Sunday EPL Roundoup

After a Saturday full of good matches, six teams stepped onto the pitch on Sunday. There was no shortage of goals or exciting moments, and points were aplenty to end the week. So without further ado...

Aston Villa vs. Hull City

The only game of the three not on a main broadcast, I admit I only saw the last 15 minutes or so of this one. Gabriel Agbonlahor opened the scoring for Villa in the 14th minute, and Andreas Weiman doubled it in the 36th. Hull got one back courtesy of Nikica Jelavic in the 74th, but that was all they could muster. Villa had a few good chances towards the end of the match, notably a quick flick from Fabian Delph from close range to the left of the net that was batted out of play. Brad Guzan, the US international keeper (who may now take over the starting job after Tim Howard announced his leave of absence from the national team) played well, making two saves. Something to note is that Delph recently got a call up to play for the English national team in an upcoming duo of friendlies with Norway and Switzerland.

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Liverpool FC

Liverpool came into White Hart Lane needing a win over top place Spurs in new striker Mario Balotelli's debut for the Reds, and they took care of business. Raheem Sterling started the day off right with a left footed finish after a nice pass from Jordan Henderson across the goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris. Right after the half, Tottenham's Eric Dier made contact with Joe Allen in the box, and Allen went down (rather easily, but still enough there to call a penalty). Captain Steven Gerrard converted from the spot, ensuring he would continue to take the penalties instead of Balotelli. 22 seconds after a double substitution by Spurs, new defender Alberto Moreno finished off a brilliant solo effort to finish off the deed to the tune of 3-nil. Lloris made an excellent save on Daniel Sturridge after a no look flick from Balotelli, and Tottenham should have gotten a chance at a penalty after an obvious foul on Emmanuel Adebayor in the box, but the ref let them play on. Balotelli was impressive in his re-debut in the Premier League, playing with strength. He was brought down form behind at one point, and did not react in typical Mario fashion, a refreshing and relieving sight. By the end of the match all you could here form the stands was Liverpool's famous anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone".

Leicester City vs. Arsenal FC

Arsenal came into this match fresh off a Champions League qualifying win over Besiktas, and they came out roaring. Santi Cazorla played a nice ball to Yaya Sanogo (starting in place of the injured Olivier Giroud) who had his shot blocked, but the ball fell to Alexis Sanchez, and the Chilean international put it home to give the Gunners the 1-0 lead. Leicester answered right back, as Leonardo Ulloa headed home a cross from Jeffrey Schlupp. Laurent Koscielny, arguable Arsenal's best defender, collided with Schlupp earlier in the match and needed a bit of medical treatment, going down the tunnel for repairs. He returned with a heavily bandaged head, but ended up needing to come off, with Calum Chambers, another young, recent England call up, coming on for him. After that, the play was rather even, but Leicester had a few of the better chances. Wojciech Szczesny took care of that. Leicester had a chance in the second half to pull a shocker, but Ulloa could not finish his second of the day, pulling it to the side of the open net. Horrible, horrible miss, lucky break. They traded chances during a fast paced second half, and Szczesny made sure the game stayed level with a superb save late in the match. Alas, neither team could pull ahead, and they ended with a 1-1 draw.
Yaya Sanogo did not look good out there starting up top. He had trouble with runs and gave a few balls away, and overall just did not look as good as he did in a few games he played this preseason. Joel Campbell may get the nod in the Gunners next game, September 13th against Manchester City. Manager Arsene Wenger said Campbell will get his chance to prove himself, and he even denied all loan attempts for the Costa Rican striker. Luckily, if Arsenal has anything it would be depth. In the match with Leicester, Jack Wilshere, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlein, Campbell and Tomas Rosicky all on the bench. That bench could beat some of the teams in the Premier League this year. Theo Walcott is also returning to fitness and should play this season. While Arsenal let Loic Remy slip through their fingers (and into the hands of those bastards Chelsea no less) any concerns at striker can be addressed internally and during the January transfer window.

At the end of this third weekend of EPL action, here are the standings.

Nothing next week due to an international break, but I will find something to write about.

Saturday EPL Roundup

Three marquee match ups to run through, and by marquee I mean at least one team playing that is considered a contender. This week's match ups will conclude tomorrow with a good batch of games, so there should be plenty of material for tomorrow's roundup. Without further ado...

Burnley v. Manchester United

Manchester United needed a bounce back after a horrible start to the season, and they wound up in a scoreless draw with Burnley. United never took control for a long stretch, and Burnley gave them quite a scare towards the end of the match, being spurned by a good effort from United keeper David de Gea. Not even the debut of Angel di Maria could help the Red Devils pick up all three points. Manchester United have picked up just two points in three games. To put that into perspective, that is just two out of the NINE possible points. It's not even like they've played the cream of the crop in the EPL either; United lost to Swansea at home to open the campaign, then drew with Sunderland and Burnley. Meanwhile, the roster that new manager Louis van Gaal has put together has a goal differential of -1 despite having superb firepower. The starting lineup for the Burnley match included  Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Antonio Valencia, di Maria, Juan Mata, and Ashley Young, along with Adnan Januzaj, Danny Welbeck and Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez on the bench. van Gaal's men have to play better to avoid a repeat of last season's embarrassment. Signing Daley Blind from Ajax should help.

Manchester City v. Stoke City

Defending champions Manchester City came out with guns blazing against Stoke, who weathered the early attack. ManCity's depth allowed them to put Sergio Aguero up top with Stevan Jovetic just behind him, with David Silva and Samir Nasri providing support on the sides. When you can have players like Edin Dzeko, Jesus Navas, Fernandinho, Gael Clichy and Pablo Zabaleta as your substitutes, your doing something very right. Stoke probably should have gotten a penalty midway through the first half, but there was no call and play continued. After turning away a few Manchester chances, Stokes Mame Biram Diouf converted on a brilliant solo effort, complete with a nutmeg on Fernandinho and a shot through Joe Hart's five-hole. Hart honestly should have saved it. It was not a hard hit and it just rolled right between his legs. Diouf almost added to it on a nice cross in front of the net, but could not convert. Stoke went a dominating run a for a few minutes until Stokes Odemwingie was injured, and Dzeko and Navas came on for City. Stoke continued to sit in a defensive shell, and then Yaya Toure went down in the box. City cried for a penalty, but it was Toure getting the yellow card for diving. In the end, Stoke prevailed with a 1-nil score over the Citizens. 

Everton v. Chelsea

The best matchup going into the weekend pitted the Toffees of Everton FC and the Chelsea FC Blues.  Everton's Romelu Lukaku faced off with his old side and his fellow Belgian international Eden Hazard. Meanwhile, Chelsea got striker Diego Costa back after  brief injury scare, and Costa wasted little time, scoring the opening goal before most people switched from NBCSN to NBC for the match, just 34 second into it. Branislav Ivanovic added another to the Blued lead in the third minute to keep the nightmare going for Everton. Right before the half, Kevin Mirallas brought Everton to within a goal. Tim Howard kept Everton in the game with a few key saves in the second half, but could not stop a Seamus Coleman own goal. Eden Hazard raced around the outside and into the box, and his shot barely nicked Coleman, but it was enough to get past Howard. Right after this, however, Stephen Naismith got the goal back for Everton on a great pass from McGeady. Fater that it was game on at Goodison Park, with an intense 20 minutes of action following. Nemanja Matic continued the goal craze with a rolling strike to make it 4-2 to the Blues. As you could probably guess the trend continued. Everton was down by two, so they scored again, this time courtesy of a former Chelsea striker signed Tuesday, Samuel Eto'o. And then Ramires scored again for Chelsea to gain another two goal advantage, 5-3. Then, with a minute to go, Diego Costa tallies his second of the match to put Chelsea up 6-3 and seal the game. This game did not disappoint in the slightest, and Chelsea came out looking like the eventual champions. Only time will tell if they can keep this pace up. 

New England Revolution Sign Jermaine Jones

SI.com-The New England Revolution has won the strange and lengthy race for U.S. national team midfielder Jermaine Jones, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told SI.com on Sunday, later confirmed on ESPN by Alexi Lalas. According to Lalas, Jones landed with New England after the club was selected in an unprecedented "blind draw" over the Chicago Fire.
In case you didn't already have soccer fever after the World Cup, Jermaine Jones is coming to New England. Huuuuge move by the Krafts here. He was possibly the best player not named Tim Howard on the USMNT in Brazil this past summer. He's not the biggest name that will be brought to MLS, but it's enough to peak the intrigue of casual fans everywhere, in my opinion. If you needed a refresher on Jones' summer/career: 

Logan Mankins Traded to Tampa Bay

(Quick Note: Yeah its been awhile. This blog is not dead.  A lot more free time on my hands for the foreseeable future so hopefully I post more.)

Breaking: the Patriots have agreed to parameters of a trade to send Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins to the Bucs for a pick and TE Tim Wright
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) August 26, 2014

FOX Sports-FOX Sports has learned that the two teams have agreed to the terms of a trade that would send Patriots captain and six-time pro bowler Logan Mankins to the Bucs in exchange for a player and an undisclosed pick. A Patriots source said the deal is agreed upon, but they are still waiting to finalize the deal. Mankins, entering his 10th season in the league, was a first-round pick by the Patriots in 2005 out of Fresno State. He made $5.7 million last season. 

Color me SHOCKED. I really could not believe this when I saw it originally. Offensive line is one of the glaring holes in this otherwise amazing team, and the Patriots trade a Pro Bowler/captain/one of the best linemen year in and year out for an undrafted rookie tight end and a draft pick. And I get that this helps the Patriots with the cap and will allow them to explore different extension options with Darrelle Revis, which is all well and good, but if you want to capitalize on Brady's last few years, I'm not sure trading the teams best lineman is the correct route to traverse. They've done it with Richard Seymour and  Randy Moss so this isn't totally out of left field I guess. I still remember the exact moment Moss was traded. I was in my freshman year of high school in history class and our teacher literally stopped class to watch the press conference announcing the trade. We never really got much done in that class. Hopefully the coaching staff can figure this all out.