Premier League Round-up

By: Martini Extra Dry | August 17th, 2008

You can sometimes forget, during the summer months, just how good the football season is. Every May, when the final whistle blows on the season, you try to forget football for a bit and concentrate on the summer weather. Well, it turns out that the summer weather sucks and all we want is the football back on!

So when good old August rolls around and gives us what we want, we have high expectations. Were our expectations met? Hell yeah! Nine wins and just the one draw on opening weekend this season, with some fantastic football played. Is this a sign of the season to come? Exciting football, free flowing goals and less bore draws?

Villa 4-2 Man City
As we all know, here at the Villa Offside, we got off to a winning start which put us second in the first table of the season. We all know that the table means nothing till at least 10 weeks in but we’re enjoying it all the same.

Arsenal 1-0 West Brom
Opinions are wildly split on how Arsenal will fare this season, many believing they haven’t done enough in the transfer market to maintain a push for the title. But if you think back a year, the same was said last season and then for a chunk of it they looked capable of romping the Premiership. Third is my prediction for The Arse. West Brom, third favourite for the drop, fared pretty well with such a daunting welcome-back-to-the-Prem game. They made some chances and only conceded once. Keep this up and they might stay up, it’ll be a long hard season for them either way though.

Bolton 3-1 Stoke
Stoke will struggle this season, it’ll most likely be a fight between them and Hull to get off the bottom for most the season and this game didn’t prove otherwise. Bolton aren’t likely to be far away from the drop zone so these are the games they need to be getting 3 points from.

Everton 2-3 Blackburn
A to-and-fro game that resulted in a Blackburn vctory but it could’ve gone either way. Moyes may well have had a point with the offside on the winning goal but what goes around comes around, they’ll get decisions going their way too. Both these teams will be fighting for top half finishes and both are capable.

Hull 2-1 Fulham
Another two who’ll be at wrong end of the table as the season progresses, so these were very valuable points for Hull. The new-boys were on a high in their first ever top flight game and it showed with their play. Good luck to them but I fear that bigger sides will roll them over.

Boro 2-1 Spurs
Everyone’s favourite for 5th didn’t do much to back that up with this performance. Boro comfortably took the points and Berbatov looked like more of a disruption to the team than a multi-million player. All the best to our old boy Gareth Southgate but I think that being towards the top of the bottom half is his realistic aim.

West Ham 2-1 Wigan
This game was largely the Dean Ashton Show, with two excellently taken goals by him (even the tap in was class) and then he limped off injured. He looks geared up to have a great season but the extent of this injury will prove critical. Wigan didn’t show what they’re capable of much in this game and will need to improve.

Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool
There’s no shame in being undone by one flash of Torres genius. Other than his terrific game winning strike, Keane’s men did a great job of halting the Merseysiders. Liverpool battled with Man City for worst away kit of the season!

Chelsea 4-0 Porstmouth
If this is the Chelsea we are going to see all season then expect many many more thrashes to be dealt out by them. They were sensational and I (begrudgingly) really enjoyed watching them. Deco slotted in brilliantly in their midfield, which almost doubles as an attack line, they get into the box so much. Crouch and Defoe’s partnership still needs work.

Man U 1-1 Newcastle
In fairness this was no boring game, but the best team to watch were Newcastle. Man Utd didn’t really seem ready for the seson to be starting yet. Maybe they miss Ronaldo but I think they have enough depth to cope without him. Better will come from them but I don’t fancy them for the title this season unless they improve a lot.