Another interesting weekend of results in the English Premier League. There were some wonderful goals scored as well as some shock results. In total, there were 23 goals scored and 3 red cards given out.
The biggest surprise of the weekend and possibly the shock result of the season was the Arsenal’s capitulation against Hull City at the Emirates. Before I begin to analyse this game, I would like to point out that I’m a mad Arsenal supporter, and have been one for more than a decade now. This can be interpreted in 2 ways. If I praise Arsenal, then it would be seen as being biased. However, if I criticise the team, then the criticism will probably be more credible.
So given that, I have harsh criticism for Arsenal’s disgraceful performance on the weekend. It was not just disgraceful, it was also embarrassing given the quality of the players and the opposition. This is not to say that Hull City does not have a decent team, what I am saying is that a team like Arsenal should not and cannot lose to such a team especially given home advantage and current form.
Once again, football has been proven to be very unpredictable. I was only able to see the first half of Arsenal’s game due to time constraints, thankfully it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. In fact, after watching the first half, I had a feeling that this was not going to be Arsenal’s day. Throughout the entire half, we had not made the most of the opportunities, overplaying our approach to the opposing team’s goal and hence messing up what seemed great opportunities to score. We were simply trying to be too fancy, trying too hard to play a brand of football good on the eye, but not doing the most important thing, which is to score goals.
When I found out that Arsenal ended up losing the game, it was not entirely a shock given their first half performance. The thing that really summed up the game was the fact that Arsenal’s goal came from an own goal. Arsene Wenger had every right to be very angry at the players and we can only hope that Arsenal does not change its playing ways to recover from this very disappointing performance. The midweek Champions League game against Porto will tell.
The other shock result of the weekend was Manchester City’s loss against Wigan. I still can’t believe that this is the same team that recently won 6-0 in the EPL. It all goes to show that money cannot buy you success, at least in the short term. I’m of the opinion that Manchester City will not realise its potential until next season, when it is able to acquire a new group of players with the money they now have due to the takeover. I would recommend all punters to stop betting on the Blues from winning matches until next season when they should be a force.
Talking about that game, how good was the first goal by Valencia? This is up until now, the goal of the season. It flew like a bullet into the goal that the keeper barely had time to react. In fact, he didn’t react at all given the speed of the shot.
Champions League games this week should give us further clues as to which teams seem on track to having successful seasons. Football is a never-ending game and this season is only just warming up. Until next time!

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