Gunners shot down by City

Manchester City are looking serious contenders for the Barclays Premier League crown as they demolished the other half of North London at the Etihad by a whopping 6-3 scoreline, denting Arsenal's title aspirations. After a draw with Everton and defeat in Naples, Arsenal ended a bad week with a thumping and a disappointing day was compounded by the imminent suspension of Jack Wilshere and the poor behavior of Mesut Ozil at full time. As Ozil trudged off the field, failing to pay respect to the Arsenal fans, captain and fellow German Per Mertersacker was enraged and showed his passion to the cause, always good to see. 

Despite stuttering away form, Manchester City have a 100% home record and have beaten all but Everton by at least 3 goals, including 7 past Norwich and 6 past Spurs. In particular, the partnership between Alvaro Negredo and Sergio Aguero has blossomed in recent weeks with both on red hot form going into the game, both went onto the score in the rout. Arsenal had been rather resilient and impressive in recent weeks, but after having two goals disallowed and being overran by City's attacking frontier, they fell to pieces and will now look to react next week, against Chelsea.

However, the other half of London weren't gloating for long as they suffered their first league defeat to Liverpool in over 5 seasons as they went down 5-0 at White Hart Lane, a devastating loss which saw Andre Villas-Boas lose his job this past Monday. After a North London derby defeat, a 6-0 whipping at City and now a 5-0 humbling at home, Villas-Boas was running on borrowed time, now Spurs need to sort their season out all they'll be left behind in the top 4 race never mind the title race. Liverpool however look a new side this season, last year they halted and hesitated through to a positive end of season, while now they boast arguably the best player in Premier League at the moment and playing easy on the eye football, they could be in with a shot for the top 4, maybe the title! Luis Suarez has scored 17 goals in the league already, after missing the first 5 games! While others are stuttering, Liverpool are motoring through teams recently and look a real threat this season. 

I personally predicted Manchester City to win the league this year, judging on recent form, i'm confident of sticking to that. They have the best squad in the league, the best strike pair in the league and at home are proving unstoppable. Beating fellow big guns Arsenal, Spurs, United and Everton at home, despite away stumbles, Pellegrini is settling in and now seems to have found his best side. Manchester City look a side who can compete on all four fronts this season, watch this space City fans. 

Best of the Rest
Everton 4-1 Fulham- Roberto Martinez's men will take some stopping as they maintain their incredible start with only one defeat this season. Goals from Leon Osman, Seamus Coleman, Gareth Barry and Kevin Mirallas sent Everton to another 3 points. Dimitar Berbatov got a consolation, but the Cottagers will be lucky to retain his services beyond January.
Newcastle 1-1 Southampton- Two sides who've been surprisingly impressive this term were equally matched at St James' as Jay Rodriguez finished a lovely move to equalise Yoan Gouffran's opener. It was a very entertaining football match, ending in a scuffle in the technical area between coaching staff after a collision between Massimo Haidara and Morgan Schneiderlin.
Aston Villa 0-3 Manchester United- A well needed win for David Moyes as his United side resisted a spirited Villa start to score 2 quickfire goals to all but kill Villa's momentum. Danny Welbeck slid home two tap ins, vital for his form. Tom Cleverley bagged the third with a well taken near post finish to finish off Villa. A good sight was the return of Darren Fletcher after nearly two years out battling ulcerative colitis.

                                   

Luis Suarez 11-2 Norwich City

So Liverpool may have lost to Hull City on Sunday, for the first time in the club's history, however in an action-packed week of Premier League football, the midweek encounter's brought us an individual master-class from Liverpool's main man Luis Suarez. As Norwich's defence was once again put to the sword, it was not a team, but a player who destroyed the Canaries. Suarez, in 4 meetings against City has 11 goals, the first player in history to score 3 hat-tricks against the same club in the Premier League. If you haven't seen the Suarez 'fantastic four', I recommend you do, all 4 goals are of the highest quality, showing the class Suarez possesses, seemingly finally overshadowing the reputation he's built up in past incidents. I'm glad he's finally being acknowledged more for his goal scoring than his antics.

So, there's two match days to cover, let's start with the weekend!

Match-Day 13
Spurs 2-2 Manchester United

Both sides had underachieved so far this season in the league, Spurs off the back of the embarrassing 6-0 demolition at United's neighbours City. United have been very inconsistent this season, but were on decent form coming into this, especially their star man Wayne Rooney. It turned out to be an end-to-end game, both sides showing they needed to win this to keep up with Arsenal. Spurs led when Kyle Walker fizzed in a low free-kick under the United wall, but it was Walker who gifted Rooney the chance for equaliser, which he took. Spurs went into the second half with one aim, get the win, Sandro curled in an absolute beauty to give Spurs the lead again, but it was cancelled out by that man Rooney again 3 minutes later from the spot. In a game both had to win, it was no surprise it ended all square.

West Ham 3-0 Fulham

It what turned out to be Martin Jol's final game, it was a 5th league defeat in a row for the Cottagers, as the appointment of Rene Meulensteen could not help the desperate Dutchaman. West Ham have themselves been very poor this season, mainly due to the lack of strikers. Modibo Maiga tries, but doesn't have the quality to be a starting frontman in the top flight. It was a second half capitulation which got West Ham the break through, Momo Diame's deflected strike beat Maarten Stekelengburg. A striker is what West Ham need, well that's what they got. They released one, re-signed him, brought him on and he scored, he goes by the name of Carlton Cole. His namesake Joe made it 3 with a expertly driven shot. As the people of Holland say, doei Jol!

The rest
Aston Villa 0-0 Sunderland
Cardiff City 0-3 Arsenal
Chelsea 3-1 Southampton
Everton 4-0 Stoke City
Hull City 3-1 Liverpool
Manchester City 3-0 Swansea City
Newcastle 2-1 West Brom
Norwich City 1-0 Crystal Palace


Match-Day 14
Manchester United 0-1 Everton
David Moyes was left wondering how his side didn't manage to beat the side he left in the summer after a very frustrating night for United. Tim Howard was in sensational form at his old club with superb saves from Adnan Januzaj, Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney. However, it was Everton's seemingly new signing, in only his second ever Premier League start, Byran Oviedo clinched a smash and grab win for Martinez's Toffees. 

Southampton 2-3 Aston Villa
2 defeats on the spin for Pocchetino, now we will see what this Saints side is really up to this season. It was a thriller at St Mary's, with Villa leading not once, twice but three times in the end to get a massive 3 points. Gabby Agbonlahor ended a goal drought with a superbly taken solo goal, Saints hit back with England starlet Jay Rodriguez heading home. Villa led in the second half again thanks to Libor Kozak's close range header, only for Dani Osvaldo to snatch a well needed goal, making it 2-2.Then a wonder strike from Fabian Delph clinched the game for Villa, a wonderful left foot drive giving Villa a deserved 3 points.

The rest
Arsenal 2-0 Hull City
Crystal Palace 1-0 West Ham
Fulham 1-2 Spurs
Liverpool 5-1 Norwich City
Stoke 0-0 Cardiff City
Sunderland 3-4 Chelsea
Swansea City 3-0 Newcastle
West Brom 2-3 Man City