Premier League weekend roundup – Gameweek 7

It was despair all around at White Hart Lane as Andre Villas-Boas’ side slumped to a massive defeat, their biggest under the Portuguese’s reign, by a spirited West Ham side in the London derby. It took 14 years for the Hammers to come away with a victory in Tottenham’s own backyard and silence all their critics who have complained about the lack of their goals.

Ricardo Vaz Te celebrates scoring West Ham’s second goal

With the injured Andy Carroll still out, it took three unknown stars of the Premier League to conjure three goals in 13 minutes as West Ham romped away with the three points. Winston Reid and James Tomkins provided Jussi Jasskelanien with good cover as Spurs lacked the biting edge that had supported them in the game against Anzhi Makhachkala in the midweek. Roberto Soldado, who still hasn’t scored a Premier League goal from open play disappointed, while Christian Eriksen and Jermain Defoe, looking to make the England cut, were kept at bay by the West Ham defense.

With Spurs controlling possession, it was in vain as Ricardo Vaz Te and Ravel Morrison continued to threaten the Spurs goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris. But the breakthrough came with 25 minutes left as Kevin Nolan mistakenly cleared Reid’s header on target but the New Zealand defender was present to push home the rebound.

With roars ringing from away fans, they continued cheering as their side made it 2-0 in five minutes after the Portuguese Vaz Te was able to collect the rebound from Lloris’ legs to send it home with a Nolan pass that slid through the Spurs defense with ease. The home side’s worries were tripled (mind the pun) when five minutes later, after AVB putting on Soldado, Ravel Morrison, a former Manchester United man, picked up the ball in his own half and locked into a one-on-one battle with Michael Dawson, sent him the wrong way and shot home to seal three wonderful and very important points for the away side.

The weekend ended with giant killers West Brom looking to complete a double after beating Manchester United, when they met Arsenal at home. The Gunners were looking to sit comfortably at the top of the table while setting a precedence for their 10th away win. But the battle at the Hawthorns was one that was fought in the midfield with the referee opting for an old fashioned approach, brushing aside most challenges and allowing the flow of the game to continue.

With the focus on Jack Wilshere, who started the game amidst mid-week reports of pictures of him smoking a cigarette, he was arguably the best player on the field for the Gunners as Mesut Ozil and striker Olivier Giroud failed to make an impact. Mathieu Flamini impressed greatly while continuing his penchant for rash challenges, earning another yellow while another Frenchman who was prolific in the last game against United, earning a goal and an assist, Morgan Amalfitano set up the first goal of the game after his corner was cleared but collected up by Youssouf Mulumbu.

This time, the Congolese made no mistake sending in a bullet cross for Claudio Yacob to head in his first Premier League goal with three minutes to go till half time. The second half saw a couple of chances being missed especially by former Gunner Nicolas Anelka, who fired a Thierry Henry-esque shot wide to the relief of Wojciech Szczesny. But it was Wilshere, who having being squashed in a number of times and poked in the eye much to the despair of watching Hodgson by the Baggies goalscorer Yacob, slotted home the equaliser.

Giroud was able to get into the game by creating the goal after holding the ball enough to back heel pass it to Tomas Rosicky, who came on for a slightly injured and unimpressive Aaron Ramsey. Rosicky needed one touch to pass to Wilshere and the latter needed an ever so slight deflection off Jonas Olsson to beat Boaz Myhill, who had been prolific so far in saving.

This result, while satisfactory for both Arsene Wenger and Steve Clarke finally, ends Arsenal’s winning streak of away matches though they are still unbeaten in 11 away matches.

This brings a two week break for the Premier League and other domestic league fans as footballers go for international duties. Two weeks without regular weekend football? How will we ever survive?