“Everton defended, they did their job and they won.”
The summer transfer window came to a climactic end with surprise purchases at the very last minute. The Premier League returned after a two week international break. Many of the stars arrived from international duty with very little rest in between.
Aaron Ramsey scored two goals for Arsenal as they won 3-1 at Sunderland. Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2-0 with goals from Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney.
Liverpool maintained their lead at the top of the Premier League table after their 2-2 draw against Swansea City.
Everton handed José Mourinho his first loss in his second spell as Chelsea manager, beating the blues 1-0 at home. Birthday boy Steven Naismith’s header pushed the blues to sixth place in the Premier League standings.
Fans are flying the flag for Merseyside neighbours Liverpool and Everton as they are now the only two teams in the league to remain unbeaten.
Manchester United 2 Crystal Palace 0 – 12.45 pm KO, Saturday
David Moyes picked up his first home win as Manchester United manager, beating Crystal Palace 2-0.
Want away striker Wayne Rooney added to Robin van Persie’s debatable penalty goal. With nine minutes to go and donning a bandana to protect his recent head injury, Rooney scored with an excellent free kick.
The headlines however, wrongly belonged to Manchester United’s Ashley Young. His dive earned him a deserved yellow card.
This win meant that Manchester United extended a run of nearly twelve years unbeaten on home soil against newly promoted teams.
Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3 – 3 pm KO, Saturday
Arsenal beat Sunderland 3-1 away from home, with Aaron Ramsey scoring a brace for the Gunners.
Arsenal’s record signing Mesut Özil settled in quickly on his debut as he teed up Olivier Giroud to open the scoring. The home side did level in the second half, but two goals from Welsh wizard, Ramsey meant the Gunners have scored seven goals in three games this season, winning 3-1.
Arsenal’s fifth win in a row sent them to the top of the league temporarily, while they waited for Chelsea and Liverpool to play their respective matches.
After the match, Ramsey praised £43m man Mesut Özil and said:
“You saw what Mesut is all about with those lovely, telling through balls to set people up one on one with the keeper. He’s an unbelievable talent.”
“It’s going to be great playing alongside him. The club was fairly confident of getting a signing like him in pre-season and they got him. The fans will be delighted and during his debut they didn’t stop singing his name,” he added.
Stoke City 0 Manchester City 0 – 3 pm KO, Saturday
Manchester City has not often won at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium. The trend continued as the two teams played out a 5th draw in league games at Stoke.
It was Stoke who were the livelier of the two and looking to get something out of the game. If it wasn’t for wasted opportunities, the points could have been in the bag for the Potters.
The away side played with a negative frame of mind, much to the disappointment of their fans.
Seven points from four games isn’t really good enough for a side that doesn’t appear to have a limit on their transfer spend.
Everton 1 Chelsea 0 – 5.30 pm KO, Saturday
The blue half of Merseyside turned out the result of the weekend as they humbled José Mourinho’s Chelsea at Goodison Park.
Steven Naismith’s late header in the first half gave his new manager, Roberto Martínez, a massive win. Everton often tends to give Chelsea a tough time at home, but a win was certainly a pleasant surprise.
Chelsea threw everything at Everton from the start, but to no avail. New signing, the world famous Samuel Eto’o, missed some glorious chances to mark his Chelsea debut with a goal.
Everton stood firm and hung on to clinch three points. Along with neighbours Liverpool, Everton are the only other team to remain unbeaten in the Premier League this season, with one win and three draws.
After the defeat, Mourinho sportingly spoke about the home side: “Everton defended, they did their job and they won.”
And so, Mourinho suffered his first Premier League defeat since September 2007.
Swansea City 2 Liverpool 2 – 8 pm KO, Monday
Liverpool regained their lead at the top of the table after a blistering encounter in South Wales.
The football was taken over by Swansea’s former Liverpool man, Jonjo Shelvey, who was influential in all four goals.
In only the 2nd minute, Shelvey put the home side 1-0 up to show his old manager what he was missing. However, a couple of minutes later, a weak back pass by Shelvey let in the prolific Daniel Sturridge to net his fourth goal in just as many games.
Shelvey slipped up again and allowed Liverpool’s on-loan debutant Victor Moses to go on and put the visitors in the lead.
Shelvey made amends however, by laying the ball on for Spaniard Michu to equalise for Swansea.
A fan on the LFC India Twitter page ambitiously tweeted:
“Rodgers has worked really hard on back 4 keeping formation this season. Goal-threats aside, such defending leads title charges.”
Around the rest of the league, Fulham drew 1-1 at home to West Bromwich Albion with the same score line between Hull City and Cardiff City. Newcastle United came away with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa and Southampton played out a 0-0 draw at St Mary’s against West Ham United.
Tottenham Hotspur continued their good form, following the departure of Gareth Bale by defeating Norwich City 2-0 at White Hart Lane.
Next week sees the Manchester derby being hosted by Manchester City, and the West London derby with Chelsea at home to Shahid Khan’s Fulham.
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