Premier League Footballer of the Week, Gameweek 5

A truly great weekend of football was witnessed during Gameweek 5 where football fans saw enough goals, controversy, late drama and skill to once again prove the Premier League as the world’s most exciting domestic league. Manchester United v Liverpool will steal most of the headlines, yet there was some great football played in matches featuring Tottenham v Wolves, Everton v Newcastle and West Brom v Birmingham City that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Arsenal fans may have felt slightly cheated by ref Phil Dowd when Darren Bent’s leveling strike hit the net well after the four minutes of added stoppage time. Yet as seen in the Gameweek 2 draw featuring Manchester United v Fulham, a player again failed to convert a late penalty which would have secured the three points for the away side. Then it was Nani, Saturday it was Tomas Rosicky who failed to convert what would have been Arsenal’s second from the spot which allowed Sunderland the chance to equalize late on.

Spurs fought back from one down to record their first home win of the season when Wolves visited White Hart Lane on Saturday

Premier League Footballer of the Week, Gameweek 2

6-0, the new 1-0.Parity, maybe? Well, not really.

Three Barclays Premier League matches ended 6-0 this weekend with one still left to come Monday night. As the parity debate rages on concerning the overall quality of Premier League teams 1-20, gameweek 2 went a long way in proving just how unequal the league currently is, or did it?

Usual suspects Chelsea repeated their opening weekend thrashing of Nobody United while beautiful passing home boys Arsenal properly welcomed Tangerine Ltd. to the Premier League by the same score.

A plethora of goals were seen Saturday and Sunday would be no different. Sunday would also host the weekend’s best match that saw Fulham fail to capitulate after conceding a late OG and earn a well deserved draw against Manchester United.

After Aston Villa’s gameweek 1 victory over West Ham (who are having a horrid start), one could have been granted the freedom to assume they’d do something similar to the back-in-the-big-time-boys Newcastle United. This time, parity won. Newcastle were brilliant in all things football related on the day as Villa played as if they’d been out on a serious bender the night before. Surely not many Newcastle supporters or Premier League fans would have guessed the Toon could have pulled a Chelsea or Arsenal and post 6 against the boys from Birmingham. Welcome back Newcastle.

So, was parity the winner or is gameweek 2 still too early to tell how equal this league is from top to bottom? Flukes? Defenses still finding their cohesion? Or, the most uneven league in Europe?

Honorable Mentions -

Andy Carroll, Newcastle United