English Premier Leauge Bad Boys: Gervinho, Joey Barton and Week 1's Ruffians

The first week is now in the books following Manchester City's bashing of Swansea City. The Citizens ended the week on a high note as it was a clean game with no cards handed out making it perhaps the friendliest game of the week.

However, other matches around the league saw tempers flair, and some of the usual suspects right in the thick of things as the red cards have already started to pile up.

Referees were busy this weekend as 44 players received cards, and in this weekly round-up we take a look at the bookings from each game of the weekend.

We cap it off with the best or worst moment of the weekend. The belief in it being the best or worst moment is solely up to your own opinion.

So let's get to the good stuff.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton: Red Cards to the Rioters

London riots were close to home for Tottenham Hotspur and White Hart Lane saw its opening match of the season hosting Everton postponed thanks to public unrest.

Red cards to all the rioters that ruined opening day for the North Londoners and the blue side of Merseyside.

Manchester City vs. Swansea City: Such Good Boys

Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero and David Silva got their season off on the right foot as they all scored in the Citizens' opener.

In what was a one-sided match all the way, the Citizens and Swans played out a polite game with no recorded discipline needed.

Stoke City vs. Chelsea: Four-Card Draw

Stoke City frustrated last season's runners-up in a four-card bout that saw Andre Villas-Boas reeling from his first EPL match experience as the Potters held the Blues to a 0-0 draw at the Britannia.

The culprits were evenly split with Stoke City's Ryan Shawcross and Marc Wilson earning yellow for the Potters.

Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard earned the yellows for the Blues.

Wigan Athletic vs. Norwich City: Four Cards the Charm

Norwich are the only promoted club to take points in their opening match this season as they earned a 1-1 draw against Wigan Athletic. Norwich are likely to be fighting to keep their place in the EPL this season against Wigan and the other lower clubs.

David Fox got the quickest card of the weekend when he was carded one minute into the match and Steve Morrison earned another for the Canaries at the 72nd minute.

Wigan's Mohamed Diame and Ben Watson earned cards back to back in the 84th and 85th minutes.

West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester United: Five-Card Studs

Manchester United scored in the late stages to take a 2-1 victory back to Old Trafford as they avoided the dreaded draw that the majority of the top clubs experienced on their opening days.

The Red Devils and the Baggies racked up five total yellow cards during the match.

Paul Scharner, Steven Reid and Simon Cox took the honors for the West Brom while Ashley Young and Oliveira Anderson claimed the first bookings of the season for United.

Blackburn Rovers vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers: Pick Six

Wolverhampton got revenge for the loss that Blackburn handed them on the last day of the 2010-11 season in May by taking a 2-1 victory at Ewood Park.

The two teams played a tough contest with six players getting in the books.

Rovers had four culprits in David Dunn, Brett Emerton, Jason Roberts and Steven N'Zonzi. Wolves countered with two of their own, thanks to Roger Johnson and Richard Stearman.

Fulham vs. Aston Villa: Six for Kicks

Fulham and Aston Villa played out another of the draws at the weekend with a 0-0 showing at Craven Cottage. While the boats got some attention due to the lack of goals, there was no shortage of bookings during the match.

Danny Murphy and Moussa Dembele claimed yellow for the Cottagers while Gabriel Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey, Stiliyan Petrov and Richard Dunne took home yellows for the Villains.

Queens Park Rangers vs. Bolton Wanderers: First in Red

Queens Park Rangers got a baptism by fire at the hands of a charged up Bolton Wanderers when they got blasted 4-0 at the hands of Owen Coyle's Trotters.

Nigel Reo-Coker got his first booking during his debut match for Bolton while Gary Cahill also saw yellow.

The real winner of this match goes to QPR's Clint Hill as he was the first player to be red carded this season in the English Premier League.

Liverpool vs. Sunderland: Eight of Spades

Liverpool and Sunderland played the second most booked game of the weekend with four players from each side saw yellow in their 1-1 draw at Anfield.

Jamie Carragher, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Dirk Kuyt all saw the book for the Reds.

Sunderland's cautioned group included Kieran Richardson who was lucky not to see a red card, which would have beaten QPR's Clint Hill to the punch for first in the League, but he was given a break by Phil Dowd.

Lee Cattermole started his season off in his usual tough tackling style with Phillip Bardsley and Sebastian Larsson also joining in.

Newcastle United vs. Arsenal: Gervin-Rojo

Arsenal and Newcastle United picked up where they left off last season at St. James Park. Last year the two played the game of the season, as voted by Fox Soccer Channel, on Tyneside, and they once again had testing display for goalless draw.

In the weekend's most disciplined match Newcastle earned yellows from Fabricio Coloccini, Ismael Cheik Tioté and Joey Barton who arguably should have seen red.

Gervinho got welcomed to the EPL with a straight red card at the 76th minute, but more on that in a minute.

Alex Song, Kieran Gibbs, Tomas Rosicky, Wojciech Szczęsny and Thomas Vermaelen all also were booked by Peter Walton.

Best and Worst Moment: Joey Barton vs. Gervinho

Joey Barton got his first controversial stab out of the way for the season as he got the worst out of Arsenal's new attacker, Gervinho.

The Ivory Coast attacker was clearly not brought up to speed on the rough and sneaky English midfielder as he allowed the sly Barton to get under his skin and cause him to overreact.

Gervinho was given a straight red card with little hesitation after he smacked Barton across the face. In all honesty Barton could have joined him, but his inclusion was I guess considered not as severe since he did not raise his hand.

Whichever way you see it, it was the best and worst booking moment of the week.