of those strange weekends when the early game finished with a 2-0 defeat for Chelsea against Newcastle. With only one win in their previous five games, including a defeat to their rivals Sunderland the week before, and the extra time defeat to Manchester City in the Capital One Cup midweek it was not expected Pardew’s men would do much with the early kick off. To reach half time goalless was great for the Toon Army but when Gouffran put them ahead with just over twenty minutes left just maybe they could dream of all three points.
As Chelsea pressed the victory was sealed with a great Remy strike which gave Cech no chance of saving. Chelsea did have the majority of the possession but when you look at actually how many shots they had you can see where it went wrong for them. Only two shots on target is not a good return on the possession numbers whereas Newcastle had less of the ball than the visitors but had four times more shots on target than them, and of course, scored two of them.
The only game to let us down was between the two claret and blue sides. West Ham hosting Aston Villa in a game with only six shots on target, combined. With that in mind it was no surprise when the game ended and nobody had scored.
West Brom did what they had to do against a still struggling Crystal Palace side. A goal from Berahino just before half time settled the nerves before the McAuley strike seven minutes from time made the points secure. In fairness to Palace though they did share about half the possession and have just as many strikes on goal as the hosts, in fact when you take into account the off target ones also they actually had more attempts. However, when you are at the bottom of the table it is very rare you get those little breaks needed.
Hull City hosted another struggler in Sunderland and secured the win with an own goal from Cuellar after twenty five minutes. The real controversy came just before half time when Sunderland found themselves down to ten men after Lee Cattermole was sent off and then three minutes later had Andrea Dossena also sent from the field of play. After the first red card the referee Andre Marriner went to talk to the Sunderland boss who clearly was not happy but I have to say that in my opinion once he sees the replays he will have no where to aim his anger than toward the two players who put their side in a hole for the second half.
Before Stoke City hosted Southampton they had only scored six goals. Within ten seconds of the start the Stoke City goalkeeper had shown the rest of the team just how easy it was by scoring from his own half. The ball was played back to Begovic from the kick off and the Bosnian put his foot through it. Aided by the wind it bounced once and then over the head of his Polish counterpart. It would have been a novel and memorable way for Mark Hughes to get his 100th Premier League win but Rodriguez had other ideas and equalized just before the half.
It seemed that both Manchester sides were competing with each other in the early going of their games where, after 25 minutes both sides were 3-0 up already. That would all United would get though and even a goal back from Kacaniklic just after the hour turned out to be a consolation rather than a fight back from the now fully under pressure Martin Jol’s Fulham side. Valencia, Van Persie and Rooney all got on the sheet for a vital win before the Champions League game midweek.
Manchester City however increased their goal scoring tally with Negredo adding to the three previous strikes. At half time Johnson and Martin own goals came in between the Silva strike. Second half was more of the same with another fantastic Yaya Toure free kick, an Aguero strike and all rounded off with a great Edin Dzeko turn and placed shot. Questions were raised after the game with regards the ease of the Manchester City goals. Norwich seemed to raise the white flag early on in the first half and to be fair were lucky not to have left the Etihad with a double digit defeat.
Finally the late game on Saturday was Arsenal hosting Liverpool. It was billed as a clash between two potential title contenders but in truth only one team looked like the real deal after this game, and that was the team whose manager was under pressure early on. Carzola and Ramsey secured the win and the Arsenal defense pretty much neutralized the SAS threat from the opposition.
Moving to Sunday and a goalless draw between Everton and Tottenham was good news for everyone around the top six but the real question mark was the judgement call made by the medical staff in keeping the Spurs keeper on the pitch after being knocked out in a collision with Lukaku. Now I am not going to suggest that I know more than the medical staff on the pitch but it really calls into question the wisdom of such a decision. It did seem, from the pictures, that the medical staff were removing him from play and it was the player who decided to play on. If this was the case then there needs to be some more investigation into the incident, under no circumstances with a head injury in which the player gets knocked out, should the player override the medical staff.
Finally one of the most anticipated games of the season, the first Welsh derby between Cardiff and Swansea in the Premier League. I had spoken about this game in the preview and certainly it was always going to be a tight and tense affair. It seemed fitting though that Caulker, the ex Swansea City player would be the winning goal scorer.
So how did the predictions go?
Lawro 76
Merson 71
Jason 63
