Premier League in August

Ahh. It's nice to get back to blogging after my 3 month or so hiatus, which was completely my fault, if I'm being honest. I was going to do posts about NHL and NBA finals after they were finished, but I forgot and then by the time I remembered it was far too late to upload them. As you may have gathered, this post will be about the opening month of the Premier League season.
        The opening weekend was a bit poor, to be honest. Liverpool only drew at home, there were 3 0-0 draws, and Gervinho was sent off on his debut. So not great. It was nice to see Bolton thrash newly promoted QPR 4-0, but except that, it was a pretty dull weekend. Obviously Man City winning by the same margin as Bolton was fun to watch, but let's face it; Tonga have more chance of winning the upcoming Rugby World Cup (which I may or may not post about) than Swansea did of winning that match. It was pretty routine for City, with debutante Sergio 'Kun' Aguero putting the icing on the cake with a 30-yard screamer, after he had already opened his Man City account 15 minutes earlier when he tapped in a the back post. Only Bolton, Wolves, Man Utd and Man City won, so they went in the top 4, whilst QPR, Swansea City, West Brom and Blackburn occupied the bottom 4 spots. The remaining 12 teams loitered around mid-table after gaining 1 point in their opening game.
              Week 2 was considerably better than week 1, as the matches being far more entertaining. The Tyne-Wear derby between Newcastle and Sunderland was a relatively good game, despite the scoreline suggesting opposite. A Ryan Taylor speciality free kick was enough to give Newcastle bragging rights, at least until the next derby. Liverpool's game at the Emirates Stadium was pretty feisty game. Liverpool were on top for a lot of the game, though Arsenal were still in the game. That all changed when Arsenal received their second sending off of the season after Frimpong was sent off for a horrible challenge on Lucas. Some, including myself, would debate that he should have been sent off much earlier on in the game, when he first got booked. Suarez and Meireles were promptly brought on and then Liverpool took the lead when Ramsey forgot which way he was supposed to be heading after good work by Suarez. To be fair, it was unlucky, but they all count. A great passing move involving Lucas, Meireles and Suarez confirmed Liverpool's victory in the 90th minute when Suarez tapped in. In the other games, Swansea and Wigan drew 0-0, with Ben Watson missing a penalty for Wigan. QPR bounced back after their hammering last week to impressively beat Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park. Cech-less Chelsea secured their first win of the season, beating West Brom 2-1 at home. Despite WBA dominating, especially in the 1st half, they could only score once, with Shane Long scoring after 4 minutes. That was never going to be enough, because even on a bad day, Chelsea are still fantastic at home and it takes a special performance to beat them there. Villa eased past Blackburn in their first home game of the season, winning 3-1. Even Emile Heskey scored. Wolves kept up their 100% record, beating Fulham 2-0 at home. Stoke denied Norwich a first victory of the campaign when Kenwyne Jones equalised for them in the 94th minute. Bolton and Man City played out an entertaining game at the Reebok Stadium, with City triumphing 3-2. City scored in the 26th and 37th minutes, but Klasnic scored for the home team just 2 minutes after City went 2-0 up. Edin Dzeko scored early on in the 2nd half to restore Man City's 2-goal lead. Bolton legend Kevin Davies scored with 25 minutes left, but City held on to claim their 2nd victory of the season. Manchester United also kept their 100% start by beating Spurs 3-0, with Welbeck, Anderson and Rooney all scoring in the space of 26 second-half minutes.
                 Week 3 saw 31 goals go in, making it the highest-scoring weekend to date this season. There was only two 0-0 draws, which came in Wales and Birmingham. Swansea drew with Sunderland whilst Aston Villa drew with Wolves. QPR couldn't build upon last weeks impressive victory at Everton as they lost 2-0 at the hands of (or rather feet) Franco Di Santo and Wigan Athletic. A fantastic volley then a deflected drive by the former Chelsea striker secured 3 points for the Lactics. Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam both scored their first goals, with their respective weaker foot, for Liverpool as they overcame Bolton at home 3-1. Martin Skrtel scored the Red's other goal, and Ivan Klasnic scored a consolation for Bolton in the 92nd minute. Chelsea also won 3-1 at home, as they edged past a stern Norwich challenge. Bosingwa's scorcher from 25 yards gave Chelsea an early lead, but an awful error by Hilario meant Grant Holt could hook the ball into the open Chelsea net to draw the teams level. 'Keeper Ruddy was then unluckily sent off for Norwich when he brought down Ramires, who went down rather easily. Lampard hammered the ball home for Chelsea, and then in the 101st minute, Chelsea new-boy Juan Mata curled home from 12 yards out to secure victory for the home team. There was so much extra time because Didier Drogba suffered a nasty head injury soon after Norwich equalised, so he had to be treated on the pitch. It was later confirmed he had been out cold on the pitch and was also suffering from concussion. Blackburn quite literally paid the penalty in their 1-0 home defeat to Everton - both Junior Hoilett and Mauro Formica had missed penalties for Blackburn, before Mikel Arteta showed them how it's done by tucking away his controversially awarded spot-kick in the 92nd minute. The 4 matches on Sunday produced 20 goals between them, with half of them coming at Old Trafford. But we'll leave that 'til last. In the other games, West Brom were unluckily beaten by Stoke 1-0 at home, with Shotton scoring the winner in the 89th minute. Newcastle kept their unbeaten run going with a 2-1 home victory against Fulham. Leon Best, signed from Coventry last year, scored both of Newcastle's goals, whilst Clint Dempsey grabbed a late consolation for Fulham 2 minutes before the end. Now to the higher scoring games. Edin Dzeko silenced his doubters when he scored 4 goals in Man City's 5-1 destruction of Spurs at White Hart Lane. Sergio Aguero bagged City's other goal and Younes Kaboul scored for Spurs. Arsenal were well and truly massacred by an impressive Man Utd side, who ran in 8 goals compared to Arsenal's 2. Wayne Rooney scored a hat trick for the champions, including 2 beautifully curled free kicks, and new signing Ashley Young bagged a brace. Danny Welbeck opened the scoring and looked in fine form until he was forced out of the game due to injury in the 35th minute, and Nani and Park also got on the scoresheet for United. Walcott scored on the stroke of half time after another error by new United 'keeper De Gea to give Arsenal hope at 3-1, but United ran riot and it was 6-1 before Van Persie scored in the 74th minute, having had his penalty saved in the 1st half. Jenkinson was sent off for Arsenal in the 77th minute, to make sure that they still haven't finished a Premier League game this season with 11 men on the pitch.
              So that concludes the Premier League in August. to see the complete table, click here. I hope you enjoyed it, and there will (hopefully) be monthly installments right through until the end of the season. NFL and MLB posts coming soon, and NBA if the lockout ends.