Premiership round-up (Week 6)

By: Martini Extra Dry | September 28th, 2008

The sixth week kicks off and there’s plenty of good action this week as the season continues to excite. The first Merseyside derby of the season is the early game, Arsenal take on new-boys Hull in what they hope will be a walkover, Villa entertain Roy Keane’s men, Tottenham go in search of their first win and Newcastle hope to break their losing streak.

Arsenal 1-2 Hull
This was the big shock of the day and maybe even of the season. Arsenal dominated Hull and should’ve been 2 or 3 up at half time but they didn’t take their chances and were eventually punished for it. Arsenal eventually got off the mark with what has been given as a McShane own goal after 50 minutes but ten minutes later Hull had a storming four minutes where they scored twice. Cousin’s goal should really have been defended better but there was nothing anyone could’ve done about Geovanni’s screamer. Hull then defended hard and held on to a historic win at the Emirates.

Aston Villa 2-1 Sunderland
After changing the team around in midweek and losing to QPR, O’Neill reverts back to the same team that has started every Premier League game this season. Nobody thought Nigel Reo-Coker could be a decent right midfielder (myself included) but he’s proving everyone wrong so far and is even keeping our big summer splash-out signing, James Milner, on the bench. Villa started the game strongest and were hitting Sunderland with warnings throughout the first ten minutes, but they were caught on the break when Steed Malbranque slipped a beauty of a through ball to Djibril Cisse and he turned and finished clinically. It was the kind of ball that strikers dream of. Villa are determined this season not to let these slip ups get them down and came straight back fighting. Ashley Young earnt a free-kick that he took himself and, with a helping hand from a sneaky Laursen duck, he buried it beautifully. 1-1. Game on. Though the possession was evenly split, it was Villa who looked most like they would make something out of it and just over the half hour mark they did. Another Ashley Young free-kick, this time it canoned into the wall and fell to Petrov, the Bulgarian slid the ball into the box and John Carew put it into the back of the net with a very nice ’side-heel’. The second half didn’t quite live up to the first and, after ride a small storm, Villa held on to the win to send them third in the league.

Everton 0-2 Liverpool
The Merseyside derby was won by the big brother this time and the game was yet another of these clashes with a red card. Tim Cahill got an early bath for a bad challenge on Alonso coupled with a disrespectful attitude to the ref combining in him seeing red when it could’ve been yellow. Enough of the villain though, on to the hero, Fernando Torres got both the goals in this victory, proving that you can’t let him go unmarked for one second. Both goals see Torres lose his marker and be in teh right place at the right time. Liverpool’s good form relies very heavily on this man and Gerrard though so Rafa needs to pray they stay fit.

Fulham 1-2 West Ham
Both these teams are playing inconsistently this season, showing that on their day they can beat most but the off days will see them being defeated. Carlton Cole and Etherington got the goals for West Ham, Andy Johnson got sent off for silly yellows and Danny Murphy got Fulham’s consolation.

Man Utd 2-0 Bolton
Referee Rob Styles is again in the headlines with his penalty decision against ex-Villan J Lloyd Samuel who clearly won the ball from Ronaldo. We’re all only too well aware that United get the decisions at Old Trafford though and it was a decision that could well have given them the points. Wayne Rooney doubled their lead with a neat finish but if the first goal hadn;t gone in you could maybe see Bolton holding on for a point.

Boro 0-1 Baggies
Middlesbrough are playing well in games and not winning them this season, which will be very frustrating to Gareth Southgate. He has made them into a decent team who can play some good football but getting the right result seems to be evading them at the moment. West Brom move up to top of the bottom half with this win and they’ll be loving being so far away from the drop zone.

Newcastle 1-2 Blackburn
Bookies must be giving short odds now of Michael Owen still being a Newcastle player this time next year. The controversies up north are clearly affecting the team and it seems like Michael Owen’s marksmanship is their only prayer at the moment. Joe Kinnear has just been appointed as manager up there so he will have a huge job to try and turn this team around amidst all the off-the-field troubles. First off though he needs to see out an old touchline ban so he won’t be right where he wants for another few weeeks yet.

Stoke 0-2 Chelsea
League leaders hold on to their place with a methodical 2-0 win over Premiership new-boys Stoke. The second goa was a bit of a gift but with or without that you could never see Stoke getting anything out of this game.