It was a momentous week in the Premier League, as we saw Arsenal give further ammunition to those who claim they have a soft centre with a late collapse at West Ham, Nemanja Vidic pick up a third successive red card against Liverpool, Harry Redknapp beg Aaron Lennon not to leave him and Liam Ridgewell play his way into the Fantasy Premier League team of the week.

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Manchester United, Everton, Sunderland, and Birmingham. All of them have entered, but not one of them has exited for the better.

As I've mentioned on many occasions, Turf Moor is one of the worst places for a visiting team to travel to. The crowd is insane, and Burnley always are ready to impress their fans.

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Happier times in Colombia, but certainly not today
The bullet ridden bodies of 10 members of a Colombian football team who were kidnapped two weeks ago have been found on the Venezuelan border.
The main suspect in the Los Maniceros massacre are the Colombian National Liberation Army, a terrorist guerilla group. Click to continue reading...

Handsy's brain on a Friday night
International breaks and Friday nights, there is nothing that will make a fantasy Premier League manager twitch faster...
Idle hands are the devil's playground, if I am anywhere near my computer after having an adult beverage or two there is nothing more tempting than adjusting my fantasy roster. Click to continue reading...

Hugo Rodallega, the clinical finisher from Columbia, scored two goals to help his Wigan side end Burnley's 100% record at Turf Moor. Burnley were beaten by Wigan 1-3. Click to continue reading...

Jogaram pelas eliminatórias da América do Sul, na cidade de Assuncion, no Estádio Defensores del Chaco, para um público de 17.503 pessoas, as seleções do Paraguai (21º no ranking da FIFA) e Colômbia (30º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo: 20 jogos, 6 vitórias da Colômbia, 4 empates, 10 vitórias do Paraguai, 20 gols da Colômbia e 25 gols do Paraguai. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool end draw days. The Reds got off to a miserable start to the season losing two of their first three fixtures. Since then they've re-asserted their challenge in the league, scoring 16 goals on the way to 4 straight victories. Liverpool lost last season's title by drawing matches they probably should have won.

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Well, that wasn't pleasant. Not at all.

Chelsea's nine-match winning streak in all competitions six consecutive in the Premier League came to an abrupt, and surprising, end on Saturday against Wigan. Yes, that Wigan.

Petr Cech was sent off early in the second half after clipping Hugo Rodallega in the box.

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By TRAVIS CLARK

Many had trumped this weekend as a maelstrom of mediocre matchups throughout England's top flight. And surely with fixtures like Wigan-Chelsea, Manchester United-Stoke, Sunderland-Wolves, there wasn't much to boast about going in.

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By TRAVIS CLARK

Many had trumped this weekend as a maelstrom of mediocre matchups throughout England's top flight. And surely with fixtures like Wigan-Chelsea, Manchester United-Stoke, Sunderland-Wolves, there wasn't much to boast about going in.

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Time is tight this busy Monday but having a 'weekend preview' as the top story is just irritating. So instead we've used Football 365's ever excellent 'winners and losers' feature. Cheers...

The original story can be found here.

Winners

Wigan
Defeat for Chelsea, history for Wigan, relief for the chasing pack and welcome credibility for the other half of the Premier League.

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The English Premier League had eight matches on Saturday with most of the top teams winning. The one shocking result of the day was Wigan Athletic upseting Chelsea 3-1 to give them their first loss of the season. The other top teams such as Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool all won. Here's a recap of these tops teams in the English Premier League from Saturday, September 26, 2009 along with video highlights.

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I've been quietly impressed with Carlo Ancelotti since he began managing Chelsea. He has a quiet, unassuming way about him which suggests he takes his football seriously, while avoiding the pretentious nonsense of many other top managers ('mind-games' etc.).

This presentiment was confirmed a little today, after Chelsea's first loss of the season away at Wigan, 3-1.

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Wigan Athletic

Last Season: 11th, 12-9-17 (45 points, -11 goal differential)

Recent Form: WLLLW

Away Form (last season): 4-4-11

Last Meeting: Wigan Athletic 1-Arsenal 4 (4/11/09)

Back to league action tomorrow with a home matchup against Wigan.

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A solitary Hugo Rodallega goal gave Roberto Martinez's side a crucial home win.

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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The Premier League returns after the two week international break - so let's jump back in and check our fantasy sides. Injuries are still trickling in and team news will follow tomorrow, but I think we're ready to preview the weekend nonetheless.
If you're new and need a primer as to how this works - check out the opening paragraph here. Click to continue reading...

Coach Eduardo Lara knows the urgency of the matter for the Cafeteros. For this reason he is bringing in players that are making their debut with the national team as well as returning to international duty. With this callup, Colombia might be focusing more on the Miss Colombia beauty pageant than on the national team come November. Click to continue reading...

Against Wigan on Saturday, just before half time, Hugo Rodallega fouled Nemanja Vidic, which lead to Sir Alex Ferguson angrily talking to the fourth official. Howard Webb gave the player a talking to but that was that.

At 3-0, Ben Foster came to collect a ball and Rodallega slid in on our keeper's legs.

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The English FA have announced they will review the footage of Saturday's Manchester United match against Wigan and pass a judgment which could see Nemanja Vidic out for 3 matches. Click to continue reading...

Oh, to be a fly in the half time dressing room!

Whilst it's a god awful cliche whoever first coined the phrase "It's a game of two halves" (perhaps Jimmy Greaves?) was essentially describing perfectly what occurred at the newly named DW Stadium.

Sir Alex must have been fuming at the way we lacked that cutting edge, and have done for our first two matches, and as such must have given all concerned the hair dryer treatment at full force.

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From The JJB Stadium, Attendance 18,164 , Referee Howard Webb Wigan 0 5 Manchester United

Wayne Rooney (56)
Dimitar Berbatov (58)
Wayne Rooney (65)
Michael Owen (85)
Luis Nani (90)

Wigan Team Statistics Manchester United 0 Goals 5 5 Shots On Target 11 6 Shots Off Target 3 6 Shots Blocked 5 3 Corners 3 0 Offsides 4 11 Fouls 9 2 Yellow Cards 2 0 Red Cards 0 48. Click to continue reading...

So, what do we know after either one or two matches per team? I have to say, not a heck of a lot. Here's a quick recap of my observations...
1) CoverItLive is a really great tool - thank you to everyone who showed up to the blog over the weekend and contributed their observations and questions - it was a blast and one that we'll re-create as frequently as we can (sorry, mid-week won't work because I have a day job and Premier League matches are generally on at 3 PM on the East Coast of the US). Click to continue reading...

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The Wolves displayed some fighting football to get some points against their names in their second match of the Premier League here last night. Andy Keogh's early header was the only goal of the match after which the Wolves managed to hold Wigan Athletic defensively.

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Answers to this week's Monday Football Quiz about the opening weekend of the Premier League. There will be another quiz next Monday.

1. How many goals were scored in the Premier League at the weekend?

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The new English Premier League season kicked off at the weekend in sensational fashion, with many players and clubs crushing the lazy assumptions and predictions surrounding them in the press. But, critic-defying performance aside, something else struck me about the opening round of matches in our beloved league, something that has had as big an impact as the new signings or the unwanted injuries.

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The second gameweek in this season's English Premiership Fantasy Football comes in just few days after the first, so be sure you remember to check your team for transfers and a captain change if the need occurs.
As said earlier this gameweek is a little tricky because only 12 teams have fixtures this week of English Premier League.

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1. Arsene Wenger definitely saw that! 2. Some beautiful goals to ring in the new season. Take a bow Hugo Rodallega, Denilson, Didier Drogba and Mark Noble. 3. Didier Drogba's last-gasp winner for Chelsea against Hull put paid to any musings on whether Stephen Hunt likes kicking Chelsea when they are down. Click to continue reading...

So the opening weekend of the Premier League has come and gone. For the most part it was pretty much by the book, with two 'upsets' and one massive outlier scoreline in Everton's 6-1 whipping by Arsenal. There is still plenty to talk about...
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This week's Monday Football Quiz is all about the opening weekend of the Premier League. How much of the weekend's action can you remember? Answers tomorrow.

1. How many goals were scored in the Premier League at the weekend?

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Alright, let's just consider this back full time now...Let's start with the guy Charlie Davies is replacing at Sochaux, Paris Saint-Germain speedster Mevlüt Erdinç...Wigan's Hugo Rodallega stuns Brad Friedel and Aston Villa... Rodallega Wonder Goal Against Aston Villa - The most popular videos are a click awayWill someone please hurry up and buy VVV Venlo's Keisuke Honda already? Click to continue reading...

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Roberto Martinez got off to a brilliant start as the manager of Wigan Athletic by securing all three points away from home at Villa Park.

Hugo Rodallega's strike around the half-hour mark may be one of the contestants for the goal of the season, and it took the Latics into the lead.

Villa looked to attack at every given opportunity, but it never really reached fruition and eventually they went down by another goal in the second half.

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Terrific opening day win for Roberto Martinez. Watch out for a fantastic Hugo Rodallega goal from fully 25 yards.

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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Welcome to the quick round up of Premier League goings on coming to you hot of the press, so to speak.

Well it took Emmanuel Adebayor just three minutes to open his Man City account with a fine well worked team effort of a goal that the former Arsenal man begun and finished but it took another 87 minutes for Mark Hughes to seal the victory at his former Blackburn Rovers stamping ground when Stephen Ireland made it 2-0.

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Roberto Martinez's Wigan will actually play football, not rugby this season
They play in a rugby stadium (no longer called the JJB by the way), and over the past few years they've played some pretty no-nonsense, direct football. Some pretty boring stuff. Very boring in fact. I'm a football addict but even I look to avoid Wigan matches on the tele at all costs. Click to continue reading...

Argentina got very lucky today when their defender, Cata Diaz scored a spectacular one-touch goal. The main stars of today's game were all defenders - The new goalie, Mariano Andujar had several brilliant saves which gave the fans a sense of great relief once the game started to go Colombia's way.
Argentina's midfield could not control the ball thus disorienting the team and it's offensive strategy. Click to continue reading...