Barclays Premier League Round Up
by DANNY O’BRIEN
looprevilpress@live.co.uk
Chelsea 4 (Hazzard 33,82, Eto’o 66, Oscar78)
Cardiff City 1 (Mutch 10)
Chelsea strolled to a comfortable 4-1 victory in the end but it wasn’t all plain sailing for Jose Mourinho’s men after David Luiz’s mistake led to Jordon Mutch slotting past Petr Cech on his 300th game for the club and putting the Blue Birds (now playing in red) into a shock lead at the Bridge. Cardiff showing they will be no pushovers this season looked confident in the first half despite having to with stand a lot of pressure from the Blues.
A moment of controversy pulled Chelsea level as Samuel Eto’o seemed to take the ball from keeper David Marshall when he bounced the ball; this led to Eden Hazard taping in when Eto’o failed to find the net, a moment which had Cardiff boss Malky Mackay furious at the final whistle.
The second half saw Chelsea dominate and where rightly rewarded for their dominance taking the lead on 66 minutes via Eto’os first goal in English football, the 32 year old showed he still has his signature sharp finish as he slotted past the helpless Marshall.
A moment of comedy occurred when Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was sent to stand for complaining to the fourth official about Cardiff taking too long to take throw ins. Instead of taking the usual place amongst the directors, Mourinho made one fans day by taking a seat next to them in the West Stand.
Victory was assured when substitute Oscar scored an absolute stunning goal on 78 minutes, the Brazilians fine form looks to continue as he scored his seventh of the season as the 19 year old launched his shot past the Cardiff keeper and into the top left corner of the net.
The game was finished off by Hazzard on 82 minutes getting his second and Chelsea’s fourth as the Belguin slid his shot under the body of Marshall to seal the three points for the Blues taking them to second in the table.
Man of the Match: – Eden Hazard.
Newcastle United 2 (Cabye 23, Dummet, 52)
Liverpool 2 (Gerrard pen 42, Sturridge 72)
Liverpool drop to third in the league after dropping points at Newcastle, the Reds who have been in great form recently fell behind to Yohan Cabaye’s curling finish on 23 minutes from 25 yards which left keeper Simon Mignolet stunned by his defenders inability to close down the French international.
Newcastle seem to have recovered from their early season slump mainly due to the inclusion of Loic Remy, the QPR loanee has been prolific since joining the Magpies in September and continued to cause the Liverpool defence problems all afternoon.
The game was turned on its head with the sending off of Mapou Yanga Mbiwa after bringing down Luis Suarez in the box after 42 minutes, the French man could have no complaints as he bundled down the Uruguayan as he was through on goal. The penalty was converted by Steven Gerrard to score his 100th premier league goal for the club.
Ten man Newcastle took a shock league during the second half via substitute Paul Dummet from a free kick whipped in from the left on 52 minutes, Dummett’s first goal for the club from only his second appearance, expect to see him in the starting eleven in the coming weeks.
Liverpool continued to press for the equaliser with The SAS partnership (Suarez and Sturridge) proving a deadly combination working well passing the ball well and creating some golden chances for the team, the closest coming from Suarez himself whose strike clipped Tim Krul’s cross bar.
The equaliser finally emerged on 72 minutes with a stunning combination between SAS, Suarez made a brilliant run down the left wing before cutting inside and placing a direct chip into Sturridge’s path which he met with a timed header.
Suarez could have completed the turn around with the final kick of the game but his free kick was parried away by keeper Tin Krul to earn his team an unlikely but well deserved point. Liverpool will feel they should have won this game, especially with the man advantage.
Man of the Match: – Steven Gerrard
Arsenal 4 (Wilshire18, Ozil 58, 88, Ramsey 82)
Norwich 1 (Howson 70)
Arsenal maintain their grip at the top of the league this week after a dominant performance against Norwich. It seems Arsene Wenger has finally managed to perfect Arsenals way of passing the ball into the net as well as actually scoring this season and nowhere is it more visible then in this game especially with Jack Wilshire’s first goal, a contender for goal of the season, the England international capped off a superb team move which effortlessly carved open the Norwich defence.
The only person that kept the scoring to a minimum for the Canaries was their keeper John Ruddy who produced several crucial saves throughout the first half including two close range saves that denied the in form Olivier Giroud.
The lead was doubled early in the first half as Mesut Ozil headed in from Giroud’s cross; the German playmaker is a key part in transforming Arsenal into a real force in this season’s title picture.
The only criticism of Arsenals play this season is that they let teams back into games which should have been finished off earlier and they were guilty of this yet again when Norwich struck back via Johnny Howson on 70 minutes when Mertesacker was unable to get the ball away.
Arsenal finished off the game with two goals in the final ten minutes of the match, Ramsey first cutting inside the defence twice to score his ninth of the season before the points where wrapped up by Ozil who scored his second with a tap in after a superb bit of team work.
Arsenal continue to show their early season dominance and show no sign of slowing down any time soon.
Man of the match: – Mesut Ozil
Southampton (Lallana 89)
Manchester United (Robin Van Persie 26)
David Moyes horrid start to his managerial career with Manchester United continues as his side throw away the lead in the dying minutes of the game against Southampton. The Reds have been shaky under Moyes since he took over from Sir Alex Ferguson especially at the back which Southampton exploited early on with Dani Osvaldo coming testing De Gea early on, in retrospect the striker should have done better with his shot but De Gea did make a good save.
The only satisfaction for Moyes is that he has Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie back on form and the two combined for Uniteds goal, a great ball from wonder kid Adnan Januzaj who played a superb ball through to Rooney only to be denied by Boruc in the Southampton goal. RVP was quick on the follow up and smashed the ball into the far corner to give his team the lead.
In truth this is a game United should have won. Rooney hit the bar twice in the second half and the team seemed to struggle with the offside trap as they were caught far too often. When United did get efforts on target it was the superb keeping of Artur Boruc that kept denying them especially the fine saves that denied Rooney and Januzaj in the second half.
Moyes will face questions about his choice of substitutions in the game, especially bringing on Chris Smalling for Wayne Rooney and the change of Danny Welbeck for an out of form Marouane Fellani when United could have easily scored another goal.
Southampton snatched a point from a corner swinged in from the right met by Lovren who headed goal wards only to hit Adam Lallana on the heel and pass David De Gea. Southampton where maybe lucky to get something at Old Trafford but in doing so they’ve increased the pressure on David Moyes.
Man of the Match: – Artur Boruc
West Ham United 1 (Vaz Te 58)
Manchester City 3 (Aguero 16, 51, Silva 80)
West Ham where brought right back down to earth after their surprising 3-0 victory over Spurs as Manchester City finally record their first away victory of the season with a comfortable 3-1 victory.
It only took the visitors 16 minutes to open the scoring when a Fernandinho through ball parted the Hammers defence allowing Sergio Aguero to run onto and strike the ball past Jussi Jasskelainen.
City continued their dominance throughout the first half, constantly making West Ham lose possession in dangerous areas and if it hadn’t been for Jasskelainen, this game could have been wrapped before the break.
City doubled their lead early on in the second half when Aguero was not picked up by the West Ham defence and headed in from David Silva’s free kick. The defending was especially poor from this free kick and the Hammers where punished by the Argentine striker.
West Ham did manage to pull a goal back, Ricardo Vaz Te managing a impressive bicycle kick in the six yard box after Stewart Downing managed to put the ball back in after City thought they had cleared.
But there was no comeback on the cards as City asserted their dominance, Negrado first smashing a shot against the underside of the bar before Aguero once again latched onto a through ball to put through David Silva who confirmed the points.
Man of the Match: – Sergio Aguero
Swansea 4 (Bardsley OG 57, De Guzman 58, Bony pen 64, Chico 80)
Sunderland 0
If new manager Gus Poyet has an enormous task on his hands keeping Sunderland in the league after this horror show at the Liberty Stadium.
In a very dull first half however, Sunderland where the better team with Swansea failing to find their feet in the game allowing Sunderland to come closest to scoring when Phil Bardsley smashed the ball high over the Swansea goal.
As soon as Bardsley put into his own net when Jonathan De Guzman’s corner cannoned off his thigh into the net beating his own keeper, Sunderland began to crumble.
De Guzman doubled the Swans advantage less than a minute later with a superb curling effort that no keeper in the world could’ve saved, he could have had a second not too long after but was denied by a great Kieran Westwood save.
Sunderlands misery was confirmed when Leon Britton was fouled in the box by Craig Gardner leading to Wilfred Bony converting to make it 3-0. Sunderland did create some chances but the majority fell to Fabio Borini who seems to have carried over his form from last season.
Chico finished the game with a header from another De Guzman corner to make it 4-0 and to keep Sunderland routed to the bottom of the league. After this performance it is likely that Gus Poyet has one of the most unenviable jobs in British football.
Man of the match: – Jonathan De Guzman
Everton 2 (Miralles 8, Pienaar 57)
Hull City 1 (Sagbo 30)
Everton seem to be enjoying life under Roberto Martinez following their victory over recently promoted Hull. Martinez’s men have only lost once this season and seemed to embrace their manager’s unique passing style.
The blues only took eight minutes to open the scoring, Kevin Miralles’ shot from outside the box needed his own team mate Gareth Barry’s heels to divert it past the helpless McGregor who could no nothing but stand and watch as the ball rolled into his left hand corner.
Hull had striker Danny Graham stretchered off shortly afterwards leaving them with only Yannick Sagbo up front, however on this performance they shouldn’t worry too much as he managed to pull the Tigers back level on the half an hour mark.
Steven Pienaar secured the victory for Everton with a super sub performance scoring after only being on the pitch for 27 seconds after latching on to Miralles’s ball from the right.
Everton could have made the win comfortable at the death but Arouna Kone missed a sitter when he was through on goal but his shot could only cannon off the right post.
Man of the Match: – Kevin Miralles
Stoke City 0
West Bromwich Albion 0
West Brom where left cursing the penalty decision that never was as they and stoke played out one of the most one sided 0-0 draws of the season.
In a game completely dominated by the visitors it was only Stoke keeper Asmir Begovic who kept the Potters in the game by pulling off saves to deny almost everyone in the West Brom team.
With Begovic on form it seemed that maybe Stoke could maybe steal a goal on the break but sadly this is a Stoke team who seem to be allergic to goals, in eight games Mark Hughes team have only managed to find the net four times, this is becoming a major problem for Stoke, a problem that needs sorting to have any chance of a decent finish this season.
This leaves West Brom undefeated on their travels but Steve Clarke and everyone bar match referee Howard Webb thought West Brom had a stone wall penalty when Youssouf Mulumbu was took down in the box yet all protests where waved away by Webb.
Stoke’s lack of fire power was clear up front when their closest chance came in the second half for midfielder Charlie Adam who attempted a chip from 50 yards over the West Brom keeper Myhill who managed to tip the ball over the bar.
West Brom should have won the game late on when Sessengeon managed to go around every player in the defence before placing a tame shot straight at Begovic.
Stoke survive the onslaught but if they don’t find any goals soon they will be in serious trouble, they can’t keep on relying on Begovic to save them all season.
Man of the Match: – Asmir Begovic
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