The second week of Premier League action and what another astounding set of results. I was off at Green Man Festival this weekend (Great - thanks for asking) and it was one of those occasions where you return to look at the papers and can't believe what you are reading.
Three 6-0 results in one weekend is amazing- two of these however were if not expected, understandable. Blackpool traveled to the Emirates with a very hard task against Arsenal and were run ragged all day by some great attacking play- especially Theo Walcott picking up a hat-trick. For the second week running Wigan shipped a load of goals at home - well we all know what I think about Wigan, but it was Chelsea at their deadly best. The other 6-0 result however was very unexpected. Newcastle were expected to be strong at St James' Park as it has always been a difficult place for an away team, but no-one would have thought that the newly promoted club would put 6 goals past the usually impressive Aston Villa. Time will tell if this is a sign of things to come for Aston Villa after the difficult summer - losing a great manager in Martin O'Niell and a talismanic player in James Milner, but this was all about Newcastle marking their arrival back on the scene. The young striker Andy Carroll had a great chance to score against Manchester United last week but managed to misplace his header at the crucial time. Questions were asked about if he could make the step up from The Championship and he answered them in style with an expertly taken hat-trick in this game. An impressive victory for the Geordies that saw Joey Barton shave his smug face - hoorah.
Elsewhere, a hard fought point for Wolves away at Everton left me smiling after our superb start to the season. Though a few great saves and defensive input was needed to see it out. Fulham spoiled United's fun by grabbing a late equalizer to leave the Manchester team trailing Chelsea early doors. Man City gave Liverpool, as well as the rest of the Premiership, something to think about, when they blew Liverpool away 3 - 0 at The City of Manchester Stadium.
The other major happenings today was in the game between Stoke and Spurs. A decent game between the two teams looked like it was coming towards a satisfactory ending for the London side thanks to a brilliant goal from Gareth Bale, who had managed to score the two most contrasting goals you could ever see. His first hit him and made its way into the net, his second was the sweetest volley from just inside the box that flew past Sorenson in the Stoke goal. The contention however came when right at the end of the game Stoke looked to have forced home an equalizer when Peter Crouch blocked the ball - just behind the line? but the goal was not given, with the referee Chris Foy seeming to say that he hadn't seen it to be able to say if it had crossed or not. Surely this calls for the technology to be used once and for all - the referee perhaps couldn't say for sure - but a camera clearly would be able to.
To be honest I remember seeing that Stoke 'goal' on Match of the Day and it still being inconclusive. I don't know if video technology is the all seeing solution you suggest sir. It would slow the game down, wouldn't be applied to every tier of the game and there are still going to be incidents where a decisive decision one way or the other is tricky. Plus I love the debate and anger after a dodgy call. These things even themselves out over a season, you make your own luck, hug a referee.
ReplyDeleteOf course you should have given Fulham more credit for their excellent draw against United. I guess it puts your early season support for the red side of Manchester in a dodgy light. And of course the blue side look on course to achieve mightily. I'll go on the record now and say Man City for at least the FA Cup, probably the Europa League and maybe the actual damn title. I like Mancini a lot, he's chilled out and got a quite incredible squad, no-one can touch them.
Then there's Liverpool. Just two league games in and it makes for pretty horrible reading/watching/listening. After the optimism of keeping hold of our big players (bar Mascherano) and the charmingness of Hodgson it's time to come down with a bump. Thoroughly outclassed and without much to come as Gerrard & Carragher get worse with each passing season, no chance of attracting world class players with the last remaining ones destined to leave as football Catch 22 takes hold. It looks to me like there are at least five teams that are distinctly better than us in the league.
Fortunately the rest of the teams look pretty bad. Kudos to Wolves who have started the season with a solid approach to defence and a spark of creativity I would say that the rest of the matches not involving the big teams were pretty dire. Sure Newcastle scored six and Bolton have been something of a surprise but beyond that the Most Exciting League in the world has an awful lot of deadwood. I'm referring in particular to West Ham, Sunderland and of course Wigan who have been an insult to the beautiful game while West Brom, Blackburn and Stoke haven't exactly covered themselves in glory.
It's far too early in the season for so many drab games, someone needs to sort it out.