Well that is another Premier League weekend in the books and now we head into the International break. The Premier League race became a little bit closer with the results as some of the title hopefuls dropped points all over the place.
Saturday had started well enough. Aston Villa, Southampton and Liverpool all got the expected home wins with the last two sides getting four each. Crystal Palace hosted Everton who didn’t score for their second consecutive game and what looked like a good point for the bottom side would be undone the following day.
Chelsea were handed a point by Andre Marriner after falling behind 2-1 at home to West Brom. Samuel Eto’o had put the hosts a goal up at half time with a typical poachers finish. Two second half goals in the space of eight minutes though put the visitors in the lead when first Long and then Sessegnon scored. Heading into stoppage time, of which four minutes were indicated, Ramires went down in the area under the tackle of Steven Reid.
Now I didn’t see the game live but did see the replay and I must say it was a real let off for Chelsea with a very soft decision. I expect Andre Marriner to be dropped as a result for the next Premier League game at least but West Brom will never get those two lost points back.
Faith was restored in the game though with the fixture at Carrow Road in the late kick off of the day. Norwich City and manager Chris Hughton were under pressure after the 7-0 defeat in Manchester from the previous week and the first half was not encouraging. Norwich were dreadful and West Ham went in a goal up, although they would be disappointed it was not more. Hughton’s side then came out second half and were level within ten minutes through a penalty, converted by Hooper. In the last twenty minutes Norwich City got a free kick from a similar position as Yaya Toure had when he scored one of the seven against them the week before. Up stepped Robert ‘Yaya’ Snodgrass who finished just as well as the Ivorian did. Leroy Fer then made it three in stoppage time to secure the game in their only goal from open play.
A much needed win for Norwich City lifts the axe from Hughtons head meanwhile Sam Allardyce must go back to the drawing board.
Sunday started well for the other Premiership title contenders with Spurs falling at home to Newcastle to a Loic Remy goal. I had said in my preview that they had a tough time scoring and this is now the last two league games without a goal. An interesting side note is that Hugo Lloris, the goalkeeper at the heart of the concussion controversy last week, was rested again. To me that raises a question as to how much impact his continued participation on the field last week has had on him.
Manchester City also failed to cash in on the stumbles by Chelsea and Spurs when they also fell to a single goal defeat. Pellegrini’s side were dominant in all the stats except the one that matters, goals scored. I am sure he would have settled for a smaller win in the last two games and have used some of those goals in this game.
Swansea and Stoke kicked off the late game on Sunday and were 2-0 down after only 25 minutes. John Walters and Stephen Ireland game Mark Hughes’ side a 2-0 half time lead and heading towards his 100th Premier League victory. Thirty minutes of madness overturned that though as Bony scored the first and third to overturn the deficit. Nathan Dyer had a goal sandwiched in the middle of those two before another dubious penalty. This one was even more perplexing than the Chelsea one with not one Stoke City player appealing for a penalty.
The final game was the biggie of the weekend though with Arsenal taking on Manchester United. The talk pre match was Arsene Wengers wind up of Moyes by stating Robin Van Persie is still an Arsenal man. If that’s the case then he scored an own goal to win the game for United. With that result the top eight are now split by six points as United start to climb and Everton, City and Tottenham fall away.
