In a week where Nakhi Wells added another million to his price-tag, I'll be taking a look at how some of the new signings are getting on with their respective clubs and how some teams will fare if they lose players in the coming week...
Fulham 1-3 Arsenal
Fulham have made a lot of nice signings; Scott Parker, Adel Taarabt and Darren Bent among the best of them, with the latter scoring a tap-in on debut after a wonderful bit of Dimitar Berbatov skill (nice to see that again!). All three have proven Premier League pedigree (with the potential exception of Adel Taarabt, whose raw talent can certainly not be debated but is sometimes let down by his lack of discipline) and that will hopefully add to Martin Jol's squad. It has been well documented that Arsenal are yet to spend any cash this summer but the tabloids would have us believe that there is a busy week ahead for them. Watch this space...Arsenal will be encouraged by this away performance (and both legs of the Champions League qualifiers albeit against a weak Fenerbahce side) where they were clinical if not dazzling, but their squad is thin and they surely won't be able to keep up the same level of performance without the ability to rotate.
Fulham did well and will come up against weaker teams. They've made good signings and could be pushing for a top half finish with their new chairman, Shahid Khan, likely to supply more investment should the need arise in the January transfer window.
Stat Attack: Despite having one of the most threatening scoring centre-back's in the league (Brede Hangelaand) Fulham only averaged 4.6 corners in the league last season and have only won 1 in their first two games this season, joint worst in the league with Hull.
Stoke 2-1 C.Palace
Chamakh has started well at Palace, scoring with a very composed finish against Stoke, and he seems to fit in better at the lower end of the league table than he did with Arsenal a couple of years ago. Kevin Phillips is another of Palace's signings and although he has now turned 40, his experience is bound to earn them some points at some stage this season.Stoke have actually been very quiet in the transfer market with the main story this summer being the appointment of Mark Hughes, much to the dismay of the Stoke fans. They have signed Dutch left back Erik Pieters (£3million) who did add some pace to the Stoke attack and could be a nice signing for the Potters.
I feel sorry for Palace - well, as much as a former Brighton employee can - they played some nice football and really deserved to come away from the Brittania with more than they got. But that is always the threat Stoke possess, they are just one hoof away from scoring and that is what undid Palace on this occasion. Palace played some nice football but will have to learn to be more street smart in future.
Stat Attack: Stoke had the least amount of Shots and the lowest Shots on Target ratio in the Premier League last season.
Cardiff 3-2 Manchester City
I watched the first half of this live and if you had told me the final score I would have laughed you out of the pub. However, after dominating possession and then Dzeko finding that piece of magic required to penetrate the Cardiff defence things went a bit pear-shaped for the blue side of Manchester. They conceded after a wonderful jinking run from Kim who crossed for Frazier Campbell; Joe Hart saved well but could do nothing about the follow up which fell kindly for Aron Gunnarson to sweep home.
It then got worse for Man City as they failed to deal with two consecutive corners as Frazier Campbell headed home twice to give Cardiff City an unassailable advantage. So for all Man City's dominance they conceded weak goals from two set pieces to a striker no taller than myself. For a title-chasing side that is simply not good enough. For the final goal Campbell was being marked by Zabaleta as well, supposedly City's 'best' defender. But this is sometimes the price you pay when you fill your team with attacking defenders, a lack of defensive ability.
New signing Negredo headed in a consolation for the away side but they weren't able to complete a comeback meaning they lose their first league game before December in the league for the first time since 2010.
The magic of the Premier League, teams who try to play like Barcelona end up getting undone from corners. Awesome...
Stat Attack: Cardiff won the game despite having only 30% of possession.
Lightning Strikes Twice:
Another brilliant goal from Daniel Sturridge and another penalty conversion from Roberto Soldado saw Liverpool and Tottenham respectively secure the same scoreline (1-0) with the same scorers in consecutive weeks. Both games were very similar to last week as well, with neither team able to kill off their opposition. Spooky...
Aston Villa 0-1 Liverpool
Liverpool have now kept two clean sheets in their first two Premier League games for the first time since 2002. This is in no small part down to the signing of Simon Mignolet (£9million) and Kolo Toure on a free as a replacement for the now retired Jamie Carragher. Both have been very solid in the first two games and the latter seems like a very shrewd signing for Brendan Rogers.
Tottenham 1-0 Swansea
Will Spurs be able to cope without Bale? Well they're certainly signing plenty of replacements; Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue, Lamela (according to Roma) and plenty more to come. The question is will 5 (or more) quality players be enough to replace a world class one; probably long term but Bale scored a lot of winners last year that turned one point into three and that's something they will miss out on but Tottenham's spending certainly shows ambition and if their signings start to gel then they could well be favourites for a top four finish.
For Swansea I'm not sure about the signing of Jonjo Shelvey, he's a good player but I'm not sure he should be playing such a key role for them. He's just a bit clumsy and this game proved that, he conceded one penalty and should have conceded a second but for some poor refereeing/linesmanning...
Best of the Rest:
Hull 1-0 Norwich
The signings of Jake Livermore and Tom Huddlestone may suggest the look of a Spurs reserve team, but make no mistake, both have had plenty of exposure to the Premier League and also European competitions whilst at Tottenham and that is sure to anchor that midfield nicely for Hull. They made a nice start together securing the win against Norwich who haven't started as well as their transfer activity might have suggested.
Stat Attack: Hull managed to win despite playing for over an hour with 10 men.
Southampton 1-1 Sunderland
Southampton found things frustrating against Sunderland after falling behind to an early Giaccherini header. They were chasing for the rest of the game and, after a couple of rejected penalty appeals and a debatable offside decision ruling out a Jay Rodriguez effort, they finally equalised when Jose Fonte headed in James Ward-Prowse's cross to secure a deserved point.
Everton 0-0 West Brom
A game Everton dominated but just couldn't find a way through. Martinez will hope he can hang on to Baines and Fellaini or they may struggle to fill the void left although they do have some good youth players in Barkley and Coleman making their impressions this year.
A good point for West Brom whose bad luck continues, after losing Nicholas Anelka on compassionate grounds, Ben Foster broke his foot in this game.
Manchester United 0-0 Chelsea
Well, the less said about the game the better really. It was a bit of a let down after all the hype about goals galore. The main media attention surrounded Moyes and Mourinho, and of course Wayne Rooney, who performed well on the night. Mourinho came defensive and got the point he desired. The game was too early in the season and both sides were too worried about the consequences of losing this match.
The main point I'd like to make though is about Danny Welbeck and one of my biggest gripes about some Premier League footballers.
Why are some players so one-footed?
They are professionals, surely they can practice and get better. Not to blow my own trumpet but I was a very one-footed player as a child, as many left footers tend to be, but I worked hard on my right foot and now many people don't believe me when I say I'm left-footed. So why can't professionals do it?
My point with Welbeck is that he has been given a lot of plaudits recently and yet he relies entirely on his right foot. He could have scored at least two goals in this game easily if he had had the confidence to use his left, but instead he opted to pass or cut in on his right foot to shoot, which were not the right options. Sometimes the goals you don't score should be recognised as much as the ones you do. Alas, this is not the case and my Welbeck bashing will inevitably fall on deaf ears...
Newcastle 0-0 West Ham
Stewart Downing should be a good signing for West Ham, he really impressed me last year at Liverpool after many years of me telling everyone he was useless. Newcastle look a bit light and seem likely to lose players rather than gain any in the coming week.
West Ham played well and perhaps deserved more than a point. Newcastle look poor at the moment but should have taken all three points had Gouffran not executed the miss of the season so far in the dying seconds.
Down the Leagues:
I'm going to start with the joke of a game at the Valley. A game abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch in August. That's almost as bad as West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison wearing gloves when he came on at the weekend. Charlton were 3-0 down after half an hour before the game was suspended due to the pitch. The Doncaster players tried to clear the pitch and eventually the game resumed, Charlton scored and Doncaster had Keegan (the first goal-scorer) sent off before the game was abandoned at half time. The biggest loser from all of this, Paul Keegan, who has his goal chalked off the records but who still has to serve the ban for his red card; harsh!
In other Championship news, Huddersfield and Blackburn thrashed Bournemouth and Barnsley respectively and Millwall finally secured a point with a hard-fought 2-2 draw away at Sheffield Wednesday.
In League One, Nakhi Wells scored in his 8th competitive match for Bradford City - a new record for the club - as they won 2-0 over Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United. There were good wins for Peterborough and Leyton Orient who continue their 100% records and Coventry played out another entertaining 'home' game, drawing 4-4 with Preston at the Sixfields Stadium.
In League Two, Wimbledon produced a stunning comeback from two goals down against Scunthorpe to win 3-2 at home. Accrington and Hartlepool lost again to leave both teams firmly in the relegation zone.
That's it for this week, here's hoping that Alan Shearer learns how to use the technology slightly better for next week's Match of the Day 2; he's no Gary Neville bless him. Join me next weekend for the next installment where I'll be discussing the big fixtures of the weekend; West Ham versus Stoke, Palace versus Sunderland and I might just give a line or two to Liverpool versus United.
Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think.
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