Barclays Premier League Matchday - Post coverage, stats, and review

We are deep into the season now, and this weekend's matches included Arsenal vs. Manchester City, Manchester United vs. Liverpool, and a weekend of football that had more cards than goals. There were many dramatic events, especially on the Super Sunday. 

 
Saturday's Action

The first featured game kicked off the matchday. As Queens Park Rangers played host to Tottenham. Going into this match, there was a lot of speculation on the managers situation, as Harry Redknapp hosted his former club. In all, the game ended 0 - 0, with 20 shots at goal and two bookings. It was not exactly an exciting match. 

Reading and West Bromwich Albion had quite a close game, ending Reading 3 - 2 West Brom. They were much more efficient with their shots, as the total shots in the match were 18, with 13 on target. Reading had 100% of their shots on target and were very efficient in that respect. West Brom were leading 2 - 0, but Reading went full throttle and scored 3 goals from the 82nd minute to the 90th. A great game, and superb comeback from Reading.
 
Chelsea cruised to a 4 - 0 victory against Stoke City. The scoring began in stoppage time of the first half with Walters' Own goal. This own goal was to be one of two own goals. Lampard scored a penalty, and continues to silence critics. Eden Hazard scored Chelsea's 4th goal in the 73rd minute.
  
Super Sunday: Sunday's Action
It really was a Super Sunday. Two dramatic games, Manchester United vs. Liverpool and Arsenal vs. Manchester City. We were to see 13 cards (2 reds, 11 yellow) given out in this match. And 5 goals scored.
Manchester United managed to do the league double over rivals Liverpool FC. Robin van Persie opened the scoring with a well worked goal in the 19th minute. 9 minutes into the second half, Manchester United doubled their lead with Nemanja Vidic's goal. Liverpool were quick to respond, with Sturridge scoring on his Premier League debut for Liverpool in the 57th minute. Frustration took it's toll on Liverpool FC in  the second half receiving 5 bookings. Glen Johnson came close to a sending off, and many fans thought he deserved a red. Liverpool did however show signs of improvement and developing competition. It was promising for Liverpool, but also disappointment that they could not even savage a point from the game. Meanwhile, Manchester United got 10 points clear in the table, and Manchester City were to respond in Part 2 of Super Sunday...

Manchester City defeated Arsenal with a 2 - 0 victory. Manchester City scored their first two goals at the Emirates in the Premier League since April 2007, and they continue to try and apply pressure to United at the top. There was a significant event just 10 minutes into the game, as Laurent Koscielny fouled Eden Dzeko receiving a red card. I in fact made light of the foul and made several perspective images of it in another article. Dzeko missed the penalty, but the missing man was to take it's toll on Arsenal, as James Milner scored the first in the box where he had plenty of space. Dzeko got redemption for his missed penalty by scoring a goal 11 minutes after. Arsenal picked up two bookings in the match and surprisingly, Manchester City received three bookings towards the end of the match, which is hard to understand why they would need to make risky tackles when they had a secure lead. Vincent Kompany was sent off in the 75th minute, and Mancini may have been frustrated because it was unnecessary for the captain to have got sent off in that situation. Quite a dramatic game, which got the Arsenal fans frustrated and annoyed at times. It was exciting to watch from the neutral perspective for sure.

Interesting Stats 

• There were more bookings than goals in the matchday.
• There were 30 cards given out in the 10 games played, two of them were red cards, and occured in the same game (Arsenal vs. Manchester City).
• 20 goals were scored. 
• Manchester City received the most cards with 5 in one game.
•  236 shots were taken at goal in the 10 games.
• Reading were the only team to have 100% shots on target.
• Out of the 236 shots taken, 124 shots were on target. 
• 38% of shots taken at goal were on target.  

Results
Aston Villa 0 - 1 Southampton
Everton 0 - 0 Swansea
Fulham 1 - 1 Newcastle
Norwich 0 - 0 Newcastle
Reading 3 - 2 West Brom
Stoke 0 - 4 Chelsea
Sunderland 3 - 0 West Ham
QPR 0 - 0 Tottenham
Manchester United 2 - 1 Liverpool
Arsenal 0 - 2 Manchester City

Conclusion
This matchday in the Barclays Premier League was not full of goals, more cards and sanctions. There were some dramatic moments, and many will take the headlines in the morning. The two Super Sunday games were very enjoyable to watch, and there were a few moments which left me baffled. Overall, cards did dominate the goals, there was some sloppy moments, but it was some tense action too, and moving on to the next weekend, there are some interesting games too. The top of the table finishes with Manchester United 7 points clear of Manchester City, who are 7 points clear of third place Chelsea. Things still look bad for QPR, and the drop zone is beginning to take shape, as the point margins from outside the drop zone increase. As we continue to approach 'crunch time' in the season, everything is beginning to get more important, which can only mean good for the football fan...
  


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