Premier League Winners and Losers: Yakubu, Tottenham, and the Arsenal Defense

This weekend saw some seriously exciting football at all ends of the table, and in my opinion Gameweek 5 has been the most exciting yet.

While Manchester United and Chelsea squared off in an exciting encounter, Tottenham and Liverpool also played out a shockingly one-sided match. To many people's surprise, the most exciting match of the weekend was—hands down—the seven-goal thriller at Ewood Park between Blackburn and Arsenal.

The winners and losers of this week are overwhelmingly obvious, so let's get right to it.

Winner: Yakubu

The 28-year-old Nigerian has had trouble finding good form in recent years, and even struggled to score at Championship outfit Leicester City last season on loan.

So Everton decided to let Yakubu go, allowing him to transfer to Blackburn during the summer. He was handed his debut against Arsenal, and after 90 minutes had passed it seemed like Yakubu had finally found his home.

Two goals on a debut against the Gunners is not too shabby, and even as an Arsenal fan, the interview with the Blackburn striker after the match seemed genuinely heartfelt.

For the first time in a while, Yakubu has "winner" written all over him.

Winner: Steve Kean

After coming under loads of criticism for an extremely poor start to the season, a large amount of Blackburn fans were demanding the sacking of Steve Kean, and decided to lead a protest before the Rovers' match against Arsenal.

It was only fitting that Blackburn would go on to beat Arsenal 4-3. Talk about irony.

It's looking like Steve Kean has gotten a get-out-of-jail-free card for now, but my prediction stands that the Scotsman won't be the manager at Ewood Park come May.

Winner: Arsenal's Attack

Arsenal's defeat to Blackburn was in no way due to the Gunners' attack. In fact, Arsenal's lack of creativity seems to be gone, as Gervinho, Arteta and even Song have been incredible in creating numerous chances for the North London outfit.

Mikel Arteta is looking like a suitable replacement for Cesc Fabregas, while Gervinho gives Arsenal's attacks the width that they always seemed to lack. The Ivorian has been brilliant for Arsenal so far, and with him in the squad the Gunners' attacks are much harder to exploit.

Scoring three goals at Ewood Park would usually win this encounter, but Arsenal's frail defense cost them dearly—a point that I'll be getting to later...

Winner: The New Boys

Newly promoted clubs Swansea, Norwich, and QPR all played out comfortable wins this weekend.

It was a good gameweek for the new boys, and they'll all be hoping to prove doubters wrong and show that relegation can wait.

Unfortunately, I do think that at least one of these clubs will suffer the drop come May, but for now they can enjoy their victories.

Winner: Tottenham Hotspur

Who was expecting this?

Tottenham against Liverpool at White Hart Lane should have been a very close match, especially after Spurs showed that their home advantage meant nothing in a 5-1 defeat to Manchester City in North London.

Tottenham really bounced back from a string of some bad defeats, and it really is impressive that they put a whopping four goals past a strong Liverpool side.

A good win for Spurs, and they'll be glad to have gained these three points from a rough patch in their schedule.

Winner: Sunderland

Sunderland finally had their first win of the season with a four-goal thrashing over Stoke City.

After Steve Bruce's heavy spending in the transfer window this summer, good things were expected of the Black Cats, but they simply weren't producing the anticipated results.

Many speculated that Sunderland's new look squad would take time to gel, and it seems finally they've gotten it right, grabbing a much needed three points over Stoke.

It'll be interesting to see if the squad really has gelled or if this result was simply a fluke.

Winner: Manchester United

As you can see there are plenty of winners this week, but I promise this is the last one.

Manchester United continue to steamroll their way through the Premier League, and continued to do so against Chelsea this weekend. The Red Devils are scoring goals left and right, and at the moment it's tough to come up with anything that can stop them.

Another winner here that should be noted is Nani, who scored a particularly nice goal to give United the two-goal cushion.

There must be something in the water up at Old Trafford...

Loser: Arsenal's Defense

I'm sure I wasn't the only Arsenal fan thinking, "What's wrong with them?" after the Gunners' 4-3 defeat at the hands of Blackburn.

Just when it seems Arsenal's season is back on track, they go out and lose to the club that's only won two of their last 18 Premiership matches.

For this loss, the scapegoat is obvious: the defense.

Two own goals? Really?

The first one was understandable, as Song has been a key player so far this season and even assisted Arsenal's first goal in this match. But Gunners' fans are starting to lose patience with Koscielny, and the Frenchman's inconsistency is becoming unbearable.

To keep this from turning into a rant, I'll end by hoping Arsenal can grab three points at home to Bolton next week.

Loser: Liverpool

To be honest, Liverpool deserve a lot more criticism than they're currently getting.

The 4-0 defeat to Tottenham was just plain poor, especially after losing to Stoke just a week earlier. It would be understandable if this defeat came at the hands of one of the Manchester clubs, but Tottenham have not been the most impressive team lately and Liverpool shouldn't have let themselves lose by a whopping four goals.

Remember, this is the Liverpool squad that Kenny Dalglish spent millions on, the squad that had expectations of challenging for the title.

To pour salt in the Reds' wounds, key players Charlie Adam and Martin Skrtel will be serving suspensions after receiving red cards on Sunday.

On paper, Liverpool should be cruising through their fixtures, but something is just not right with the Anfield outfit.

Loser: Manchester City

Usually, a 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage would be a perfectly respectable result.

But for high-rollers Manchester City, this result will surely be viewed as a loss rather than a draw.

After surrendering a two-goal lead, City let Fulham complete a remarkable comeback, giving the Manchester club a reality check. The Sky Blues should now realize that they aren't invincible, and that not everything is perfect at the Etihad Stadium.

The main reason Manchester City are losers this week is that they have been neck and neck with Manchester United at the top of the table, so City will be disappointed to have lost some ground against their rivals.

Nonetheless, I don't think this will be too much of a setback for Roberto Mancini's men, but they do face a difficult fixture against Everton next week.

Loser: Fernando Torres

Do I need to explain myself?

Fernando Torres' miss against Manchester United will go down as one of the worst in Premier League history.

After rounding David De Gea, it looked like Torres would give Chelsea a lifeline to put them right back in the match. But leave it to Fernando Torres to miss on an open goal from four yards out.

Sure, he scored earlier on in the match, but even Sir Alex Ferguson could've made the shot that Torres missed.

It's looking like Torres will never justify his 50 million pound price tag, which is pretty sad and pathetic.