Weekend Premiership Round-Up - Manchester Utd & City Top Table!
Like an old friend you haven't seen for a while, the Premiership is back... and on it's second week of fixtures it's the two Manchester clubs (oh and Wolves!) who dominate.
Like an old friend you haven't seen for a while, the Premiership is back. Last week was a novelty, stirring the old emotions, nostalgia in the air, recounting those glorious moments from seasons passed. Now, already it's taken for granted, consumed once again by the utter banality that is the routine of existence. Still, we love it all the same right? On that cheerful note, here is the weekend round up. The first game to kick off the day was every pie seller's dream, the Tyne-Wear derby. It was the 145th time these two had met in a competitive fixture, not particularly anything in the way of a landmark number but still, I'm never one to pass up on the sharing of pointless trivia. Sunderland have spent the majority of the Premiership years living in the shadow of their once (sort of) illustrious (kind of) neighbours, but on paper the Black Cats are arguably now the stronger team, although interestingly enough they've beaten the Magpies just once in 31 years on home soil. It didn't take long for the Mackems to make their claim that they were now the Daddy, confidently flexing their muscle around the pitch and dominating much of the early possession. Tim Krul, who was outstanding between the sticks for Newcastle, was called into action on several occasions, most memorably as he flicked over the bar an outstanding effort from the lively Sessegnon. Sunderland were simply not clinical enough in front of goal considering the chances they created, with Asamoah Gyan looking particularly wasteful at times and getting a bunch of stick off the home fans. They were lucky to not go down to ten men and concede a penalty as last week's wonder goal merchant Seb Larsson clearly handled a goal bound effort from Joey Barton off the line. Perhaps a cigar to the eye may be a more fitting punishment for the Swede in the court of Joey, but alas, karma came full circle as mid way through the second half. After one of many exciting, albeit often unproductive, runs from Jonas Gutierrez provided a free kick to the visitors thanks to a trip from Lee Cattermole, up stepped Ryan Taylor to curl home a delicious free kick and send the Newcastle fans into raptures. Although slightly harsh on the home team, the Geordies worked hard and weren't particularly lucky to find themselves taking all three points. To further compound the misery for the home side, ex-Manchester United defender Philip Bardsley was sent off needlessly for a second bookable offence in normal time. Sunderland nil, Newcastle one. Arsenal, despite the majority of fans telling you until they're blue in the face that they're 'glad that he's gone', were clearly still reeling from the sale of influential midfielder Cesc Fabregas in the day's second scheduled kick off. Arsene Wenger's transfer policy has been in the spotlight for much of this week and it's not hard to see why many of the Gunners' ever quiet faithful are finally finding their voices to speak out against the 'Professor' based on this game. It seems La Marsaillaise wasn't the anthem of choice within the Emirates as the fans also saw fit to boo Samir Nasri as his name was read from the team sheet. Another player to be heavily linked with a move away from the club, he was one of Arsenal's brighter sparks on the day making life awkward for Liverpool with several tricky runs. It's hard to see where Arsenal's creativity will come from if they lose Nasri as well as Fabregas. Jack Wilshire, no doubt, is a huge talent but to burden the entire weight of expectation at such a young age is a big ask. Arsenal found Liverpool hard to break down and, in turn, struggled to cope with their incisive counter attacking play. Their frustrations were epitomised by the red card shown to youngster Emmanuel Frimpong on the 70th minute for two rash challenges. Andy Carroll put in a good performance, forcing several decent saves from Szczesny, but once again the star of the show was without a doubt Luis Suarez. Firstly his darting run causing all sorts of pandemonium in the Arsenal box resulting in an unfortunate own goal from a ricochet off of Aaron Ramsey. Then, with minutes to go, Liverpool sealed the victory after soaking up a late Arsenal attack, Luis Suarez firing home from close range after a superb passing move. Arsenal 0 2 Liverpool, leaving the gunners nervously hoping to see some positive action in the final phase of the transfer window. Like a shiny beacon of despair, the sight of Steve Kean on the touchline at Villa Park with a face droopier than a yak's ballbag painted quite the picture. Blackburn Rovers didn't look like they stood a chance as they were put to bed 3-1 by an impressive display of football from Aston Villa. It took just ten minutes for Gabriel Abonglahor to show a touch of class, cutting inside the Blackburn box and slamming a shot into the top right. The occasional England striker then turned provider, laying off the ball to human oak tree Emile Heskey who netted after 25 minutes. The impressive Junior Hoilett set up Morten Gamst Pederson to give Blackburn a lifeline early into the second half, but any signs of hope were diminished after Darren Bent capitalised on an error from Rovers defender Grant Hanley to restore Villa's two lead and secure them all three points. Another side embroiled in off pitch affairs are Everton. Much has been said of the finances, or lack there of, at Goodison park but it was clear from this display that investment is required if the Toffees are to mix it at the top end of the table once again. QPR, recovering from their heavy beating at the hands of Bolton last week, drew first blood around the half hour mark with midfielder Tommy Smith expertly turning and keeping his composure to slot past Tim Howard. In truth, Everton seldom looked dangerous and a toothless display up front from Jermaine Beckford continued to show that taking the big step into the Premiership really isn't an easy thing. Boos rang out around the stadium as Moyes replaced the former Leeds man with Marouane Fellani, pushing Tim Cahill to the forward position, an odd decision and to no avail. The final score of 0-1 left the Scottish tactician with much to think about. How fitting that the first Premiership game to be played outside of England will probably go down as one of the best Premiership games of all time as Swansea City and Wigan Athletic played out a nail-biting 0-0 draw. I'm not quite sure what moulded this into the classic encounter it turned out to be, whether it was Wigan's three shots on target, the fact that Swansea earned themselves seven corners over the course of the game or the intensity with which the referee blew the full time whistle. You live for this kind of fixture and it's no wonder that the Premier league has such a huge international following based upon this evidence. It seems like poor old West Brom are destined to be like that nice bloke that everyone knows. You know the one who has the best intentions at heart and tries to live his life being kind and courteous to all, with his old fashioned values and hard work ethic. He ends up being trodden on by most and never taken as seriously as he maybe should be. Often trying to flirt with the idea of mixing it with the handsome, more athletic men around him, he scores once in a while but usually it leads to nothing. Ultimately he bobbles around in a thick stew comprised of familiar faces bearing an uncanny resemblance to himself. With mediocrity likely being as good as it's ever going to get for him, he's haunted by the reality that it's only ever really go downhill if a change should occur. Sorry, where was I? After their rather harsh opening day loss to Manchester United, the Baggies lined up against Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge and got off to a flying start, Shane Long ruthlessly lashing the ball past the mediocre Hilario. Long has been scoring for fun for Reading over the past few years and although early doors, seems to be taking well to the top flight. If Peter Odemwingie can emulate the form and prowess he displayed last season, the Hawthorns faithful could be in for a treat with these two.The visitors were running riot, getting in behind the Chelsea defence on numerous occasions. Another tasty piece of footwork saw Long sneak the ball past John Terry and square the ball for Somen Tchoyi, the Cameroon international missing the ball by fractions. Chelsea manager Villas-Littlemourinho had seen enough and embarrassingly enough for the player, decided to withdraw Salomon Kalou ten minutes before the half time interval, replacing him with Florent Malouda. The Frenchman's introduction galvanised the sluggish Chelsea, as they took to pressing West Brom for the remainder of the game. Nicolas Anelka levelled the scores 10 minutes into the second half after some neat work inside the West Brom box. The Baggies defended heroically and Ben Foster pulled off a string of marvellous saves, but the writing was on the wall as Chelsea's dominance paid off with substitute Malouda managing to poke home the winner on the 83rd minute after a goal mouth scramble. Chelsea looked maybe more nervous than you'd expect in the closing stages considering the opposition, but the way in which West Brom have started the season, despite still having no points is testament to the calibre of Roy Hodgson as a manager. Kenwyne Jones proved to be the gas that killed the Canary as his 90th minute leveller denied Premiership new boys Norwich City their first win of the season. Carrow Road erupted into life, forcing Delia Smith's head to explode and shower the stands in cake mix after defender Ritchie De Laet nodded home the opening goal after 37 minutes. Leon Barnett was then sent off and gave away a penalty for a foul upon the growing in stature Jonathan Walters, despite the incident seemingly occurring outside of the area. The subsequent penalty was missed, but unfortunately the 10 men couldn't hang on. Wolves maintained their bright start to the season with another three points, beating Fulham 2-0 at Molineux. Kevin Doyle and Matt Jarvis scored the goals to send Martin Jol's Cottagers back to London empty handed. Wolves looked confident and comfortable throughout and were unfortunate not to win by a larger margin, Kevin Doyle with what will already go down as one of the misses of the season. Jamie O'Hara continues to thrive in his role as the 'main man' with his wily determination and superb vision lacing together waves of free-flowing, attacking football. Can Wolves win the Premier League? Preposterous. Will they qualify for Europe? Highly unlikely. Will they comfortably survive the drop this season? I think so. Manchester City jumped to the top of the table after beating Bolton Wanderers 2-3 at the Reebok Stadium. Dressed in a kit resembling European giants AC Milan, City seem to be eager to establish themselves alongside such prestigious names as they set their sights on glory with their star studded squad. David Silva continues to adapt astonishingly well after a quiet start to his career for the blue half of Manchester, running the show for the visitors and scoring the opener. He who can do no wrong, Sergio Aguero, was also handed his first start by Roberto Mancini and did actually do some wrong with a shocking miss inside the first 20 minutes of the match. Forgotten man Gareth Barry rifled in City's second before Ivan Klasnic pulled one back for the home side. Edin Dzeko, the big money flop who's starting to not look so much like a flop any more, continued to confound the critics restoring a two goal cushion for City after coolly sweeping the ball past Jaaskelainen. Wantway striker Carlos Tevez replaced his fellow countryman Aguero in the second half and looked lively, Mancini seemingly wanting to take the game by the scruff of the neck with City conceding a sloppy second thanks to the head of Kevin Davies. Bolton pressed, with former City player Martin Petrov causing discomfort to the City defence several times, but the Mancs held on to gain an impressive three points. Monday night saw the other half of Manchester take on Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. Tottenham's first game had been called off due to fears around policing and safety in the North London area following the civil unrest the prior week, which meant Harry Redknapp's men started their campaign in a ground in which they haven't won for 437 years. Red top wonder boy Luka Modric was left out of the squad with 'arry claiming that the lad's head wasn't in the right place. Luckily the back room staff managed to find an old Cyril Sneer mask for the Croatian schemer to wear until his bonce finally does show up, albeit most likely in a vat of prawn sandwich filler en route to the West London area. With several key injuries and a wealth of ageing stars, Sir Alex fielded a young side. Spurs may have been confident that this could be the day to finally steal the points at Old Trafford, and made an encouraging start to the game. Sharing possession with the hosts and even out shooting them, Tottenham will have gone in at half time feeling confident. Although it did take a magical save from Brad Friedel to see them not go in behind. Danny Wellbeck told the press after the game that Sir Alex had a 'chat' with the players at half time that motivated what was to come. Pulling the shoe that was lodged in his arse, Wellbeck was instrumental in pulling apart the Spurs defence, first scoring for the home side, then setting up the second for Anderson. Spurs seemed to fall apart in the final half hour as United lashed away at them with their trademark ferocity and Wayne Rooney completed the evening netting the Red Devil's third after some clever build up play. Spurs will feel that they should have done a lot more this evening, but with a long way to go in the season there is still time for a change. After the match Harry Redknapp took the time to tell the press;
it weren't my fault that they was the better side. Maybe if some of my players had put in the extra hours during their youth team days they could be as good as this lot. I spoke to the chairman about bringing in a Messi or a Kaka, but he's taking his time. My hands are tied really. If it weren't for Hearts being so pub and not giving us a real challenge I think we'd have been sharper.
He rejected the idea that his substitutions were less than inspiring by telling our reporter to f*** himself. Never fear though Spurs fans, you're only one point behind the Arsenal with a game in hand, and really there's all the perspective you need. Follow me on Twitter @tehTrunk