Premier League round-up (now with Sunday games)

By: Martini Extra Dry | August 23rd, 2008

Week two of the Premier League season is upon us, with the international game in midweek not causing too much excitement, and Villa won’t get many better chances than this to go top of the league. A win is enough to put us there for a day at least, not exactly childs play but when else will we be this close…

Stoke 3-2 Villa
…but it didn’t exactly go to plan. Three times we fell behind and the final one was the real nail in the coffin, having bounced off the back of the head of a falling striker, who timed his jump very badly but by pure chance the ball bounced off the back of his head and into the net, giving Stoke all three points.

Blackburn 1-1 Hull
Another team with a rare chance to go top was Blackburn. After stealing an unexpected win last week at Everton, they found themselves at home against another newly promoted side. Like Villa though, Blackburn threw the chance away under the pressure of a team who are on a high to be in the top flight. Jason Roberts gave Blackburn the lead for a matter of minutes before Hull responded and drew the game level. This was how the game was to finish and Blackburn took our place of second in the Prem.

Fulham 1-0 Arsenal
Andy Johnson still doesn’t get his debut for Fulham due to fitness but that doesn’t stop them hitting the target against their far superior London rivals. Another new Fulham striker, Bobby Zamora, was busy causing Arsenal problems, who really struggled to match Fulham’s desire in this game. Not many would’ve guessed this result before hand but it was a thoroughly deserved win for Fulham.
PS worth noting here, Arsene Wnger has decided now that he doesn’t like to make excuses… hmmm I think it’s more likely that he’s just used them all already!

Pool 2-1 Boro
After scraping a win against Roy Keane’s men last week, Benitez was hoping for a more convincing win in Liverpool’s home debut of the season. Mido didn’t much care about all that though and almost carbon copied Torres’s winning goal of last week. Then an unfortunate deflection gave Liverpool an equaliser with five minutes to go and finally fellow scouser Steve Gerrard showed his lightning reactions and precision skills by hammering a loose ball into the top corner with literally seconds on the clock. As the only team (excepting the games tomorrow) to win both opening games, Liverpool have gone top.

Newcastle 1-0 Bolton
Michael Owen came off the bench to replace the hurt Martins and gave Newcastle the three points in a game that was far from exciting. Bolton maybe should’ve scored at least one but then Newcastle should’ve scored more too. Don’t order this one on DVD.

Spurs 1-2 Roy Keane Utd
Tottenham usually have home advantage at White Hart Lane but in this game almost as many of Keane’s men are accustomed to this as home as Ramos’s. Tottenham played poorly again, proving the theory that buying good players doesn’t necessarily give you a good team. Kieran Richardson put Sunderland ahead with a nice long strike only for Jenas to slide home an equaliser. Sunderland’s efforts eventually were paid off when new boy Djibril Cisse, having completed a last minute signing, headed home the winner.

Baggies 1-2 Everton
Of the three newly promoted teams, the Baggies are looking the strongest candidates to stay up this season, despite the early results, and a home game against Everton’s unimproved side should really have been a decent chance for some points but Everton didn’t feel the same way and went two goals up. A late penalty earnt West Brom a consolation but it wasn’t enough in the end. Expect to see better from our local rivals, who will struggle to stay up but are my favourites to manage it.

Inconsistency seems to be the theme for the first two games, with most teams who struggled last week doing much better this week. The only team on maximum points after two games is Liverpool and
they haven’t looked very convincing in either of their wins.

Sunday games:
Man City 3-0 Wham!
After a poor show against The Villa last week, Man City showed what they are really made of with this win. Three excellent finishes gave them a three nil win and Mark Hughes can begin to relax a little now. Mark Noble didn’t help a worrying West Ham performance by getting himself sent off for two deserved and stupid yellows.

Wigan 0-1 Chelsea
Poor old Wigan have lost both their opening games but they really did deserve to take something from this game. Not many teams end up bottom but one in the league when they’ve played so well. For Chelsea, Deco’s free kick goal was aboslutely majestic and so was much of Chelsea’s football but against almost any team other than Chelsea and Wigan would’ve won this game.

Man Utd vs Portsmouth tomorrow at 8pm