The week the Premier League went gooooal crazy!!

Hello blog fans. How is everybody doing out there? Some of you could well be watching your team in League Cup action right now. I know I am frantically checking BBC Sport for updates on Swansea City's match at Tranmere and so excuse me if I seem distracted in this post. Alot of goals to get through this week however, and so maybe it's best if we dive straight in and get on with it.

As usual, I managed to see two full Premier League matches last weekend, both of them involving team's from Manchester. On Sunday, Manchester United took on Fulham, looking to follow on from champions Chelsea's shining start to the season, the dominant Blues having scored 12 goals in their opening 2 Premier League fixtures. As early as 11 minutes in, last season's runner-up's looked set to go on and show that they can match Chelsea's early season scoring exploits as Paul Scholes blasted an effort in from outside the box past David Stockdale. It showed yet again why Paul Scholes has so regularly been hailed as one of the best players ever to come out of the United academy and United fans will be hoping the 35-year-old can replicate this form for much of the season and hopefully help to bring the title back to Old Trafford. It took until half-time for the home side to show any sort of desire to get back into the game and to this end, it was on 57 minutes that the brilliant Bobby Zamora laid the ball back to former Welsh international Simon Davies who shot past United keeper Edwin Van Der Sar, a former fan favourite at Craven Cottage. In what was a game of twists and turns, it was the turn of Manchester United to strike and take what looked like it could be a decisive lead as Brede Hangeland deflected a United corner into his own net. Soon after, the Red Devils were even awarded a penalty which David Stockdale did brilliantly to save after Nani's poor attempt to slot it into the corner. Watching it, you'd have been amazed if there wasn't more drama to come in the dying moment's and thats exactly what the game gave us as Brede Hangeland headed in from a Fulham corner to make it 2-2. In such a topsy-turvy game, there would be scope to say that you expected yet more drama, however, this was the end of the controversy and the drama, at least from this instalment at the Cottage. Surely United will already be worried about whether they can catch their rivals who have barely broken a sweat so far sweeping teams aside 6-0.

The other Premier League game I saw from the second round of fixtures was last night's fixture between Manchester City and Liverpool, a game that historically always ended quite close in terms of the scoreline. Well last night's game defied history in that one side came out very much on top. That team was the one managed by Roberto Mancini, the team that have spent copius amounts of money buying all the star players they can possibly get their hands on, a tactic that seems to be paying off so far. Manchester City opened the scoring after 11 minutes as their newest acquisition James Milner made a brilliant run around the outside of Daniel Agger and after being found by Adam Johnson laid the ball across the box to Gareth Barry who slotted past Pepe Reina in the Liverpool goal. After that, the rest of the first half passed with little incident as Manchester City remained on the attack but couldn't find a way through a better Liverpool defence. The second half continued in the same vein almost except for the fact that Liverpool attacked Manchester City aswell as the other way around, but the game was basically settled after Micah Richards' header was turned in by the brilliant captain Carlos Tevez to make it Manchester City 2-0 Liverpool and really turn the heads of many of City's apparent doubters. Joe Hart was the next hero of Manchester as he made a brilliant double save from David Ngog and Fernando Torres to stop the Merseysiders getting their foothold in the game. The game was over in the dying minutes after Adam Johnson was felled and Carlos Tevez tucked away the spot-kick to further compound the woes of the travelling supporters. Liverpool will have to desperately improve on this performance if they are to improve on their 7th place finish from last season, whereas Manchester City already look like they may have enough in the tank to compete for their place in the top 4. Scores this week then are:
Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool
Birmingham City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Everton 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Stoke City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Sunderland
West Ham United 1-3 Bolton Wanderers
Wigan Athletic 0-6 Chelsea
Fulham 2-2 Manchester United
Newcastle United 6-0 Aston Villa
Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

In a similar vein to my Premier League features, my Championship matches come from two rival teams this week. The first is obviously Swansea City's match away at Norwich City, a team, who like Swansea, play some very attractive football and have been tipped for a good season in the Npower Championship. Unfortunately, they got the better of us at Carrow Road as a late Ashley Williams own goal and an even later Simeon Jackson volley proved the difference between the teams. It was very unfortunate for us as we bossed the game and even missed a penalty towards the end. Looking at that incident, I think Norwich should've been down to 10 men after their goalkeeper John Ruddy, formerly of Everton, felled Scott Sinclair in the area and for me, I consider that a red card offence. Nevertheless, our away form has been very rubbish and we have to accept that loss at Carrow Road and move on, hopefully getting better as the season goes on as we need to get our away form to match up to our dazzling home form if we hope to make a serious impact on this league. The other match I want to look at, although not for long, is the match at Cardiff City Stadium between Cardiff City and Doncaster Rovers. This match was special because it was Craig Bellamy's homecoming and his first game for his hometown team. In fairness to the guy, he bossed it and proved the biggest difference between the two sides as he set up two of the 4 goals they scored and indeed scored a screamer of a free kick to give Cardiff a 4-0 home win. So, Npower Championship scores:
Bristol City 3-3 Barnsley
Burnley 3-0 Leicester City
Cardiff City 4-0 Doncaster Rovers
Coventry City 2-1 Derby County
Crystal Palace 1-2 Ipswich Town
Hull City 0-0 Watford
Leeds United 3-1 Millwall
Norwich City 2-0 Swansea City
Preston North End 1-0 Portsmouth
Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Scunthorpe United
Reading 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Middlesbrough 1-0 Sheffield United

I've dropped the ball again guys, although in all fairness, it takes something extra special for me to actually see a game from League One or Two. I'll just give you the scores again, and I unreservedly PROMISE to bring you a game or two from these divisions next week. Sorry again. League One scores then:
Carlisle United 4-1 MK Dons
Charlton Atletic 1-1 Oldham Athletic
Exeter City 2-2 Bristol Rovers
Notts County 1-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Peterborough United 4-2 Huddersfield Town
Rochdale 1-2 Colchester United
Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Southampton 1-1 Leyton Orient
Swindon Town 1-1 Brentford
Tranmere Rovers 0-3 Bournemouth
Walsall 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Yeovil Town 0-2 Hartlepool

And now the League Two scores for you:
Accrington Stanley 3-0 Macclesfield
Burton Albion 3-2 Morecambe
Bury 1-1 Northampton Town
Chesterfield 4-0 Hereford United
Crewe Alexandria 7-0 Barnet
Gillingham 0-1 Lincoln City
Rotherham United 6-4 Cheltenham Town
Shrewsbury 1-1 Aldershot
Southend United 1-3 Port Vale
Stevenage 3-1 Stockport
Torquay United 2-0 Bradford
Wycombe Wanderers 0-0 Oxford United

Blue Square Premier is the only other league I discuss on this blog but I'll be honest, I never get to see a game from that league, not unless I journey down to Spytty Park to watch the Newport County. I know the score from the County match last weekend, but thats really the only details I could tell you, but I will bring you the whole league round-up:
AFC Wimbledon 3-0 Tamworth
Altrincham 0-1 Crawley Town
Barrow 2-0 Rushden & Diamonds
Bath City 2-2 York City
Cambridge United 0-0 Southport
Eastbourne Borough 4-3 Wrexham
Fleetwood Town 0-3 Luton Town
Forest Green 1-1 Gateshead
Grimsby 1-2 Hayes & Yeading
Kettering 0-0 Darlington
Kidderminster Harriers 1-3 Mansfield
Newport County 2-2 Histon

Thats your lot for now then. I tell you what, that's taken me ages so I hope you enjoy it, although admittedly I don't think it's my best work either so... Anyway, pop back next week, I'll have highlights from the 3rd, yes THIRD, weekend of the British football season. Peace out