Fergie's Chewing Gum - September 2
(Philip Oldham/SportImage)
England
A lot has happened since the weekend matches though it was only two days ago. But before we had Falcao or Welbeck in London we had Liverpool dealing to Spurs and Manchester United getting blanked by Burnley.
United vs Burnley was the opening game of the Premier League round. Angel Di Maria made his debut in the midfield and he looked good but lacking in match fitness. The United defence played a bit better with Phil Jones in the middle of the back three and he was great once again, though Jonny Evans and Tyler Blackett were sloppy in both possession and distribution. It was a very tame game with few chances and it fizzed out in a scoreless draw as Man U had just 2 shots on target against the promoted team.
Following straight on from that, we saw a thriller between Newcastle and Crystal Palace, which eventually ended 3-3 as Wilfried Zaha scored late on in his first game since re-joining Palace on loan. A Charlie Austin goal was the difference between QPR and Sunderland, Rangers getting their first win of the season while Swansea kept up their perfect record by dismantling West Brom 3-0 – this sumptuously awkward volley from Wayne Routledge being the pick of things.
Manchester City were hoping to stay perfect too but they had some troubles against Stoke. Mame Biram Diouf (a former United player) scored a stunning individual effort right before the break and somehow a limp City unit failed to counter. It must have been a great day for Stoke manager Mark Hughes too, having been a former manager of the Sky Blues. Ryan Shawcross was immense for Stoke.
Chelsea had no such troubles. They looked a well-oiled machine against Everton and within 3 minutes they lead 2-0. Diego Costa and Branislav Ivanovic with the goals. Kevin Mirallas pulled one back right on the break with a top header from a nice move but Chelsea added a third from a Coleman OG. Steven Naismith scored for Everton, Nemanja Matic scored for Chelsea, Samuel Eto’o scored on debut for Everton and Chelsea finished them off through Ramires and Diego Costa (again). An incredible match – 6-3 the final score. Diego Costa was supposedly ruled out for at least a month midweek yet he ended up playing anyway. He’s now got 4 goals in his first 3 EPL games.
Liverpool and Tottenham both had points to prove when they clashed the next day. Only the Reds answered. With Mario Balotelli looking interested, and Sturridge and Sterling playing confidently it wasn’t even a contest. Raheem Sterling scored early and in front of their home crowd Spurs barely managed a chance. Adebayor fluffed one, but any opportunity was only gonna come from a Pool mistake. Steven Gerrard added a penalty (he’s third all time in EPL penalties scored – after Lampard and Shearer) and Alberto Moreno scored a lovely goal from left back to seal the deal. Sterling should have had another too but after a twisting, mesmerising run through the box he scuffed his shot.
In the other games, Aston Villa beat Hull 2-1 and Arsenal showed exactly why they needed to splash some money on Danny Welbeck with a lifeless 1-1 draw against Leicester City.
Spain
They bought James Rodriguez, they bought Toni Kroos… and they lost 4-2 to Real Sociedad. There was no Ronaldo for Real as he ponders taking some time off to get himself right after nursing injuries for as long as we can all remember. Still, they should have had the firepower to win this one, and in many regards they did leading 2-0 after quarter of an hour (through Ramos & Bale). But Madrid’s defence was awful. Marcelo and Casillas in particular were poor and the Galacticos went on to concede 4 unanswered goals and fall to their first loss of the Liga season.
Barcelona weren’t exactly on top of their game either though they came through with a 1-0 away win over Villareal to be the only team to win their opening two fixtures. Despite Barca’s dominance and their 20 total shots, it looked like the home team might hold on for a stalemate until with less than 10 to play Lionel Messi ghosted through as he so often does (was he offside?) and put it on a plate for substitute Sandro Ramirez.
Mario Mandzukic scored his first league goal for Atletico as they battled past Eibar 2-1 to bounce back after a 0-0 opening draw with Rayo Vallecano. Valencia are due some more firepower as Alvaro Negredo joins them from City which should be plenty after they coasted to a 3-0 on the weekend. Athletic Bilbao also won 3-0 while Sevilla beat Espanyol 2-1 away.
Germany
Xabi Alonso made his debut for Bayern Munich against Schalke this weekend. Bobby Lewandowski gave the champs an early lead and it looked like they’d run away with it… but they never did. 65% of possession counted for little as they cruised along in second gear while Schalke managed a second half equalised through Benedikt Höwedes and came away with a point, 1-1.
Dortmund recovered from their opening loss with a tough fought 3-2 win at Augsburg. Marco Reus, back after the injury that kept him out of the World Cup, scored the first goal. Soon it was 2-0 courtesy of Sokratis and with 12 minutes to play they added a third. It looked like it was in the bag though the home team rallied back with a couple of goals. Still, Dortmund held on and claimed the points.
Bayer Leverkusen are the surprise leaders. They’re the only side to have won their first 2 games after taking care of Hertha Berlin 4-2. They’ve got a good looking team full of a mix of youth and experience. 18 year old Croatian defender Tin Jedvaj rebounded from scoring an early own goal with one in the right net and fellow teenager Julian Brandt also scored.
France
With a fair amount of transfer movement, one could be forgiven for forgetting that there was plenty of football to be player - Radamel Falcao wasn't a part of any of it however. He was left out of Monaco's 1-1 draw with Lille as fellow striker and the man who is looking likely to be the focal point of Monaco's attack Dimitr Berbatov netting the goal.
Earlier, Marseille defeated Nice 4-0 with Dimitri Payet bagging a double to slide Marseille up to 4th. Bordeaux's 1-1 draw against Bastia didn't do too much damage as they still sit pretty atop the Ligue 1 ladder, but the majority of the action came as PSG took a part St Ettienne 5-0. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a hatty while fellow attacking force Edinson Cavani also got on the score sheet.
PSG are sending out quite some team these days ....
Bordeuax, PSG, Lille and Marseille round out the Ligue 1's top 4.
Italy
The Serie A kicked off with most of the big clubs picking up wins - AC Milan took care of Lazio 3-1 and looked good without Mario Balloteli. Roma beat Fiorentina 2-0 with our favourite son Gervinho picking up a late goal in that one while Juventus got things under way with a 1-0 win over Chievo despite their only goal being an own goal.
Obviously it's too early to try piece things together, but it looks like AC Milan could be in for a better season this season, while Inter couldn't do better than a 0-0 draw against Torino. This was highlighted by Nemanja Vidic picking up a red card in his Inter debut, awesome!