GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK: 6
StrumSolo > 01/10/2013, 12:37
He'll be pleased with that, Gary...
Arsenal
Today is the 17th anniversary of Wenger’s appointment and at the start of the season, few would have expected him and the team to be in such good shape. As much as they’ve benefitted from the other top sides dropping points, the Gunners seem to have found the sort of consistency (at the end of the last campaign as well as at the start of this) that has eluded them for too many years now. Saturday’s win at Swansea is a perfect example of the sort of game they might have lost in recent seasons, but the home side were sent packing with minimal fuss. Still early days of course, with injury disasters and the annual Easter meltdown to be negotiated, but so far, so good.
Aston Villa
We’ll get to Man City’s erratic form, but Villa, in seeing them off at the weekend and beating Arsenal on the opening day, are developing a Southampton-esque habit of embarrassing the big boys. Like the Saints, they could do with picking up a few more points from the teams they should be beating, but it’s a nice problem to have I suppose. That they managed to find the net three times on Saturday despite the absence of Benteke and Agbonlahor is great news for Paul Lambert too.
Southampton
They won at home against a team that aren’t very good! It was third time lucky after draws against Sunderland and West Ham, and the Palace win was enough to send them fourth (for a day). Osvaldo and Lambert both got on the scoresheet, and that’s four clean sheets in a row. Happy days.
Liverpool
It had looked as though the wheels might be coming off after defeats to Southampton and Man Utd, but what better place to get back on track than the Stadium of Light? Sunderland were predictably poor but a goalscoring return for Suarez and another one for Sturridge are two good reasons for optimism.
Norwich
A vital and unlikely win against Stoke on Sunday that will have eased the pressure on Chris Hughton no end. Goals are still a concern, but he lives to fight another day.
Saido Berahino
The saviour of English football? His start to life in a West Brom shirt has certainly been encouraging. It’s not all sunshine and happiness at chez-Berahino though, turns out the poor chap is ‘only’ on £850 a week. How’s he meant to buy and crash Bentley Continentals with that?
He'll be disappointed with that, Gary...
David Moyes
As embarrassing as league defeats to your local rivals are, they’ll happen from time to time. Even Sir Alex Ferguson lost a few. I’m struggling to think of many examples of a Ferguson side being so outplayed and losing at home to the likes of West Brom though. The odds on Moyes being the next Premier league manager to go have been slashed to 14/1. It seems a bit premature for that, but defeats like the one on Saturday certainly aren’t making life any easier for him.
Martin Jol
Speaking of the sack race.... He’ll point to a lengthy injury list in mitigation for such a poor start, but that’s to be expected when so many of your squad are the wrong side of 30. The lack of money spent by the club over the last few years is also a factor, but any manager that can call on the likes of Ruiz, Berbatov, Bent and Taraabt should really have more than 4 points on the board after 6 games. Results need to improve, and fast.
West Ham
Some poor refereeing decisions cost them on Saturday but they had enough opportunities to take something away from the KC. Again, it’s the lack of goals that are costing them. They’ve only scored 4 all season and 2 of those came in the 3-2 defeat to Everton. The decision to place £15m worth of chips on the permanently injured Andy Carroll is starting to look disastrous.
Man City
From the sublime to the ridiculous. With the other challengers dropping points, Pellegrini is getting away with it for now (being less awful than David Moyes isn’t hurting either) but they need to find some consistency, sharpish.
Newcastle
After consecutive wins, consecutive defeats, and it’s starting to look a bit relegation-dogfight again on Tyneside.