Arsenal Hot and On Top: Downing Not From the Spot

What a fantastic weekend of football action in the Barclays Premier League.

Chelsea recovered to earn a draw at home to Manchester United. Liverpool faltered at home to Stoke City as Arsenal and Manchester City delighted the crowds with vintage performances.

So what else stood out…

HOT

David Di Michele was fantastic for West Ham United in their 3-1 over Newcastle United. The Italian scored two and set up the other as the Hammers swept aside the Magpies.

The only bright spot for Newcastle was the form of Michael Owen who is getting back to full fitness. The former Liverpool man bagged his side a consolation goal with a vintage Owen shimmy and curling finish.

A lot of the talk at the Reebok was about the sheer class of the Arsenal performance but I’m going to focus on Manuel Almunia. The keeper made two world class saves from Kevin Nolan, and the game could have been far more difficult for the Gunners had he not been on top form.

Saturday certainly wasn’t a day for the faint hearted in defence. It was quite literally bodies on the line. First up was Danny Shittu but his block was anything but. The big centre taking one in the stomach as he threw himself into a last ditch block. It’s what you like to see and Newcastle’s defence would do well to take some notes.

Secondly we had poor old Leon Cort of Stoke taking a thunderbolt to the head at Anfield. It probably wasn’t Cort who was left feeling Shittu however, as Liverpool failed to score.

Welcome back Michael Chopra. The Sunderland man came off the bench to score both goals in their 2-0 win over Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light. I wonder if his old bookie saw the light and cut the odds on his best client hitting the headlines.

Chopra has competition as the league’s best poacher in the form of Matt Derbyshire. I’m sure the Blackburn Rovers man must have the best goals for minutes played ratio in the Barclays Premier League! The lad only ever plays ten minutes at a time and still finds the net.

Arsenal went top of the league with a 3-1 win at Bolton. They played some breath taking football and deserve to be on top of the pile.

They might not deserve to be top of the league (yet) but Manchester City were even better than Arsenal and that’s saying something. This time last year Man City were flying high but were brought back to earth by Chelsea who dished out a 6-0 hammering. This time it’s City who dished out the 6-0 trouncing to a usually impressive Portsmouth. What a difference a year makes…or is it a Brazilian?

Petr Cech’s

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