WEEKEND DIGEST: Breaking down top guns performances

WEEKEND DIGEST: Game Week 2

By now the ever growing BPL anxiety has pretty much settled since the return of the most followed sporting action, globally. Not to say I don’t always rush to my diary and mark the match dates, but at least I do it in a relaxed manner; coffee in my left hand knowing very well my dear BPL is here to stay for a longer period. Yeah longer than A United fan’s celebration at the Old Trafford in the past two seasons combined.

Today we welcome the third week of ecstasy, when Aguero finds form,Di Maria’s shirts sells, Sanchez proves his worth and Lukaku eager to annoy Mourinho at Goodison Park. Here’s a brief highlight of match day 2’s action.

Manchester city 3-1 Liverpool.

When a Kop shouts ‘’Money can’t buy you trophies’’ you’d surely want to smack his face with Suarez’ shin guards or maybe wipe him off with Gerrard’s rag; soon as he slip in fear of Ba the mammoth. The match was last week’s super fixture and a lot was expected when the Champions hosted the league runners up on Monday night. Balotelli had completed his move and was in the stands to cheer his new team against his former employers.  

Zabaleta returned in his position and hence pushed Clichy to the Left as the mighty Citizens rallied out to show why they are this season’s favorites to win the league again. Jovetic who literally missed the whole of last season, started ahead of Aguero as City’s top scorer in their pre-season caused all kind of trouble against the likes of Lovren and Skrtel. The Montenegro international scored two goals on the night before substito ute Aguero wrapping up the points within 20 seconds after coming on. Zabaletta who had a superb outing, was unfortunate to score in his own net but the damage was already done for the Rodgers men.

Everton 2-2 Arsenal

Termed as one of the most ‘exciting’ fixtures of the weekend, surely after the final whistle, the enthralling encounter deserved all the hype. In a sunny evening, Wenger’s men were walking out of Goodison tunnel with the 3-0 defeat ghost, strongly lingering in their minds and with only one goal; to right the previous wrongs. Wenger opted to start with our summer’s marquee signing upfront ahead of Giroud.Ozil and Mertesacker were also in the line up making their first competitive appearance since Brazil’s success with the German National team. 4-1-4-1 was Wenger’s menu and Ozil was at the end of the hot sauce; forced to wait tables from the left side of the room as Ox, Ramsey and Cazorla controlled the kitchen, with Koscielny sacrificed at the accounts office as Per,Chambers,Debuchy and Monreal acted as Szczesny’s cover infront of Flamini.

Gunners found themselves struggling with just 25% of the possession as McCarthy and Barry did everything to kill Arsenal’s fluidity .Coleman broke the deadlock in the 19^th minute courtesy of a flurry of cute passes from a free kick after Sanchez had conceded a foul.Per and Debuchy’s frustrations were recorded in the Ref’s book before Naismith painfully made it 2-0 after Ozil was foolishly disposed in the Toffees own third. Off went Sanchez; on came Giroud during the break. With just 8 minutes to go, Ramsey (who else) poked home from Santi’s low cross to send a nervy end to the match.

The goal appeared to have lifted Wenger’s men spirits as Giroud smashed home an astonishing header from Monreal’s cross from the left side and BOOM! 2-2 it was down from 2-0 as Arsenal made it 4 from a possible 6 points.

Sunderland 1-1 Manchester United

There is certainly very little to say when Van Gaal’s tactics are dragging with only35% possession in the first quarter of the match in a Sunday afternoon which saw the resilient Black Cats drop all their bodies in attack with little to fear in the stadium of Light. Fletcher in particular, seemed lost for the larger part of the first half before Mata’s goal in the 17^th minute finally gave the Red devils some breathing space. Valencia worked himself out with some fine footworks down the right before lashing in a sharp low cross which was met by the Spaniard; to slot past Mannone.

Wickham showed no weakness whenever he thrust forward in search of an equalizer forcing United into consecutive corner kicks. Poyet’s men were rewarded minutes after Mata’s goal when Rodwell; their summer signee rose above the likes of RVP (weird right?) to head home a free header connecting Sebastian Larsson’s well crafted corner kick. Keane came on for the injured Smalling something the Trafford faithful never wanted to see after Lingaard made the same bow last week.

Fletcher and Wickham missed a couple of open chances which proved costly in the end after they failed to bag all the maximum points; but a point against Van Gaal was something worthy of a couple of pints and celebrations to the Sunderland fans following a morale boosting outing

Chelsea 2-0 Leicester

Kit numbers may have been swapped around the Stamford Bridge but one couldn’t help notice Hazard flashing no. 10 on his back as Fabregas a summer recruit from Barcelona claimed his favorite no. 4.Mourinho’s troops may have come under criticism even as they comfortably lead the log after just two games; with many claiming they’ve had easy rounds of fixtures but what many may have forgotten is that the so called ‘easy’ opponents were the reason why they ended up trophy less last season.

The Red hot Diego Costa was at it again on Saturday when he put the blues ahead in the weekend’s early kickoff. Ivanovic ran riot across his line working very hard in his defensive role as well as bulldozing the new boys with his forays upfront; which deservedly earned him an assist. Hazard broke down the left wing with his trademark twists and turns which appeared too much for the visitors when he swept a low curved effort past schmeichel to make it 2-0 and 6 out of 6 points.

In other results: QPR had the longest weekend when Redknapp’s former side; Tottenham put them to sword with a 4-0 hefty loss.

Hull city registered a vital 1-0 home win over Stoke city as Southampton and West Brom played out to a Goalless draw.

AWARDS: Goal of the week –Aguero vs. Liverpool.

Match of the week-Everton vs. Arsenal (2-2)

Player of the week-Jovetic\Chadli

Catch me again next week as I analyze this weekend’s tantalizing matches. Below are my picks and my predictions:

Burnley 0-2 Manchester United

Man City 2-1 Stoke

Everton 1-1 Chelsea.

Arsenal 2-0 Leicester

Enjoy!

@bryshavin.