It was another eventful weekend in the Premier League with Manchester City laying down the gauntlet on Sunday with their 6-1 demolishing of in city rivals Manchester United, at Old Trafford no less. We will get to that game later, but first a recap of all the other action in this weekend’s Premier League.

Wolves 2-2 Swansea

This wasn’t necessarily the type of early morning game that people want to get up and watch at 6:00 AM but it turned out to have a pretty decent finish. Swansea took a 2-0 lead going into halftime amidst boo’s from the Wolves fans. The home side would fight back in the second half and eventually a goal came Kevin Doyle. Then just two minutes later, Jamie O’Hara, made it 2-2. The Wolves fans spirits’ were reversed and Molineaux was rocking. Swansea really should’ve won this match.

Aston Villa 1-2 West Brom

Villa’s mini rough patch hit another bump with a home loss to West Brom. Darren Bent missed a golden chance but then made up for it with a penalty after Gabby Agbonlahor was fouled in the area. Chris Brunt then missed a penalty for West Brom, but Aston Villa never took advantage of said miss. Martin Olsson made it 1-1 and Paul Scharner 2-1 to give the away side the win.

Bolton 0-2 Sunderland

Bolton can’t buy a win at home and this was maybe the toughest one to deal with yet. Both clubs had chances throughout the match but it was a scramble in the box, which Stephane Sessegnon put home, that gave the away team, Sunderland, the lead. They earned that goal and Bolton tried to get one of their own but while pushing forward, Sunderland broke, and Niklas Bendtner doubled the win margin for the Black Cats.

Newcastle 1-0 Wigan

Geordie nation is still in heaven after yet another win. They saved this one for late as Wigan played pretty well throughout the match and caused Newcastle a few problems. Yohan Cabaye was the hero as he got his first goal for the club and it proved to be the winner.

Liverpool 1-1 Norwich

This was two points that Liverpool could not drop with the teams around them all gaining three. Craig Bellamy scored right on halftime but Liverpool just didn’t look quite right on Saturday. Grant Holt then came on for Norwich and beat Pepe Reina to a teasing cross and powered it in with his head. Reina thwarted Holt the next time and more missed Luis Suarez chances kept this one at 1-1.

Arsenal 3-1 Stoke

Robin van Persie was given a rest but ended up playing a huge role yet again. Gervinho is hitting his stride and scored off an Aaron Ramsey chipped pass to give Arsenal the lead. Peter Crouch and his lankiness would tie it back up for Stoke, though. Enter RVP. The club captain scored twice in the second half to seal the deal for the Gunners.

Fulham 1-3 Everton

Everton needed to end their three match losing streak and Royston Drenthe got them on their way after he gave them the lead with a powerful shot. Bryan Ruiz, for Fulham, one-upped that goal with an incredible chip over Tim Howard to tie it at one each. Following a terrible miss by Bobby Zamora, Everton strode forward and took charge of the match. First Luis Saha gave them the advantage then Jack Rodwell doubled it for all three points.

Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City

Wow, wow, wow. I predicted to a friend of mine that City would win this game 2-1 with goals from Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure. I was dead wrong. Not about the Man City winning part, of course, but I missed the scoreline badly. It was only 1-0 at halftime thanks to Mario Balotelli’s first goal. The Italian was in the news this weekend with his house catching fire due to his own firework show out of his window. Why he was doing that at 2:00 AM the weekend of this match is beyond anyone, but Roberto Mancini picked him anyway. He responded well with another goal, although that one was a tap-in thanks to great build up involving wizard, David Silva, and the ever-improving James Milner. Jonny Evans was sent off for his lazy pull on Balotelli and it just got worse and worse for the home side. Sergio Aguero got in on the act after another fine passing sequence that ended with a Micah Richards inch perfect low cross. United pulled one back on a nice Darren Fletcher goal but it meant nothing. City added three more late in the game, Edin Dzeko with two and Silva with one, and the rout was on. Sir Alex Ferguson was embarrassed and he had every right to be. Wayne Rooney looked like the only player who cared for United in this absolute thrashing.

Blackburn 1-2 Tottenham

Rafael van der Vaart gave Spurs the lead early in this one, but Blackburn leveled it before halftime through Mauro Formica. In the second half both teams created but it was Tottenham and van der Vaart who would again take the lead. The Dutchman’s second goal was enough for the road victory.

QPR 1-0 Chelsea

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but Chelsea got robbed in this game. Referee Chris Foy first gave a weak penalty for a David Luiz push, which Heidar Helguson put away for a 1-0 lead that would last them the rest of the match. The reason that lead lasted is because both Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba were sent off before halftime, both for challenges that were arguably yellow’s. With only nine men the rest of the way, Chelsea played very well and controlled possession in the second half. A goal never came, however, and it would end with just the penalty and plenty of controversy.

This is without question the easiest team of the week selection this season: the mighty Manchester City. Obviously we know what they did this weekend. It was hard to pick out a player of the week, however. For the sake of variance, and because any of the 11 players on the pitch could have won the award, I will stray away from a Man City player. Let’s go with Rafa van der Vaart and his two goals that kept the Spurs train rolling.