This post originally appeared on www.GoUpper90.com
This week’s round of English Premier League games provided us with the full gamut of classic football moments from club legends scoring against their old teams to underdogs snapping victory from the jaws of defeat and the introduction of some new tech savvy ones.
Of the six games played on Saturday half of them resulted in draws including one at Turf Moor where Burnley played host to Sunderland. Neither team has managed register a win yet this season and although it would end 0-0 both saw opportunities in the second half come off the woodwork.
QPR welcomed old boss Mark Hughes and Stoke City to Loftus Road and the Potters may feel disappointed they weren’t able to come away with all 3 points. Ahead 2-1 in the 88th minute Hughes could only watch as Niko Kranjcar curled a freekick in the back of the net to tie it up at 2-2.
At St. James Park it was the current boss who was getting a welcome from the home fans and it wasn’t of the warmest variety. With many of the home fans display SackPardew.com banners and the manager rumored to be replacing him if he does get the sack on the Hull City bench, Alan Pardew was in desperate need of a Newcastle win. Things were not looking good for him as his team was down 2-0 midway through the second half thanks to top class strikers from Nikica Jelavic and Mohamed Diame. Some relief would come for Pardew as substitute Papiss Cisse, who hadn’t scored in 6 months, grabbed a brace and a share of the points. We’ll have to wait on see if it is enough to save his job.
Arsenal made the trip from the capital to the second city, Birmingham, to take on an Aston Villa who’ve been experiencing a great start to the season. The day wouldn’t start too well for Villa as their team was hit by a bug just before kickoff. While they held on strong for the first half hour in a 4 minute span they would allow 3 goals that would seal the result for Arsenal.
Two other teams experiencing good starts to the season faced off as Swansea City hosted Southampton. The hosts had a couple good opportunities in the opening half hour but their fortune changed when Wilfried Bony was sent off for getting a second yellow car in the 38th minute. From then on it was all Southampton and in the 80th minute the breakthrough came as substitute Victor Wanyama scored his first goal for the Saints giving them a 1-0 victory.
The final game on Saturday saw Liverpool travel south to London to take on West Ham and like their bumpy start to the season this game didn’t start as they’d probably hoped. Within the first 7 minutes The Reds were down 2-0 thanks to a close range header from Winston Reid and a lovely lob from Diafra Sakho. Although they were able to pull one back in the first half through Raheem Sterling, their fate and third loss of the season was sealed in the 88th minute when they were hit on the counter by Morgan Amalfitano making it 3-1.
While Saturdays fixture list may have been full of draws Sunday dealt out a few upsets. In the early game Manchester United seemed in a good position to get their second win in a row as they were up 3-1 against Leicester City with just over 30 minutes but then things started to unravel. Leicester hit back with a barrage of goals, including two from the penalty spot, as they went on to win 5-3 continuing their impressive start to the seasons and piling more misery on United.
At Goodison Park Everton took an early lead against Crystal Palace through Romelu Lukaku but Palace slowly found their way back into the game and put three past Tim Howard who had one of his less memorable games. While Everton would pull back from the penalty spot in the last ten minutes it was Crystal Palace who went home with all three points.
Winless West Brom traveled to take on a Tottenham team that had played in Europe on Thursday. From the offset Tottenham looked second best as West Brom had the majority of the chances throughout. The breakthrough would finally come for the Baggies thanks to James Morrison’s headed goal in the 74th minute wrapping up the points.
The final game of the weekend saw two of the title contenders square off as Manchester City played host to Chelsea. Both teams came out strong and aggressive with 6 yellow cards being handed out in the first half and while the next one wouldn’t be until the 66th minute it would prove to be a costly one. Pablo Zabaleta would receive a second yellow for a foul on Diego Costa, who was also booked for his reaction, leaving Manchester City with 10 men. Five minutes later City were not only down a man but also a goal as André Schürrle put Chelsea ahead. Chelsea almost made it two when Costa hit a shot off the upright and were looking good money to extend their lead at the top of the table but it would be a former Chelsea player that would be the difference. Making his City debut against his old team, in the 85th minute Frank Lampard would get on the end of a James Milner cross and level things up at 1-1 with a well taken first time shot. A non-celebration from Lampard followed and for as much as some people may dislike the practice of not celebrating against their old team, in Lampard’s case it is understandable. Having said that he would have a couple more attempts in the dying minutes of the game but neither he nor any other of the players would be able to break the deadlock. At the end Lampard would receive a round of applause from both sets of fans
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