Premiership Roundup and Weekend Preview
Last week in the Premiership, Chelsea secured two home wins over Reading and Newcastle to finish August at the top of the table,

with 3 wins out of 3. Their 4-2 win over Reading came after they have been 2-1 down at half-time, before goals from Gary Cahill (a cracking shot from distance), Torres (who was offside) and Ivanovic (into an empty net on a counter-attack, as the opposing keeper, Federici, had gone up for a corner in the final minute) secured the three points for Roberto DiMatteo’s men. Chelsea’s victory over Alan Pardew’s Newcastle was much more routine – a penalty from Eden Hazard and a fantastic finish from Torres ensured a perfect start for the Blues and sent them into today’s European Super Cup full of confidence.
There are two other teams in the top flight with 100% records thus far, and neither of them hail from Manchester. Swansea produced a dominant performance against newly-promoted West Ham, beating Sam Allardyce’s side 3-0 in South Wales. Michael Laudrup, who replaced Liverpool-bound Brendan Rodgers in the summer, has seen his side win their opening two games with a record of scored 8, conceded 0. Everton followed up their opening weekend victory over Manchester United by beating Aston Villa 3-1 at Villa Park; the home supporters will be concerned at the lack of improvement thus far under new boss, Paul Lambert, and their side sit bottom of the (very early) Premier League table.
Another new manager has made a less than impressive start – Andre Villas-Boas’ Tottenham have picked up just a solitary point from their opening two games. Last Saturday, they dominated the first half against West Brom at White Hart Lane, but after the break they were outplayed when the visitors introduced Romelu Lukaku to their attack. Spurs did manage to take the lead against the run of play, when a long distance shot from Benoit Assou-Ekotto was deflected past Ben Foster in the Albion goal, but James Morrisson scored an equaliser in injury time to give Steve Clarke’s men a share of the points. One other note on that match, Jan Vertonghen had made an impressive debut for Tottenham – including a fantastic block to prevent Lukaku from scoring when he was through on goal – but for the West Brom goal he was too busy having a wrestling contest (that could have given away a penalty) with Jonas Olsson to concentrate on defending. The other team from North London are still unbeaten this season, but have also yet to record a goal – drawing 0-0 for the second weekend in a row, this time at the Brittannia Stadium against Stoke. Arsenal are clearly missing Van Persie, but new signings Giroud and Podolski are likely to come good soon, especially with the creative Cazorla making so many opportunities for them. Continue reading