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.
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