Crystal Palace v Arsenal
After their woeful opening day rick at the hands of Slaven Bilic’s West Ham, Arsenal turned frowns upside down with a hard though 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace.
With the boisterousness of the home contingent, Selhurst Park is certainly not an easy place to come to when your backs against the wall, the Gunners however felt comfortable in the matches high octane end to end nature. Particularly encouraging for their fans will be the trio of Mesut Özil, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sánchez all looking worthy of the many superlatives thrown at them. Let’s not forget Olivier Giroud’s outstanding opener also (below).
Palace of course didn’t exactly let themselves down either as they asked plenty of questions with their own unique brand of attacking football, a top half of the table finish certainly worthy of a punt.
Romelu Lukaku v Southampton
After the usual second/third season blip, and with questions over the the clubs general financial health following an underwhelming transfer window, Everton needs a big response from its one if biggest assets.
Both in physicality and in transfer fee, Romelu Lukaku is that very asset and the former teenage prodigy showed just how unstoppable a force he can be against a shell shocked Southampton side on Saturday.
Everton generally played it smart throughout and punished the Saints in the first half with two swift counter attacks, both clinically finished by their giant Belgian. One a superb header from an awkward position, the other a well placed finish from the edge of the Saints area.
The entire Sunderland side
Poor old Dick Advocaat’s end of season tears were surely telling of his own surprise of keeping such a rabble of players in the Premier League in the first place. With the man about to leave the Stadium of Light somewhat of a folk legend, like Al Pacino in Carlito’s Way, he couldn’t help but be dragged back in.
After watching his side crumble at home in a 3-1 defeat to Alex Neil’s Norwich, Advocaat could only shake his head in disbelief at the ineptitude of his starting lineup.
The Dutchman commented post game:
“There is something wrong, that’s quite simple. I have an idea about it, but tomorrow we will have a meeting and they can talk and I will talk
“What was so wrong was I saw players – and I don’t want to mention names, it was the whole team, with the exception of one or two players – and they did things that I don’t expect from a player at this level. I have to know why that can happen because it’s really strange for me. You can play badly, but not even knowing what to do is even worse. I’m really shocked.”
Ah the classic ‘not my fault, I’ve just got shit players’ excuse.
The words that tumble from the mouth of Jose Mourinho’s mouth
Whilst it didn’t have a direct influence on the 3-0 defeat to a rampant Man City, the very public falling out with his medical staff hugely embarrassed the club, especially with the replacement physio team looking well out of their depth when called upon for duties, even going as far as dropping equipment and being very easily confused as to just how many players were injured during one hilarious incident.
Far funnier that even was Jose Mourinho making the fatal error of commenting on the match in a post interview. Rather than saving face and admitting defeat, the Portuguese manager was adamant that the result was ‘fake’ and that his side were the better of the two.
The mistake here being that Jose’s words may just be the final straw before the men in white coats are called in.
Olivier Giroud v Crystal Palace
A wonderfully deft scissor kick. A goal worthy of an Arsenal starting place.
Olivier Giroud scores fantastic scissors kick… by wittyfutty
With Villa not managing a shot on goal, surely referee Mike Dean could spare the side a little lea way when poor old Micah Richards firstly –
1. Fell for the old ‘theres something on your face’ trick from Matteo Darmian.
2. Was quite clearly fouled by United’s new roaming wing back.
3. Sent his flying header over the bar after losing ground thanks to his marker.