Barclay Premier League Week 9

Was busy during week 8 due to birth of my first child.

It was already a pretty bad week where Manchester United held 1-1 draw at Anfield with Liverpool.

Looking at their display, they were lucky to escape with a point though.

This week, Manchester City travel to the Old Trafford two points advantage above Man Utd.

Manchester United 1 - 6 Manchester City

It is United's biggest lost a home ground based on the scoreline. It was really difficult to watch that game based on the form United been having in the past few games. They shown bad display during Norwich and Liverpool game, also in the Champion's league against Basel. I expected them to flop again in this game but didnt expect it to be this bad. With the attacking talent that Manchester City possess it really showed what money can affect football. 

With midfield including David Silva, Yaya Toure, Gareth Barry, and James Milner and striker of Balotelli and Sergio Aguero, undoubtedly the Citizen owns bunch of the best players in the world. Not forgetting the bench of Dzeko, Nasri, Johnson. United finally experienced what Arsenal experience during their 8-2 drubbing. 

What hurt the most was the defense of United that kept attacking Man. City eventhough they were left with only 10 men. Evra and Ferdinand did not show what they were capable of compare to last year. Ferdinand is already 32 this year and his display in the match was awful. He didnt arrange the backline to protect their goal at all. 

Hopefully SAF will do what's best for the club as i believe their confidence has been dented by this match especially to their closest rival. 

Arsenal 3 - 1 Stoke City

This is a good result for Arsenal judging from their early start to the campaign. With Van Persie on top form past few weeks, they managed to win over Stoke City. Ramsey shown that they do not miss Fabregas with his fantastic display. 

Blackburn 1 - 2 Tottenham Hotspurs

Tottenham continue to climb the table with few successive win. Adebayor has proved to be a best signing this season so far based on the fee they needed to pay. Van Der Vaart has again proved to the fans that they need him to be in the starting line up just like last season even though it is obvious that Redknapp is trying to go with 2 strikers instead of one which was used last season.

QPR 1 - 0 Chelsea

Very very good result for the Rangers but very unfortunate result based on the referee's performance this time. Jose Bosingwa was not suppose to get sent off as he wasnt the last man when he brought down the opponent. But undeniably Drogba deserved the Red card after a dangerous tackle from him.

However, AVB did the right thing in the second half by attacking QPR even though they were left with 9 men in the field. However, QPR managed to hold on to one of their best result in their history.

Liverpool 1 - 1 Norwich City

A stunning header from Holt earned City a valuable point after a goal from Bellamy just before half time. Enough said.

Fulham 1 - 3 Everton

After facing so many big teams in the past few weeks finally Everton has won again. This time it was their loan star from Real Madrid, Drenthe who provided the good display to win them the game. It was a thunderbolt strike from him inside 3 minutes to give them the lead. Bobby Zamora should had won Fulham the game after equalizing goal from Bryan Ruiz when he was left open in front of goal. Saha and Rodwell managed to score in the stoppage time to win the game.

Newcastle 1 - 0 Wigan

Newcastle continue their unbeaten run with the expense of Wigan this week. A good long range strike from their new signing Cabaye. It will be nice to see them in Europe next year. They have sufficient funds and stadium space to be one of the top club in England.

After week 9 result, Manchester City currently stands at the top of the table with 5 points away from the 2nd spot Manchester United. They certainly shown they are not pushover after such brilliant start to their season. They will definitely be one of the title contender for the remaining season. 

Barclay Premier League 2011/12 Campaign Week 6

Was not able to squeeze time to update the score for Barclay Premier League Week 6 due to heavy work load last week. 

Week 6 was a pretty bad week for Manchester United as they were held draw at Britannia Stadium which is one of the toughest opponent so far this season. 

Here are the summary for Week 6

                                                          Manchester City 2 - 0 Everton

                                                             Mario Balotelli

                                                                James Milner

                                                                          Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton Wanderers 

                                                          Robin Van Persie

                                                          Robin Van Persie

                                                                      Alex Song

                                                                          Chelsea 4 - 1 Swansea City

                                                          Fernando Torres          Ashley Williams

                                                                          Ramires

                                                                          Ramires

                                                               Didier Drogba

                                                                       Liverpool 2 - 1 Wolves

                                                     Roger Johnson (og)         Steven Fletcher

                                                                    Luis Suarez

                                                        Newcastle United 3 - 1 Blackburn Rovers

                                                                      Demba Ba         David Hoilett

                                                                      Demba Ba

                                                                      Demba Ba

                                              West Bromwich Albion 0 - 0 Fulham

                                                                            Wigan 1 - 2 Tottenham Hotspurs

                                                          Mohamed Diame         Rafael Van Der Vaart

                                                                                                 Gareth Bale

                                                                      Stoke City 1 - 1 Manchester United

                                                                 Peter Crouch          Luis Nani

                                                     Queen Park Rangers 1 - 1 Aston Villa

                                                      Richard Dunne (og)         Barry Bannan

        

                                                                  Norwich City 2 - 1 Sunderland

                                                                  Leon Barnett          Kieran Richardson

                                                               Steve Morison

Manchester City 2 - 0 Everton

Good win for The Citizens as Everton are known as a strong team as they are always a threat to all big teams in the Premier League eventhough they do not spend much every season. This season they made only two loan signing without paying a single cent and they let go of their last season top scorer Beckford and Arteta to Arsenal. It was a fine display from their defense although some moment of carelessness caused them to lose the game. With a team who spent hundred over millions past seasons, against a team who spent not even 10% of their total spending, losing to 2 goals is considerably okay. Somehow Everton will need to find a proper Forward as they cant be relying on just Louis Saha who is injury prone and Tim Cahill who isnt even a Striker.

Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton Wanderers

Boost of confidence for the Gunners as they thrashed the travelling Bolton at The Emirates Stadium. Robin Van Persie marked his 100th goal for Arsenal which is a tremendous achievement judging of their performance in recent years. He is undoubtedly one of the finest talents and this is shown by Arsene Wenger showing faith to put him as the skipper this season. His only problem is he is always on the sidelines due to fitness problem. Even Manchester City has recently expressed interest in signing him in upcoming transfer window.

Stoke City 1 - 1 Manchester United

Stoke City has already draw at Chelsea on the opening fixture and winning Liverpool has proved that they are capable of winning against big teams. This game they continue to show promises by constantly pressuring United defense and keeper using their aerial ability. They own plenty of tall players including their new arrival Peter Crouch measuring at 201cm, Walters (183cm), Delap (183cm), Whelan (180cm), Wilkinson (180cm), Wilson (188cm), Shawcross (191cm), Woodgate (183cm) and Huth (191cm). With United defense included newbie Jones, Evra and Valencia it is expectedly Stoke will cause plenty of problems in United penalty box and it was set piece which indeed gave them the goal. Although United 100% winning run ended in Week 6 but i am proud as it was ended by Stoke and not other teams as i have always admired Stoke City since last year which caused a few upsets to the big guns. This game also brings some good goal scored by Nani when he dribbled past few defenders before slotting home to give United the lead.

Manchester United 3 - 1 Chelsea

Prior to this game, Manchester United are without Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Rafael, Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck. Their main centre backs are both out injured which led to the only senior defender Patrice Evra.

They started the game with 

David De Gea

Chris Smalling - Phil Jones - John Evans - Patrice Evra

Nani - Anderson - Darren Fletcher - Ashley Young

Wayne Rooney

Javier Hernandez 

vs

Fernando Torres

Juan Mata - Frank Lampard - Daniel Sturridge

Raul Meireles - Ramires

Ashley Cole - John Terry - Branislav Ivanovic - Jose Bosingwa

Peter Cech

The first chance of the game was created by Chelsea when Ramires was passed by Torres near the touchline with no one beside him. He only needed to pass it into the net against David De Gea and somehow the young keeper managed to block off the weak shots away for a corner. Even Peter Schmeichel was surprised and happy to see United keeper keeping out such shot. 

Then suspiciously offside, Chris Smalling managed to leave his marker and head into the goals passed Peter Cech who rooted to the spot after Ashley Young drill a pacy freekick into Chelsea penalty box. 

Based on replay, it was little obvious that Chris Smalling was already offside before he start running. 

John Evans turns provider moment later when he passed from United half to the right flanks for Nani to showcase his dribbling skill past few players before unleashing an unstoppable shot past Peter Cech. Again, Chelsea goalkeeper who hardly goes wrong rooted to the spot again as the shot was going at the top corner. Based on replay of the goal, Nani was caught offside when John Evans lob the ball to him so it was another mistake from the linesman to allow the play to continue. 

Leading at 2-0, Manchester United are not willing to sit back and defence the remaining minutes and this time Phil Jones playing good one two passes with Rooney before bringing the ball to the touchline and John Terry was there to block his drive but his clearance hits Nani before falling to Rooney's boot and with just keeper to beat, Rooney scored his 9th goals of the season inside 5 games. Thats average of 1.8 goals per game he played this season. 

Moment after the break, AVB introduced Nicholas Anelka to replace unseen Frank Lampard and he immediately assisted Fernando Torres to score his second goal since his 50 million pound move from Liverpool. I would conclude that his movement was tremendous throughout the match causing problem to inexperience John Evans and Phil Jones. 

At 3-1, Rooney had the chance to score from penalty spots after Nani brought down by Jose Bosingwa inside the penalty box after he rattles the bar with another unstoppable shot. Unfortunately for Manchester United, their player of the season slipped and his shot was blocked by his own foot. Unable to restore the three goals lead, Chelsea started to push the defensive line higher into Manchester United half, but somehow they managed to keep the scoreline at 3-1 after Fernando Torres missed a sitter.

He was let running free by Mata to face one on one with De Gea, with ease he brings the balls past the keeper, with no one to beat, he shot the ball wide. It was one of the easiest goal he has to score but he scrambled to bring his team into the game. 

Overall, Chelsea had more opportunities compare to United but United had the scoring touch which won them the game. There were good and bad moment for Chelsea Fernando Torres where he ended his goal draught but the miss he had is quite sad to be seen after such good game he had. 

Here are some of the pictures for the game.

Chris Smalling heads Manchester United into an early lead

Smalling celebrates with the goal's creator, Ashley Young

Fabio Capello was an interested observer at Man United v Chelsea

Nani's stunning strike made it 2-0 to United

There was more woe for Chelsea before half-time as John Terry's clearance ricocheted to Wayne Rooney, who made it 3-0

Torres had a glorious chance to make it 3-2, but sliced wide of an open goal after rounding David De Gea

Fernando Torres' first goal of the season gave Chelsea renewed hope early in the second half 

Disappointment for Torres as United go two points clear at the top of the table

Barclay Premier League 2011/12 Campaign Week 3

After winning 3-0 over Tottenham Hotspurs last week, SAF decided to stick with the same players and the result eventually paid off as United thrashed Arsenal a thumping 8-2 score at Old Trafford.

Here are the summary over the weekend results.

                                                             Aston Villa 0 - 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers

                                                       Wigan Athletic 2 - 0 Queens Park Rangers

                                                    Franco Di Santo

                                                    Franco Di Santo

                                                              Blackburn 0 - 1 Everton 

                                                                                       Mikel Arteta

                                                                 Chelsea 3 - 1 Norwich City

                                                      Jose Bosingwa           Grant Holt

                                                     Frank Lampard

                                                             Juan Mata

                                                         Swansea City 0 - 0 Sunderland

                                                               Liverpool 3 - 1 Bolton Wanderers

                                                  Jordan Henderson         Ivan Klasnic

                                                          Martin Skrtel

                                                         Charlie Adam

                                                   Newcastle United 2 - 1 Fulham

                                                              Leon Best          Clint Dempsey

                                                              Leon Best

                                               Tottenham Hotspurs 1 - 5 Manchester City

                                                      Younes Kaboul          Edin Dzeko

                                                                                        Edin Dzeko

                                                                                        Edin Dzeko

                                                                                        Sergio Aguero

                                                                                        Edin Dzeko

                                            West Bromich Albion 0 - 1 Stoke City

                                                                                      Ryan Shotton

                                                Manchester United 8 - 2 Arsenal

                                                    Danny Welbeck          Theo Walcott

                                                       Ashley Young          Robin Van Persie

                                                     Wayne Rooney

                                                     Wayne Rooney

                                                              Luis Nani

                                                          Park Ji Sung

                                                     Wayne Rooney

                                                       Ashley Young

This is an astonishing win for United and it shows how capable their young guns are. United had the luxury of having Ryan Giggs, Ferdinand, Berbatov, Hernandez and Park Ji Sung among the substitute and they managed to win with 6 goals margin over one of the biggest team in Premier League. 

It is also the first time United have scored 8 in a single match since 1999. It was Arsenal's worst ever defeat against United and the first time they have conceded eight in a league game since 1896.

Enjoy the pictures from the match from this post.

Nani gets away from Andrey Arshavin

Danny Welbeck celebrates after opening the scoring for United

Arsenal fluffed a chance to equalise when David De Gea saved Robin van Persie's spot-kick

Ashley Young doubled the home side's lead with a sublime curling effort

Wayne Rooney scored direct from a free-kick to make it 3-0

Theo Walcott reduced the deficit, but another Rooney set-piece restored the three-goal cushion

Rooney takes the plaudits from his team-mates

Nani added a sublime fifth goal with a cheeky chip

Arsene Wenger shows his frustration in the dugout

Park Ji-Sung swept home United's sixth goal

Rooney completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after Patrice Evra brought down by Theo Walcott in the penalty box

There was still time for Young to score his second and United's eighth, but it was Rooney who went home with the match ball

Barclay Premier League Table after Week 3

As week 4 is used for international matches thus will proceed with Week 5 Fixtures

Manchester United 3 - 0 Tottenham Hotspurs

Deliberately sleep early last night just to ensure myself having enough sleep while watching Manchester United vs Tottenham game. This is the 2nd game of the season and first at Old Trafford for United whereas first game for Tottenham. Manchester United has a average game last week with narrow win over West Brom whereas Tottenham was in really good form to have beaten Hearts in the champions league 5-0 just few days earlier. I was expecting this game to be tough due to injuries to many experienced defenders for United. 

This is the line-up for last night's game

(GK) David De Gea

(RB) Chris Smalling - (CB) Phil Jones - (CB) Johnny Evans - (LB) Patrice Evra

(RM) Luis Nani - (CM) Tom Cleverly - (CM) Anderson - (LM) Ashley Young

(CF) Wayne Rooney

(ST) Danny Welbeck

vs

(ST) Jermain Defoe

(AM) Rafael Van Der Vaart

(LM) Gareth Bale - (CM) Jake Livermore - (CM) Niko Kranjcar - (RM) Aaron Lennon

(LB) Benoit Assou-Ekotto - (CB) Younes Kaboul - (CB) Michael Dawson - (RB) Kyle Walker

(GK) Brad Friedel

Manchester United has plenty of experienced substitute but SAF decided to give the younger generation a try with average age of 23 years old. The oldest member is Patrice Evra at 29. Three other defenders age are 19 (Jones), 21 (Smalling) and 23 (Evans). 

The score was tied at 0 - 0 until 61 minutes where the possession was quite balanced among the two teams. 

Until the sudden change of pace in cross by Tom Cleverly, he spotted Danny Welbeck at the goal as swing in a superb cross and Danny managed to head it into the goal with Brad Friedel only managed to look on. 

Danny became much more confident after the goal and he did a clever backheel back to Anderson and Anderson who is not famous for scoring scored easily past Friedel. 

With quarter an hour left, SAF sent on three experienced players - Ryan Giggs, Park Ji Sung and Javier Hernandez to finish off the game. With that limited time given, Giggs still managed to provide an assist by crossing a pin point cross to Rooney to head goal, his second of the season.

Man-Of-The-Match Danny Welbeck shines for Manchester United as the Red Devils overturn Tottenham Hotspur with a 3-0 victory

Sir Alex and Harry share a few words before the game as Tottenham face Manchester United in their first Premier League game of the season

Man United players take to the pitch before kick-off in their new lucratively sponsored training gear DHL

Noisy neighbours Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini and David Platt check up on their city rivals and Man City's next opponents Tottenham

The Old Trafford faithful find a free gift on their seats, a commemorative '19 champions' scarf

The game gets off to a fiery start with both teams playing at a furious pace

Tom Cleverley can hardly believe it when his toe poke is superbly touched around the post by Brad Friedel

Jonny Evans receives a yellow card after going through the back of Rafael van der Vaart

Phil Jones does an excellent job of keeping Jermain Defoe quiet throughout the entire game

Tempers boil over when Younes Kaboul clashes with Manchester United's Portuguese winger Nani

In the spotlight, David De Gea keeps his eye on the ball to make a routine save

The deadlock is broken on the hour when Danny Welbeck meets a cross from Tom Cleverley...

...his header finds the corner and sends Old Trafford into raptures

Welbeck celebrates his first goal for Manchester United in two years

United's Spanish keeper is left flapping when Gareth Bale challenges him on a cross

Brimming with confidence after his goal, Danny Welbeck attempts an overhead kick but it flies straight into the clutches of Brad Friedel

The lead is doubled on 76 minutes when a flowing move is perfectly capped off by a Welbeck backheel and Anderson strike

The Brazilian celebrates his goal with a little dance in front of the cameras and Stretford End

Harry Redknapp is left with plenty to ponder where it all went wrong after his side wilt in the second-half

Manchester United's number 10 can only laugh after he misses from point-blank range after a low cross from Nani

Three minutes from time and it's three for the hosts. Wayne Rooney leaps to meet a cross from substitute Ryan Giggs

Rooney finds the net with a well directed header and Tottenham sink to a 3-0 defeat

Sir Alex is all-smiles as his side take maximum points from their first two games and join Man City at the top of the league

Barclay Premier League 2011/12 Campaign Begin

Finally after one month of not watching proper football, the EPL has finally started its new campaign again.

This week the highlight was Arsenal vs Newcastle (remember last season game of the season Newcastle 4 - 4 Arsenal?). And Tottenham vs Everton game was postpone due to some unnecessary riot at England.

This is the summary of the week 1 results (Except for Man City vs Swansea that will play tonight)

                                                  Blackburn Rovers 1 - 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

                                                     Mauro Formica          Stephen Fletcher

                                                                                       Stephen Ward

                                                                  Fulham 0 - 0 Aston Villa

                                                               Liverpool 1 - 1 Sunderland

                                                                   Suarez          Sebastian Larsson 

                                            Queens Park Rangers 0 - 4 Bolton Wanderers

                                                                                       Gary Cahill

                                                                                       Daniel Gabbidon (og)

                                                                                       Ivan Klasnic

                                                                                       Fabrice Muamba

                                                       Wigan Athletic 1 - 1 Norwich City

                                                  Ben Watson (pen)         Wesley Hoolahan

                                                             Newcastle 0 - 0 Arsenal

                                                             Stoke City 0 - 0 Chelsea

                                          West Bromwich Albion 1 - 2 Manchester United

                                                           Shane Long          Wayne Rooney

                                                                                       Steven Reid (og)

While watching Man Utd game last night, when Shane Long scored the equalizer i was thinking this week might be a draw game for all big four in the EPL but fortunately they managed to squeezed the goal through at the 80th minutes. Pheww

Here are some of the pictures of last night game of West Brom vs Man United

Fabio keeping things simple at the left back

Ferdinand heads the ball away from Tchoyi while Anderson looks on

West Brom Captain Chris Brunt tackles Wayne Rooney

Tom Cleverley did cleverly to squeeze through the West Brom midfield

Chris Smalling tries to get the ball off Tchoyi

Wayne Rooney receives the ball from Ashley Young, turns and shoots into the goal at 13th minute

Anderson impressed at midfield with his constant dribbling to bring the ball forward

Wayne Rooney celebrates with Ashley Young after scoring the first goal

David De Gea shows his delight after leading at 1-0

But debutant (signed from Reading) Shane Long managed to do few stepover before firing a soft shot into Man Utd goal

David De Gea losing his concentration to let the ball squeezed through under his arm

Shane Long celebrates after scoring the equalizer

Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic had to be substituted off the game due to hamstring and calf injury respectively (replaced by Johnny Evans and Phillip Jones)

At the 80th minute, Ashley Young did well to dribble through the defense and scored through the reflected shot

Ashley Young celebrates after claiming the winning goal

Ashley Young thanking the fans after the game ended with 2-1 win

De Gea receiving a hug from former Man Utd keeper Ben Foster

As a loyal Manchester United fan, it is really good to see Manchester United kick off their campaign by a win at West Brom as they away form last season was really bad.

Hope for another win next week at Old Trafford vs Tottenham!