charles
Graham Fisher
Andrew Aigner-Muehler
LukeS
HardyEPL: 'Perfect' starts ended
September 1st 2008 04:50
Sat, Aug 30:
Bolton 0 - 0 West Brom
Everton 0 - 3 Portsmouth
Hull 0 - 5 Wigan
Middlesbrough 2 - 1 Stoke
West Ham 4 - 1 Blackburn
Arsenal 3 - 0 Newcastle
Sun, Aug 31:
Chelsea 1 - 1 Tottenham
Sunderland 0 - 3 Man City
Aston Villa 0 - 0 Liverpool
SUMMARY:
Chelsea and Liverpool's perfect start to the new campaign was ended over the weekend after drawing with Tottenham and Aston Villa respectively while normal service was resumed for Arsenal (3-0 winners of Newcastle) and Wigan gave Premiership newbies Hull City a serious thrashing.
After a season-opening rout with new boss Luiz Felipe Scolari at the helm, Chelsea have yet to scale the same heights in their subsequent matches and this time they allowed London rivals Tottenham to earn their solitary point of the season.
Juliano Belletti gave the home side a deserved lead in the 27th minute but allowed the visitors to equalise against the run of play through Darren Bent on the stroke of half-time. Despite a frantic finish by Chelsea, Spurs were able to hang on for a draw to slightly ease the pressure on Juande Ramos.
Liverpool's sub-par form continued with an away trip to Aston Villa that ended 0-0. Reds' boss Rafa Benitez received a torrent of abuse from the home fans for his involvement in the Gareth Barry saga - not that it worried him in the slightest - but to see his no.1 striker Fernando Torres limp off on the stroke of half-time would have ruffled a few feathers.
Coupled with the fact that Captain marvel Steven Gerrard was out injured, the Reds lacked that extra cutting edge to break down Villa despite always in control of the match.
In the match of the weekend, Wigan destroyed Premiership new boys Hull City with a 5-0 rout that ended their fairytale start to life in the Premier League. The visitors ruthlessly punished the home side's woeful defending and all it took was an own goal by Sam Ricketts in only the fourth minute of the match to get things rolling.
Heading into the break at 2-0, Wigan added three more goals in the second half with striker Amr Zaki saving the best for last - a thunderous effort that came off the crossbar and down over the line.
In other matches, wins were recorded for Arsenal, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, West Ham and Manchester City.
[Video Source: Blip.tv]
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