5 Good and 5 Bad things from the 3rd week of the season

The Good:

1. Manchester City go top of the Premier League after their win at Goodison Park on Sunday and have now thrown down a marker to the rest of the Premier League. Although they were made to work for their clean sheet yesterday they were certainly firing on all cylinders in attack yesterday. David Silva was a joy to watch as he was pulling the strings in Midfield and were it not for Tim Howard the result could have been much more comfortable. Sergio Aguero looked lively even though he’s not at full fitness but Manuel Pellegrini will no doubt be delighted that Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure look back to their ominous best, the rest of the league had better sit up and take note as the blue half of Manchester’s start of the season has already put them in pole position.
2. Welcome to the Premier League Pedro. A goal and an assist on your debut is no bad way to start your career here in England. After Chelsea’s capitulation at The Etihad it was clear that Chelsea were lacking a bit of spark up front but with the signing of Pedro it looks like they have been revitalised – ultimately one swallow does not make a Summer, but the defending Champions certainly looked more worthy of that tag in the first 45 minutes of their game against West Bromwich Albion. They had to dig in to make sure they came away with all 3 points after the sending off of John Terry (more of that later) but after the start they have had they won’t care how they did it, they’ll be just glad they did. As for Jose Mourinho right now he looks like he could sleep for a week and still be tired
3. Bournemouth got their first win of the season in a 7 goal thriller at Upton Park. After going 2-0 up it looked like they spurned their opportunity of a first win as West Ham managed to level things at 2 all. But Eddie Howe’s men showed great character to take the game to West Ham again and managed to go 4-2 up after goals from Marc Pugh and Callum Wilson completing his hat-trick, after being incredibly unfortunate not to come away with at least a point at Anfield last Monday they will feel a win (albeit very nervy) will be just rewards and a great platform in which to start their season.
4. Leicester are continuing to surpass all pundits expectations as they are now on 7 points out of a possible 9 at the start of the season. Riyad Mahrez is certainly the man of the moment as his goal against Tottenham was already his 4th of the season so far. Everyone felt the writing on the wall for Leicester once Claudio Ranieri was announced as the man to take over from Nigel Pearson, but credit where credit’s it’s due for The Tinkerman who has managed to continue Leicester’s fantastic momentum from the tail end of last season. Whether the bubble bursts in a few months remains to be seen but Leicester fans can certainly enjoy this pretty emphatic start.
5. A good day on Saturday for Goalkeepers namely Costel Pantillimon and Jack Butland whose agility was the difference between holding onto a point and coming away with nothing. Sunderland will be glad they have got some stability after their two early season drubbings whereas Mark Hughes will be pleased that Stoke managed to hold out against Norwich’s second half onslaught to secure a second away draw in a row.

The Bad:

1. Another quiet day at the office for Wayne Rooney as Manchester United failed to break down Newcastle at Saturday Lunchtime. Although slightly unfortunate that his first half effort was disallowed for Offside, the fact there has been no goal in 3 matches must be cause for concern. The greater concern must be that they’ve only scored 2 this season (with one of them a Kyle Walker own goal), surely for all that Louis Van Gaal says otherwise some attacking reinforcements must be required between now and the end of the month.
2. Tottenham, where for art thou Tottenham?. Talking of quiet days Harry Kane is also yet to get off the mark while Spurs are yet to get a first win of the season. After going in front through Dele Alli they then quickly undid their hard work by letting Leicester go straight down the other end and equalize. A bad day almost got worse were it not for the agility of Hugo Lloirs to keep out a header from Wes Morgan late on. Mauricio Pochettino said that he was angry with Spurs’ lack of focus to let Leicester back into the game, if they don’t win against Everton next week then I can see the fans getting very angry with Mauricio Pochettino.
3. John Terry, is Mr Chelsea only a part time contract now at Stamford Bridge? – Hauled off at half time last week and sent off early in the second half this. It has not been a good 7 days for the Chelsea Captain. Will his suspension and enforced time out of the lineup give Jose Mourinho the opportunity to let the partnership of Gary Cahill and Kurt Zouma have an extended run or will Mourinho finally get his man in John Stones. Which ever way you look at it, it looks like John Terry is going to be getting pretty well acquainted with the Chelsea bench over the next few weeks and months.
4. West Ham’s defending. Simply nothing short of awful, Cresswell and Jenkinson were the main culprits on Saturday but it seems the highs of victory at The Emirates are now long forgotten and the realisation that Slaven Bilic might have his work cut out at Upton Park this season seems all the more apparent. It was even more ironic that Sam Allardyce was the guest on Match Of The Day, unfortunately we didn’t get to hear his full views but they would have no doubt been more interesting then Alan “Say What You See” Shearer
5. Arsenal v Liverpool not a bad game per se but certainly one that didn’t live up to the early season billing. Maybe both clubs were still feeling each other out but the game never quite got going. Liverpool will probably feel the unluckier off the two especially Coutinho after he hit the woodwork twice in the first half whereas Arsenal are no in the same position as Chelsea were for all their talk if genuine title contenders they have already given up 5 points to Manchester City.