Bad to Worse

Not going to waste words on Newcastle's 1-2 loss at home against Watford.  Nor on their 0-1 loss (at home) in the League Cup to (second division) Sheffield Wednesday Wednesday.  Dennis has nothing to say about Villa's 0-1 derby loss to West Brom.  He did tell me that this loss was way less painful than the previous week's come-from-behind defeat at the hands of Leicester City, proving that it is NOT better to have led and lost than never to have led at all.  No, let's look around the league to see more interesting stuff.

Here Comes the Son

Seems unlikely that a $30m + signing could go under the radar, but Tottenham's acquisition of Son Heung-min from Bayer Leverkusen didn't get anywhere near the attention of other summer signings.  The striker had a great performance in Tottenham's mid-week Europa Cup win and finished his week with the game winner on Saturday against Crystal Palace.  His pace and explosiveness may be just what Spurs need to boost their offense.  Getting Eriksen back didn't seem to hurt either; he was on the pitch for all of four minutes before connecting with Son on a pass down the wide open left side that the South Korean made the most of.  Must be nice.

Goalscorer: Heung-min Son scored the winner in Tottenham's win over Crystal Palace Ian Walton/Getty Images

The Martial Arts

Traveling south down to the coast, we find another summer signing, Anthony Martial scoring two of Manchester United's three goals in an exciting 3-2 win over Southampton.  The French teenager has three goals in just 115 minutes of playing time and added another in Manchester's League Cup win over Ipswich.  The $55 million transfer fee (highest ever for a teenager) to get Martial from Monaco raised eyebrows but I'm not hearing any complaints right now (well, actually I am because Louis van Gaal was whining that Man United always has to pay $15 million more for players than other teams but that's another story).  Aiding the Red Devils cause was an outstanding performance in goal from David DeGea. Several good saves to choose from; here's two of the better ones, this week's YouTubeableMoments.


No Undefeated Season

Manchester City had gotten through five matches without surrendering a goal or failing to secure a victory.  West Ham's Victor Moses took care of the former with a tally just six minutes into Saturday's match and his teammates put together a fine performance to take care of the latter with a 2-1 win at The Etihad.  West Ham had a 2-0 lead by the 31st minute, then spent the rest of the day defending Man City attacks.  The stats give you an idea of what they withstood - outshot 17-6, corners were 16-3 and possession was 65-35.  So West Ham now sit in third with away wins over Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool.   Recall though that they were here last year but ended the season 12th.  Maybe new manager Slaven Bilic can keep them in the top half.


Upon Further Review

Not only was Chelsea-Arsenal a snoozer - think a heavyweight fight where neither boxer attempts any serious moves out of fear of a counterpunch - it featured more Chelsea silliness.  Koscielny's face ran into Costa's hand a couple of times, Gabriel, then got into it with Costa, yellow cards were issued, then Gabriel raised his cleat at Costa and got a straight red.  "Brilliant" move by Gabriel to be sucked in by Costa but so was Mike Dean.  Subsequent video showed Gabriel did not make contact and his red card was rescinded while Costa's actions got further scrutiny and he was slapped (appropriate word) with a three game ban.  Chelsea are furious, blah, blah, blah.  The only good thing to come out of this match was Graeme LeSaux's observation that after light contact, Pedro "went down in installments."



Why does everybody love to rag on Alan Pardew?

In their top ten talking points from the weekend, The Guardian suggested that Pardew may be less than perfect, noting "amid all the backslapping, there are still question marks about some of the former Newcastle manager’s team selections and substitutions this season."  I have seen many of CP's matches and this was not their best effort - Tottenham did have the run of play.  Still, the Eagles saw two shots denied by the woodwork and could easily have left White Hart Lane with one or even three points.  People just seem to go out of their way to find things wrong with the guy.  I don't know the man - maybe he's an insufferable lout; I do know he's got a bit of a temper.  Maybe I'm just reacting to the tone; it seemed like he got no credit for what he had done.  I would have been fine with equally critical remarks along the lines of  "he has taken Crystal Palace to a comfortable mid table stature but will need to sharpen up his personnel decisions if he wants to take on the top sides."


The EPL Sack Race

Speaking of ragging on managers, I checked the SkyBet odds on the next manager to leave. I figured Brendan Rodgers might be high on the list after a 1-1 draw with Norwich on the heels of losses to Man City and West Ham.  Sure enough, he was second at 2-1 odds, behind Sunderland's Dick Advocaat (even money) and just ahead of Newcastle's Steve McClaren (11-2).  Fifth on the list?  His Douchiness Jose Mourinho, whose Chelsea club may be sued by physio Eva Carneiro for his actions involving her late in the match versus Swansea City back in August.


Tiny Weary Derby

This tells you everything you need to know about the state of football in the northeast of England.  Newcastle lost to Watford but actually moved ahead of Sunderland in the standings on goal differential because the Black Cats lost 0-2 to Bournemouth. 


Not That It Matters...

...but the Union won this week, playing pretty well.  Barnetta continues to impress and it looks like getting Edu back in central defense made a difference.  But Montreal continues to win, cashing in one their games in hand and now lead the Union by six points with two games still in hand. Not completely true that it doesn't matter; good performances like this may put the squad in a confident mood going into the US Open Cup Final.  Big win for the Red Bulls on the road in Portland; the 2-0 victory keeps them in first in the East and edges them into the lead for the Supporters Shield.


 
Let Me Know When I Can Open My Eyes

Newcastle gets to host Chelsea in the 12:30 match on Saturday (NBCSN).  Perfect timing, I'm sure a visit by Jose Mourinho's charges will fix everything for the Magpies.  I'm not even buoyed by the fact that Mourinho has never won at St. James' Park.  A 3-0 loss might be a moral victory.

Aston Villa goes to Anfield to take on Liverpool but won't be on TV, as Man Utd hosting Sunderland (NBCSN) and Arsenal at Leicester (USA) get the Saturday 10 am TV spots.  Figure MUN should crush Sunderland, Liverpool is not an easy match up for the Villan and will probably watch Arsenal-Leicester as that has some possibilities. And all this is after the morning kicks off at 7:45 with hearty breakfast of Tottenham-Man City at White Hart Lane.

The Union have a tough road match in New England on Saturday but that's secondary to the Cup Final at PPL Park on Wednesday night.  BFS will be there to report.  The Red Bulls have what looks like an easy game at home versus Orlando; don't want to let that one get away.

If you see the Pope, say hi for me.