Premiership round-up (Week 4) (now with Sunday’s game)

By: Martini Extra Dry | September 13th, 2008

The international break is over and it’s back to business for the Premiership’s 20 teams. Man U and Liverpool start us off, followed by 7 games on Saturday afternoon, 1 more on Sunday and finally Villa and Spurs mop up the last of the action on Monday night. So much has happened in the Premiership since the last round of games; the biggest shock of them all was Man City overtaking Chelsea as the richest club in the world and then shocking people further by signing Brazillian striker Robinho from Real Madrid, Gianfranco Zola has dived in at the deep end and become a Premiership manager at West Ham, Theo Walcott has gone from young and unproven to England’s hat-trick hero and Kevin Keegan has left Newcastle under an unbelievable shower of protest from the Tyneside fans.

It was football that did the talking this weekend though as the sun finally remembered how to shine and inspired some great football:

Blackburn 0-4 Arsenal
The greatest week of Theo Walcott’s career (to date) continued as he set up Van Persie to give Arsenal the lead after just 8 minutes. Adebayor doubled the lead just before the break with yet another of his right-place, right-time finishes. Eboue earnt Arsenal a penalty in the final ten and Adebayor tucked it home, then completed his hat-trick in the dying minutes to give Arsenal a great result and Blackburn a big headache.

Fulham 2-1 Bolton
An excellent first half performance reaped two outstanding goals for Fulham against Bolton, who continue this season’s trend of putrid away kits! With ten minutes to go though Bolton gave the home side a scare by pulling a lucky goal back but couldn’t manage another that would’ve earnt them an undeserved point.

Liverpool 2-1 Man Utd
It didn’t take Berbatov long to silence his critics, almost winning Utd a penalty with his very first touch and then within 3 minutes he set up Tevez to give them an away lead at Anfield. It was a great end-to-end affair with both sides creating plenty of chances but it was the home side who eventually proved the strongest. After an even battle in the first half, Liverpool dominated the second half, especially after Vidic got himself deservedly sent off. An unfortunate mishap saw Edwin Van Der Sar punch the ball against Wes Brown and rebounding into their own net, and then Ryan Babel smashed home to take the points from this passionate clash.

Man City 1-3 Chelsea
It was all eyes on Robinho, who shocked everyone by spurning Chelsea at the tail end of the transfer window to sign for the newest billionaire team, Man City. He soon showed his skills too, by burying a free kick to give City the lead. It didn’t last long though and Chelsea were soon on level terms through Carvalho. Into the second half and Lampard gave Chelsea the upper hand with a fantastic team goal. Anelka was refused a clear penalty when Micah Richards shoved him out of the way but they weren’t stopping him that easily and he gave them a 3-1 lead, slotting home Joe Cole’s excellent through ball. Bad news did strike for the Londoners when John Terry saw red for a last man challenge that was definitely debatable.

Newcastle 1-2 Hull City
The omens weren’t great from the start for Hull who were forced to borrow kit from the Geordies after the ref decided they wouldn’t look very cool in all grey and Newcastle had many chances in the first half hour to get off the mark. Hull weren’t prepared to suffer a similar beating to the Wigan game though and they got their chance when Nicky Butt gave away a penalty. Marlon King just about squeezed it past Given and then in the second half he doubled their lead. Hull deserved to take the win against a Newcatle team that are obviously and understandably being affected by the off-the-pitch shenanigans. The northern town was completely taken over by ‘Ashley Out’ protests and don’t expect them to die down anytime soon.

Pompey 1-2 Boro
Mido has got off to a great start this season and doesn’t seem able to stop scoring, giving Boro the lead halfway through the first half. Into the second half, Defoe managed to squeeze it past Boro’s inexperienced keeper Turnbull and then added to it with a great finish to give them the win. The pint-sized England star really should have had a hat-trick at the end though but his finish was too tame.

Stoke 2-3 Everton
The Toffees finally get Tim Cahill back to help them get back to the end of the table they are more accustomed to and it was his assist that got them off the mark in this game, when he set up Yakubu who finished excellently. In the second half the game came alive as far as goals are concerned, firstly it was Anichebe’s header over the top of his head after losing his marker. Then, Stoke battled back and scored 3 goals (2 of which stood, both created by that man Delap and his humongous throw-ins) the best of the bunch being Olofinjana’s superb volley. But in the end it was that man Tim Cahill who popped up to head in the winner. Welcome back Tim, the Toffee-ites have missed you.

West Brom 3-2 West Ham
West Brom don’t deserve to have lost all three of their opening games but they need to learn how to get points if they wish to stay in the Prem this season. They got off to a great start with James Morrison’s goal but then decided to make life difficult and let Mark Noble and Lucas Neill give West Ham the lead as their new manager watched from the stands. But West Brom showed the kind of determination that they are in desperte need of and eventually won the game through a Bednar penalty and a nice finish from Chris Brunt. An interesting sidenote about this game; it was the only game I’ve seen in god-knows-how-long where neither team had a shirt sponsor, West Brom’s I believe is still under negotiation and West Ham’s went bust recentrly, stranding thousands of holiday makers.

Wigan 1-1 Sunderland
Roy Keane’s men were running dangerously close to getting detention and lines with some of their football performances this season, but they will have cooled the manager a little with a point today. Sunderland took the lead when Titus Bramble turned into his own net but Wigan battled on throughout and finally got their goal through, who else but Zaki.