Premier League Round-up – Gameweek 2

Arsenal were top performers of the weekend

Premier League fans were treated to a mid-week fixture rearranged from August 31st because of the UEFA Super Cup to be played between Chelsea, under Jose Mourinho (Europa League winners under Rafael Benitez) and Bayern Munich, under Pep Guardiola (Champions League winners under Jupp Heynckes), La Liga fans will be thus eagerly waiting for a rehash of the earlier El Clasico between ex Real Madrid and Barcelona managers with different teams.

But while Chelsea were expecting an easy contest with Aston Villa even after their upset of the Gunners at home, the midweek fixture was nothing short of entertaining!

Paul Lambert, possibly still stinging from the horrific 8-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in the previous season, was determined to get his team forward in terms of creating chances and being positive. And they were on the verge of taking away a point from the game even though they conceded an own goal courtesy of Antonio Luna who was unable to move his feet away after Brad Guzan had blocked curling shot from Eden Hazard. But try as they had, the Blues did not find easier ways to score as fluently as they had in the earlier fixture.

The Special One’s record of unbeaten Premier League matches at home was in danger when Gabriel Agbonlahor, doggedly followed by Branislav Ivanovic on the left, tapped one to Christian Benteke who slotted an equaliser past Petr Cech just before half time.

Mourinho can thank referee Kevin Friend for not awarding his Serbian defender another yellow card when a late pulling of Benteke with an arm in the box had earned him one already. But Jose was happy when moments later the Serbian himself headed in a Frank Lampard free kick, freely, to put Chelsea ahead and give his boss a sigh of relief.

Changes were made when Fernando Torres was removed from the squad, Demba Ba was played upfront along with Chelsea’s Player of the Season Juan Mata starting. Both starters were replaced by Romelu Lukaku and Andre Schurrle respectively who ultimately did not add to the score-line. All in all, everything is safe again at Stamford Bridge, Blues fans.

The tempo of the opening weekend came down by several notches as teams with fixtures on Saturday, with the exception of Arsenal at Craven Cottage, either managed a one goal win or a yawning draw. Liverpool continued their golden clean sheet run with a Daniel Sturridge goal at Aston Villa as the hosts didn’t manage to recreate the magic that had troubled the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, troubling new keeper Simon Mignolet only a few times.

Newcastle United and West Ham United along with Everton and West Bromwich Albion had scoreless draws which saw many chances not reach the back of the net for lack of a better description, the Baggies reeling from the absence of main man Nicolas Anelka after his brother-agent passed away earlier in the week.

While new boys on the block, Hull City, managed to register their first win of the campaign, thanks to a penalty from Robert Brady even though 5 minutes later Yannick Sagbo was sent off against Norwich City, while Crystal Palace continued to miss their talisman, Wilfried Zaha, as they lost rather tamely 2-1 to Stoke City with former Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh scoring for the Eagles as Charlie Adam and Ryan Shawcross did for Mark Hughes’ men.

Southampton and Sunderland had a goal draw with Jose Fonte scoring a late equaliser after new signing Emanuele Giaccherini had opened the scoring for the Black Cats very early in the game.

Arsenal bounced back from their shock home defeat against Villa by thumping Fenerbahce and continued their brilliant form from their Champions League playoff, away leg in Turkey amidst pounding rain in Craven Cottage as Fulham were dismantled by Lukas Podolski’s brace following Olivier Giroud’s opener again.

Aaron Ramsey set up the opener while Wojciech Szcezsny was denied a clean sheet again despite brilliant saves and rebound saves until Darren Bent, on loan from Aston Villa, managed to sneak a goal in past the Pole in front of new owner Shahid Khan. David Stockdale continued to deny Theo Walcott and Adel Taarabt remained a strong presence countering Ramsey for the Cottagers.

Cardiff City created magic at home

Sunday held only two fixtures, one at White Hart Lane and the other in the second Welsh stadium for the 2012 champions, the Blue side of Manchester. Andre Villas-Boas’ record signing, Roberto Soldado continued his good fortune for the Spurs as he netted in the only goal of the game as Andros Townsend fell rather tamely in the box from a slight nudge off Jonjo Shelvey to give the home side a penalty, the second week running and maintain their 100% record versus Michael Laudrup’s Swansea City.

Paulinho and former Arsenal target Etienne Capoue both impressed by creating many chances but the Brazilian missed many shots including a possible goal when Michel Vorm had left the goal half open. Spurs fans were enraged when a penalty wasn’t given on an earlier challenge on Townsend bodychecked by Shelvey a minute before the 1st half ended. But they were soon rewarded by a soft penalty from the former Valencia man.

The Swans were able to inject some life into the game when record signing Wilfried Bony came on, the only scorer from the United game but weren’t able to equalise as Spurs captain Micheal Dawson was able to contain Swans star striker Michu like his United counterparts did last week.

Another Premier League upset so early in the season was on the cards when Aron Gunnarsson slot an equaliser just before an hour past a listless Joe Hart for his newly promoted side, Cardiff City after an Edin Dzeko superb shot had given the Citizens a lead early in the second half. This motivated the Welsh side to tighten up their defence and therefore assist Fraizer Campbell, their Sunday hero, who troubled a depleted City defence and exposed their dependency on injured captain Vincent Kompany.

Campbell’s pace was too much for Javi Garcia, Pablo Zabaleta and Joleon Lescott and the Bluebirds should have been leading at half time. The second half saw the City defence struggling to even pick out regular passes as two goals were scored by the former Manchester United man off shoddy marking from Zabaleta. While the equaliser off Gunnarsson was a rebound from Campbell’s saved shot by Hart, the next two goals were football at its best.

The Championship winners showed that they weren’t pushovers and thus City leave South Wales with an abysmal, all loss record in three games. City can find solace that one of their new signings, Alvaro Negredo scored his first goal in stoppage time, but a tad bit late and was no more than a consolation.

What do you get when you have two newly appointed managers eager to establish themselves, two strong defences, two intelligent goalkeepers, competing midfielders, numerous Golden Boot winners, an enthusiastic crowd in a historic venue and a transfer target? A goalless draw? That is not what everyone expected when around the world, people tuned into the first blockbuster fixture of the 2013-14 season, Manchester United, defending champions up against potential champions Chelsea.

While the press conferences were dominated by whether Wayne Rooney would start, there were individual battles to address – Robin van Persie vs John Terry, Ivanovic, Gary Cahill and Cech; Nemanja Vidic, Phil Jones, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand vs. Hazard, Schurrle, Kevin De Bruyne and Oscar; Michael Carrick vs. Lampard and Rooney vs. the United home fans.

Realistically both sides were aiming at taking at least a point away from the match and they did just that, except not the goal flurry that everyone expected. It took United 22 minutes to create a shot and relatively the same amount of time for the Blues. Both set of strikers, van Persie and Schurrle were kept quiet while Rooney sparkled amidst the transfer saga and questions over his fitness. Whatever Chelsea did United counter-attacked and vice versa.

It was like a convoluted maths problem that ultimately results in the answer being 0. In the dying embers of a fire that barely provided any warmth, Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley provided some solace but were not on target while Ashley Cole was lucky not to be booked himself even though he went down trying to get a penalty. It was finally a rather tame Monday Night Football (MNF) match, far below everyone’s expectations.