Results of the Weekend
Everton 1 – 4 West Brom
West Ham 3 – 1 Wigan
Stoke 1 – 1 Man City
Fulham 1 – 1 Birmingham
Wolves 3 – 2 Sunderland
Bolton 2 – 2 Blackpool
Man United 7 – 1 Blackburn
Aston Villa 2 – 4 Arsenal
Tottenham 2 – 1 Liverpool
Newcastle 1 – 1 Chelsea
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Thrilling Match of the Weekend
Aston Villa vs Arsenal – Arsenal maintained their unbeaten run at Villa Park since 1998 with a thrilling, nerve-wrecking win; where they let two-goals leads’ slip twice, before the young Jack Wilshere scored his first goal of the league and sealed the deal. Andrei Arshavin, who has been off-color most of the season, came to the party, in the absence of his club captain, taking up the dual responsibility of being the creater and scorer. Marouane Chamakh had a fantastic game too, scoring one and setting up another for Wilshere in the dying minutes of the game. The game also saw the return of Robert Pires into the Premiership, ironically, playing against his former team.
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‘Into Seventh Heaven’ Team of the Weekend
Manchester United – The only team to stay undefeated in the league so far, United, had the best day in office in the league. With flowing moves and an incredible hunger for goals, United destroyed the visiting Blackburn side. The 7 goals, included Berbatov’s five and a fine display by Wayne Rooney, assiting a few but failing to add to his goals-tally. Portuguese recruits Nani and Anderson had a great game too as they combined to let the former score a stunning goal from the right hand side of the box. This was the first time United scored 7 goals in the Premier League since April, 2000.
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‘Slipping Away’ Team of the Weekend
Chelsea FC – The defending champions continued their wretched form in the absence of many stars in the team. This time around, they failed to overcome the challenge of The Magpies away from the Bridge. The match could have been postponed due to excessive snow-fall, but it didn’t, as the teams battled it out on a freezing night at St James Park. Andy Carrol continued with his goal-scoring form against big teams, the goal coming early as the Chelsea defence panicked. Salamon Kalou, equalized for The Blues, but squandered a straight-forward chance later to win the game for the travelling Londoners. In the presence of Sol Campbell, who made his first league start for Newcastle, Chelsea failed to break the barrier that could take them to the top of the table. As it stands, they are two points behind United and above third placed Arsenal on goal difference.
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High-Flying Player of the Weekend
Dimitar Berbatov – The Bulgarian was in the form of his life, feeding players with the most attractive of touches, making amazing runs, scoring goals with his usual and casual style and even showboating whenver it needed, after all you don’t score 5 goals every day. In fact, he could have been the first Premier League player ever to score six goals, if not for the brilliant save from Robinson when the Bulgarian climbed to head for this sixth goal of the day. To top it all, Dimitar combined really well with Rooney, proving that they can form a deadly combo as suggested by Sir Alex.
‘Misplaced Identity’ of the Weekend
Martin Skrtel – The Slovakian International scored on both ends of the pitch as Liverpool failed to win against a dangerous Spurs side who saw off Arsenal, not many days back. Skrtel, first opened the scoring for Liverpool from a free-kick in the 47th minute, making full use of a penalty box scramble. Minutes later, he beautifully scored past his own keeper at the first post from Luka Modric’s brilliant run and cross. To make matters worse for him and his team, Aaron Lennon made a bursting run in the middle of the park and scored a late winning goal for the home win. The game also saw Jermaine Defoe missing from the spot, which was his third miss in four attempts this seasn, a record to hold on to!
‘Eye-Candy’ Move of the Weekend
The move that led to Berbatov scoring his hattrick was by far the best move of the weekend. It all started with the Bulgarian gathering the ball in front of his own defence and then with a deft back-flick feeding it to Patrice Evra. The Frenchman laid it back to Dimitar, who, with the outisde of his foot, sprayed it long to the onrushing Nani running down the right wing. As Nani continued his run inside the box with all the theatrics in display, Berbatov ran all the way into a dangerous position and asked for the ball. With all due respect, he was fed with style by Nani and Berbatov rounded off a brilliant move with a silky goal announcing his return back to form.
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‘Sharp Blocker’ of the Weekend
Sabastean Bassong – The French-born Cameroonian International made a double impact for his team as he ran from behind to block two one-on-one chances for Fernando Torres, with clear tackles. Torres, who used to easily speed past defenders a few seasons back, was sure to score on both occasions, but Bassong made two brilliant interceptions denying the Spaniard.