Three rounds of Premiership fixtures in a week is a treat for any football fan but this weekend’s results were the pièce de résistance!
Good Week For:- Tottenham Hotspur (Moved into the top four) , Newcastle United (Stopped their slide down the league with win over Wigan), Swansea (Fantastic win away at Arsenal)
Bad Week For:- Chelsea (Two points from the last nine), West Bromwich Albion (Still not recovered from Swansea defeat), Arsenal (Lacked a cutting edge in loss to Swansea)
Tottenham Hotspur have had arguably their best seven days of the season as they rose to fourth with hard-fought wins over West Ham, Liverpool and most recently Fulham. A goal from Sandro and a delightful double from Jermain Defoe saw Andre Villas-Boas’ side take all three points from Craven Cottage and leave Martin Jol’s side in real trouble.
It wasn’t all good news for Spurs though as Gareth Bale picked up an injury that’ll keep him out for a couple of weeks. However it’s nice to see Andre Villas Boas doing quite well after all the criticism he’s had since his project at Chelsea went sour.
Another manager who’ll be hoping for a change in fortunes is Chelsea interim-coach, Rafael Benitez. Chelsea slumped to a 3-1 defeat in a thoroughly entertaining clash away at London rivals, West Ham United. Both sides had so many chances as Fernando Torres in particular struggled to take his chances in front of goal, but the match was decided by key contributions from the West Ham bench. Mohamed Diame and Modibo Maiga took control of proceedings late on to fire West Ham to victory.
Arsenal and Swansea played out an entertaining match at the Emirates Stadium which seemed to be heading for a goalless draw until Michu had other ideas for Swansea City. Had it not been for the two goalkeepers, the deadlock would have been broken long before second half injury time. However that wasn’t the case as Arsenal’s defence went missing at the crucial moment to allow Michu in twice to snatch a 2-0 victory at the Emirates.
Manchester United and Reading were involved in a 34 minute goal frenzy at the Madjeski Stadium which resulted in a 4-3 lead for the Premier League table toppers. United should have had a fifth goal before half time with the ball a good yard over the line but the referee deemed otherwise and the score remained at 4-3. Reading are looking a really good side but just seem to be lacking that cutting edge to finish teams off, in time though I think that killer instinct will come.
With Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City slipping up at home to Everton, Manchester United will be happy despite the diabolical defending. Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines caused City havoc all game long to hold the Champions to a 1-1 draw.
Elsewhere West Bromwich Albion struggled at home against a typically physical Stoke City side. Steve Clarke made six changes to his side in a bid to stop the West Brom rot but in the end Stoke were just too good an walked away with all three points. It’ll be interesting to see how West Brom do over the next few weeks as this is the first rough patch they’ve had to deal with this season.
Liverpool hit the woodwork countless times against Southampton but thankfully a Daniel Agger goal before half time spared Brendan Rodgers’ side’s blushes. The Reds could have had seven or eight goals but the ball just didn’t want to go in for them.
Premiership strugglers, QPR and Aston Villa played out a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road. Harry Redknapp is definitely going to have to strengthen in January though as it doesn’t look positive on the scoring front for QPR right now.
Newcastle ended their slide down the table with a comfortable 3-0 win over Roberto Martinez’s Wigan, Newcastle fans will definitely be relieved about that. More good news for Newcastle fans came in the form of fierce rivals, Sunderland, losing 2-1 to Norwich City who extended their unbeaten run to a staggering 8 games and keep Martio O’Neill’s men looking over their shoulder.
In just seven days the landscape of the league table has completely changed. Such an exciting few rounds of fixtures in such a short space of time is truly a treat for any Premier League fan. And with the Manchester Derby next weekend, expect another footballing treat to come soon enough.
Results:-
West Ham United 3 – 1 Chelsea
Arsenal 0 – 2 Swansea City
Fulham 0 – 3 Tottenham Hotspur
Liverpool 1 – 0 Southampton
Manchester City 1 – 1 Everton
Queens Park Rangers 1 – 1 Aston Villa
West Bromwich Albion 0 – 1 Stoke City
Reading 3 – 4 Manchester United
Norwich City 2 – 1 Sunderland
Newcastle United 3 – 0 Wigan Athletic