Top 10 Stories of the Weekend: Week 4

Another great premier league weekend, goals, drama and tempers. Here’s my recap on the Top 10 stories of Week 4 of the Premier League:

1. Liverpool have the momentum! Something I didn’t think I would be saying so early, but a resilient and convincing win over Manchester United sends Liverpool into second place level with Chelsea at the top. Can this finally be their year?

2. From great to bad to worse, to just horrible, and then ugly. The story of Newcastle’s last week, the sacking of “messiah” Kevin Keegan, ownership protests from the Geordie fans and an awful performance and result against Hull. Credit where it's due to Hull, they outplayed the Toon and were deserving of the victory.

The ugly came when Danny Guthrie’s nasty challenge on Craig Fagan towards the end of the game summed up the kind of month Newcastle fans have had to endure. Fagan suffered a broken leg. Guthrie has since apologised for the tackle.

3. United’s keeping problems. Edwin Van Der Sar came in for a whole load of criticism after his shocker against Liverpool, which begs me to ask; Are Man Utd in need of a change at the 'keeper position? With Tomas Kuszczak and Ben Foster on the sidelines, United have more than capable replacements, both have EPL experience. This isn’t the first time Van Der Sar has made a big mistake either.

4. Arsenal Cruise to victory over Rovers. Theo Walcott once again had a good game, setting up Van Persie for the first and ripping through the Blackburn defence all day. Emmanuel Adebayor took the headlines with a hat-trick as Arsenal make up the top three.

5. Robinho in his first start for Man City had a good show, scored from a free-kick but poor defending from Chelsea and a slight deflection carried the ball goalwards as Petr Cech didn’t move. Chelsea, however got the job done as they were convincing 3-1 winners.

6. Respect the red card! John Terry was left baffled after he was sent off against Man City for bringing down Jo after he had broken into Chelsea territory. But with Ricardo Carvalho running around to cover, referee Mark Halsey said it was due to serious foul play, but Vidic of Manchester United was shown a yellow for a very similar offence. Chelsea will receive the result of the appeal today.

7. Chris Brunt's goal with seven minutes remaining gave West Brom their first win over West Ham. James Morrison and Roman Bednar also scored for the Baggies, while Mark Noble and Lucas Neill had the West Ham goals. Newly appointed West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola, hired two days ago to replace Alan Curbishley, watched from the stands as the Hammers were led by interim boss Kevin Keen.

8. Amr Zaki's goal with 12 minutes left gave Wigan the tie against Sunderland, who received an own-goal by the constantly error-prone Titus Bramble. How he is still playing Premier League football, I have no idea!


9. Everton travelled to the Britannia Stadium to take on Stoke City. The fixture didn’t promise too much , and the first half delivered only a few dots of quality as “The Yak” handed the Toffees the lead.

The second half was full of incident. David Moyes was sent to the stands for contesting a penalty that was given to Everton, then un-given? Victor Anichebe looked to have put the game to bed with a second for David Moyes' troops, but, thanks to Rory Delap's monster throw, Stoke equalled it from Seyi Olofinjana and an own goal from Phil Jagielka.

Comeback kid Tim Cahill, though, was on hand to smash hopes of a Potters win as he headed home with 13 minutes left on the clock.

10. And finally Tottenham remain bottom of the league after their Monday night fixture resulted in a 2-1 loss at the hands of Aston Villa. Poor defending and all around sloppiness cost Spurs the game. New Spurs shot stopper Gomes has an evening to forget as he had a terrible final 45 minutes after producing several top-class saves in the first half.

Spurs are now the only Premier league team without a win, their only point coming in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea.