Premier League Recap (September 17-18)

There was drama at the top of the table again this weekend as the Premier League continues to keep its viewers guessing. Let’s just get straight to the action, starting again with Arsenal.

Blackburn 4-3 Arsenal

After a week which seemingly saw the Gunners gain some momentum, with a win in the league and a draw in the Champions League, reality set back in for this group of players and supporters. Not only are they not as good as years prior, they are terribly unlucky. They started really well and Gervinho scored early to make it 1-0. Yakubu was making his first start and he tied the match with a sneaky little finish. Arsenal would again take the lead though with Mikel Arteta finishing a beautiful build up. The match was then 2-2 after Rochina’s free kick was turned in off of Alex Song’s leg. As the rain came and went Yakubu scored again, though he was probably offside, and improbably Blackburn had the lead. It was now Laurent Koscielny’s turn to score for the wrong team as he was the victim of a great run by Martin Olsson. Marouane Chamakh came on and made it 4-3 but Mertesacker missed his header and it would finish with another Arsenal loss.

Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle

Both of these teams have gotten off to pretty decent starts and a point would most likely satisfy both managers. Gabby Agbonlahor scored again for Villa and Leon Best for Newcastle to ensure the point for the two clubs. Darren Bent didn’t have his best game but luckily for Villa, Shay Given did as he saved the home side on a few occasions.

Everton 3-1 Wigan

The Goodison Park faithful deserved a win and good performance and they got it on Saturday. Franco di Santo got the away side in front, however, with a deflected shot past Tim Howard. Phil Jagielka made it 1-1 just a couple minutes later. Late in the match Everton were rewarded for their good play when new guy, Apostolos Vellios, headed in the go ahead goal. With Wigan pushing forward former Real Madrid man, Royston Drenthe, got his first for the Blues and their third on the day.

Wolves 0-3 QPR

Wolves have had a good start to the season but this match may have been a wakeup call for them. Joey Barton got his first goal for his new club to get this one going for Rangers. Just two minutes later Alejandro Faurlin doubled the lead with a nice volley. QPR continued to look good and got the third goal from DJ Campbell to wrap up the three points.

Swansea 3-0 West Brom

Michel Vorm kept another clean sheet as Swansea got their first home Premier League win. Goals came from Scott Sinclair (via penalty), Leroy Lita, and Nathan Dyer. The Swansea fans were going nuts and it was a cool sight to see for the Welsh supporters.

Bolton 1-2 Norwich

Bolton hasn’t gotten off to a good start but a tough schedule could be an excuse for that. With newly promoted Norwich in town though, the tough schedule would not be an excuse for a poor performance in this match. Norwich went up 2-0 thanks to Anthony Pilkington and Bradley Johnson. Ivan Klasnic was then sent off for an apparent headbutt but Marc Tierney should be ashamed of how easily he went down from said headbutt. Bolton pulled one back on a Martin Petrov penalty but that was it as Norwich got the win, 2-1.

Tottenham 4-0 Liverpool

These two teams are most likely going to be close near the top of the table at the end of the season so points off of each other are at a premium. Liverpool needed to respond after their loss at Stoke and oh how they didn’t. Luka Modric opened the scoring for Spurs with an awesome strike. Luis Suarez had a goal disallowed for offside. Charlie Adam was booked twice before halftime and Liverpool was down a goal and a man going into the second half. Early in the second half Martin Skyrtel got his second yellow and the Reds were down to nine men. It all fell apart after that with Jermaine Defoe getting one and Emmanuel Adebayor getting two on his home debut to make it a perfect day at White Heart Lane.

Fulham 2-2 Manchester City

Everyone was interested to see how Man City would handle a Champions League week and the first blip on the season radar finally showed up at Craven Cottage. Sergio Aguero got them out to a 2-0 lead on two more strikes for him but Fulham fought back in the second half. Bobby Zamora got the first off a Clint Dempsey assist. The second was unfortunate as the deflected shot from Danny Murphy left Joe Hart helpless. This is a nice point for Fulham.

Sunderland 4-0 Stoke

What an odd one this was. Stoke was traveling back from Kiev after their Europa League opener but still, 4-0 to Sunderland? Titus Bramble scored first before an own goal doubled the lead. It was clearly the Black Cats day as Anthony Gardner and Seb Larrson added two more. Steve Bruce somehow gets these random great performances out of his club every once in a while.

Manchester United 3-1 Chelsea

Chances, misses, cards, goals, and a missed penalty were all factors in a talking point heavy match. First big event: Chris Smalling gets on the end of an Ashley Young free kick. Here is the thing though, Smalling was offside. Nonetheless, Chelsea responded well and should’ve equalized when Fernando Torres played a ball over for Ramires who shot straight at an outstretched David de Gea. Nani then made it 2-0 with a great run and even better finish outside the box. It all went wrong for Chelsea when United’s Phil Jones went rampaging into the box and after a mix up in the box the ball fell right to Wayne Rooney who made it 3-0 before halftime. Chelsea again responded well, with Fernando Torres scoring just 30 seconds into the second half with a deft chip after sub Nicolas Anelka played him in, more from Torres later. Rooney then missed a penalty and a sitter of his own, but the most glaring miss of all was Torres’. He did incredibly well to round de Gea and but hit his left footed shot wide with a wide open net in front of him. The match commentator summed it up perfectly by saying he just wouldn’t wish that on any player. One had to feel bad for the guy, unless you are a United fan. Neither team would score again and this wild match finished at 3-1. This was a remarkably eventful game of football.

This was an incredible weekend in the Premier League and with the Carling Cup getting under way mid-week, it’s only going to get more dramatic. Team of the week is going to go Tottenham for their thrashing of Liverpool while player of the week is going to Phil Jones of Man United who was outstanding in the Red Devils win over Chelsea.