Barclays Premier League Review

After the international break, it was great to be back in Barclays Premier League action and what an exciting weekend of football it turned out to be. Chelsea continued their unbeaten start to remain four points clear at the top of the table whilst there were victories for Manchester United and Manchester City ensuring that they kept pressure on the league leaders. Norwich City claimed their first win of the season and Liverpool finally managed a victory at home.

In the lunch-time kick off Chelsea travelled to White Hart Lane to take on London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. These two sides had been in good form going in to the fixture with Spurs on the back of two excellent results including a win against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Chelsea have dropped just two points so far this season, winning every game besides one. This was certainly set up to be an entertaining contest.

The main focus of the match was on Andre Villas-Boas as he prepared to face his former club for the first time since he was sacked by Chelsea in March after failing to have a positive impact on the club’s fortunes. He insisted the game was not about his own personal revenge, but for Tottenham to get an important result in their bid for Champions League football.

It was the visitors who took the lead in the first half when Jermaine Defoe cleared the ball with his head after a Chelsea corner had been delivered which fell to Gary Cahill who volleyed it past Brad Friedel after taking a slight deflection off a Spurs defender.

At half-time it was 1-0 to Roberto Di Matteo’s side.

Spurs came out in the second half ready to get back in the game and they responded extremely well to the deficit that they faced. Former Chelsea and Arsenal defender William Gallas, an unlikely scorer, netted an equaliser for the hosts two minutes in to the second period of play. Less than 10 minutes later, Jermaine Defoe gave Spurs the lead and suddenly they had turned the game around completely. The England international has been on great form for both club and country lately and now that he seems to be experiencing regular first team football, he is really flourishing.



Juan Mata equalised for Chelsea

However, Chelsea didn’t give up despite conceding two goals in a short space of time. Juan Mata made it 2-2 with a fine finish capitalising on a poor clearance from William Gallas striking low and hard in to the bottom right hand corner. Then, just 3 minutes later, Mata grabbed a second after Chelsea star Eden Hazard played a wonderful through ball showing supreme vision which caught Gallas out and the Spaniard put it past Friedel to regain the lead for Chelsea.

Spurs tried to get back in the game and Kyle Walker really tested Petr Cech with a brilliantly executed drive along the ground forcing the Chelsea keeper in to a fine save preventing an equaliser.

The game was wrapped up when Kyle Walker was caught in possession on the touch line by Mata who advanced in to the opposition’s box squaring it to substitute Daniel Sturridge who finished comfortably from close range. 4-2 and that was the end of the game.

It looked as if Tottenham would go on to win the game once they had taken the lead but Chelsea answered a lot of questions with their performance and ability to come back away from home. The characteristics displayed showed they can be very successful this season and they have real potential to win the league this year.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Manchester City came back from 1-0 down to beat the in-form West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. Steve Clarke’s side have made a really positive start to the season and there’s a lot of optimism from results and performances in the early stages of the campaign.

Shane Long gave the home side the lead in the 67^th minute after the visitors saw James Milner sent off in the first half after taking down Long who was through on goal. City captain Vincent Kompany was dispossessed and James Morrison played a through ball to the Irish international who was brought down by Milner. The former Aston Villa midfielder was judged to have been the last man and was consequently dismissed for his tackle. Some questioned that Joleon Lescott was near the incident and could have ruled out Milner as the last man but realistically Lescott would probably have failed to get there. In fairness, Milner accepted the decision in a professional manner; a concept that is sometimes lost on players in similar situations.



Edin Dzeko celebrates one of his goals.

Although they were down to 10 men, Roberto Mancini’s side came back in the game with Bosnian international Eden Dzeko heading home a corner after Ben Foster came out of his goal failing to meet the ball in a similar error to Joe Hart’s unfortunate mistake on England duty against Poland.

At 1-1, West Brom really looked as if they would snatch the win. The ball was frequently fed to Peter Odemwingie who delivered some testing crosses for Joe Hart and his defence. Romanu Lukaku came very close to converting one of these chances.

Eventually, Albion were caught on the break after pressing for the win. The ball was provided to Dzeko who took it brilliantly getting his second goal and winning the match for 10 men City.

Manchester United recovered from an early scare as they continued their 100% record against Stoke City at home in the Premier League. The 4-2 victory came despite Wayne Rooney scoring an own goal to give Tony Pulis’ side an unexpected lead early in the game. Was Rooney possibly hinting that he’d like a transfer to Stoke in January?



Rooney and Robin Van Persie embrace each other

Unfortunately for Stoke fans, this didn’t appear to be the case as the striker made up for his error by equalising for his team scoring at the right end of the pitch this time. Rooney then supplied Robin Van Persie for the second to give United the lead going in to half-time. The Dutchman has now scored seven goals against Stoke in the Premier League.

Danny Welbeck added a third goal at the very beginning of the second half which proved to be a huge blow for the away side and put the home side in an unassailable position. Michael Kightly did pull one back for Stoke with his second league goal of the season that gave Stoke a real incentive to go and possibly snatch a draw.

Wayne Rooney had other plans and completed a hat-trick as he made it 4-2. The match ball wouldn’t be his though as one of those three goals was for the wrong team.

The match finished 4-2 to Man United and Stoke left Old Trafford empty handed looking to bounce back against Sunderland at the Britannia Stadium. The Potters’ two defeats this season have come against Man United and Chelsea which were both away from home.

Liverpool ended a poor run of form at home this season as they defeated Reading 1-0 courtesy of teenage sensation Raheem Sterling. Brian McDermott and his side are still looking for their first Premier League win of the season.



Captain Steven Gerrard congratulates Raheem Sterling on
his goal.

Sterling scored the winner in the 29^th minute but Brendan Rodgers’ team still seem to have the issue of finishing off opponents as their finishing still wasn’t up to the standards they would like. The home side failed to convert numerous chances and are still trying to find a prolific goal scorer within their ranks.

They’ll look to find some consistency when they face Everton in the Merseyside derby.

Norwich City stunned Arsenal as they claimed their first victory in unlikely circumstances. Chris Hughton has had a tough beginning to his career as Canaries manager but this win was emphatic to his side and now that they’ve got the win they’ll look to continue in that sort of forms.

Grant Hold scored the decisive goal as he took advantage of an error from Arsenal goalkeeper Mannone who failed to hold on to a long range effort setting up Holt from close range.

Holt puts Norwich 1-0 up

The Gunners couldn’t find a reply and the only positive for them was that Jack Wilshere was back in the squad after 17 months away due to injury. It’s a huge bonus that he is now in contention to play football for club and country. Arsenal and England have both missed his qualities.

West Ham United secured a convincing 4-1 victory over fellow newly promoted side Southampton who have so far struggled to adapt to Premier League life. Sam Allardyce’s men have begun their campaign very positively. They sat in 8^th position ahead of this important fixture.

It wasn’t until the second half that the goals finally came with Mark Noble striking to make it 1-0 in the 46^th minute. Kevin Nolan then hit a heavy blow for Nigel Adkins and his team as he doubled the Hammers’ lead just two minutes later. That looked to have secured the points as West Ham took advantage of some rather lacklustre defending from Southampton who tried to get the ball out of their territory by flicking it up in the air to each other which didn’t work out for them.

Matt Jarvis controls the ball under pressure from Nathaniel Clyne

Adam Lallana did restore some hope for the Saints as he pulled one back with a fine effort to get his first premier league goal this season. But West Ham restored their 2 goal lead when Mark Noble converted a penalty after Jose Fonte handled in the area.

The game was wrapped up when Maiga showed some magnificent footwork and skill to hit the ball on the edge of the box and the direction was accurate enough to go past the goalkeeper and in to the bottom corner.

4-1 was the final score and after a resilient display in the first half, Southampton’s weaknesses were clearly shown in the second half. They have now conceded 24 goals in 8 matches this season which is simply not up to the required standards that they must reach in order to survive.

Swansea City got back to winning ways with a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic. All three goals in this game were struck in the space of four minutes.

Pablo Hernandez jumps in joy after giving Swansea the lead.

Pablo Hernandez gave Swansea the lead in the 65^th minute before Miguel Michu grabbed Swansea’s second in the 67^th minute. Then Wigan managed to get themselves back in the match with a 69^th minute strike from Emerson Boyce.

There were no more goals after this besides Arouna Kone’s header who was judged to have been in an offside position. Whether this was the correct decision is up for debate.

Fulham piled more misery upon Aston Villa with a 1-0 win over Paul Lambert’s club. The Cottagers left it late with Chris Baird scoring the winner in the 84^th minute leaving Villa little time to find a reply.

The result left Villa in 17^th place hovering dangerously above the relegation zone but of course it is early days and they must remain faithful. Fulham are now in 8^th after this win.

In Sunday’s games, it finished 1-1 in the North-East derby as Sunderland took on Newcastle United at the Stadium of Light. Much of the build up to the game had been focussed on Steven Taylor’s comments about how he believed no players in the Sunderland squad could make it in to the Newcastle team. Taylor also said he’d rather collect stamps than wear the Sunderland jersey.

Yohan Cabaye gave Newcastle the lead in the 4^th minute. 

Newcastle had Cheik Tiote sent off after a foul on Steven Fletcher reducing the Toon to 10 men.

 Sunderland managed to equalise in the 86^th minute when Sebastian Larsson’s free kick was met by the head of John O’Shea and it then came off Demba Ba who wrong footed his own goalkeeper and it went down as an own goal.

Action at the Stadium of Light

The points were shared but the game was overshadowed by foul chanting from the home supporters directed at Steven Taylor. There were also songs from Newcastle fans too. Both managers claimed they didn’t hear anything but Martin O’Neill condemned the Sunderland supporters and responded to Taylor’s remarks in the build up to the game by saying “I was delighted to see him make it on to the bench.”

In Sunday’s other game Queens Park Rangers hosted Everton at Loftus Road where again, the score line was 1-1. QPR had taken the lead when Junior Hoillett scored in just the second minute of the game.

Everton equalised not long after the half hour mark. Sylvain Distin headed the ball on to the bottom of the post from a Leighton Baines free kick and it then bounced off Julio Cesar and over the line.

Sylvain Distin celebrates his equaliser

Steven Pienaar was sent off for Everton in the second half after committing a second bookable offence as he fouled Jose Bossing. The South African will now miss the Merseyside derby and the Toffees are also uncertain on the fitness of Belgian international Fellaini.