Spurs Hint at North London Power Switch with Goals Galore in Premier League
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October 3, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Goals were the order of the weekend in the Premier League as Chelsea, Fulham and Manchester City record thumping wins.
An action-packed Premier League weekend saw a Merseyside derby and a north London derby, as well as Manchester City, Chelsea and Fulham hand out thrashings to Blackburn, Bolton and Queens Park Rangers respectively.
Tottenham Hotspur defeated arch rivals Arsenal at White Hart Lane on Sunday to prolong the early season misery for The Gunners and hint that Arsene Wenger’s side may not be the dominant force in that area of the capital any longer.
A stunning long-range strike from England full-back Kyle Walker gave Tottenham the victory after Aaron Ramsey had cancelled out Raphael van der Vaart’s opener for the hosts.
The Dutchman’s strike just before half-time was the club’s 10,000th goal in their history as a lack of pressure from Arsenal defenders Bacary Sagna, whose afternoon was later compounded when he broke his leg, and Per Mertesacker allowed the former Real Madrid player to collect a pass from former Gunner Emmanuel Adebayor, set himself up and fire across Wojciech Szczesny in to the net.
Adebayor was subjected to some pretty tasteless abuse throughout by the fans that used to idolise him and his afternoon turned for the worse when Wales international Ramsey turned in a cross from Alex Song, who was allowed way too much time by Van der Vaart to pick out his team-mate in the box.
But Spurs had the last laugh when a clearing header fell to Walker who fired viciously at goal. It was a terrific strike, but Szczesny will have to take a portion of the blame for his slow reactions.
A contentious Merseyside derby was the first game of the weekend at Saturday lunchtime and served up its own fair share of controversy, beginning with a debatable red card for Everton midfielder Jack Rodwell.
His dive in on Liverpool’s Luis Suarez was neither late nor high, but referee Martin Atkinson decided to give the England under-21 international his marching orders much to the disgust of the blue half of the city.
Dirk Kuyt saw a penalty saved by Toffees ‘keeper Tim Howard before half time and Charlie Adam saw a rasping shot hit the crossbar, but the extra man finally told late on as first beleaguered striker Andy Carroll volleyed in a Jose Enrique cross after Kuyt had ducked to allow the ball to reach him, and in the dying moments Suarez pounced on a defensive mix up to kill Everton off.
Elsewhere, a lacklustre Bolton continued their poor run with a 5-1 home defeat to Chelsea on Sunday that saw Frank Lampard answer some of his critics with a hat-trick at a stadium he seems to love scoring in. Daniel Sturridge also hit a brace on his return to the club he spent a successful loan spell at last season and Dedryck Boyata replied for Bolton.
An Andy Johnson hat-trick helped Fulham on their way to their first win of the season – a 6-0 hammering of London rivals QPR, while Samir Nasri and Stefan Savic scored their first goals for Manchester City in a 4-0 win at Blackburn that saw Sergio Aguero limp off early on through injury.
Record signing Danny Graham finally bagged his first Swansea goal in their 2-0 win at home to Stoke, while Darren Bent returned to the goalscoring charts in Villa’s 2-0 home win over Wigan. Manchester Untied weathered a canary yellow storm before defeating Norwich 2-0 at Old Trafford, Newcastle won at Wolves and Sunderland came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with West Brom at the Stadium of Light.
By Leigh Gruffydd Sanders
[Image courtesy of Allison Pasciuto]
