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With the international break come and gone, this report is released along with Gameweek 12 to remind everyone where the teams were placed before the final round of playoffs prompting the break and how they are placed afterwards.
Last Saturday fixtures included a controversial penalty, two regulation wins and a surprising stalemate. Liverpool remained on course to finish in the top 4 when they soundly beat Fulham at Anfield, continuing miseries for Martin Jol and his men. Double strikes from the Premier League’s top scorer, Luis Suarez both of top class, an own goal by Fernando Amorebieta that was unlucky to be in the way of what could have been the Uruguayan striker’s second consecutive hattrick and a surprising strike by Martin Skrtel rounded off a good day for the men in red.
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Saints continued their dream start in the season as they saw off a spirited Hull City who looked like they might belong in the Premier League for a while now. One of the best defence in the league, Southampton scored four times courtesy of Morgan Schneiderlin, a Rickie Lambert penalty when Steve Harper rashly challenged Adam Lallana, a strike by the captain Lallana himself and a fourth by Steven Davis. Tigers striker Yannick Sagbo was able to pull one back ten minutes after half time but the hosts were too strong for them.
Norwich City pulled off an amazing comeback against West Ham United to save their current boss’ neck while Chris Hughton could be proud of his boys who went off in half time trailing to Ravel Morrison’s goal, his third of the season. After the break, Gary Hooper equalised with a penalty when the Hammers goalkeeper brought down Hooper himself after unsuccessfully clearing a Michael Turner header. Robert Snodgrass put the hosts ahead with 20 minutes to go and Leroy Fer made sure that three points were to Carrow Road in injury time.
Aston Villa were able to brush off cobwebs in their goal scoring department as Leandro Bacuna and Libor Kozak scored in the second half to see off Cardiff City’s challenge. Being one of the other successful and newly promoted sides, the Championship winners were all fought out after the famous Welsh Derby win the week before and looked on course to continue Villa’s goal scoring drought for the 5th game running. Bacuna curled in a powerful free kick after his earlier try found him fouled while substitute Kozak headed in the second with some shoddy defending from the Bluebirds.
An interesting stalemate at home allowed Crystal Palace to end their losing run after being left with no manager, while Everton continued to struggle to score for the second game running. Romelu Lukaku was denied by a surprisingly strong Palace defence, while Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard showed no signs of injury after he had walked into the team bus mirror when the American pulled off a stunning save to deny Jerome Thomas a goal which allowed Roberto Martinez’ side to add another clean sheet, taking their tally for the season to 5 hours and 30 minutes not having a goal scored against them. Palace can take some positives from this, those also including a clean sheet.
One of those topsy turvy games that ended Saturday saw Chelsea’s unbeaten home record under the ‘Happy One’ Jose Mourinho nearly being threatened until an injury time penalty allowed Eden Hazard to equalise in what would have been another giant killing act by West Brom. Samuel Eto’o opened the scoring right at the beginning of the second half when a Hazard strike saved by Boaz Myhill turned into a loose ball that Liam Ridgewell didn’t clear. Shane Long equalised at the hour mark with another rebound off Gareth McAuley’s header not being dealt well by Petr Cech. The visitors went ahead in eight minutes with a Stephane Sessegnon strike that went past Cech. But when Steven Reid was adjudged to have brought down Ramires which what clearly looked like a dive, Chelsea and their Portuguese boss breathed a sigh of relief.
Sunday was a successful day only for one club as champions Manchester United got back on track to defend their title with a win over current table toppers Arsenal. A simple Wayne Rooney corner that found an unmarked Robin van Persie allowed the Dutchman to head it in past his former club goalkeeper and find the back of the net. Old Trafford, before ringing with the chirps of Gunners fans taunting their former star striker were now silenced in what was one of the Red Devils’ best performances with Phil Jones and Chris Smalling defending and running well. Rooney was the star of the game, while the Arsenal players looked tired after the Dortmund win and hardly any rotation in the squad due to several injuries. They missed most was Per Mertesacker, who Arsene Wenger felt is vital in defending set pieces.
Sunderland won only their second league game of the season in a highly surprising fashion beating a Manchester City team that haven’t been successful at all when on the road. Manuel Pellegrini’s side seems to lose loads of steam when away having only four points from a possible 18 points in six away games so far. A single Phil Bardsley strike, his second in two games after having netted against Southampton in the Capital One Cup, was enough to see off a City in transition. One would have expected numerous tries by City strikers Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko but the Black Cats defence was as solid as could have been, since their manager’s reputation and their life in the Premier League depended on it.
Another 1-0 scoreline sufficed for Newcastle United to win at one of the most difficult stadiums in the country, White Hart Lane. While Loic Remy scored just two minutes short of the quarter hour mark with help from his countryman Yoan Gouffran, the real star of the game was Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul. Manning the Magpies goal, he ensured that the hard work done by the midfield and defence would not go to waste. In contrast to him, the substitute Spurs goalkeeper for injured Hugo Lloris, American Brad Friedel had barely any work to do after that Remy strike. Once again, the vast attacking talent that Spurs possessed was unable to grab even a point in their own backyard.
The weekend ended in disappointment for another Welsh team and their opponents alike as the draw wasn’t a result desired by either team. Stoke City started brilliantly going ahead within 10 minutes when Jonathan Walters took advantage of a Swansea defence mistake. Stephen Ireland put the visitors ahead to lead at the interval against a below par Welsh display. But Wilfried Bony struck twice in the second half to net his 9th and 10th goal of the season while Nathan Dyer pitched in to put the hosts ahead with three minutes to go till injury time. But Swans manager Michael Laudrup will feel slightly stupid and idiotic, having seen his team give away another lead just before full time, similar to what happened earlier in the week during the Europa League game against Kuban Krasnodar. Stoke manager Mark Hughes will feel hard done with his team performing the better of the two throughout the first half and yet not glad that his team’s winless run extends with an equalising penalty by Charlie Adam when referee Robert Madley ruled that Wayne Routledge had handled a Ryan Shawcross header.
