If you ever needed any evidence that the Premier League is the best league in the world then this week’s action will have given you that and then sum.
Good Week For: – Manchester City (Regained 1st place), Reading (Secured first win of the season) and Arsenal (Won the North London Derby)
Bad Week For: – Tottenham (Lost their third straight game), QPR (Remain rooted to the foot of the table) and Newcastle (continued to free-fall down the table)
This week’s Premier League action looked to have all the right ingredients for a cracking few days of football. Champions, Manchester City, faced a winnable home fixture against Aston Villa whereas pacesetters, Manchester United and Chelsea faced difficult trips to Norwich and the highflying West Bromwich Albion respectively.
There was ample opportunity for some massive mid-table movement too as Liverpool faced Wigan, winless Reading faced Everton and Spurs faced Arsenal in the North London derby. Also QPR hosted fellow strugglers Southampton at Loftus Road whereas Sunderland and Stoke both looked to distance themselves from the drop-zone with trips to Fulham and West Ham.
Unbeaten champions, Manchester City, thumped Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa at the Etihad thanks to the wizardry of Spanish superstar David Silva. Argentinian allies, Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez annihilated the Villa defence on the way to securing a 5-0 win for Mancini’s men.
Another Spanish midfielder, Santi Cazorla, would have took the headlines in London had it not been for ex-Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese star was sent off after 18 minutes giving his team the lead 10 minutes in. Arsenal’s clever football proved too much for AVB’s hampered side and they were well-beaten in the end as Arsene Wenger’s men took the derby-day bragging rights.
Steve Clarke’s highfliers, West Brom, took perhaps their biggest scalp in recent memory as they beat European Champions, Chelsea 2-1 at the Hawthorns. Having fielded a weakened line-up, Chelsea sent out the big guns to chase the victory but West Brom did very well to hold on despite the substantial pressure.
Norwich and Reading moved away from the drop-zone thanks to unexpected but welcome wins over no less than Manchester United and Everton respectively. Both teams were extremely good value for their wins too as they hung on to shake things up at both ends of the table.
Sunderland finally ended their win drought with a good win away at Fulham courtesy of a stunner from Stéphane Sességnon and Stoke secured a crucial point away at West Ham to ensure they maintained their distance from the relegation zone.
Last week we saw the gaps start to appear between teams in the league table. However with this week’s results the teams have just closed back up again which means the next few weeks’ results will be very telling. How do you see the league developing in the coming weeks? Will City break away now? Will QPR finally win a game? We’d love to know how you rate your team’s chances – leave a comment below to let us know what you think!
Results:
Manchester City 5 – 0 Aston Villa
Arsenal 5 – 2 Tottenham Hotspur
West Brom 2 – 1 Chelsea
QPR 1 – 3 Southampton
Reading 2 – 1 Everton
Newcastle United 1 – 2 Swansea City
Liverpool 3 – 0 Wigan
Norwich City 1 – 0 Manchester United
Fulham 1 – 3 Sunderland
West Ham United 1 – 1 Stoke City