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After losing 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0 this latest 5-0 defeat at Tottenham was something of a blow. 
Fulham 0 ARSENAL 1
A Saturday evening by the Thames at the quaintest football ground in England watching the sun go down as Arsenal work their way towards another three points, followed by a fantastic second date with a girl I’m seeing and then a close friend’s birthday on the Sunday. This weekend was a good weekend. How about the rest of you?
As for the game itself, Arsenal were below par, dominated by Fulham for a lot of it, yet managed to escape with the three points. Experts will tell you that the nature of any side with title-winning aspirations is the art of playing badly but still winning. Personally, I think the nature of a title-winning side is whomping every team 5-0, but what do I know, eh?
In all seriousness though, Saturday’s game made me quite happy. We showed flashes of brilliance in parts, Robin van Persie scored a sublime goal, Nicklas Bendtner looked threatening throughout, and the defence held firm against what can only be described as an onslaught by a Fulham team that will be wondering how they took nothing out of the game.
In a nutshell, we created a lot in the first half, but without having too many attempts on goal, and Fulham played some nice stuff, always looking threatening. However, Thomas Vermaelen, William Gallas and third-choice ‘keeper Vito Mannone (whose parents appear to be an Italian woman and an Easter Island statue judging by the angle-tastic oddity that is his head) in particular were exceptional, and kept the Cottagers (tee hee!) at bay.
0-0 and half time and we needed an early goal in the second half if we were going to get anything from the game. So lo and behold my shock and delight as Arsenal delivered just that. Cesc Fabregas (these days 50% ennui, 50% frustrated) woke from another below-par performance to play the kind of sublime chip that the likes of Steven Gerrard can only dream of, right into the path of Robin van Persie whose first touch was tidy and whose second touch was a perfect finish with his so-called ‘chocolate leg’ past the outstretched hand of Mark Schwarzer.
What followed was a masterclass of shot-stopping and reaction goalkeeping from Mannone, using his arms, torso and even face to keep Fulham at bay with superlative save after save. With Manuel Almunia’s diplomatic injury (the guy’s been dropped, plain and simple - nobody gets a runny bum for three weeks) and Lukasz Fabianski a few weeks away it was imperative that the youngster had a good game sooner or later as he is likely to be the holder of the gloves for the foreseeable.
And that was that. 1-0 away from home, Chelsea slipping up away at Wigan, and my love life hopefully taking a turn for the better. I love it when a plan comes together.
Star man: Vito Mannone was outstanding all game. He was brave, debonair, reactionary and generally fantastic for the 90 minutes. He made saves that, to be frank, Almunia simply would not have made, and kept us in the game. His double-save in the first half, in particular, was a sign of real quality.
Worst performer: I know I say it every week, but it doesn’t stop being true. Abou Diaby is clown shoes. He doesn’t seem to know what position he is playing in, doesn’t like a tackle, only very occasionally passes to his own team-mates, and contributes absolutely nothing. I never thought I would say this but I can’t wait until Denilson is fit. Although in fairness, Andrey Arshavin was disappointing again, so I can’t point the finger solely at our number 2.
Best moment: Robin van Persie’s goal was needed on so many levels. Firstly, despite being one of the most arrogant men on the staff at Ashburton Grove, he has been suffering a huge crisis of confidence so far this year, so to score such a great goal at such an important time and of such significance was great to see.
Tactics: With the ball, we again were absolutely fine. We looked dangerous, cut open one of the league’s meanest defences a few times, and looked consistently threatening. Without the ball though we still have little-to-no shape and susceptible to conceding goals. It is a testament to the centre halves and goalkeeper that we kept a clean sheet when all in front of them looks confused at how to mark people and prevent goalscoring opportunities. Alex Song will eventually turn into a fine player, but he is still learning his trade and cannot be expected to prevent every team from playing every single week without making the odd error.
Chant of the game: For all of the wrong reasons I have to frown at my fellow Gooners this Monday morning. A few weeks ago I castigated Manchester United for their failure to properly address the issue of 70,000 morons making the foulest accusation one can make against their fellow man. The away support we take to Fulham is always top-notch, very loud, and very proud, but for a lot of the game a song about Chelsea’s left-back contracting AIDS was being sung very loud by too many people and I felt shame at being a Gooner at that point.
Oppo fans: I love Fulham fans. Good guys, good for a beer or three, incredibly polite, and if you ask nicely they’ll give you three points when you need them!
David Oudot, http://www.onlinegooner.com & http://taxloser.blogpot.com
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Blackburn Rovers 2 ASTON VILLA 1
Oh bugger. Best start to a season in a decade then we turn up at Ewood Park and think we can stroll it! Not much to say on the match to be fair, pretty shambolic at times and having taken an early lead, we really should have gone for the jugular and killed the game.
Villa haven't been looking like they are playing well for most of this (early) season to be fair, but when you pick up the points, you don't really care, do you? When you don't, then I think you start to look more critically at what went on.
I didn't get carried away with the wins so I refuse to get carried away with this loss, BUT we've got to sort ourselves out quickly as it seems to me that we are carrying a few passengers so far with John Carew, Ashley Young and sometimes Stiliyan Petrov not really turning it on just yet. Wake up, lads!
As the Vital Football away match reporter said: "Rovers looked far from a decent team, yet they'd succeeded in ruffling our feathers somewhat, and we seemed to be playing into their hands. We were allowing Rovers physical style to knock us off the ball, and there was simply no excuse for that. The game was getting way too stretched to really suit our style."
Star man: James Milner, going to be a star for England as well if he keeps developing like he is.
Worst performer: What is the point of Emile Heskey and why bring on a striker who isn't scoring to move Gabby (a striker who is scoring) wide?
Best moment: The early goal... the rest was downhill fast!
Tactics: Again from my away match reporter Glensider: "We'll come up against many better teams than Blackburn this season, but the ease with which they brushed us aside has to give cause for concern. Back to the drawing board methinks. No doubt the 4-4-2 formation will come in for much criticism again, and maybe rightly so? Maybe today's reversal proves that it is a formation that quite simply doesn't work for us, not with the current crop of players that we have at our disposal?"
Oppo fans: The guys on Vital Blackburn are gents and passionate about their club, Ewood Park seemed shocked yesterday to see them at times outplay a difficult-to-beat away side in Villa, especially as we played them off the pitch last season. Hope this kickstarts their season and hope it re-starts ours (a wake up call so to speak?!)
JP Fear, www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk
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BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 Bolton Wanderers 2
Oh dear. All last week's hard work wasted due to a couple of moments of dozy defending. There's little more annoying in football than to get back into a game and then gift the opposition a winner just two minutes later. We hadn't even finished our song!
A draw would probably have been a fair result, we didn't deserve to win. A lot of people are blaming the manager for negative tactics, but you can't switch off like that and get away with it in this league. It could be worse though, we could be Hull...
This was also David Sullivan's last home game and it was marked in a surprisingly low-key way with just a video being played before kick-off. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank David and Karen for what they have done for the club and wish them well in the future.
Star man: Kevin Phillips. He did more in the ten minutes he was on that any one else in the whole match.
Worst performer: Seb Larsson. He's not the player he was two years ago.
Best moment: Phillips' goal. A good one it was too.
Tactics: Am I the only one who noticed that Zat Knight is at least a foot taller than Chucho? So the tactic of lumping it up to him was not the best.
Chant of the game: "4-4-2." The first time I've ever heard a formation chanted at a football game. The manager did the change the formation a few minutes later, so maybe we should try it again.
Referee: Steve Bennett, not my favourite. He got the main decisions correct but chose to ignore Bolton's blatant time wasting while booking two Blues players for dissent.
Oppo fans: Not very many of them but they made more noise than some bigger groups I've seen.
Mike, www.joysandsorrows.com
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BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 Aston Villa 1
At last Sam Allardyce listened to the fans and dropped Keith Andrews and Jason Roberts. The players that came in, Steven N’zonzi and Franco Di Santo made all the difference.
A scuffed goal by Agbonlahor gave Villa the lead in under three minutes and I feared the worst, but Rovers managed to grab an equaliser on 24 minutes from big Chris Samba and Villa never recovered.
The second half was all Rovers and even after Grella’s silly sending off and the introduction of Keith Andrews, they kept going and won a deserved penalty.
David Dunn was never going to miss and sent ex-Rovers’ hero Brad Friedel the wrong way.
Villa only had one other shot on target after their goal but Paul Robinson saved brilliantly from Collins’ deflected shot in the last minute, despite having nothing much to do for most of the game.
A well deserved win for Sam’s boys – onwards and upwards!
Star man: David Dunn – All action and never gave up despite the treatment he received from Villa. Keep this up Dunny and you could be going to South Africa next year!! (The match sponsors gave MOM to Pascal Chimbonda – he played well, but surely this was a dig at Stephen Warnock?)
Worst performer: Morten Gamst Pedersen. Didn’t get into the game at all. His distribution, dead ball delivery and throw-ins were below-par. Time for a rest I think.
Best moment: Samba’s equaliser – this really woke up the fans and the atmosphere was terrific for the rest of the game. The Rovers’ fans made sure that Grella wasn’t missed when he was sent off.
Tactics: 4-5-1 - Sam got it spot-on today, but formations don’t win games – good performances do. I still prefer 4-4-2 but Franco Di Santo played his lone role superbly, always chasing and harrying Villa’s defence. Collins and Dunne didn’t know what had hit them. Are you watching, Jason Roberts?
Chant of the game: “We’ve only got 10 men!” Rubbing it in after Dunn scored the winner!
Oppo fans: Six wins on the trot and four successive clean sheets before this game and they couldn’t sell their allocation of 3,000 tickets! The more the game went on – the quieter they became (zzzzzzzzzz).
Pete Anslow, www.4000holes.co.uk
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Birmingham City 1 BOLTON WANDERERS 2
For the fourth game in succession, Bolton scored a late goal as they recorded back-to-back away wins in the league for the first time since last November.
South Korean import Lee Chung-Yong is fast becoming a fans favourite with the Bolton faithful, with his 86th minute winner coming just two minutes after Kevin Phillips scored yet another goal against us.
After the cup win over West Ham in midweek, fans cried out for Ivan Klasnic and Ricardo Gardner to start at St Andrews, and Gary Megson obliged. However, both struggled to make a real impact in the game and were substituted in the second half.
Tamir Cohen is another who is growing on the Bolton fans. Just six months ago it looked like his days were numbered, but with his contract up next summer, he looks certain to be offered a new deal after an impressive goalscoring start to the season.
Some of the blame can be directed to Chung-Yong for the Birmingham goal, but he more than made up for it at the end, showing superb skill to dummy two defenders and the goalkeeper before slotting home, after Matt Taylor's sublime free-kick had hit the post.
Another-much needed morale boost for the Bolton fans!
Star man: Gary Cahill - once again the former Aston Villa man showed why he is one of the best defenders in the country. In front of the watching Fabio Capello, he and Zat Knight produced their best displays of the season and, had it not been for them, Birmingham would have been level long before they actually were and the result may have been different.
Worst performer: Ivan Klasnic - he deserved a start after his performance against West Ham, but aside from his early effort, he struggled to get into the game and was brought off just after half-time. He needs a bit more time to settle into the English game and he'll put in better performances than this over the coming months.
Best moment: Lee Chung-Yong's goal! After Taylor's free-kick hit the post, most people would have just lashed at the rebound, but Lee had the confidence and composure to flick the ball over two Birmingham defenders, taking the goalkeeper out of the game and slot it into the empty net. Superb!
Tactics: After calls for 4-4-2 in midweek, Kevin Davies and Ivan Klasnic started upfront, with Tamir Cohen and Ricardo Gardner pushing forward from midfield. The tactics the fans wanted to see. It worked in spells and didn't in others, but overall it produced a winning side and seemed to add to the entertainment of the afternoon from a visitor's point of view.
Chant of the game: "Chung-Yong, wherever he may be, he eats dog in his own country." I have a feeling this has been stolen from Man United's chant for Park Ji-Sung, but how else can you chant his name!
Oppo fans: They weren't too bad. Obviously, the early goal had a big affect on the home crowd, as they were quiet for most of the game. But as the second half wore on, they became more interested and were relieved when they equalised, only to see their hopes of a point dashed less than 60 seconds later! That's football for you!
Chris Mann, www.burndenaces.co.uk
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Tottenham 5 BURNLEY 0
The away days are proving to be very difficult and with each game comes an extra goal against. After losing 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0 this latest 5-0 defeat at Tottenham was something of a blow.
Thankfully the home form is such that this latest defeat is not critical, but sooner or later we’ll have to start getting some points on our travels even though we do expect to get most of our points at home this season.
Three of the next four are at home, with the only away game the police-dominated visit to Blackburn.
Star man: There weren’t too many to choose from here but my choice by a country mile was midfielder Joey Gudjonsson. What a good performance it was from him in his first start this season.
Worst performer: Andre Bikey needlessly gave away the penalty from which Spurs scored the first goal. He never seemed to recover from that on an afternoon when Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe proved too much for our defence.
Best moment: Talking to Spurs fans outside White Hart Lane ahead of the game when the conversation was about the days when our two teams were without question the best two in the country.
Tactics: Maybe we are just too open in this league given the quality of some of the opposition. We are allowing teams far too many opportunities against us.
Chant of the game: Has to be “5-0 and you still don't sing”
Oppo fans: In terms of atmosphere it was largely non-existent inside White Hart Lane, that’s if you exclude the group of fans who spent most of the game with their backs to play goading the Burnley fans. Not sure why on earth they spend all that money for a game they don’t want to watch. Outside the ground they were a very friendly bunch, both before and after the game, and made us very welcome. Just as it should be.
Tony Scholes, www.claretsmad.co.uk
Best moment: Robin van Persie’s goal was needed on so many levels. Firstly, despite being one of the most arrogant men on the staff at Ashburton Grove, he has been suffering a huge crisis of confidence so far this year, so to score such a great goal at such an important time and of such significance was great to see.
Tactics: With the ball, we again were absolutely fine. We looked dangerous, cut open one of the league’s meanest defences a few times, and looked consistently threatening. Without the ball though we still have little-to-no shape and susceptible to conceding goals. It is a testament to the centre halves and goalkeeper that we kept a clean sheet when all in front of them looks confused at how to mark people and prevent goalscoring opportunities. Alex Song will eventually turn into a fine player, but he is still learning his trade and cannot be expected to prevent every team from playing every single week without making the odd error.
Chant of the game: For all of the wrong reasons I have to frown at my fellow Gooners this Monday morning. A few weeks ago I castigated Manchester United for their failure to properly address the issue of 70,000 morons making the foulest accusation one can make against their fellow man. The away support we take to Fulham is always top-notch, very loud, and very proud, but for a lot of the game a song about Chelsea’s left-back contracting AIDS was being sung very loud by too many people and I felt shame at being a Gooner at that point.
Oppo fans: I love Fulham fans. Good guys, good for a beer or three, incredibly polite, and if you ask nicely they’ll give you three points when you need them!
David Oudot, http://www.onlinegooner.com & http://taxloser.blogpot.com
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Blackburn Rovers 2 ASTON VILLA 1
Oh bugger. Best start to a season in a decade then we turn up at Ewood Park and think we can stroll it! Not much to say on the match to be fair, pretty shambolic at times and having taken an early lead, we really should have gone for the jugular and killed the game.
Villa haven't been looking like they are playing well for most of this (early) season to be fair, but when you pick up the points, you don't really care, do you? When you don't, then I think you start to look more critically at what went on.
I didn't get carried away with the wins so I refuse to get carried away with this loss, BUT we've got to sort ourselves out quickly as it seems to me that we are carrying a few passengers so far with John Carew, Ashley Young and sometimes Stiliyan Petrov not really turning it on just yet. Wake up, lads!
As the Vital Football away match reporter said: "Rovers looked far from a decent team, yet they'd succeeded in ruffling our feathers somewhat, and we seemed to be playing into their hands. We were allowing Rovers physical style to knock us off the ball, and there was simply no excuse for that. The game was getting way too stretched to really suit our style."
Star man: James Milner, going to be a star for England as well if he keeps developing like he is.
Worst performer: What is the point of Emile Heskey and why bring on a striker who isn't scoring to move Gabby (a striker who is scoring) wide?
Best moment: The early goal... the rest was downhill fast!
Tactics: Again from my away match reporter Glensider: "We'll come up against many better teams than Blackburn this season, but the ease with which they brushed us aside has to give cause for concern. Back to the drawing board methinks. No doubt the 4-4-2 formation will come in for much criticism again, and maybe rightly so? Maybe today's reversal proves that it is a formation that quite simply doesn't work for us, not with the current crop of players that we have at our disposal?"
Oppo fans: The guys on Vital Blackburn are gents and passionate about their club, Ewood Park seemed shocked yesterday to see them at times outplay a difficult-to-beat away side in Villa, especially as we played them off the pitch last season. Hope this kickstarts their season and hope it re-starts ours (a wake up call so to speak?!)
JP Fear, www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk
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BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 Bolton Wanderers 2
Oh dear. All last week's hard work wasted due to a couple of moments of dozy defending. There's little more annoying in football than to get back into a game and then gift the opposition a winner just two minutes later. We hadn't even finished our song!
A draw would probably have been a fair result, we didn't deserve to win. A lot of people are blaming the manager for negative tactics, but you can't switch off like that and get away with it in this league. It could be worse though, we could be Hull...
This was also David Sullivan's last home game and it was marked in a surprisingly low-key way with just a video being played before kick-off. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank David and Karen for what they have done for the club and wish them well in the future.
Star man: Kevin Phillips. He did more in the ten minutes he was on that any one else in the whole match.
Worst performer: Seb Larsson. He's not the player he was two years ago.
Best moment: Phillips' goal. A good one it was too.
Tactics: Am I the only one who noticed that Zat Knight is at least a foot taller than Chucho? So the tactic of lumping it up to him was not the best.
Chant of the game: "4-4-2." The first time I've ever heard a formation chanted at a football game. The manager did the change the formation a few minutes later, so maybe we should try it again.
Referee: Steve Bennett, not my favourite. He got the main decisions correct but chose to ignore Bolton's blatant time wasting while booking two Blues players for dissent.
Oppo fans: Not very many of them but they made more noise than some bigger groups I've seen.
Mike, www.joysandsorrows.com
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BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 Aston Villa 1
At last Sam Allardyce listened to the fans and dropped Keith Andrews and Jason Roberts. The players that came in, Steven N’zonzi and Franco Di Santo made all the difference.
A scuffed goal by Agbonlahor gave Villa the lead in under three minutes and I feared the worst, but Rovers managed to grab an equaliser on 24 minutes from big Chris Samba and Villa never recovered.
The second half was all Rovers and even after Grella’s silly sending off and the introduction of Keith Andrews, they kept going and won a deserved penalty.
David Dunn was never going to miss and sent ex-Rovers’ hero Brad Friedel the wrong way.
Villa only had one other shot on target after their goal but Paul Robinson saved brilliantly from Collins’ deflected shot in the last minute, despite having nothing much to do for most of the game.
A well deserved win for Sam’s boys – onwards and upwards!
Star man: David Dunn – All action and never gave up despite the treatment he received from Villa. Keep this up Dunny and you could be going to South Africa next year!! (The match sponsors gave MOM to Pascal Chimbonda – he played well, but surely this was a dig at Stephen Warnock?)
Worst performer: Morten Gamst Pedersen. Didn’t get into the game at all. His distribution, dead ball delivery and throw-ins were below-par. Time for a rest I think.
Best moment: Samba’s equaliser – this really woke up the fans and the atmosphere was terrific for the rest of the game. The Rovers’ fans made sure that Grella wasn’t missed when he was sent off.
Tactics: 4-5-1 - Sam got it spot-on today, but formations don’t win games – good performances do. I still prefer 4-4-2 but Franco Di Santo played his lone role superbly, always chasing and harrying Villa’s defence. Collins and Dunne didn’t know what had hit them. Are you watching, Jason Roberts?
Chant of the game: “We’ve only got 10 men!” Rubbing it in after Dunn scored the winner!
Oppo fans: Six wins on the trot and four successive clean sheets before this game and they couldn’t sell their allocation of 3,000 tickets! The more the game went on – the quieter they became (zzzzzzzzzz).
Pete Anslow, www.4000holes.co.uk
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Birmingham City 1 BOLTON WANDERERS 2
For the fourth game in succession, Bolton scored a late goal as they recorded back-to-back away wins in the league for the first time since last November.
South Korean import Lee Chung-Yong is fast becoming a fans favourite with the Bolton faithful, with his 86th minute winner coming just two minutes after Kevin Phillips scored yet another goal against us.
After the cup win over West Ham in midweek, fans cried out for Ivan Klasnic and Ricardo Gardner to start at St Andrews, and Gary Megson obliged. However, both struggled to make a real impact in the game and were substituted in the second half.
Tamir Cohen is another who is growing on the Bolton fans. Just six months ago it looked like his days were numbered, but with his contract up next summer, he looks certain to be offered a new deal after an impressive goalscoring start to the season.
Some of the blame can be directed to Chung-Yong for the Birmingham goal, but he more than made up for it at the end, showing superb skill to dummy two defenders and the goalkeeper before slotting home, after Matt Taylor's sublime free-kick had hit the post.
Another-much needed morale boost for the Bolton fans!
Star man: Gary Cahill - once again the former Aston Villa man showed why he is one of the best defenders in the country. In front of the watching Fabio Capello, he and Zat Knight produced their best displays of the season and, had it not been for them, Birmingham would have been level long before they actually were and the result may have been different.
Worst performer: Ivan Klasnic - he deserved a start after his performance against West Ham, but aside from his early effort, he struggled to get into the game and was brought off just after half-time. He needs a bit more time to settle into the English game and he'll put in better performances than this over the coming months.
Best moment: Lee Chung-Yong's goal! After Taylor's free-kick hit the post, most people would have just lashed at the rebound, but Lee had the confidence and composure to flick the ball over two Birmingham defenders, taking the goalkeeper out of the game and slot it into the empty net. Superb!
Tactics: After calls for 4-4-2 in midweek, Kevin Davies and Ivan Klasnic started upfront, with Tamir Cohen and Ricardo Gardner pushing forward from midfield. The tactics the fans wanted to see. It worked in spells and didn't in others, but overall it produced a winning side and seemed to add to the entertainment of the afternoon from a visitor's point of view.
Chant of the game: "Chung-Yong, wherever he may be, he eats dog in his own country." I have a feeling this has been stolen from Man United's chant for Park Ji-Sung, but how else can you chant his name!
Oppo fans: They weren't too bad. Obviously, the early goal had a big affect on the home crowd, as they were quiet for most of the game. But as the second half wore on, they became more interested and were relieved when they equalised, only to see their hopes of a point dashed less than 60 seconds later! That's football for you!
Chris Mann, www.burndenaces.co.uk
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Tottenham 5 BURNLEY 0
The away days are proving to be very difficult and with each game comes an extra goal against. After losing 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0 this latest 5-0 defeat at Tottenham was something of a blow.
Thankfully the home form is such that this latest defeat is not critical, but sooner or later we’ll have to start getting some points on our travels even though we do expect to get most of our points at home this season.
Three of the next four are at home, with the only away game the police-dominated visit to Blackburn.
Star man: There weren’t too many to choose from here but my choice by a country mile was midfielder Joey Gudjonsson. What a good performance it was from him in his first start this season.
Worst performer: Andre Bikey needlessly gave away the penalty from which Spurs scored the first goal. He never seemed to recover from that on an afternoon when Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe proved too much for our defence.
Best moment: Talking to Spurs fans outside White Hart Lane ahead of the game when the conversation was about the days when our two teams were without question the best two in the country.
Tactics: Maybe we are just too open in this league given the quality of some of the opposition. We are allowing teams far too many opportunities against us.
Chant of the game: Has to be “5-0 and you still don't sing”
Oppo fans: In terms of atmosphere it was largely non-existent inside White Hart Lane, that’s if you exclude the group of fans who spent most of the game with their backs to play goading the Burnley fans. Not sure why on earth they spend all that money for a game they don’t want to watch. Outside the ground they were a very friendly bunch, both before and after the game, and made us very welcome. Just as it should be.
Tony Scholes, www.claretsmad.co.uk
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Wigan 3-1 CHELSEA
Good lord, that was bad. It turns out that we are beatable after all, and it’s a deserving Wigan side who found us out. A dreadful first-half for all in Blue (well, black and blue) typified by some desperate defending, a bizarre willingness to give the ball away at every opportunity, and absolutely no cohesion whatsoever. Then, after the break, there’s a revival for about a couple of milliseconds, then back to being woeful again, helped out immeasurably by a dive, a sending-off, and another helpful display of ‘how not to keep the ball’.
Did I say we were dreadful? It’s worth mentioning again. At least Didier Drogba bagged one to keep my Dream Team on course. It’s obviously just a blip and we know we are stronger than this. Time now to move on, dust ourselves off and pick up three points next weekend.
Star man: Did we have one? Franco di Santo - on loan at Blackburn Rovers and instrumental in their win over Aston Villa - was probably ‘our’ best performer on the day.
Worst performer: For us, John Obi Mikel. Poor off the ball, and worse on it. Salomon ‘air kick yards out from goal’ Kalou comes a close second. For them, Hugo Rodallega, the man who makes Eduardo look like Gary Lineker in terms of fair play. And of course, Phil Dowd. Uselessness personified.
Best moment: Didier Drogba’s equaliser, and the familiar feeling of security which followed it: ‘It’s been a bad first-half, but we’ve scored now… everything is going to work out just fine.’ The worst moment followed soon after.
Tactics: Stifled at times in the first-half and often closed down by Wigan’s terrier-like midfield. No width, as Wigan’s forwards penned our full-backs into our own half. It also doesn’t help when not even the five-yard passes find their intended targets.
Chant of the game: The noise which greeted the final whistle must have been a shock to those who live around the DW Stadium.
Oppo fans: You mean the ones sat in amongst all those empty seats? Well, they were loving it after Paul Scharner’s late third, and who can blame them?
Rowan Farnham-Long, www.cfcnet.co.uk
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Portsmouth 0-1 EVERTON
Unable to make the 400-mile round trip, your Everton correspondant watched this one in the ale house. And even several pints of Trapper's Hat couldn't cloud the fact that the Blues were very fortunate to come out of this one with all three points!
After Everton scoring a total of 11 goals without reply in the last three matches, many were predicting more of the same in this one to condemn Portsmouth to their seventh straight league defeat. And whilst Everton did inflict that defeat, via a moment of brilliance from Louis Saha, the win was anything but easy.
Portsmouth had the better of the opening exchanges and the reports that they're not actually as bad as their results suggest looked to have some substance to them.
The first real opening of the game came in the 34th minute as Portsmouth's Aruna Dindane out-muscled Joseph Yobo on the egde of the Everton area but saw his shot well saved by Tim Howard. Two minutes later and it was David James' turn to take the plaudits as he kept out a close-range header from Marouane Fellaini with his left foot. But the Portsmouth 'keeper seemed to bottle it the next time he was called into action and his moments hesitation was enough for Louis Saha to smash Everton into the lead.
John Heitinga hit a 40-yard-ball upfield that left Younas Kaboul completely wrong-footed and allowed Louis Saha to race into the Portsmouth area, take the ball down with his face - no, really - and leather a half-volley past a dithering David James.
Cue one upturned table, a few spilled pints and more than one cry of "bell end" as one dinnertime drinker forgot that his legs were wedged under said table as he leapt with delight from his chair.
That was Everton in front at half time and the flood gates were sure to open in the second half. Obviously, they never!
Portsmouth started the second half the brighter of the two teams and on 51 minutes Tal Ben-Haim thought he'd levelled for Portsmouth but saw his goalbound header kept out by the shoulder of Tim Howard who produced a fine reaction stop.
Paul Hart also thought Pompey had levelled but, upon realising the effort had been stopped, he slumped in his chair with a look of despair reminiscent of Burgess Meredith's Penguin after he'd been outwitted for the millionth time by Adam West's Batman!
Everton then suffered their weekly knee injury as Steven Pienaar was on the receiving end of a crude challenge - there's diplomacy for you - from Aaron Mokoena who somehow managed to avoid his second yellow card of the game!
Mokoena then hit the corssbar with a powerful header and if that had gone it probably would've given the press their weekly footballing gripe: 'Should goals be chalked off if the player that scored it should've received a red card before he scored?'...well after all that arse about Man United's injury time winner last week, anything's up for debate!
Portsmouth even got some last-minute heartbreak thrown at them as Leighton Baines - the player most likely to have a post-footballing career acting in vampire movies - headed Hassan Yebda's goal-bound header off the line.
Another hard-luck story for Pompey - and you do have to feel for them given the way they've been asset-stripped - but a hard-earned three points for Everton.
And so I left the boozer to the sound of much tele-clapping - I've never understood that - and with a spring in my stagger as Everton recorded
their third win of the season to soar up into ninth position, corner turned!
Les Roberts, www.everton-mad.co.uk
[Not quite from the "Terrace Frontlines" this one, readers. Or even in the
correct template, eh Les! But a good, honest read nonetheless. Nice one
mate - Ed]
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FULHAM 0 Arsenal 1
In a week whereby even the most hardened of Fulham supporters were pondering over which Fulham would turn up for this fixture, it was a pleasant surprise to find it was the Fulham of last year, the slick passing Fulham that could create chances.
Therefore it was a shame, no more of a national crime that they came up against a keeper, in Mannone, who was in inspired form. If he’s the third best keeper on the Arsenal books, then they are well covered.
Andrew Johnson, in particular, must have been in awe at some of the saves he produced whilst his strike partner, Bobby Zamora, might well have been equally bemused.
But, as is often the case, superiority doesn’t always bring results and just during a period whereby we were more than on top, it was a combination of Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie that were to provide the breakthrough with the Dutchman calling upon his range of skills to silence the Hammersmith End faithful.
Walking away from Craven Cottage, the faithful must have pondered over events and wondered how this one got away but with the dreaded Europa League set to rear its ugly head this Thursday, we’ll be back convinced that we’re still by far the greatest team the world has ever seen! Strange bunch football fans, are we not?
Star man: Andrew Johnson – on another day he’d have been celebrating at least two goals but then again on another day he’d not be ruing a keeper, in Mannone, who had an absolute stormer.
Worst performer: Sorry Damien, but only lasting nine minutes before limping off with a hamstring injury, although strictly not your fault, gets you my vote this week!
Best moment: The realisation dawning that it was the real Fulham that had turned up not the placid, lacklustre outfit that crashed to defeats against Chelsea, Aston Villa and Wolves. Just a shame we still lost though!
Tactics: Roy got it about right, but how was he to know it was going to be one of those days when a superb finish at one end allied with some great saves at the other end, would conspire to serve us up with another defeat?
Oppo fans: Our friends from N5 generated a bit of noise but they’ll never be amongst the more vociferous in the division, it’s just the way they are and the ‘quiet’ reputation is a deserved one!
Andrew Joyce, www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk
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Liverpool 6 HULL CITY 1
(Still awaiting match report)
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LIVERPOOL 6 Hull City 1
Anfield was bouncing on Saturday, quite literally. If you can tell me a better striker in the world right now than Fernando Torres, I'd love to hear your reasoning. This man is on fire. Five goals in two games and now eight goals this season. Torres is back to his best and this 6-1 thrashing of Hull City showed our absolute quality, and Hull's absolute misery.
Star man: Torres - who else? He was majestic at both ends of the pitch and fully deserves the praise he'll recieve in Monday's papers.
Worst performer: Hull City's defence - absolute shocker, they didn't really turn up and by the end of the game we were scoring goals for fun without Torres or Gerrard.
Best moment: Torres' third goal. Another great through-ball from Benayoun, and twists and turns and a beautiful finish from El Nino.
Tactics: Attack, attack, attack - I like it! Rafa decided to rest Mascherano in favour of a more attacking and wide formation with Albert Riera for Hull's visit. Good decision.
Chant of the game: "We bought the lad from sunny Spain, he gets the ball he scores again, Fernando Torres, Liverpool's number nine. BOUNCE!"
Oppo fans: At least they stayed till the end after a long journey from the East coast. Credit for that.
Max Munton, www.thisisanfield.com
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MAN CITY 3 West Ham 1
~Monday night game~
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Stoke City 0 - 2 MANCHESTER UNITED
Manchester United’s dominant display at the Britannia Stadium helped Sir Alex Ferguson’s side claim top spot in the Premier League for the first time this season. Goals from Dimitar Berbatov and John O’Shea were enough to see off the Potteries team, whose fans provided plenty of atmosphere on a day when the home side was as ineffective as United was good. But once again United was heavily indebted to the 35-year-old Ryan Giggs for providing the creativity to win the match in the closing stages.
United began brightly, creating a flurry of chances in the first ten minutes of the match. The pattern set in early, with the home side ready to ‘park the bus’, while allowing United’s players time and space. In particular, the returning Paul Scholes was given room to spray passes long and short in search of an opening.
But while United dominated possession and territory, Ferguson’s outfit was unable to create enough clear openings in the opening forty-five. The clearest of which fell to Antonio Valencia, restored to the side after sitting out the Manchester derby. Beating former United trainee Ryan Shawcross, Valencia was able to draw Sorensen in the Stoke goal, before chipping tamely wide. The weaknesses in Valencia’s finishing, underscored here, is behind just seven goals in two years at Wigan Athletic.
Wayne Rooney and the infuriating Nani also went close as United laid siege to Stoke's goal.
On 55 minutes came the pivotal moment of the match, with Luis Nani being replaced by the effervescent Giggs. It took just five minutes for the Welshman to underline his quality, with a sublime run and pass across the six-yard area, allowing Berbatov to score with a tap-in.
O’Shea and Giggs then combined to complete the win. The Welshman’s in-swinging free-kick met by the Irishman’s forehead on his 350th appearance for United. O’Shea's delight at scoring unsurprising as he hadn’t hit the net in over two years.
The authoritative win put United top of the table, following Chelsea’s surprise loss at Wigan Athletic. The reds have now won seven in a row after the defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor. And with three home games to come before the trip to Anfield in October, United has hit Championship-winning form far earlier in the season than is normal for Ferguson’s side.
Star man: Paul Scholes was given the time and space to dictate the tempo of the game. While the Ginger Prince doesn't score the goals of his youth, there's still no better passer in the English game. Stoke couldn't live with him.
Worst performer: Nani. If Ferguson was being generous to the Portuguese winger after the match by saying he did "well", then his praise of Ryan Giggs was also a thinly veiled condemnation of Nani’s total inability to harness his considerable talent into an all-round package. More than two years into the former Sporting player’s stint at Old Trafford and Nani has hardly progressed.
Best moment: Ryan Giggs run and pass to set up Berbatov for the easy goal. I hope he never retires.
Tactics: Spot on. United went for the kill with an attacking formation against a team that has a good home record. That Stoke was reduced to pumping long balls forward played into United's hands.
Chant of the game: "This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small, this is how it feels when you win nothing at all...."
Oppo fans: Credit where it is due, the Britannia crowd creates a great noise and they weren't put off by the comprehensive defeat.
Ed Barker, www.unitedrant.co.uk
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PORTSMOUTH 0 Everton 1
(Still awaiting match report)
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SPURS 5 Burnley 0
But for the heroics of Burnley keeper Brian Jensen and some poor finishing, this could quite literally have been double figures. I’ve heard Owen Coyle bemoaning the penalty and the disallowed goal they had, and he’s right that Burnley had a good share of the ball, but you have to do something with it. They were neat and tidy, as expected, and they’re clearly a good footballing side, but their best two chances (the aforementioned disallowed effort and Blake hitting the post) sprung from our mistakes.
In contrast, once Keane had seen his first one-on-one with Jensen saved after ten minutes, we looked dangerous every time we attacked. At 2-0 in the second half we seemed to drifting away mentally, as shown by Cudicini having a shocker to drop a routine save, allowing Blake to hit the post. The crowd sensed that Spurs had taken their foot off the pedal and voiced their disquiet, and Jenas instantly reacted with an incisive pass for Lennon, a pass inside for Keano and quick as a flash, 3-0, thank you very much.
The gloss of a fourth and then a fifth was nice, and more realistically reflected the chances Spurs had created. We played some great stuff, and ultimately it was a comfortable win.
Star man: Robbie Keane - I guess when a guy scores four you have to give it to him, and his movement caused problems for Burnley all afternoon. Could have easily scored six goals. A mention in dispatches for Tom Huddlestone though, who was quite superb stepping out from defence.
Worst performance: Carlo Cudicini – unbelievable error that almost gifted Burnely a lifeline
Best moment: The third goal – Keane’s second – which settled the game once and for all. Great pass by Jenas inside the full-back for Lennon, simple cut-back and a perfect top corner finish by Keano.
Best chant: At 4-0: “It’s just like playing West Ham...”
Oppo fans: Quite boisterous at times. They hung in there.
Andy Knaggs, www.spurs-web.com
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STOKE CITY 0 - Manchester United 2
Desperately disappointing performance. No heart, no commitment, the crowd were shamefully quiet, the team sat on the edge of their own box ALL match. Even after we went two down we still didn't look to attack and just accepted defeat.
I don't mind losing, as long as we go down fighting. What makes the manager and players think we can sit on our own penalty box for 90 minutes and defend a goalless draw is beyond me, it happens every time we play the 'Big 4'. How did Burnley beat Man Utd, by attacking them! If you go at them, they don't like it.
Sit back and give Scholes, Giggs and Rooney, when he drops deep, the space to do what they want then you will get beaten. We may lose 9 times out of ten to them but if we use the tactics we did we will lose ten times out of ten, so what's the point in playing?
Star man: Robert Huth. Best of a bad bunch! Kept Nani out of the game and one of the few to put in an acceptable performance
Worst performer: This is harder than the above question. Shawcross was all over the shop, Whitehead did a good headless chicken act but Whelan was the worst on show by a mile
Best moment: The final whistle! I was willing it from the moment we kicked off and even more so when Berbatov scored as we still wouldn't have scored, or even had a shot, by now
Tactics: Way too negative. Every time we play a big side he reverts to sitting back. Five across the midfield, or four with Ethers playing off Kits could have worked if the midfield had pushed up ut we basically had a back 9 across the box for the whole game. Kitson was isolated and had no support and Scholes and Fletcher had all the room they wanted to pick passes and dictate the game.
Chant of the game: Our fans were awful and the best chant was from the visitors 'Where's your famous atmosphere?' The answer: it went home after five minutes
Oppo fans: Louder than our lot, which wouldn't have been hard. They were pretty quiet themselves until they scored but bounced around for the last twenty.
Daniel Buxton, www.stokecity-mad.co.uk
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SUNDERLAND 5 – Wolves 2
Well, that has to be one of the strangest games I have ever witnessed, Bruce made the changes to the back four that the fans and myself had hoped for, dropping Ferdinand for the beast John Mensah, Da Silva at right back and Richardson on the left.
The ref was crap even though he did award us two penalties and missed one for them, the first came in the opening 10 minutes of the game one of Wolves defenders took down Darren Bent in the box, and Bent put it away in the bottom left corner. The game became very, very scrappy from both sides, which resulted in the ref giving out at least 4 yellow cards that I can remember may be more and Cattlermole having to come off injured after getting himself stuck into a few hard tackles. We also gave the ball away far too easily, and our defending yet again was poor even after Bruce had swapped things around.
The second half and the second goal came similar to the first as Bent was again taken down in the Wolves box, but this time very unselfishly Bent give the spot kick to big Kenywne Jones who sent there keeper the wrong way and put us 2-0 up.
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MAN CITY 3 West Ham 1
~Monday night game~
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Stoke City 0 - 2 MANCHESTER UNITED
Manchester United’s dominant display at the Britannia Stadium helped Sir Alex Ferguson’s side claim top spot in the Premier League for the first time this season. Goals from Dimitar Berbatov and John O’Shea were enough to see off the Potteries team, whose fans provided plenty of atmosphere on a day when the home side was as ineffective as United was good. But once again United was heavily indebted to the 35-year-old Ryan Giggs for providing the creativity to win the match in the closing stages.
United began brightly, creating a flurry of chances in the first ten minutes of the match. The pattern set in early, with the home side ready to ‘park the bus’, while allowing United’s players time and space. In particular, the returning Paul Scholes was given room to spray passes long and short in search of an opening.
But while United dominated possession and territory, Ferguson’s outfit was unable to create enough clear openings in the opening forty-five. The clearest of which fell to Antonio Valencia, restored to the side after sitting out the Manchester derby. Beating former United trainee Ryan Shawcross, Valencia was able to draw Sorensen in the Stoke goal, before chipping tamely wide. The weaknesses in Valencia’s finishing, underscored here, is behind just seven goals in two years at Wigan Athletic.
Wayne Rooney and the infuriating Nani also went close as United laid siege to Stoke's goal.
On 55 minutes came the pivotal moment of the match, with Luis Nani being replaced by the effervescent Giggs. It took just five minutes for the Welshman to underline his quality, with a sublime run and pass across the six-yard area, allowing Berbatov to score with a tap-in.
O’Shea and Giggs then combined to complete the win. The Welshman’s in-swinging free-kick met by the Irishman’s forehead on his 350th appearance for United. O’Shea's delight at scoring unsurprising as he hadn’t hit the net in over two years.
The authoritative win put United top of the table, following Chelsea’s surprise loss at Wigan Athletic. The reds have now won seven in a row after the defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor. And with three home games to come before the trip to Anfield in October, United has hit Championship-winning form far earlier in the season than is normal for Ferguson’s side.
Star man: Paul Scholes was given the time and space to dictate the tempo of the game. While the Ginger Prince doesn't score the goals of his youth, there's still no better passer in the English game. Stoke couldn't live with him.
Worst performer: Nani. If Ferguson was being generous to the Portuguese winger after the match by saying he did "well", then his praise of Ryan Giggs was also a thinly veiled condemnation of Nani’s total inability to harness his considerable talent into an all-round package. More than two years into the former Sporting player’s stint at Old Trafford and Nani has hardly progressed.
Best moment: Ryan Giggs run and pass to set up Berbatov for the easy goal. I hope he never retires.
Tactics: Spot on. United went for the kill with an attacking formation against a team that has a good home record. That Stoke was reduced to pumping long balls forward played into United's hands.
Chant of the game: "This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small, this is how it feels when you win nothing at all...."
Oppo fans: Credit where it is due, the Britannia crowd creates a great noise and they weren't put off by the comprehensive defeat.
Ed Barker, www.unitedrant.co.uk
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PORTSMOUTH 0 Everton 1
(Still awaiting match report)
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SPURS 5 Burnley 0
But for the heroics of Burnley keeper Brian Jensen and some poor finishing, this could quite literally have been double figures. I’ve heard Owen Coyle bemoaning the penalty and the disallowed goal they had, and he’s right that Burnley had a good share of the ball, but you have to do something with it. They were neat and tidy, as expected, and they’re clearly a good footballing side, but their best two chances (the aforementioned disallowed effort and Blake hitting the post) sprung from our mistakes.
In contrast, once Keane had seen his first one-on-one with Jensen saved after ten minutes, we looked dangerous every time we attacked. At 2-0 in the second half we seemed to drifting away mentally, as shown by Cudicini having a shocker to drop a routine save, allowing Blake to hit the post. The crowd sensed that Spurs had taken their foot off the pedal and voiced their disquiet, and Jenas instantly reacted with an incisive pass for Lennon, a pass inside for Keano and quick as a flash, 3-0, thank you very much.
The gloss of a fourth and then a fifth was nice, and more realistically reflected the chances Spurs had created. We played some great stuff, and ultimately it was a comfortable win.
Star man: Robbie Keane - I guess when a guy scores four you have to give it to him, and his movement caused problems for Burnley all afternoon. Could have easily scored six goals. A mention in dispatches for Tom Huddlestone though, who was quite superb stepping out from defence.
Worst performance: Carlo Cudicini – unbelievable error that almost gifted Burnely a lifeline
Best moment: The third goal – Keane’s second – which settled the game once and for all. Great pass by Jenas inside the full-back for Lennon, simple cut-back and a perfect top corner finish by Keano.
Best chant: At 4-0: “It’s just like playing West Ham...”
Oppo fans: Quite boisterous at times. They hung in there.
Andy Knaggs, www.spurs-web.com
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STOKE CITY 0 - Manchester United 2
Desperately disappointing performance. No heart, no commitment, the crowd were shamefully quiet, the team sat on the edge of their own box ALL match. Even after we went two down we still didn't look to attack and just accepted defeat.
I don't mind losing, as long as we go down fighting. What makes the manager and players think we can sit on our own penalty box for 90 minutes and defend a goalless draw is beyond me, it happens every time we play the 'Big 4'. How did Burnley beat Man Utd, by attacking them! If you go at them, they don't like it.
Sit back and give Scholes, Giggs and Rooney, when he drops deep, the space to do what they want then you will get beaten. We may lose 9 times out of ten to them but if we use the tactics we did we will lose ten times out of ten, so what's the point in playing?
Star man: Robert Huth. Best of a bad bunch! Kept Nani out of the game and one of the few to put in an acceptable performance
Worst performer: This is harder than the above question. Shawcross was all over the shop, Whitehead did a good headless chicken act but Whelan was the worst on show by a mile
Best moment: The final whistle! I was willing it from the moment we kicked off and even more so when Berbatov scored as we still wouldn't have scored, or even had a shot, by now
Tactics: Way too negative. Every time we play a big side he reverts to sitting back. Five across the midfield, or four with Ethers playing off Kits could have worked if the midfield had pushed up ut we basically had a back 9 across the box for the whole game. Kitson was isolated and had no support and Scholes and Fletcher had all the room they wanted to pick passes and dictate the game.
Chant of the game: Our fans were awful and the best chant was from the visitors 'Where's your famous atmosphere?' The answer: it went home after five minutes
Oppo fans: Louder than our lot, which wouldn't have been hard. They were pretty quiet themselves until they scored but bounced around for the last twenty.
Daniel Buxton, www.stokecity-mad.co.uk
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SUNDERLAND 5 – Wolves 2
Well, that has to be one of the strangest games I have ever witnessed, Bruce made the changes to the back four that the fans and myself had hoped for, dropping Ferdinand for the beast John Mensah, Da Silva at right back and Richardson on the left.
The ref was crap even though he did award us two penalties and missed one for them, the first came in the opening 10 minutes of the game one of Wolves defenders took down Darren Bent in the box, and Bent put it away in the bottom left corner. The game became very, very scrappy from both sides, which resulted in the ref giving out at least 4 yellow cards that I can remember may be more and Cattlermole having to come off injured after getting himself stuck into a few hard tackles. We also gave the ball away far too easily, and our defending yet again was poor even after Bruce had swapped things around.
The second half and the second goal came similar to the first as Bent was again taken down in the Wolves box, but this time very unselfishly Bent give the spot kick to big Kenywne Jones who sent there keeper the wrong way and put us 2-0 up.
Some poor defending by us allowed Wolves back into the game getting after a shot that was palmed away by Gordon only to bounced off John Mensah’s chest and into the back of the net. It was all a bit surreal it took the Wolves fans a good few seconds to realise that the ball was in before they started celebrating. Wolves second goal was even stranger than the first, especially the lead up to it.
Left-back Richardson, under pressure from a Wolves player, passed back the ball which could of made the book of brainless play by Anton Ferdinand. Over-hitting the ball, it went straight past Gordon heading for the goal, the keeper had to dive across to palm it away preventing it going in. The ref had to give an indirect free kick for the handle of the back pass. The free kick was taken from around the penalty spot, every Sunderland player apart from Bent was on the Sunderland goal line. The kick was taken the ball bounced around a few players then ended up at Kevin Doyle's feet who put it in the goal. It was annoying for the Sunderland fans as Doyle had been going down like he was in the cast of Platoon and the ref kept falling for it hook, line and sinker.
The Sunderland fans were now hoping for full-time and would have settled for the draw. Wolves seemed to have the upper hand and the ref was giving them everything. But then Jones changed the game around with a cracking goal, blasting the ball from outside the box past two Wolves defenders and keeper, 3-2 Sunderland.
A few minutes later Sunderland got a corner, which Sunderland defender Michael Turner caught a blinding header putting the ball in the back of the net, any forward would have been over the moon with scoring that one, 4-2 Sunderland.
Credit to Wolves they kept on battling, although Doyle's diving school had caught on to the rest of his team-mates and the ref was happy to give them everything. It was nail-biting even though we had a two-goal lead, with 5 minutes of extra time. Darren Bent put the game to bed though by putting in a 5th and final goal which took a deflection as it went in.
Star man: Darren Bent was outstanding, are you watching Capello!
Worst performer: The Ref. Yes, he give us two penalties and Wolves could have had one too which wasn’t given, but he spoilt the game.
Best moment: Jones' second goal.
Tactics: This was a weird match, but again our defending was poor, even though we had three changes at the back.
Chant of the game: "Who are ya? Who are ya?" Going back and forth from home and away fans after the goals.
Oppo fans: Seemed a good bunch of fans.
Daryl Baker, www.Sunderland-Mad.co.uk
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Man City 3 WEST HAM 1
In a game that, on paper, favoured the home side, the opening flourishes were all City. Our former hero Carlos Tevez busied himself in the West Ham penalty area, linking up well with SWP and Martin Petrov who was making his return to first team action in over a year. Tevez opened the scoring on 4 minutes following a cross from Petrov; he duly apologised to the 900 West Ham faithful behind Rob Green’s goal.
It was pretty much consistent Man City pressure at that stage, our only efforts in the opening 20 minutes coming from Alessandro Diamanti and Mark Noble.
Realistically Tevez should have had a hat-trick before West Ham won a free kick on 22 minutes. Taken by Diamanti, it was half-cleared by Joleon Lescott to Radoslav Kovac whose shot was back-heeled into the net by Cole. Against the run of play, we had an equaliser.
What followed was a brief but enjoyable spell of West Ham possession, however normal service was soon resumed with Petrov (again) giving City the lead with a well-taken free kick on 31 minutes. As we neared half time, Carlton Cole was penalised for a foul just before he slotted the ball to Scott Parker whose goal was somewhat harshly disallowed.
The first half saw a succession of City corners - six to our none - and a little bit of play-acting by Julien Faubert who obviously still holds a grudge against Craig Bellamy.
Diamanti showing skill but without that final touch; Herita Illunga and James Tomkins strong in defence. Parker and Jimenez still industrious and the lone figure of Cole fighting for every ball. Tevez showing why so many clubs were courting him, and Bellamy showing his strength and vigour.
The second half began with a good spell for West Ham; Diamanti and Jimenez again linking up well but with no end product. On the hour Bellamy’s industry laid on the ball for Tevez to head the ball past a helpless Rob Green. 3-1.
Bellamy, desperate to get on the score sheet against us blasted over his effort on 62 minutes and again West Ham countered. Jimenez had his shot blocked only to see Diamanti have two shots on goal within a minute. Despite going close and good build-up work, we were being outplayed and outclassed.
Diamanti was booked for West Ham and Bridge for City in what was a keenly fought game that gave both travelling and home fans good value for money. Zola made two changes on 70 minutes; Jimenez and Kovac being replaced by youngsters Zavon Hines and Junior Stanislas. Neither made any real impact. City replaced SWP with Roque Santa Cruz, making his debut, while Michael Johnson made his long-awaited return in place of Barry.
For me the man of the match was Martin Petrov, no question he was incredible for a man who has been out with a serious knee injury. Our man of the match? Diamanti gave his all, Ilunga was solid, Faubert worked hard but Cole, for me, never stopped running all night.
It finished 3-1 but the gulf between the sides was greater, We played well and can take heart from this West Ham team. We don’t look like a bottom three side, and with players returning in the coming weeks we look a decent prospect this season.
Star Man: Carlton Cole
Left-back Richardson, under pressure from a Wolves player, passed back the ball which could of made the book of brainless play by Anton Ferdinand. Over-hitting the ball, it went straight past Gordon heading for the goal, the keeper had to dive across to palm it away preventing it going in. The ref had to give an indirect free kick for the handle of the back pass. The free kick was taken from around the penalty spot, every Sunderland player apart from Bent was on the Sunderland goal line. The kick was taken the ball bounced around a few players then ended up at Kevin Doyle's feet who put it in the goal. It was annoying for the Sunderland fans as Doyle had been going down like he was in the cast of Platoon and the ref kept falling for it hook, line and sinker.
The Sunderland fans were now hoping for full-time and would have settled for the draw. Wolves seemed to have the upper hand and the ref was giving them everything. But then Jones changed the game around with a cracking goal, blasting the ball from outside the box past two Wolves defenders and keeper, 3-2 Sunderland.
A few minutes later Sunderland got a corner, which Sunderland defender Michael Turner caught a blinding header putting the ball in the back of the net, any forward would have been over the moon with scoring that one, 4-2 Sunderland.
Credit to Wolves they kept on battling, although Doyle's diving school had caught on to the rest of his team-mates and the ref was happy to give them everything. It was nail-biting even though we had a two-goal lead, with 5 minutes of extra time. Darren Bent put the game to bed though by putting in a 5th and final goal which took a deflection as it went in.
Star man: Darren Bent was outstanding, are you watching Capello!
Worst performer: The Ref. Yes, he give us two penalties and Wolves could have had one too which wasn’t given, but he spoilt the game.
Best moment: Jones' second goal.
Tactics: This was a weird match, but again our defending was poor, even though we had three changes at the back.
Chant of the game: "Who are ya? Who are ya?" Going back and forth from home and away fans after the goals.
Oppo fans: Seemed a good bunch of fans.
Daryl Baker, www.Sunderland-Mad.co.uk
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Man City 3 WEST HAM 1
In a game that, on paper, favoured the home side, the opening flourishes were all City. Our former hero Carlos Tevez busied himself in the West Ham penalty area, linking up well with SWP and Martin Petrov who was making his return to first team action in over a year. Tevez opened the scoring on 4 minutes following a cross from Petrov; he duly apologised to the 900 West Ham faithful behind Rob Green’s goal.
It was pretty much consistent Man City pressure at that stage, our only efforts in the opening 20 minutes coming from Alessandro Diamanti and Mark Noble.
Realistically Tevez should have had a hat-trick before West Ham won a free kick on 22 minutes. Taken by Diamanti, it was half-cleared by Joleon Lescott to Radoslav Kovac whose shot was back-heeled into the net by Cole. Against the run of play, we had an equaliser.
What followed was a brief but enjoyable spell of West Ham possession, however normal service was soon resumed with Petrov (again) giving City the lead with a well-taken free kick on 31 minutes. As we neared half time, Carlton Cole was penalised for a foul just before he slotted the ball to Scott Parker whose goal was somewhat harshly disallowed.
The first half saw a succession of City corners - six to our none - and a little bit of play-acting by Julien Faubert who obviously still holds a grudge against Craig Bellamy.
Diamanti showing skill but without that final touch; Herita Illunga and James Tomkins strong in defence. Parker and Jimenez still industrious and the lone figure of Cole fighting for every ball. Tevez showing why so many clubs were courting him, and Bellamy showing his strength and vigour.
The second half began with a good spell for West Ham; Diamanti and Jimenez again linking up well but with no end product. On the hour Bellamy’s industry laid on the ball for Tevez to head the ball past a helpless Rob Green. 3-1.
Bellamy, desperate to get on the score sheet against us blasted over his effort on 62 minutes and again West Ham countered. Jimenez had his shot blocked only to see Diamanti have two shots on goal within a minute. Despite going close and good build-up work, we were being outplayed and outclassed.
Diamanti was booked for West Ham and Bridge for City in what was a keenly fought game that gave both travelling and home fans good value for money. Zola made two changes on 70 minutes; Jimenez and Kovac being replaced by youngsters Zavon Hines and Junior Stanislas. Neither made any real impact. City replaced SWP with Roque Santa Cruz, making his debut, while Michael Johnson made his long-awaited return in place of Barry.
For me the man of the match was Martin Petrov, no question he was incredible for a man who has been out with a serious knee injury. Our man of the match? Diamanti gave his all, Ilunga was solid, Faubert worked hard but Cole, for me, never stopped running all night.
It finished 3-1 but the gulf between the sides was greater, We played well and can take heart from this West Ham team. We don’t look like a bottom three side, and with players returning in the coming weeks we look a decent prospect this season.
Star Man: Carlton Cole
kumb.com
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WIGAN 3 Chelsea 1
A sensational victory for the Latics, not only defeating, but outplaying table-topping Chelsea as Martinez finally discovered his best eleven.
Wigan fans arrived at the ground expecting another rout and were looking forward to five o'clock and time to go home and catch Bruce Forsyth's fancy footwork on Stricty Come Dancing.
However, Martinez made two big changes to the first eleven that was hammered away at the Emirates.
Jordi Gomez and Jason Koumas were dropped and in came Jason Scotland up top and Paul Scharner in the middle of the park.
It was an inspired change by the Latics boss. For as talented as Gomez and Koumas may be, they offer little in terms of defensive quality and that has not been counteracted by their attacking displays, of which they have offered little.
Instead, Martinez chose to give the chance to Jason Scotland up front whose power and general hold-up play caused big problems to the Chelsea defence.
Paul Scharner was also employed in an unfamiliar attacking midfield role, a position that he reveled in, producing a fine display. In particular, Scharner offered a definitive link between the back four and attack, and caused Chelsea some real problems with his aerial prowess.
Notable was the fact that the rest of the starting eleven was largely unchanged, both in terms of positive, and also the level of performance in recent weeks. What a difference two players can make?
The Latics started on the front foot with probing attacking play. Although this left them open at the back, it was refreshing to see the blue-and-white shirts flooding forward at every oportunity, rather than awaiting the inevitable Chelsea goal.
It was also a good bit of inspiration from Charles N'Zogbia, who's swift turn and cross from a short corner found Titus Bramble to head home.
A familiar story amongst the home crowd who were now expecting the Latics to crawl back into their shell and fight off any equaliser, only to sucumb at the death.
However, Bob's men did no such thing and continued to press forward and get at the heart of Chelsea. Mo Diame and Hendry Thomas were running the midfield and providing a valuable shield in front of a settled back four.
Whilst Hugo Rodallega and Charles N'Zogbia were offering a potent attacking threat to support the powerful presence of Jason Scotland up front. Scotland will have won over many of his doubters with his performance today.
The half-time whistle could not come soon enough for Carlo Ancelotti who needed to get his players on task again and fully focussed. It was therefore no suprise to see Chelsea come out with a fire in their stride early in the second period.
So much so, it took only ninety seconds for Drogba to net the equaliser with a goal that sneaked through Kirkland's legs as he diverted Malouda's cross following Melchiot's porr defence clearance.
The character then shown by the Latics was refreshing to see. So far this season there has been no spine to the team and they have really just crumbled when under any form of pressure. To come back at Chelsea following their early second-half equaliser was very pleasing to see.
Scotland brought down a long ball forward before feeding Rodallega on the left wing, he came inside, shaped to shoot, before passing inside to Charles N'Zogbia who played a delightful reverse ball inside the Chelsea full-back to the onrushing Rodallega who had continued his overlap.
The Columbian striker then proceeded to keep his head and side step the onrushing Cech who caught Rodallega's trailing leg. Penalty and a red card for the Chelsea goalkeeper.
It was the major turning point of the game and credit must be given to the referee Phil Dowd who could have easily bottled the decision, but instead gave what he saw. Rodallega dutifully despatched the penalty and the Latics didn't look back.
Chelsea were a spent force and now looked lost and thoroughly shocked. A late injury to Ashley Cole reduced Ancelotti's men to nine (they had used all their substitutes) and Paul Scharner added to icing on to the cake as he tapped in Maynor Figueroa's cross-cum-shot at the back post.
All the pressure on Martinez has now seemingly eased. The memories of the bad performances and Blackpool and Arsenal are fading. The home defeat to Wolves now cancelled out by snaring three points over Chelsea.
But perhaps most importantly, Martinez has found his best eleven. There is no room for Koumas and Gomez at this level unless they are prepared to defend and work hard for team, as both Scharner and Scotland offered.
The air around the DW Stadium has suddenly lifted from doom and gloom to the early season optimism experienced after the opening-day victory over Aston Villa.
Now is the time to enjoy our first victory over the big four in 35 attempts before what is a very important game next week away to Hull City.
Paul Farrington, WIGANER.net
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Sunderland 5 WOLVES 2
How the hell did Wolves concede 5 goals when playing so well? I suppose it was because they had a homer referee who, as well as being biased towards the home side, was blind as well. Great midfield performance from the lads, though Mancienne in defence still worries me. He clearly is not the answer. And just what has Nenad Mijijas done to be out of the side? Yes, he has no energy, but he is the best passer of the ball at the club.
Star man: Kevin Doyle getting better and better with each game. I was sceptoical when we signed him for £6 million after the crap season he had last year but that is looking like a bargain nowe
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WIGAN 3 Chelsea 1
A sensational victory for the Latics, not only defeating, but outplaying table-topping Chelsea as Martinez finally discovered his best eleven.
Wigan fans arrived at the ground expecting another rout and were looking forward to five o'clock and time to go home and catch Bruce Forsyth's fancy footwork on Stricty Come Dancing.
However, Martinez made two big changes to the first eleven that was hammered away at the Emirates.
Jordi Gomez and Jason Koumas were dropped and in came Jason Scotland up top and Paul Scharner in the middle of the park.
It was an inspired change by the Latics boss. For as talented as Gomez and Koumas may be, they offer little in terms of defensive quality and that has not been counteracted by their attacking displays, of which they have offered little.
Instead, Martinez chose to give the chance to Jason Scotland up front whose power and general hold-up play caused big problems to the Chelsea defence.
Paul Scharner was also employed in an unfamiliar attacking midfield role, a position that he reveled in, producing a fine display. In particular, Scharner offered a definitive link between the back four and attack, and caused Chelsea some real problems with his aerial prowess.
Notable was the fact that the rest of the starting eleven was largely unchanged, both in terms of positive, and also the level of performance in recent weeks. What a difference two players can make?
The Latics started on the front foot with probing attacking play. Although this left them open at the back, it was refreshing to see the blue-and-white shirts flooding forward at every oportunity, rather than awaiting the inevitable Chelsea goal.
It was also a good bit of inspiration from Charles N'Zogbia, who's swift turn and cross from a short corner found Titus Bramble to head home.
A familiar story amongst the home crowd who were now expecting the Latics to crawl back into their shell and fight off any equaliser, only to sucumb at the death.
However, Bob's men did no such thing and continued to press forward and get at the heart of Chelsea. Mo Diame and Hendry Thomas were running the midfield and providing a valuable shield in front of a settled back four.
Whilst Hugo Rodallega and Charles N'Zogbia were offering a potent attacking threat to support the powerful presence of Jason Scotland up front. Scotland will have won over many of his doubters with his performance today.
The half-time whistle could not come soon enough for Carlo Ancelotti who needed to get his players on task again and fully focussed. It was therefore no suprise to see Chelsea come out with a fire in their stride early in the second period.
So much so, it took only ninety seconds for Drogba to net the equaliser with a goal that sneaked through Kirkland's legs as he diverted Malouda's cross following Melchiot's porr defence clearance.
The character then shown by the Latics was refreshing to see. So far this season there has been no spine to the team and they have really just crumbled when under any form of pressure. To come back at Chelsea following their early second-half equaliser was very pleasing to see.
Scotland brought down a long ball forward before feeding Rodallega on the left wing, he came inside, shaped to shoot, before passing inside to Charles N'Zogbia who played a delightful reverse ball inside the Chelsea full-back to the onrushing Rodallega who had continued his overlap.
The Columbian striker then proceeded to keep his head and side step the onrushing Cech who caught Rodallega's trailing leg. Penalty and a red card for the Chelsea goalkeeper.
It was the major turning point of the game and credit must be given to the referee Phil Dowd who could have easily bottled the decision, but instead gave what he saw. Rodallega dutifully despatched the penalty and the Latics didn't look back.
Chelsea were a spent force and now looked lost and thoroughly shocked. A late injury to Ashley Cole reduced Ancelotti's men to nine (they had used all their substitutes) and Paul Scharner added to icing on to the cake as he tapped in Maynor Figueroa's cross-cum-shot at the back post.
All the pressure on Martinez has now seemingly eased. The memories of the bad performances and Blackpool and Arsenal are fading. The home defeat to Wolves now cancelled out by snaring three points over Chelsea.
But perhaps most importantly, Martinez has found his best eleven. There is no room for Koumas and Gomez at this level unless they are prepared to defend and work hard for team, as both Scharner and Scotland offered.
The air around the DW Stadium has suddenly lifted from doom and gloom to the early season optimism experienced after the opening-day victory over Aston Villa.
Now is the time to enjoy our first victory over the big four in 35 attempts before what is a very important game next week away to Hull City.
Paul Farrington, WIGANER.net
-----------------------------------------------------
Sunderland 5 WOLVES 2
How the hell did Wolves concede 5 goals when playing so well? I suppose it was because they had a homer referee who, as well as being biased towards the home side, was blind as well. Great midfield performance from the lads, though Mancienne in defence still worries me. He clearly is not the answer. And just what has Nenad Mijijas done to be out of the side? Yes, he has no energy, but he is the best passer of the ball at the club.
Star man: Kevin Doyle getting better and better with each game. I was sceptoical when we signed him for £6 million after the crap season he had last year but that is looking like a bargain nowe
Worst performer: Michael Mancienne.... again. Even though Match of the Day 2 "bigged" him up, I thought he had another bad game. Bring back Jody Craddock
Best moment: Wolves' second goal. Craig Gordon handled a back pass which led to a free kick from 6 yards. Pandemonium ensued and Doyle was there with 20 others in the box to make it 2-2, after that we fell apart but alt least it gave the Wolves fans something to cheer about, one of the few times on the day
Tactics: Back to 442. Keogh's life as a Wolves forward is nearing an end with Ebanks Blake being fit
wolf306, www.wolverhamptonwanderers-mad.co.uk
Best moment: Wolves' second goal. Craig Gordon handled a back pass which led to a free kick from 6 yards. Pandemonium ensued and Doyle was there with 20 others in the box to make it 2-2, after that we fell apart but alt least it gave the Wolves fans something to cheer about, one of the few times on the day
Tactics: Back to 442. Keogh's life as a Wolves forward is nearing an end with Ebanks Blake being fit
wolf306, www.wolverhamptonwanderers-mad.co.uk
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