Week 8: Premier League Tops and Flops

Sports - Football - Premier League - Picks of the Week


Top game: The Clash of the Titans at Anfield ended up being more of a cautious kickabout until the first breakthrough in the second half finally saw things kicking off.
Newcastle's hard-fought draw against Tottenham deserves a mention as well. It was a hell of a match, you did not know which turn it would take next, the last ten minutes expecially, a nail-biter-and-a-half!

Top team: Manchester City proved their dominance with their 4-1 thrashing of Aston Villa at Eastlands. With top players like David Silva, Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko on the bench, they showed the resources they have in place to take them through the season and all competitions, including Champions League of course, in hot pursuit of the top spot and trophies the whole line through. We will see what United will make of that in the biggest Manchester derby in decades!

Top player: Manchester City's walking time bomb of a player Mario Balotelli proved his control over his temperament and that he is the boss off all mind games when he scored the opener against Aston Villa. That shut the Villa crowd up. Juicy entertainment but I am still waiting and expecting him to snap and explode at some point soon... Manchester United's David de Gea had a breathtaking game creating save after save proving his position in the team.

Top goal: Anthony Pilkington's smasher which gave Norwich the lead in the first minute against Swansea was a tasty appetiser to start the show at Carrow Road as the home side bounced back convincingly and very entertaining from their defeat at Old Trafford. Steven Gerrard smacked in one of his iconic unstoppable free kicks in his first start for Liverpool since March, the only one even United's Spanish keeper could not stop.

Top news: Plenty of European action this week: Both Manchester sides and London sides Arsenal and Chelsea are in group action in the Champions League and Spurs, Stoke and Fulham try to climb up in their groups too in the Europa League.

Flop game: QPR's 1-1 home draw against Blackburn was nothing to write home about, apart from Heidar Helguson's 100th league goal in English football, which snook in, squeezed in somehow. The calls for Steve Kean's head will have certainly not been turned quiet after this disappointment.

Flop team: Blackburn remain at the bottom of the table, giving Steve Kean not much to lean his confidence on. Arsenal have snook into the top half of the table for the first time this season but will have to do a lot better than they played against Sunderland to make sure it won't be the last time with an everything else but convincing performance at the Emirates.

Flop player: Luis Suarez was once again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Every week I mention him for his temperaments and antiques. This week Manchester United Patrice Evra accused him of racism, which is nothing to laugh about! Kenny Dalglish is trying to keep on a strong face backing the Uruguayan striker against accusations of racism and diving by Evra and his manager Sir Alex Ferguson, but I'm afraid, looking back at the season so far, the profile and evidence is mounting against Suarez. Hopefully it /he will be sorted out in time and won't escalate!

Flop goal: Three mistakes meant three goals conceded and ended up a 3-1 home defeat for Wigan against Bolton. After keeper Ali Al Habsi saved former team mate Kevin Davies' penalty kick, you would think it should have given Wigan the confidence booster they were looking for. But no such thing happened. Bolton were able to hold firm, weathered the storm and were gifted a third goal in injury time to seal the win.

Flop news: The Tevez story is still bubbling on with the disciplinary hearing on Friday and him being charged with refusing to warm up against Bayern Munich. In every other job under similar circumstances and situation, he would have been sacked weeks ago!

My predictions - Actual results:

Liverpool 2:1 Man Utd - 1:1

Man City 3:0 Aston Villa - 4:1

Norwich 2:1 Swansea . 3:1

QPR 1:1 Blackburn - 1:1

Stoke 2:1 Fulham - 2:0

Wigan 2:2 Bolton - 1:3

Chelsea 1:1 Everton - 3:1

West Brom 0:0 Wolves - 2:0

Arsenal 2:0 Sunderland - 2:1

Newcastle 2:1 Tottenham - 2:2

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

Week 6: Premier League Tops and Flops

Sports - Football - Premier League - Picks of the Week

Top team: Stoke did a brill job in their hard-fought draw against Manchester United, especially after the hammering they had received against Sunderland. Unlike in their win against Liverpool, they stayed on top, kept control and players in all areas, frustrating the hell out of their visitors, the stats showing and confirming their strength and competitiveness at home: Attempts 11:10, On target 5:4, Corners 8:8, Bookings 1-0, Possession 47%-53%. The question is whether they can keep this up week in, week out, home and away.

Top player: Obviously Robing van Persie needs a shout out in this category for scoring his 100th goal for Arsenal, only the 17th Gunner to do so and it was a cheeky one he coolly tucked in with the outside of his left boot, top notch. However, for scoring his first goal for his club and making a hat-trick out of it, my vote goes to Newcastle's Demba Ba. One beauty and a couple of headers and it could have been more, Ba showed he is top of the show right now, like the Magpies who are still unbeaten sitting comfortably in 4th place, two points ahead of Liverpool in 5th, only one behind Chelsea in 3rd. Nice.

Top goal: So many beauties to pick from: Fernando Torres' right-footed, on turn, first touch beauty; Nani's buildup and shot side-stepping Jonathan Woodgate to open the score for Manchester United at Stoke; but my vote goes to Ba again with his first goal for Newcastle, a fine drive, right-footed turn off Leon Best's cross from the left, smash-boom-bang, he went on to get a hat-trick in his side's 3-1 win against Blackburn. Sweet.


Top news: I loved Jeff Stelling's rant against the Southampton Chief Executive Nicola Cortese on Sky Sports News' Gillette Soccer Saturday, defending his colleague, friend and Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier and Lawrie McMenemy... Good on ye!

Flop game: The goalless draw between West Brom and Fulham was not much to shout about. Manchester City's win against Everton was not much of a competition either though. Apart from the goals, there was not much going on...


Flop player: Again, Torres went from top to flop, hero to zero within minutes! Last week he missed an open goal against Manchester United, this week he got himself sent off with a stupid two-footed tackle on Mark Gower minutes after he scored the opener for Chelsea against Swansea. 

Flop goal: Liverpool were lucky with the opener to take the lead against Wolves at Anfield. It was a fine cross from the left by Charlie Adam which looked to go wide before Roger Johnson's intervention, his header putting it into his own net. Ouch. Liverpool went on to dominate after that and won the game not comfortably but convincingly 2:1 which shows what a difference a goal/an error makes.

Flop news: Can Carlos Tevez still call himself a football player (payed around £250k per week!!!) after refusing to play football?!?!?! He's a joke! I think the suspension he has received is the least the club can do, with their hands tied on money and market matters, the question is, how can they punish him without punishing themselves with it? And for once in my life I agree with what Fifa said!!!

My predictions - Actual results

Man City 3:2 Everton - 2:0

Arsenal 3:1 Bolton - 3:0

Chelsea 3:0 Swansea - 4:1

Liverpool 2:1 Wolves - 2:1

Newcastle 1:2 Blackburn - 3:1

West Brom 2:1 Fulham - 0:0

Wigan 0:2 Tottenham - 1:2

Stoke 0:1 Man Utd - 1:1

QPR 0:0 Aston Villa - 1:1

Norwich 1:1 Sunderland - 2:1

Week 5: Premier League Tops and Flops

Sports - Football - Premier League - Picks of the Week

It has been a disastrous weekend for some, a glorious for others. All games had it in them this weekend, like an action-packed book full of juicy chapters all with two sides to them, some ending shocking, some less shocking but just more and more impressive, intriguing and adding to the thrill of anticipation looking forward to the next weekend!

Top game: Manchester United's win against Chelsea at Old Trafford had a little bit of everything and was by far the most entertaining match of the weekend, I am sure Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres will agree after they saw both sides of the game, the good (goals) and the evil (missed penalty/opportunity respectively). Although, don't get me wrong, all matches had it in them this weekend, brilliant competitions all the way.

Top team: The three promoted teams Norwich, QPR and Swansea all registered wins and three crucial points in the bag against Bolton, Wolves and West Brom respectively and convincingly. Tottenham made a brilliant comeback at home thrashing Liverpool after their crashing defeat against Manchester City only a couple of weeks back.

Top player: Emmanuel Adebayor was man of the match at White Hart Lane with his two goals, but his team mates and co-scorers Luka Modric and Jermain Defoe had just as much of a quality and classy performance, blending well together, with brilliant one-twos, goals, chances and contributions. It could have been five or six.

Top goal: Modric's smacker of a strike and opener for Tottenham against Liverpool was a stunner. The Croatian striker smashed the ball into the top right-hand corner from the edge of the box giving Pepe Reina no chance, not even a smell of it. This gave a good hint of what was to come

Top news: Carling Cup action this week

Flop game: None I can think of this week, all action everywhere... Although the draw at Villa Park was entertaining, it was maybe not the most exciting, but looking at the games it was against, no wonder... And it kept both Aston Villa's and Newcastle's unbeaten run going, so, not bad at all!

Flop team: Arsene Wenger's nightmare continues with an away defeat at Blackburn, against a team and manager that have been under fire themselves this season. The Gunners looked distraught, all over the place, the two own goals showing they are just not themselves at the moment, their heads are somewhere else, not focusing or just unable to focus. Steve Kean will know too well what shoes Wenger's in...

Flop player: Luis Suarez keeps on walking on thin ice with his attitude. When his side is on top and ahead we may laugh about it but on days like Sunday when his side is being crushed, Liverpool need a man who can back them up and inspire them like Steven Gerrard and not have a go at the officials and fans, diving, whining and causing more trouble than anything else like he did again this past weekend. It was bad enough being down to nine men!!!

Flop goal: Fernando Torres finally scored, got his first for Chelsea this season, second in total, a beauty he flicked past David de Gea only seconds into the second half giving Chelsea hope of a comeback from him and the London side. And then he misses a smacker! With only eight miutes left on the clock, his side 3-1 down, he has an open goal in front of him, from six yards out, on his left, and he puts it wide! How the hell he missed that one I cannot fathom!!! He could have walked that one in!

Flop news: Former Aston Villa and Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier has been forced to call it a day due to his ill health and then has to listen to crap like Gabriel Agbonlahor... That just proves he doesn't have any respect nor a clue about life and its challenges! As if he is Mr Perfect!

My predictions - Actual results:
Blackburn 2:1 Arsenal - 4:3
Aston Villa 2:1 Newcastle - 1:1
Bolton 2:1 Norwich - 1:2
Everton 2:1 Wigan - 3:1
Swansea 2:1 West Brom - 3:0
Wolves 2:1 QPR - 0:3
Sunderland 0:0 Stoke - 4:0
Tottenham 0:2 Liverpool - 4:0
Fulham 1:4 Man City - 2:2
Man Utd 3:0 Chelsea - 3:1

Nightmare thrashing for Reds at White Hart Lane

Sports - Football - Premier League - Tottenham 4:0 Liverpool

Charlie Adam and Martin Skrtel saw red as nine-man Liverpool were thumped 4-0 at White Hart Lane by a bright, confident, dominant and inspirational Tottenham side who came back fighting after they were thrashed 5:1 by Manchester City in their last home game with man of the match Emmanuel Adebayor scoring two.

Luka Modric took the lead for Tottenham early on in the game (7.) with a smacking screamer of a strike from the edge of the box into the top right hand corner of the goal giving Pepe Reina not even a smell of it.

That gave the tone of the game with Liverpool all over the place and after seeing their defender Daniel Agger going off injured things went from bad to worse for the Reds. Adam was sent off for his second bookable offence after he left a high foot on Scott Parker with his eyes on the ball but it was a dangerous tackle leaving Liverpool down to ten.

Sometimes a sending off can pull a side together and get them better focused and organised, not in Liverpool's case. Jordan Henderson and Skrtel were driven mad by Adebayor and Gareth Bale and their quick breaks and runs, the latter being booked for his frustration and risky tackle on the man of the match.

Tottenham stayed on top, creating but missing chance after chance. Luis Suarez had the most frustrating day, mostly alone up front with hardly anything or anyone coming his way and to put the icing on the cake for him and his side he was also added to the referee's book just before half time for his sarcastic applaud to a linesman.

It was a horrible half for Liverpool, with Agger off injured, Adam sent off, Bale exposing Skrtel again and again and looking certain to crack him again at some point. And it did come worse for the Reds.

After creating a couple of semi-chances/lucky free kicks thanks to Andy Carroll and Suarez, Liverpool cracked and crumbled to bits. Skrtel saw his second yellow for bringing down Bale after he once again made mockery of Henderson and broke through too easily.

Minutes later Jermain Defoe made it 2:0 after breaking through and past Jose Enrique, sending a beautiful right-footed shot into the net on the turn, putting salt on Liverpool's wounds. 90 seconds later Reina added to the nightmare after spilling Defoe's shot from the edge of the box giving Adebayor an easy one to slot in to make it 3:0.

A double change followed for Liverpool with 20 minutes to go, Craig Bellamy and Jay Spearing coming on for Stewart Downing and Suarez to avoid the worst more than anything else, like another sending off and/or a worse thrashing as they were already getting. Too little, too late.

Tottenham had an easy kickabout for the last 10-15 minutes with some lovely combinations and plenty of missed chances, making 3:0 look like a modest scoreline as to what it could and should have been.

Adebayor finished the game off in the last minute of injury time by smashing the ball in with his right foot, an emphatic finish and diagonal shot past Reina to make it 4:0 and a thrilling win for Spurs. The Londoners were superior in every respect, in all dimensions and areas. This was certainly a match to remember for Harry Redknapp and his men.

For Liverpool on the other hand, this has been a match to forget, their biggest Premier League defeat for 8.5 years, seeing the first sendings off under Kenny Dalglish's current reign. Their defeat at Stoke was cruel with decisions going against them and the Reds fighting hard and coming so close. This game today was a fully fledged thrashing, beat-up, smash-up with Liverpool all over the place, disorganised, crumbled to bits. This leaves a lot to think about and work on for King Kenny and his boys.

Tottenham: Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, King (Bassong 84.), Assou-Ekotto; Kranjcar (Van der Vaart HT), Parker, Modric (scored 6:22), Bale; Adebayor (scored 67:39 & 92:47; booked 24.), Defoe (scored 66., Giovani 84.)). (4-4-2)
Subs not used: Cudicini, Pavlyuchenko, Corluka, Livermore.

Liverpool: Reina; Skrtel (booked 36., sent off 63.), Carragher, Agger (Coates 27.(booked 39.)), Jose Enrique; Henderson, Lucas, Adam (booked 12., sent off 28.), Downing (Bellamy 70.); Suarez (booked 49., Spearing 70.), Carroll. (4-4-2)
Subs not used: Doni, Maxi, Coates, Kuyt,  Robinson.

1st & 2nd half stats:
Tottenham-Liverpool
Attempts: 6-0 & 8-3
On target: 3-0 & 5-0
Offsides: 1-3 & 1-1
Free kicks: 7-5 & 4-7
Corners: 3-0 & 0-1
Possession: 56%-44% (17.min) & 55%-45% (FT)
Action areas: 12%-50%-38% 

Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire)
Man of the match: Emmanuel Adebayor

Week 4: Premier League Tops and Flops

Sports - Football - Premier League - Picks of the Week

This week saw enough Manchester goals again, plenty of penalty controversy, missed and given, with the referees being accused of being the main offenders (as always, nothing new there):

Top game: Manchester will be in a very good mood once again after this weekend, both teams having a bash, the games going and ending in obvious fashion, the results not suprising. Liverpool's draw against Stoke was very competitive, entertaining and had all the controversy and temperaments a good game needs (Luis Suarez by name).

Top team: The two teams from Manchester ruled the show yet again. With (only) eight goals between them this time round (it could have been 10, 11, 12,...), they top the Premier League with plenty of points (100% record of 12 points each, two ahead of Chelsea in third place), goals (33 between them, United three ahead of City, lightyears ahead of everyone else, Chelsea and Bolton come closest with 14 goals between them), stars (Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero leading the way with their hat-tricks) and flare. Can anyone or anything stop them?!

Top player: With successive hat-tricks and equaling Bobby Charlton's record for Manchester United, nothing and no one can get in the way of Rooney at the moment. He is just riding and smiling on top of everyone, the emphatic finish on the fifth goal against Bolton, the way he thumped it in from the edge of the box just shows how much he is enjoying it.

Top goal: The strike that put Blackburn ahead out of nowhere against Fulham on Sunday was a nice one. Ruben Rochina powered an unstoppable brive into the roof of the net from the edge of the box, goal, thank you, full stop. Stiliyan Petrov's equaliser for Aston Villa against Everton was a fantastic shot too, from outside the box, giving the goalkeeper no chance whatsoever. Sweet.

Top news: Champions League group stage kicking off with all four English teams still in the battle.

Flop game: Tottenham's 2-0 win at Wolves was nothing too riveting, so too the 0-0 draw between QPR and Newcastle. Liverpool will be wondering how the hell they got nothing out of their game at Stoke. Stoke showed great resilience under attack constantly and consistenty, keeping bodies everyhwere. But the referee Mark Clattenburg helped them with his controversial decisions, giving them a penalty (Jamie Carragher did have his left arm wrapped around Jonathan Walters), whilst denying Liverpool any such thing (two hand balls not given), leaving King Kenny not amused.

Flop team: Blackburn manager Steve Kean is under a lot of pressure, many fans calling for his head, his side at the bottom of the table and still waiting for their first win this season. They did get a point against Fulham but were lucky, Paul Robinson pulling off some great saves. The match ended in unsavoury fashion after Mark Schwarzer and David Hoilett clashed heads in stoppage time, with the latter forced off the field on a stretcher wearing a neck brace, a picture which summarises his manager's and team's state at the moment too well.

Flop player: Gabriel Tamas was a very lucky man after his late swinging arm which gave James Vaughan a bloody face was not spotted and penalised by referee Mark Halsey. Norwich were understandably furious. West Brom won't complain after they got away with all three points and their second clean sheet under Roy Hodgson after Peter Odemwingie had scored the quickest goal in the Premier League season so far (3. minute).

Flop goal: The way Andrey Arshavin was presented with a goal by Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm is one of those bloopers you will find on your best and worst of football DVD. The Dutch keeper took the ball to prevent a corner, threw it onto one of his players who didn't have a clue what was going on as he had his back to him, for it to deflect off him, Arshavin to swoop in and net it, thank you and goodbye.

Flop news: It's because of men like Hodgson why football was, is still and will stay years behind every other sport not accepting new technology into the game, sad! Are you telling me Tamas didn't deserve any punishment?

My predictions - Actual results

Arsenal 3:0 Swansea - 1:0

Everton 2:2 Aston Villa - 2:2

Man City 4:0 Wigan - 3:0

Stoke 1:2 Liverpool - 1:0

Sunderland 1:3 Chelsea - 1:2

Wolves 1:0 Tottenham . 0:2

Bolton 1:4 Man Utd - 0:5

Norwich 1:1 West Brom - 0:1

Fulham 2:1 Blackburn - 1:1

QPR 0:2 Newcastle - 0:0