TRIO FOR THEO AS GUNNERS SOUR TANGERINES
Arsenal 6 - 0 Blackpool
Walcott 12’, 39’, 58’
Arshavin (Pen) 32’
Diaby 49’
Chamakh 83’
When Arsene Wenger heard Theo Walcott was not going to South Africa this summer, it probably struck him with a mixture of thoughts; will he recover? At least he’ll be fresh, how strong is he mentally? Its fair to say that, although the match was against relegation candidates Blackpool, Walcott shone like a star. Not only did he score 3 goals, but he was also forever making good runs, with or without the ball and on top of this was Arsenal’s main creative hub with nearly every move going through him at some point.
Whilst the game itself got off to a rather scrappy start with no real long periods of possession, it did not take long for Arsenal to find the right gear. On 12 minutes Arshavin set an excellent ball across goal to Walcott, 10 yards out, who coolly slotted the ball back across goal first time to open the scoring.
Even though the score-line makes it sound completely one-sided through out, Blackpool very nearly had themselves an equaliser when Taylor-Fletcher headed wide in a position he should have at least been hitting the target from.
The Orange’s were made to regret such a mistake as Chamakh ran through only to be felled by Evatt, debatably outside the box to present Arsenal with a penalty and Evatt with an early shower. Arshavin duly converted from the spot to double the Gunners’ lead and with one less man, Blackpool’s fans will have began thinking they were in for a long day. They were not wrong as 17 minutes later Arsenal had managed to re-double their lead through a second Walcott strike and a Diaby volley across goal to be 4-0 up 5minutes into the 2nd half.
In the meantime Arsenal had started to dominate possession as they tend to at the Emirates, with Chamakh narrowly missing a few one on one chances that should have had him a hat-trick of his own. However with one of his trademark off-ball runs, Walcott was played in by Diaby and with 4 touches had the ball past 3 defenders and in the bottom corner of the net after a wonderful left-footed curler.
With the score at 5-0, the Tangerine’s must have been thinking that things could not worsen. They were to be proved wrong however by the sight of skipper Cesc Fabregas and Dutch International, Robin Van Persie coming off the bench to enter the fray. Fabregas arrival attracted a massive ovation from the Arsenal fans, many of whom will have spent their summer worrying about the Spaniard’s future. An ovation that was only bettered by that received at Theo Walcott’s exit from the pitch to make way for Carlos Vela.
Arsenal finally ended the rout with a textbook header to give Chamakh his first Premier League goal from a Robin Van Persie corner.
This leaves Arsenal 2nd for this weekend with a trip to Ewood Park next Saturday lunchtime, one where Fabregas and Van Persie will be looking to outshine the glorious display of Walcott!
FAB FOSTER SAVES BRUM
Birmingham 2 - 1 Blackburn
Gardner 57’, 71’ Nzonzi 54’
On a day where the referee was amongst the youngsters on the pitch, aged only 25, a most interesting game unfolded at St. Andrew’s between two of the Premier League’s expected mid-table teams.
It was the hosts that had the first opening from a corner, with centre-back Scott Dann powering a header that was denied commendably by recent international retiree Paul Robinson. The two teams heard the half time whistle at 0-0 with a fairly tense game that many hoped would open up in the 2nd half.
Those hoper’s got their wish as 5 minutes into the half, new Brum signing Zigic felled Christopher Samba in the penalty area for the young referee to award a straight-forward penalty. Morten Gamst Pedersen stepped up for the spot-kick, but saw it superbly saved by Ben Foster flying to his left and palming the ball onto the post and wide. Foster also saved from an Nzonzi header and a well hit effort from Kalinic in a game where he showed the kind of form that got Man Utd and England interested in his services, the kind of form that has, until now, been to infrequent. He could however, do nothing to stop Nzonzi’s 54th minute flicked header - from a Pedersen corner – from finding the back of his net to put the visitors one up in spite of their penalty miss.
Despite the set-back, Birmingham used the goal as impetus to encourage more positive play of their own, play that they quickly found themselves rewarded for as ex-Aston Villa midfielder Craig Gardner pushed in an equaliser after McFadden side-foot volley a good ball across the 6 yard box.
This event brought out the attacking elements in both teams with Kalinic hitting the post on a day where he impressed without managing to bag a goal. Birmingham proceeded with some good play of their own which finally culminated in a 71st minute winner, again from Gardner. This came after the Blackburn back line refused to shut him down as he dribbled closer to goal and hit a fiery daisy-cutter from 25 yards to beat Robinson for the second time and take the points.
Whilst Gardner will be credited with winning the points with his two goals, a share of the accolades must also go to the brilliant goal keeping of Ben Foster. He saved Birmingham from going 1-0 down earlier than they did and by doing so gave them the momentum to go in search of the win.
EBANKS THE EQUALISER FOR WOLVES
Everton 1 - 1 Wolves
Cahill 43’ Ebanks-Blake 79’
The corresponding fixture last season ended in the exact same result, it was Everton though, who had to scrap from behind to find the equaliser.
It was also Everton who dominated this season’s game, with Heitinga hitting the first true effort with a blistering 25 yard hit that Hahnemann had to be on his toes for. The Everton goal came just before half time sounded and presented itself in interesting circumstances. After Cahill had already had a good penalty shout turned down, Arteta found himself similarly disappointed as he was brought down by Ward in the box, only to be awarded a free-kick instead. Arteta hit the free-kick into the wall, where the ball bounced around and broke out to Cahill, who questionably pulled back a defender in order to get to the ball first and when he did, smash it into the top of the net for Everton’s first goal of the campaign.
The 2nd half proceeded at quite a pace, with Wolves starting to press and with a few gaps opening in the Everton defence now and then. Jody Craddock almost equalised with a cheeky back-heel on the hour, but only found the side-netting.
A quarter of an hour later, after Guedioura questionably fouled Heitinga, Wolves found themselves with a counter-attack on. Guedioura set Doyle to his right for Doyle to cut back an excellent ball for an easy finish for last season’s peripheral figure, Syvain Ebanks-Blake.
Everton almost managed to spoil Wolves’ afternoon late on when Saha scooped a head over a scrapping Hahnemann, only for the ball to fall onto the roof of the net. The two teams had replicated the result they achieved last year, a result that will do Everton no favours in their hopes for Europa League football next season with only 1 point from the 6 available. Mick McCarthy on the other hand, will be delighted after his team were “hopeless in the first half”.
BALE BRACE BRINGS BONUS AT BRITTANIA
Stoke 1 - 2 Tottenham
Fuller 25’ Bale 19’, 30’
The Brittania saw a controversial end to this match with the score at 2-1, Stoke midfielder McCarthy headed goalwards, a header that was denied by a sprawling Peter Crouch, supposedly on the line. The goal was not given. Replays however show that the ball was fully over the line when it hit Crouch in yet another incident that simple goal-line technology would have resolved in an instant.
The opening to the game was contrastingly clean and easy, with few chances coming in the first 15minutes. However, Tottenham struck shortly after as Aaron Lennon slid Bale in behind with a beautiful through pass. Sorensen, saved Bale’s first effort only for it to fall to Crouch, whose shot deflected off a defender, into Bale’s face and in for a goal as bizarre as Hernandez’ in the Community Shield.
Stoke’s response did not take in coming as Etherington’s corner found its to Fuller after a couple of touches and into the back of the net to set things square after 25 minutes.
Again Spurs did not wait long to change that score-line with a wonder goal from Bale to get his second. Lennon picked him out with a floated 20 yard cross-pitch ball, with the ball at shoulder height, Bale leant sideways and volleyed with his left foot with a angelic shot at drifted round Sorensen and into the top corner.
Spurs almost got themselves a third with a scrap on Stoke’s line after Bale cut back a cross that Jenas and Crouch both managed to squeeze off efforts from.
This said, Stoke almost equalised through Fuller and then twice through Tuncay who missed a one on one chance with a loose first touch.
Then, with seconds remaining came the controversy as Crouch blocked McCarthy’s header over the line, yet the goal was not awarded. This left Stoke boss, Tony Pulis fuming post-match, “the referee couldn’t have had a better position for it (Crouch’s clearance)”.
ODEMWINNING!
West Brom 1 - 0 Sunderland
Odemwingie 81’
A fairly dull game at the Hawthorns was lifted by new signing Peter Odemwingie. Importantly, relegation favourites West Brom managed to secure three points due to the Nigerian’s goal that came ten minutes from time. He had missed a chance that was probably easier early on. He was slid in behind the Sunderland back-line to slot past the on-rushing Mignolet.
The only other chance of particular note came from Chris Brunt who attempted a 30 yard shot with the keeper beaten but alas to no avail.
West Brom will be cherishing any points they can get their hands on as they look to beat the critics as well as the drop and finally sustain a place in the Premier League, rather than living up to their yo-yo reputation.
BUBBLES BURST AS BOLTON BOSH HAMMERS
West Ham 1 - 3 Bolton
Noble (pen) 78’ Upson OG 48’
Elmander 68’, 84’
After their convincing 3-0 defeat at Villa Park, West Ham returned to Upton Park this week to take on a Bolton team that had seen a 0-0 stalemate with Fulham last week.
The match opened up with an early Elmander effort going across goal and wide. Down the other end Steinsson brought down Carlton Cole in the box for a Hammer’s penalty. Cole bravely stepped forward to take the penalty he had won but was denied by a strong Jaaskelainen save to keep the score-line blank. The Clarets then found themselves denied a handball inside the area that could well have been given on another day.
Kieron Dyer and Piquionne both wasted good chances in front of goal, with the former striking the up-right, chances that were surely cited by Avram Grant as he remarked “we created many chances but had no results”. Such wasting was punished harshly by Bolton as the 2nd half opened up as they went into the lead through a Matthew Upson own goal when a route one effort ended in Davies pressuring Upson into making a header that finished up in the back of the net.
Bolton kept on coming at the Hammer’s, giving them much to think about at the back, and a further reward came with 20 minutes still to go when Lee’s well paced cross was headed in expertly by Johan Elmander. 10 minutes later however, West Ham attempted a fight back, with Scott Parker being pulled down in the box by Gary Cahill, another penalty was given, this time Mark Noble slotted it home.
This attempted was short-lived though, as Ilunga cleared poorly, going straight to Elmander who sealed a smart braced with a 10yard finish after a questionable Kevin Davies handball.
This gives Bolton a strong start to the league with 4 points from 2 games, West Ham however, are at the other end of the spectrum with 0 points and are sitting at the foot of the table.
SIX AGAIN AS CHELSEA STAMPEDE LATICS
Wigan 0 - 6 Chelsea
Malouda 34’
Anelka 48’, 52’
Kalou 78, 90’
Benayoun 90’
Twelve goals in their opening games, zero conceded and 29 goals in their last five league games. These are just some of the impressive statistics that Chelsea can boast after their latest dismissal. They were just as impressive as they were last week, if not more so because their perennial top-scorers Lampard and Drogba didn’t even make the score-sheet, instead leaving it to their team-mates for a change.
Despite the eventual result, it was Wigan that opened up the stronger of the two teams with Figueroa and Rodellega forcing early Cech saves. On top of this there was a McCarthy shot deflected by Cech to the post, for the offside Boselli to put away only to be flagged up.
After that though, Wigan really did not get much of a look in as Malouda opened the scoring after Lampard had his effort palmed out by Kirkland for Malouda to pounce.
Half time came 10 minutes later with the score at 1-0.
After the break Chelsea were straight back onto Wigan’s case. It only took 3 minutes for the lead to double as Anelka found himself on the end of a brilliant Mikel diagonal that he slotted across goal with a smart finish. Four minutes later Anelka had another as Drogba got no leverage on an effort from a Malouda cross, and the banned International jumped highest to head home to put Chelsea 3 up by 52 minutes.
Then after coming off the bench, it was Kalou’s turn to add to the goal pile on 78minutes. With the Wigan defence tiring and leaving gaps at the back, Drogba turned, beat one man and was clean through to run 30 yards towards Kirkland’s goal, most unselfishly when he arrived, instead of shooting himself, he laid in Kalou who finished comfortably. 10 minutes later it was five as Kalou struck again, this time with a good flicked header from a beautiful Drogba cross.
To put the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, new recruit Yossi Benayoun scored his first Chelsea goal in the 93rd minute when Ferreira slid a nice ball across the penalty area. Finally Chelsea were done, and whilst Drogba didn’t score, he didn’t half make up for it with assists. Once again Chelsea have warned the other teams of their calibre, they will prove tough to beat and are the only Premier League team with a 100% record left after two games, something of a stat! Who will step forward to de-throne the Champions of it?
CHRISTMAS CARROLL COME EARLY AT ROCKING ST JAMES’!
Newcastle 6 - 0 Aston Villa
Barton 12’
Nolan 31’, 87’
Carroll 34’, 67’, 90’
Another day in the Premier League, another 6-0 score-line. The kind of result one would expect to see around 4 times a year has instead been produced 4 times in 2 game week. It is an impressive sign of attacking intent from the teams that have done it (Chelsea and Arsenal).
Aston Villa have been shamed and embarrassed by this result, perhaps the background turmoil at the club finally manifesting on the pitch. They barely had any chances after John Carew scooped an early penalty far over the bar following Harper’s tackle on Ashley Young.
Joey Barton capitalised on this missed chance with a superb 20 yard arrow into the top corner 13 minutes in to put the Geordies in the driving seat. The game went on with Newcastle dominating play over an Aston Villa side that had Steven Ireland in it’s line-up for the first time after his exchange with James Milner.
Kevin Nolan managed to extended the advantage after half an hour when his first header from Carroll’s knockdown got saved, he reacted to the rebound fastest to put his second header away. Following this came Carroll’s first goal three minutes later, coming through a left footed effort after a scramble from a Barton corner.
This signalled the end of the first half goals and Newcastle went in to the 2nd half in buoyant mood, looking to humiliate their opponents. They managed this comfortably when Carroll scored his second after brilliant work from Williamson to give him a chipped through ball to volley across goal.
Nolan doubled his own goal tally 3 minutes from time with a hooked shot from an Ameobi knockdown from another Newcastle corner.
The scoring was finally finished in injury time by the new Geordie number 9, Andy Carroll who bagged his hat-trick after a disappointing first game in the league against Man Utd.
St James’ was officially back on the Premier League map with a superb display from their home team showing that they can more than hold their own in this league this season. However, it wouldn’t be a Newcastle season if their wasn’t some controversy and roller-coaster moments along the way!
HANGELAND FROM ZERO TO HERO AS FULHAM EARN POINT
Fulham 2 - 2 Man Utd
Davies 57’ Scholes 10’
Hangeland 89’ Hangeland OG 84’
Probably the most exciting match of the Premier League so far took place on Sunday afternoon down at Craven Cottage. With United not having the best of recent records on the Thames-side Stadium, it was always likely to be a strongly contested game and it did not disappoint. Having been banished 3-0 at the Cottage last year with a weakened defence, Utd were looking to re-assert themselves over the Whites.
An entertaining, open and fast paced first half seemed to fly by with few stoppages. Fulham probably enjoyed more of the game during it, but it was United that took first blood through the on-form Paul Scholes on 10 minutes. Berbatov had the ball – back to goal – on the edge of the box and laid back to Scholes who was still a good 30 yards back. With the ball spinning, Scholes hit across it with a superb daisy-cutter - the kind that has become a trademark of his over the years – that arrowed into the bottom corner of Stockdale’s (still between the posts in Schwarzer’s absence) net.
Not to be discouraged by such a piece of brilliance, Fulham continued to press United heavily and worked several openings of their own, with Simon Davies pulling their creative strings.
In an end-to-end game, United also received their chances, mainly through Berbatov, who had an overhead kick and an angled shot excellently saved by young Stockdale.
On 23 minutes, Zamora had Fulham’s best opportunity yet, with a sliced header that went across goal after Konchesky’s well-flighted cross.
The unusual source of Dickson Etuhu also came close for Fulham, and if it hadn’t been for a mixture of Etuhu’s poor hitting and Van Der Sar’s brilliant double save, the honours would undoubtedly have been even.
The 2nd half advanced at the same furious pace as the 1st, and it took Fulham only 10 minutes to draw level. Damien Duff beat Evra superbly down Fulham’s right wing and played Zamora down the line, who pulled a ball back across the box for the ever-present Davies to latch onto, despite Van Der Sar’s best efforts.
Fulham then got heavily unlucky as their new signing Moussa Dembele had a blatant penalty refused with Vidic yanking on his shirt with an hour gone. Danny Murphy was the next to come close with a 25 yard curler bringing another smart save out of the Dutch International keeper. This was followed 7 minutes later with a Nani free kick that skimmed the roof of the net.
Fulham’s chances continued on 80 minutes when Konchesky gave Zamora another perfect cross, which he volleyed wide of goal with Etuhu closing in once again.
Then two misfortunes struck the Cottager’s within 2 minutes of each other. Firstly an uncharacteristic Brede Hangeland own goal from an Utd corner put them behind. But then an 87th minute penalty was wrongly awarded when Damien Duff kicked onto his own arm with no chances of reacting against it.
Much to Ferguson’s later surprise, Nani, instead of Giggs stepped up for the penalty, one that was resplendently saved by the nigh-on flawless Stockdale.
Finally after all this bad luck had passed by, Fulham entered into ecstasy with 2 minutes remaining as a Duff corner was met by a strong Hangeland header to level up and restore Hangeland’s pride. With that the whistle blew and Fulham had saved and earned a deserved point against Utd and had foiled Ferguson’s team yet again.
MANSOUR PERFORMANCE FROM CITY AS LIVERPOOL GET THE SHEIKHS
Man City 3 - 0 Liverpool
Barry 13’
Tevez 56’, 68’ (Pen)
Right now, these two clubs could not be much more opposite, one sits at the peak of financial power, with bags of backing an investment. The other is desperately looking for new money and transfer funds from fresh backers.
Sheikh Mansour finally put a face to “kamikaze” spending with his first appearance at Eastlands, an appearance that got a generous ovation from the City fans.
Once the football got underway it didn’t take long for the City fans to be applauded again. Adam Johnson’s early 25 yard effort went narrowly wide, encouraging the supporters. Shortly after, City started the scoring, Milner having been played down the right flank, he cut a ball across the box for Barry to put into the bottom corner to finish an all ex-Aston Villa move. Such play showed City’s sharpness, meanwhile the Reds looked weary and sloppy in a lot of their play.
With 37minutes gone, Johnson cut in and hit another narrowly wide effort. This was followed minutes later by a Micah Richard’s header at back-post that went just wide also. With minutes in the half left, Liverpool came back into the match a bit more, with a couple of Gerrard efforts that couldn’t find their way past the City defenders, but did signal more intent.
City struck a 2nd blow to Reds after 53 minutes, when a Milner corner was headed on by Richards and apparently touched in by Tevez two yards out. Two minutes later came Liverpool’s best chance to get back into the game. Gerrard first hit the post, with the ball rebounding to Ngog whose effort was saved by Hart and again rebounded to Torres who shot was also brilliantly saved by the magnificent Hart from close range.
10 minutes later Johnson closed the game off when he beat two men and was chopped down in the box by Martin Skrtel to bring a penalty that Tevez duly scored from.
A couple of half-chances past Liverpool by, but this was always City’s night and a performance that will have Sheikh Mansour smiling all the way to the bank as he continues to invest City’s trophy hopes.
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