What better way to start the weekend fixtures than in Liverpool for the Merseyside derby. It has always produced some memorable matches through the years, and as of late it has been filled with red cards. Fitting Martin Atkinson was selected as the referee. Everton played hosts to the first meeting of the season between the two, in what is described best as the friendly derby.
Their were many side stories before kick-off, Kenny Dalglish made his return to Goodison Park as Liverpool manager after a twenty year lay-off. Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez both were about to get a taste of their first match against the local rivals, the latter becoming a villain to the Evertonian faithful almost instantly. Before the controversy, Tim Cahill had a great chance to put the home side ahead but Pepe Reina produced a tremendous finger tip save to keep things level.
This fixture has historically always seen someone sent-off, with nineteen red cards being brandished in the last thirty-eight meetings in the Premiership. Martin Atkinson produced the twentieth red card early on, sending Jack Rodwell off after what most thought was a clean tackle on Suarez. It was pretty clear Rodwell got the ball first and in his follow through clipped Suarez, the referee had a perfect view but adjudged the tackle to be dirty. Toffee's fans were furious and hurled abuse at the Uruguayan for the remainder of the match, calling him a cheat for over-embellishing the foul to get Rodwell sent off. At best it was a yellow card offence and all the blame should be placed squarely on Atkinson's shoulders for making a bad call.
Phil Jagielka made matters worse for Everton, already down to ten men the defender gambled on a challenge and took down Suarez at the edge of the box, Atkinson quickly pointed to the spot. This added more fuel to the fire involving the home crowd and their pantomime villain Suarez. Dirk Kuyt stepped up to add to his great scoring record against Everton, but Tim Howard produced a remarkable save to keep it scoreless. Before the break Charlie Adam unleashed a thunderous shot that completely beat Howard but smashed off the cross bar and stayed out of the net. Everton have proven to be tough to break down defensively and you would have never guessed they were one man down.
Liverpool were struggling to get anything going and the players looked extremely frustrated, a change was needed and Dalglish added Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy to the fray. Within five minutes the deadlock was broken. Andy Carroll scored his first of the season with a nice half volley off the cross by Jose Enrique's. Kudos also goes to Bellamy who started the play and Kuyt for ducking at the perfect time to allow Carroll to score. Suarez doubled the lead ten minutes later, making a nice solo run the striker initially lost possession but pestered Sylvain Distin and Leighton Baines into a mistake. It was a gift of a goal and an easy finish for Suarez. Howard had a tremendous game but was let down on both goals by his defenders.
The red side of the Mersey celebrated the victory and early bragging rights over their neighbors. The officiating by Atkinson was average at best as the early sending had a major impact on the result and with emotions running high a small majority of the home crowd decided to show their anger. Late in the match both Bellamy and Suarez had bottles and coins hurled at them while trying to take corner kicks. The FA is awaiting the official match report before opening up a full investigation into the matter.
Manchester United looked to set a record of nineteen straight home wins at Old Trafford, with Premiership new boys Norwich City visiting and making this feat more difficult than United would have expected. Sir Alex Ferguson decided to give Anders Lindegaard the start between the post and more surprisingly was the unknown absence of Ashley Young. His speed and creativeness was sorely missed in this match.
Paul Lambert had the Canaries playing tremendously well on the defensive side of the ball and United had trouble making any type of forward progress all game. Relying on the counter-attack Norwich did have opportunities to take the lead. If only Elliott Bennett could have produced a better cross, Steve Morison would have had an easy tap in and given his side the lead. Anthony Pilkington also had a couple chances but was also unfortunate not to capitalize.
This was unlike any of the previous United matches this season, the Red Devils looked surprisingly lethargic for large parts of the game. The only player who caught my eye was Phil Jones, putting together another stellar performance in defence while Rio Ferdinand watched from the bench. Eventually the Canaries caved and surrendered the lead after a nice heads up play by Jones and Wayne Rooney to find Anderson who opened the scoring. All three players showed great vision in producing the goal, with the ball pin-balled perfectly amongst the three.
The visitors had a couple more chances to score before the end, Pilkington’s shot deflecting off Anderson and the post as Lindegaard frantically smothered the rebound. Danny Welbeck killed the Canaries chances three minutes from time, connecting with Ji-Sung Park and scoring a splendid second goal for United and preserved their lead at the top of the table.
At Ewood Park, both Manchester City and Blackburn were coming into the match marred in their own in-house controversy. Supporters have been calling for the firing of Steve Kean for quite some time and were given more reason to voice their displeasure at the end of this contest. City was dealing with the Carlos Tevez fall out and decided to give Mario Balotelli the start ahead of Ediz Dzeko. The Bosnian was being punished by Roberto Mancini for his reaction on being substituted mid-week.
This was going to be an uphill battle right from the start for Blackburn, with City leading the attack for much of the game. Balotelli put on a stellar performance after being given his first start of the season by Mancini, showing he is capable of filling the void left by Tevez. Although an injury to Sergio Aguero on the half-hour mark might be a problem depending on the extent of his suspected groin strain. Despite all the possession by the visitors, Rovers were doing well limiting their chances. The large majority of shots missing the mark, City were unable to generate a single goal after controlling possession for most of the first half.
Coming out of the break Balotelli was unlucky not to score, the Italian smashed a fantastic shot past Paul Robinson but not the post. The pressure continued and Adam Johnson was able to open the scoring with an impressive shot that curled over Robinson and into the net. Not to be outdone, Balotelli added to the lead with an impressive goal of his own, able to get a boot on the cross by Samir Nasri after a good run into the box. The provider then followed his assist with a goal, the Frenchman netting his teams third of the game. Stefan Savic added his first for the club on a free header with minutes remaining that made it four, handing Blackburn the heavy home defeat in front of their angry supporters. Kean looks to be on borrowed time.
Newcastle United was hoping to add to their amazing start to the season with a victory at Molineux. The Magpies have conceded the least amount of goals against in the league so far and that is due in large part to the play of Tim Krul in net. Wolverhampton has struggled to score since their back to back wins to start the season and have only scored one in their last four matches.
Wolves were the aggressors early on and produced a couple of great chances to take the lead through Jamie O'Hara and Kevin Doyle, but both efforts were denied by Krul. He showed tremendous skill and awareness to keep the ball out of the net on both occasions. On the other end of the pitch Wayne Hennessey was less than impressive for Wolves, being beaten to the cross by Demba Ba who was left unmarked to give the visitors the early lead.
Wolves almost drew level but again it was Krul coming to the rescue again to preserve the lead, denying Doyle in close with the kick save. The Magpies added to their lead after an outstanding individual effort by Jonas Gutierrez, the Argentine ran right through the Wolves defence avoiding three tackles before turning Roger Johnson and calmly placing the ball past Hennessey. Thing got worse for Mick McCarthy when his side were denied an obvious spot kick following Steven Taylor's tackle on Jamie O'Hara was deemed by the referee to be outside the box.
In the second half, Krul was forced into making back to back saves on Steven Fletcher and Adam Hammill leaving the home crowd in disbelief. His performance deserved the clean sheet. Unfortunately for Krul he was left helpless to stop Fletcher's header from Hammill's cross late on as Wolves broke his shut-out bid. United continue to defy the odds and stay in the top four.
At the Stadium of Light, West Bromwich was able to snatch the early lead with goals coming from James Morrison and Shane Long. It was a terrible start for Sunderland with pressure starting to grow heavy on the shoulders of manager Steve Bruce. Morrison somehow was left unmarked to head in Chris Brunt's free-kick four minutes into the match. Seconds later the lead was doubled, Shane Long was able to walk in and beat Simon Mignolet after a mistake by Craig Gardner on defence.
The home crowd was voicing their feelings towards the Black Cats performance, the boos rained down on the players. Nicklas Bendtner was able to lift their spirits at the midway point of the first half, linking up with Sebastian Larsson to cut the lead in half. It was the Danes first for the club, although his shot did get a generous deflection of the defender to beat Ben Foster. Immediately following his goal, Bendtner sent in a good cross that was headed past Foster by Ahmed Elmohamady.
After the break, Sunderland took control of the contest and pushed the Baggies deep into their own half and pressed for the lead. Elmohamady having the best opportunity to break the deadlock, he had Foster at his mercy but was only able to fire the shot right at the West Brom keeper as the angle was cut off brilliantly. The game ended with a share of the point for both clubs.
Aston Villa came into the weekend one of four teams who has yet to suffer defeat, but only have a single victory to show for it after six games this season. Wigan Athletic are hovering around the relegation zone, having yet to earn a victory on the road and coming off three straight defeats. The home side immediately put the Latics on the back foot and controlled the early possession.
Gabriel Agbonlahor has been showing the form that earned him an England call-up a few years back and was involved in practically every offensive play for Villa., coming close on a number of occasions to open the scoring. His speed and aggressiveness was rewarded with less than ten minutes remaining in the first half, getting behind his defender and beating Ali Al-Habsi with a superb strike. Agbonlahor picked up right where he left off in the second half, running past three defenders and narrowly missing the far corner with a great curl shot.
The lead was doubled just past the hour mark, Agbonlahor dashed down the left flank blowing past his markers before sending in a beautiful cross that found Darren Bent's foot and the back of the net. Villa earned all three points and kept their undefeated streak alive.
Sunday's first match took place at the Reebok Stadium with Bolton playing host to Chelsea. Owen Coyle was forced to use his substitute goalkeeper Adam Bogdan in place of the injured Jussi Jaaskelainen, which turned out to be a nightmare for the Trotters. Finding themselves bottom of the table after five straight losses, Bolton were hoping for any kind of positive result to renew their confidence and get out of the relegation zone, but have lost their last eight visits to Chelsea and allowed eighteen goals without reply to their hosts.
Within two minutes the visitors were already down a goal, left unmarked Daniel Sturridge headed in Juan Mata's corner kick to take the lead. The striker was on loan last season at Bolton and showed respect to his former team-mates and manager deciding not to celebrate his goal. Frank Lampard was next to score, left wide open to one-time the ball into the net after being set-up by Sturridge.
Bolton's defence was to blame for the first two goals, but Bogdan had no one to blame but himself on the two that followed. Sturridge was able to grab his brace on a rather tame shot from distance that bounced past Bogdan as he was slow to get down at his near post. The nightmare continued for the keeper, giving up a huge rebound on the initial shot by David Luiz and allowing Lampard to score his second on the rebound. An awful two minutes for the Hungarian goalkeeper.
Owen Coyle had one thing to smile about after the re-start. Martin Petrov's free-kick was headed in by Dedryck Boyata to get a goal back. But this was always going to be Chelsea's day, and Frank Lampard scored his third of the match for the deserving hat-trick, with surprisingly none coming from the penalty spot. With rumblings of losing his starting place, the midfielder is proving to Andre Villas-Boas he still has a lot to offer.
Questions for goal line technology were once again brought to the surface after Kevin Davies shot was cleared off the line by Branislav Ivanovic. Replays showed the ball had crossed the line but it was not given by the referee. Had it been a closer contest this could have proved to be more of a talking point, but Chelsea ran away with the huge victory.
Craven Cottage played host to the first West London derby between Fulham and Queens Park Rangers in ten years, and it proved to be worth the wait. The Cottagers came into the match without a win and needed to earn maximum points in the hopes of turning around their poor start to the season. The home crowd was rewarded with the quickest goal in the Premiership thus far, Andy Johnson banging in the rebound after Paddy Kenny did well to keep out Moussa Dembele's initial shot. The hosts continued to apply the pressure coming close on a number of chances, but their second came thanks in large part to the Hoops keeper making a tremendous error in judgment and taking down Johnson in the box. Skipper Danny Murphy easily scored from the spot to double the lead.
The third goal for Fulham came seven minutes from the break. Johnson was able to get away from his marker to tap in Bobby Zamora's cross. Going into the break Neil Warnock's side looked completely shell-shocked and were struggling to contain the onslaught in attack by their hosts. Following a brilliant save by Kenny on a good curling effort by Zamora in the second half, the Hoops defensive woes were exposed again. Murphy took a quick free kick and Johnson converted to earn the hat-trick. Clint Dempsey made it five for Fulham, having the time to smash the ball past Kenny who was left stranded. Zamora then made it six with a weak effort beating Kenny, but at that point the visitors had given up. Fulham collected all three points in grand fashion finally giving their fans something to cheer about.
Stoke City took on Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium with the Welsh side putting their undefeated home record on the line. What is more impressive is the Swans have yet to concede a goal on their home turf, but the Potters are a tough team to break down and had only lost once this season coming into the match.
The Swans were able to get the opener after Wayne Routledge was chopped down on a bad challenge in the box by Ryan Shawcross. The defender's decision to go to ground was surprising considering how far away Routledge was from goal. Scott Sinclair scored from the spot to give his team the lead. The Potters best chances came from Jonathan Walters half-volley being miraculously tipped onto the woodwork by Michel Vorm.
Andy Wilkinson escaped an obvious red card after his waist-high tackle on Nathan Dyer, with the referee only producing a yellow to the dismay of the home crowd and the Swans bench. Glenn Whelan then came close to equalising for Stoke, curling his free kick around the wall but hitting the post with Vorm frozen on his line. Asmir Begovic then produced a fantastic diving save to deny Sinclair his second of the contest, the Bosnian somehow managing to steer the bending strike wide of his post. With five minutes remaining the home side sealed it thanks to their record signing Danny Graham scoring his first goal in the Premiership, Jonathan Woodgate being at fault for the poor clearance attempt that leading to the goal. Swansea earned the victory and stays undefeated at Liberty Stadium.
The final match on Sunday was the most anticipated the North London derby between heated rivals Tottenham and Arsenal at White Hart Lane. Spurs were slowly coming into their own after a rough start to the season, winners of three straight. The Gunners have been under tremendous scrutiny from the start, although Arsene Wenger has seen his side record three straight victories in all competitions.
Emmanuel Adebayor started against his former employers, and got booed with every touch of the ball by the visiting supporters, but the Togolese striker's performance on the day was first class. Scott Parker should have scored early on for Spurs but was denied by Wojciech Szczesny after a horrible give-away by Alex Song. Arsenal controlled much of the possession in the first half but failed to produce a goal for all their efforts. Aaron Ramsey was unlucky not to score but his header was cleared off the line by Benoit Assou-Ekotto. Gervinho was next to squander a splendid chance to get his team ahead, completely missing the target after being left wide open in the box.
Wenger was furious to concede after having all the early possession, Adebayor producing a perfectly weighted cross that Rafael Van der Vaart controlled of his chest before smashing the volley past Szczesny. The crowd erupting to celebrate the magnificent goal, despite Wenger complaining on the sidelines that the Dutchman handled the ball in control, the goal stood and Spurs took the lead into the change room at the break.
Arsenal was able to equalize early in the second half to silence the crowd. Alex Song sent in a dangerous cross into the six yard box that is smashed in by an unmarked Aaron Ramsey. You could call out Van der Vaart for failing to close down some space on Song's initial run and Kyle Walker for not making up his mind on how to defend the cross. Both should be held responsible for allowing the Gunners back into the game.
Adebayor then had the perfect chance to score, sent in alone on a breakaway but denied heroically by Szczesny to keep the match on level terms. Arsenal suffered more bad news on the injury front. Bacary Sagna had to be taken off on a stretcher after falling down during an aerial collision with Assou-Ekotto. Wenger will now have to deal with the absence of Sagna for up to three months. News emerged after the game the French defender broke a bone in his leg and will require immediate surgery on Monday.
Kyle Walker then wrote his name into Spurs folklore the same way Danny Rose did in last years corresponding fixture, unleashing a thunderous strike from almost thirty yards out to give Spurs the lead with under twenty minutes remaining. The sheer force of the shot made it impossible for Szczesny to handle, although I believe the Polish keeper could have done better to keep it out of the net. He made amends late on, producing a first class save on Jermain Defoe from close range to give the Gunners some hope of tying the game. However time ran out and Spurs managed to hang on for the victory against their London rivals. After the final whistle Wenger refused to shake hands with Tottenham assistant coach Clive Allen and a shouting match ensued as both teams made their way down the tunnel. Arsenal has lost four of seven matches already this season.
Game of the Week: Tottenham vs. Arsenal
Goal of the Week: Jonas Gutierrez vs. Wolverhampton
Goalkeeper of the Week: Tim Krul vs. Wolverhampton
Lowlight of the Week: Adam Bogdan howlers vs. Chelsea
Please share your thoughts and opinions on the best of the week.
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