Week 7: Premier League Tops and Flops

Sports - Football - Premier League - Picks of the Week

This weekend saw 34 goals, 30 bookings, 1 sending off, 3 penalties, 1 missed penalty, plenty of referee controversy, missed chances and opportunities. So, I had loads to choose from, here are my top and flop picks of this week:

Top game: The Merseyside derby definitely lived up to its reputation, all the action, controversy, rivalry, heart and soal in the game every football fan can desire - well, maybe not Everton fans. A crucial and controversial decision went against them with Jack Rodwell's sending off, Luis Suarez being the controversy in person once again and making the most of the show, and panned out to Liverpool's advantage. That's the cruel world of football.

Top team: Fulham will be the happiest after their 6-0 thrashing of QPR, their first win this season came in style and it was also the first time they had taken the lead this term in the Premier League. Before the game, Fulham were the only Premier League side still without a win this season. Talk about relief! Another team celebrating and worth a note are Newcastle after their controversial win against Wolves made this their best start to a season in 17 years being unbeaten in their last 10 PL games.

Top player: Everyone who had started to write off Frank Lampard should be ashamed and laugh/write themselves off! With his third hat-trick in the Premier League, the Chelsea man overtook the 1930s legend George Mills as Chelsea's fifth highest league goalscorer, with 119. I think that should be enough to silence his critics. Hats off to Andrew Johnson, too, the first Premier League hat-trick scorer for Fulham.

Top goal: Manchester City produced some beauties after a forgettable first half at Ewood Park: Adam Johnson's opening strike, a sweet curl into the top corner, and Mario Balotelli's fine volley from close range into the bottom left corner of the goal to make it 2:0 against Blakburn. That's more I like it.

Top news: Time out from the Premier League sees the Euro 2012 qualifiers conclude the coming week, England looking for a point against Montenegro to take them to Poland and Ukraine.

Flop game: Newcastle's win against Wolves was marred by controversy after the homeside were denied a penalty AND a goal for offside, with referee Mark Halsey judging Steven Taylor's foul on Jamie O'Hara to have been outside the area when it was inside and the assistant referee deeming Adam Hammill's cross to have gone behind before it was headed back for Kevin Doyle to net it. It made it Wolves fourth defeat and they have claimed only one point from a possible 15. Is it more than just bad luck?

Flop team: After the 5:1 thrashing defeat at Stamford Bridge means this is Bolton's worst league start for 109 years. Their sixth defeat keeps them at the bottom of the table, one point behind under fire Steve Kean's Blackburn and two behind Wigan and West Brom, the prior two also recording defeats 4-0 v City and 2-0 v Villa respectively, whilst West Brom recorded a draw and point against Sunderland. It is going to be a sour crunch at the bottom of the table, that's for sure - Arsenal only two points safe of the relegation places after their defeat against bitter rivals Tottenham.

Flop player: Off the field, Sunderland defender Titus Bramble caused most turmoil and has been suspended after he was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and possession of a Class A drug. On the field, Suarez has been the man of controversy once again after his drama antiques led to Everton man Rodwell seeing red. It just spoilt which looked to be a promising juicy derby encounter.

Flop goal: The goals that weren't leave the most sour taste: Wolves disallowed equaliser and denied penalty. But Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan, making his first Premier League start of the season in place of the injured Jussi Jaaskelainen, had an afternoon to forget. Two bloopers, one easy save fluffed and one strike parried, gave Daniel Sturridge and Lampard an extra tick on their and Chelsea's scoreboard and turned an already bad enough afternoon for the Wanderers even worse.

Flop news: Aaaaaaand there has been another delay on introducing goal-line technology. At this rate I'd call myself lucky if I'll get to see it in my lifetime!!!

My predictions - Actual results:

Aston Villa 1:0 Wigan - 2:0

Blackburn 0:3 Man City - 0:4

Bolton 1:3 Chelsea - 1:5

Everton 1:1 Liverpool - 0:2

Fulham 1:1 QPR - 6:0

Man Utd 4:0 Norwich - 2:0

Sunderland 3:0 West Brom - 2:2

Swansea 1:2 Stoke - 2:0

Tottenham 2:1 Arsenal - 2:1

Wolves 1:3 Newcastle - 1:2

Liverpool grab controversial derby win

Sports - Football - Premier League - Everton 0:2 Liverpool

Liverpool beat Everton 2-0 in an eventful Merseyside derby at Goodison Park after seeing Jack Rodwell being sent off for a challenge on Luis Suarez, Dirk Kuyt missing a penalty as Suarez was brought down by Phil Jagielka before Andy Carroll slammed home his first Premier League goal for the Reds and the controversial Uruguayan striker wrapped things up eight minutes from time.



Everton had started the brighter with Tim Cahill pulling out an athletic save from Pepe Reina who had to tip the Australian midfielder's shot over the top.

Referee Martin Atkinson hogged the limelight when he showed Rodwell the red card halfway through the first half for what replays showed was hardly a tackle on Suarez, giving Liverpool the advantage of an extra man and the Evertonians a very sour apple to bite on.

You could say justice was done when Kuyt's penalty was saved heroically by Tim Howard after Suarez once again fell down dramatically on the corner of the penalty area brought down by Jagielka just before half time.

Charlie Adam hit the bar with a strike from 20 yards out before Atkinson finally blew the halftime whistle, giving Everton the chance to regroup.

The homeside started the second half strongly under the circumstances, Louis Saha clearing Carroll's shot off the line on the one side and keeping Reina on his toes with a low effort from distance that ended up wide on the other side.

Howard had to save another Carroll attempt low at his post with more and more chances coming off set pieces and corners early on in the second half.

Kenny Dalglish rang the changes after 66 minutes replacing Adam and the subdued Stewart Downing by Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy as his side still seemed unable to take advantage of the extra man on the field.

The changes seemed to have their effect when with 20 minutes left Bellamy played in Jose Enrique whose cross was avoided by a ducking Kuyt and netted by a grateful Carroll from eight yards.

Ten minutes later, Suarez sealed the deal when he was able to take advantage of a mix up between Sylvain Distin and Leighton Baines to advance into the box and shoot low past Howard to make it 2-0.

The game finished with Everton furious and deflated, Liverpool the happier and more grateful for it. Dalglish said he did not see the red card incident, David Moyes feels understandably angered, it should not have been.

In the end, the incident spoilt what looked like a promising, competitive derby encounter and instead ended up a controversial, negative clash of opinions, incidents and referees' decisions. Shame.

Everton: Howard; Hibbert (Vellios 78), Baines, Jagielka, Distin; Coleman (Drenthe 59), Cahill (booked 27), Osman (Neville 69), Fellaini; Rodwell (sent off 23), Saha.
Subs not used: Mucha, Bilyaletdinon, Barkley, Stracqualursi.

Liverpool: Reina; Jose Enrique, Carragher, Kelly, Skrtel; Downing (Bellamy 67), Lucas (booked 50, Henderson 88), Adam (Gerrard 67), Suarez; Carroll, Kuyt.
Subs not used: Doni, Coates, Flanagan, Spearing.

Sky (& BBC stats:)
Everton-Liverpool
Attemps: 9-12 (& 12-15)
On target: 3-6 (& 4-6)
Offsides: 2-1
Corners: 5-9 (& 5-9)
Free kicks: 10-15 (& 9-15)
Possession: 36.3%-63.7% (& 40%-60%)
Passing Success: 76.4%-84.8%
Tackles/Success: 15/86.7%-17/52.9%
Territorial Advantage: 49.4%-50.6%

Referee: Martin Atkinson
Man of the match: Jose Enrique