Bonus Premier League Blog

As i will be leaving for England this week and not able to blog on Wednesday i thought a weekend review and look forward to Wednesday and Saturday Premiership games this week.

Lets start at Stamford Bridge............... Chelsea's unbeaten run of 86 games came to an end Sunday at the hands of Liverpool, a wicked deflection saw a Xabi Alonso effort send Petr Cech the wrong way to give Liverpool an early 1-0 lead and the win at the Bridge.

I still believe Liverpool will drop points and thier reign at the summit of the Premiership will be short lived, they cant keep getting away with last minute winners all season.

There is a long way to go yet, no body's ever won a championship medal in October, but the signs are good for Liverpool. I still predict a 3rd position finish from them, but i could be wrong.

As for the Blues you could argue Scolari's men ran out of ideas on Sunday, you can also point to them missing five or six top players.

Chelsea have usually got people on the bench that can come on and give you a different perspective, whether it's height, pace, a trick or the ability to hit it from 25 yards but on Sunday they didn't really have anybody.

If you have Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Joe Cole on the bench then you have subs who can really make a difference. Once they get those type of players back then I'm sure it will be a different story.

The great teams can pick themselves up and go on another 10 games undefeated as Manchester United and Chelsea have done in the past, but a daunting trip to the inform Hull City awaits Chelsea on Wednesday, can Phil Brown mount another assault on a top 4 team?

Manchester United had a few individual issues to contend with on Saturday but just because they had a bad second half against Everton it doesn't mean they're going to have a bad three weeks.

Rio Ferdinand, for example, was absolutely awesome until he ran 50 yards to get involved in an incident when Phil Neville got booked for tackling Cristiano Ronaldo.
It took his focus and concentration away from what he was doing and he ended up making a couple of mistakes which almost cost United.

Then, Wayne Rooney had a couple of lapses, mental blocks almost, and got involved in something that led to him being taken off.
Ferguson took the focus away from the players afterwards by blaming the referee, but internally he will sit the players down and explain to them where it went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Ferguson is far too good a manager to let that affect the team ethic.
The Scot also said that everything is fine with Ronaldo but his body language against West Brom last week and on Saturday was not great compared to previous seasons, you cannot hide that.

Ronaldo said on Sunday that he wants to be at Manchester United but let's have a look and see what he's like over the next few weeks. Then that will really tell you.

As for Arsenal i am still not convinced, despite the weekend's movements at White Hart Lane, this is still a good time to play Spurs i think.

Granted Tottenham have recruited Harry Redknapp and that will give them momentum, but they are bottom of the table and when they come under pressure their confidence will still be low. You're better off playing a Tottenham team that are bottom than one that are four off the pace.

Kieran Richardson's sublime free-kick saw (and i mean it was really really good) off a spirited Newcastle side to earn Sunderland their first Wear-Tyne derby victory in eight years.
Djibril Cisse showed great reactions to put Sunderland ahead when he steered in Steed Malbranque's shot-cum-cross.
Shola Ameobi's powerful header from Geremi's fine free-kick drew Joe Kinnear's men level before the break.
But Richardson crashed home the winner with a ferocious 18-yard strike after Nicky Butt fouled El-Hadji Diouf to give the Black Cats a deserved 2-1 win and pile more pressure on Joe Kinnaer and the Magpies.

All in all a pretty decent weekends football, i look forward in anticipation to Wednesday night.