Premier League weekend roundup – Gameweek 3

Manchester City saw off Hull Tigers 2-0

Is it just me or is Premier League football becoming low-scoring and high-class, with excellent football but hardly any goals? Do we define games by the no. of goals scored or the quality of the games itself?

An all time low, nine goals were scored on Saturday, followed by only four goals scored between three games on Sunday. But there was nothing to say against the quality of the games which saw only one scoreless draw.

Early on Sunday, Hull City took advantage of a rattled Manchester City from the earlier week and pressed on their rather weak defence and weary goalkeeper, Joe Hart as they threatened to cause another upset for the 2011-12 champions, who haven’t lost two consecutive games since 2010.

But even though a Danny Graham goal was termed offside, the Tigers looked determined to get their first win until new boy Alvaro Negredo (a former Hull City target) scored just after the hour followed by a sublime Yaya Toure goal.

This motivated City to turn around their all-round lacklustre performance as the Tigers kept falling back, slotting into their original role – lose against the big teams, and wait for an opportunity to earn some points with Allan McGregor making some good saves, especially when the Tigers’ defence was overcome by Argentine Sergio Aguero.

After the Toure goal, the Tigers had all but given up hope to earn a point from the game.

The only goalless draw of the weekend was when Cardiff City held Everton at home which saw both Manchester United targets, Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines starting.

Roberto Martinez’s men, including Kevin Mirallas and Phil Jagielka both squandered a number of chances offered to them while last week’s hero in City’s win, Fraizer Campbell was offered possibly the only good chance to earn 3 points. The Bluebirds though, will be happy with a point as they were pushed back and forced to defend for the most part of the game.

Southampton’s unbeaten run was brought to an end by the 19-year-old summer signing, Nathan Redmond as Norwich City grabbed their first points of the campaign at home against the Saints, who ended the match possibly short of one penalty to have been awarded to Robert Snodgrass.

The England Under-21 international had a dream outing as he quickly was able to earn the Canaries their first point against a rather fizzled out Saints, with both teams returning to their first choice line-ups, having experimented during their respective mid-week Capital One Cup wins.

Alan Pardew can breathe a sigh of relief as his club’s goal drought ended with a goal from France international Hatem Ben Arfa, four minutes before time to hand Newcastle United their first victory against Fulham.

Papiss Cisse, Yoan Gouffran and Mathieu Debuchy all saw slight chances being converted into shots on target, but saved or hitting the bar as the Magpies were constantly frustrating their own manager while the Cottagers, with the exception of Dimitar Berbatov, continued to retreat and play defensively.

Crystal Palace were able to put a smile on Ian Holloway’s face as his side also secured their first win over a ten-man Sunderland side whose captain John O’Shea was sent off for bringing down Jason Puncheon in the box. Dwight Gayle stepped up to take the penalty and was promptly celebrating.

Crystal Palace players celebrating the win

First blood was drawn by the hosts as Danny Gabbidon unknowingly deflected in a Jose Campana free kick in the first half. The second half saw an equaliser, a penalty and a last minute goal as substitute Steven Fletcher first equalised for the Black Cats, but unfortunately saw his efforts squandered as the penalty along with the last minute slip in goal by Stuart O’Keefe saw the Eagles grab their first win.

West Ham United and Stoke City were looking at another goalless draw before the referee penalised Hammers’ midfielder Mohamed Diame for pulling down Glenn Whelan eight minutes before regulatory time ended to deny them a clean sheet courtesy of a sublime free kick scored by substitute Jermaine Pennant, sailing over Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Mark Hughes’s side played the better football and thus deserved this narrow 1-0 win over the Hammers, who will be sorely looking forward to their possible hero Andy Carroll returning to play against Southampton after the international break.

Sunday saw three fixtures, two of which were highly anticipated derbies – the North London derby featuring the big spending Tottenham Hotspur (still without their troubled main man, Gareth Bale) and no spending Arsenal (surprising everyone with the return of two former players, Mathieu Flamini and Nicklas Bendtner) along with the greatest rivalry in English football, Manchester United versus Liverpool, with the latter spending much more than the former.

The second fixture was the 1st of the day along with West Brom Albion playing Swansea City, who were still searching for their first win of the season.

The biggest game of the season yet saw Liverpool becoming the only team to maintain a 100% win and clean sheet record so far into the season, as they moved to the top of the table by a lone Daniel Sturridge goal on his birthday just four minutes into the game.

Daniel Sturridge scored a goal on his birthday

The Reds were dominant throughout the first half that saw three yellows cards for Tom Cleverley, Michael Carrick and Robin van Persie along with summer signing Iago Aspas.

David Moyes proceeded to give his team his version of the Fergie hairdryer treatment at half-time as United were doubly threatening from the second-half kick off.

With introductions of Nani, Javier Hernandez and Antonio Valencia, the tempo stepped up while Brendan Rogers brought in Raheem Sterling to continue to attack. But the second half saw the Reds playing less cohesively and although the Red Devils had more possession and created more chances, Liverpool thus had won their first three games since 1993-94 season.

The Hawthorns witnessed their side’s loss against the Swans as Ben Davies scored the opening goal after nearly eight months to give his side a fighting chance against West Brom, Pablo Hernandez sealing the second before full time.

Losing to both Manchester United and Spurs, Michael Laudrup’s side needed a win to lift them from the bottom and they were provided exactly that. One notable change was Nicolas Anelka starting for the Baggies along with on loan from Manchester City winger, Scott Sinclair making the bench.

Anelka’s return and passion on the pitch created many chances along with a Sinclair free-kick but Albion were unable to score, meaning they go into the international break with one point from three matches.

The Gunners silenced their manager’s critics and fans’ clamours for signings while shrugging off injury worries as their star striker in the making, Olivier Giroud, scored for the third consecutive time to put a Gareth Bale-less but heavily strengthened by Roberto Soldado, Paulinho, Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela, Spurs behind.

Olivier Giroud scored in the North London Derby win for Arsenal

This motivated Wojciech Szcz?sny to commit to fixing his place as Arsene Wenger’s go-to goalkeeper ahead of Lukasz Fabianski as some amazing play during stoppage time against the desperate Spurs players trying to equalise was seen from the Pole.

Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla held together the midfield beautifully while Theo Walcott continued to trouble the Spurs’ defence with his sheer pace. Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker continued to be impressive and fully supporting Sczcesny while an injury to Jack Wilshere saw the return of Flamini.

Soldado and Paulinho again created chances but were unable to go through with it. Spurs ‘keeper Hugo Lloris was being continuously challenged by Ramsey, Giroud, Walcott and Cazorla as the quartet kept bringing the ball towards the opposition goal and getting shots on target, but either being deflected for a corner or saved by the goalkeeper.

All in all, week 3 ends with Liverpool at the top! Until after the international break then.

This article was written by Tanya Kini. You can view her writing regularly on her blog http://musingsandmuchmore.wordpress.com and also follow her on twitter @SportsManiac93.