This weekend's headlines were stolen by Emmauel Adebayor even before a ball was
kicked. Saturday morning, Adebayor finally lashed out at his former club Arsenal,
moments before the Gunners kicked-off a challenging visit to the
Eastlands.
Arsene Wenger's rapidly increasing dependence on youngsters within his squad
reached new heights this midweek when he chose to start off the Champions League group
stages with rookie Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone
between the sticks.
Premier League fans in the United States will once again get the chance to see Burnley take on
their new Premiership opposition. This week it comes in the form of Sunderland at Turf Moor.
When the schedule was initially released before the season started, I doubt that many people
were circling this date on their calendars.
There is no denying that Liverpool F.C. is the form team in the
Barclays Premier League at the moment. Rafa's Reds have defied
all odds to overcome a frustrating start to the campaign and surprisingly, the Steven
Gerrard - Fernando Torres pairing isn't exclusively responsible for leading the
revival.
Edin Dzeko is back with a bang! The Bosnia international
striker, who spent most of the summer pushing for a dream move to AC Milan, has
finally underlined his commitment to Wolfsburg with an outstanding decisive brace
away to Schalke 04.
Some moments are never meant to be forgotten. The entire world of football witnessed one such
shocking moment a little less than two years ago in London. On a rainy evening at
Wembley, hosts England were expected to advance to the finals of
Euro 2008 with just a draw needed against visiting Croatia.
PFA chief Gordon Taylor has urged football fans, pundits, and the FA to put a stop to the lynch
mob mentality that is surrounding Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor. The targetman stirred
up controversy over the weekend by first stamping on Robin van Persie's face before scoring a goal
and sprinting the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the angry Gunners fans.
With the commencement of the UEFA Champions League group stages this midweek,
an important piece of news was relegated to the back of most reporting outlets. Perhaps another
reason behind the lack of coverage for the story in question was the refusal, on part of most
football lovers, to recollect any part of the uninspiring internationals
break.
Rewind back to 2003 and you'll see that Jonathan Woodgate had everything. From critical acclaim
to a huge fan following, he had all the essentials required to go down in the Newcastle folklore as
one of the very best defenders of all time. However, the only obstacle that could stop him injuries
came into play very early into his career at St.
Seldom has a talented football nation witnessed the kind of humiliation that the Czech
Republic has suffered in the entire last year. In a World Cup
qualification campaign where they were placed in perhaps the most competitive of groups
alongside Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and Northern Ireland,
perfection was almost always essential for the Czechs.
Arsenal striker Eduardo, who has recently been a frequent
victim of jeering from rival fans around the nation, has finally been vindicated over a diving
accusation that marred his reputation of a sincere and hardworking striker. The Croatia
international, who was banned for an attempt to deceive the officials by going down
without any contact during Arsenal's Champions League clash against
Celtic last month, was exempted from blame on the grounds of a lack of clear
evidence.
Jose Mourinho has continued his special ways as he announced his Inter Milan starting eleven an
entire day before his side's crucial Champions League fixture against Barcelona. The former Chelsea
manager was never afraid to pull this stunt during his time in the Premier League, and his latest
display raises the question: is the special one arrogant or intelligent?
After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership
champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea
and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home
against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.
While he was honored as Estonia's best player in the past half a century by the nation's
football association, Mart Poom could not earn even remotely the same kind of respect on club
level. Despite boasting a variety of Eastern European and English clubs on his resume during his
early days as a player, the legendary former Estonia goalkeeper is best remembered for an extremely
inactive spell as a back-up keeper at Arsenal F.
With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's
winners and losers.
Winners Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a
relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain
Defoe.
Another week of Premiership action is now in the books, and Thursday means one thing: it's time
for the Thursday Throwdown from A to Z. Here we go...
A is for Anelka. Chelsea fans should be counting their lucky stars that both
Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba are in spectacular form.
A great majority of the football world has grown used to laughing off Arsene
Wenger's dramatic remarks over major incidents in recent years. This is precisely why the
Arsenal manager was largely ignored when he labeled the accusations over
Gunners striker Eduardo's recent "dive" against
Celtic as a "witch-hunt".
For Premier League fans around the world, the last couple of weeks have been
almost too painful to endure as something very important seems to have disappeared out of our
lives. But with yet another international period finally in the
books, we can once again look forward to the return of our most beloved brand of football this
weekend.
After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership
champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea
and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home
against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.
Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy returned after a long
spell on the sidelines to provide an assist and score another in his side's emphatic 5-0 victory
over La Liga minnows Xerez. While the focus of the game initially remained on
another former Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo who
scored twice to make it six goals in his four
appearances it was his Dutch teammate who eventually created most of the
headlines.
Given the title of this article, I could be about to tell you about how the strike duo of Darren
Bent and Kenwyne Jones will be leading Sunderland to new heights in the Premier League this season,
but we will save that for a later date. I'd rather make a bold statement and talk about the bottom
of the table at the moment.