Dancing on the ceiling...
Arsenal
Top of the league and a cracking debut from Mesut Ozil, that opening day defeat to Villa seems a long time ago now. Aaron Ramsey’s looking quite the player again too. Another penalty conceded by Laurent Koscielny though (what’s he up to at the moment?) and the injury list is growing. With the Champions League getting underway this week, the games will be coming thick and fast, and their light, brittle squad could be stretched to the limit.
Tottenham
So Christian Eriksen looks decent. After struggling to find any fluency going forward in their opening games, the young Denmark midfielder seems to be the perfect link between midfield and attack, chipping in with a couple of assists against Norwich and even helping Gylfi Sigurdsson to find his shooting boots. With Erik Lamela also able to support Soldado up top, the goals should start flowing for Tottenham now.
Roberto Martinez
Not a bad way to pick up your first win, and the new Everton manager managed it without Romelu Lukaku, who was ineligible to play against Chelsea (his parent club). Encouraging debuts from James McCarthy and Gareth Barry though, and of the older faces, Ross Barkley and Kevin Miralles looked lively too. It wasn’t the sort of free-flowing performance we’ve come to expect from a Martinez side, but the fact he can set a team up to do the ugly stuff as well (only 2 goals conceded in the Toffees’ 4 games so far) should come as a big relief to the supporters. David Moyes might not be missed as much as first thought.
Newcastle
Consecutive wins and 7 points out of 9 since that opening weekend horrorshow at Man City. Hatem Ben Arfa seems to be finding some form (he’s unplayable on his day) and Alan Pardew spoke at the weekend about now being happy with his attacking options for the first time since January. As he should be, if they’re all fit and firing at the same time, a forward line of Remy, Cisse, Ben Arfa and Gouffran with Cabaye supporting looks more than decent. Cue the inevitable boardroom derailment…
Mark Hughes
A creditable home draw against his former side sees Hughes’ Stoke side sit 7th with 7 points from 4 games, they’ve even been playing a bit of football on occasion. People might stop talking about the QPR unpleasantness if this carries on.
Crying on the floor...
Chelsea
I feel like a broken record here, but why did Mourinho let Lukaku go? He obviously doesn’t rate Demba Ba, Torres doesn’t look like stepping up any time soon and while Samuel Eto’o will most likely do a job, placing all your chips on a 32-year-old is a risky punt. Chelsea had 22 shots at Goodison, and the man most likely to put one of them away was sat in the stands, waiting to make his debut for the home side.
Man City
Several hundred million pounds later, Javi Garcia’s playing centre-half and James Milner’s the danger man out wide, something’s gone wrong somewhere. 5 points dropped already.
Southampton and West Ham
After their goalless draw at St Mary’s on Sunday, both sides have 5 points from their opening 4 games. Not disastrous starts by any means, but with the standard of opposition they’ve faced so far, both sides would have hoped for more. Their fixture lists are only getting tougher.
Lack of goals should be a concern too. With just two each only West Brom have scored less so far this season. While the Hammers will point to Andy Carroll’s injury problems in mitigation, Southampton don’t have that luxury. Mauricio Pochettino needs to get the most out of Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez, and fast.
Aston Villa
A win at Arsenal and encouraging (if fruitless) displays against Chelsea and Liverpool looked a decent start. After a home defeat to Newcastle, it looks like they’re 17th with only 3 points from 4 games.
Anything else?
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