Loads of controversy this week with boots stamping and elbows flailing. Luckily for some, the FA were all on holiday so no bans were handed out. Golden boy [span style="text-decoration: line-through">Chris Judd RVP somehow escaped punishment for the second time in two weeks. While Huth’s stamp went unpunished as it was on Suarez. Plenty more happened  that will be covered after the break..<!--more-->

Newcastle v Man Utd 0-3

DDG was brought back into the starting XI while Valencia was fit enough to take his place on the bench, replacing Kagawa on 55mins.

Evans unsurprisingly scored Utd’s first – unsurprisingly because I left him on my bench. Evra and Cleverley completed Utd’s scoring.

Welbeck, RVP and Rooney all started with Rooney dropping deep. He still managed to come up with a couple of assists, RVP with the other.

Injury-plagued Newcastle were poor and had few chances although Ba came close hitting the post with a header and Cisses follow up adjudged not to have crossed the line.

Spurs v Villa 2-0

Caulker continues to impress in the absence of Kaboul, Naughton and BAE. He scored the opener before Lennon finished the game. Lloris brought an end to Friedels run of 310 consecutive league games while Sigurdsson appears to have lost his place to Dempsey. Bale again looked dangerous without quite seeing the returns.

Paul Lambert left Bent, N’Zogbia and Bannan on the bench as Villa continue to struggle.

Liverpool v Stoke 0-0

It was another frustrating home match for Liverpool as they came up against a resolute Stoke side.

Suso started as did Wisdom who’s replacing the injured Kelly. Assaidi only managed 10mins while the confidence-shorn Borini spent the match on the bench.

Suarez and Sterling remain Liverpool’s top performers, while Johnson continues to push forward from defence. Downing was left out altogether. Adam had Stoke’s best chance in a dour display. Huth may find himself with a retrospective ban for stamping on Suarez. Liverpool have now won four of their last 19  home league matches.

Southampton v Fulham 2-2

Despite Saints impressive attacking players it was defender Fonte that scored both goals, one of them assisted by defender Danny Fox. Yet another Saints defender scored but unfortunately at the wrong end with Hooiveld scoring his second OG of the season.

Richardson who came on for Kacaniklic in the 66th min scored Fulham’s other goal. Berbatov and Petric were missing through injury.

The ever-impressive Lallana got Saints other assist while Gazanigga continues to impress in goals.

Chelsea v Norwich 4-1

Torres, Lampard, Hazard and Ivanovic were on the scoresheet while Holt scored Norwich’s early goal. Mata was an absolute stand-out again and snared a couple of assists. While Torres and Ivanovic also bagged an assist each.

Cahill was on the bench as Terry lined up next to Luiz.

Robert Snodgrass spent the game on the Norwich bench while Pilkington and Morison came off the bench. Another poor day for Norwich as they were torn apart by a very impressive Chelsea.

Wigan v Everton 2-2

“Leighton Baines was outstanding today. At times he was unplayable he was that good.” That’s what Moyes had to say after the game. He got on the scoresheet as well with a late penalty, Jelavic the other scorer.

Kone- who ran Heitinga ragged until he was substituted at HT – scored for Wigan as did Di Santo.

Fellaini, who had a running battle with Caldwell as a warm-up for the next weeks Belgium v Scotland match, dropped deeper as the game progressed. Mirallas partnering Jelavic.

For Wigan, Maloney played well and grabbed himself an assist.

WBA v QPR 3-2

James Morrison scored and continued his excellent form for West Brom. In fact, he’s playing so well that the BBC’s “expert pundit” Garth Crooks has tipped him for the England squad, apparently unaware that he’s played for four years for Scotland and he’s earned 23 caps. Hilarious!

Gera and Mulumbu completed the WBA scoring. Granero scored and for the second week in a row Taarabt scored a goal of outrageous quality. With QPR win-less on 2pts and rooted to the bottom it’s likely that Taarabt’s quality will be utilised more often.

WBA continue to suffer from a collective nose bleed as they enjoy the dizzying heights of 4th place.

Swansea v Reading 2-2

Federici’s replacement McCarthy was excellent as Reading, with the help of two sucker punches, earned a pt at The Liberty.

Michu (1 goal) and Routledge (1 goal and 1 assist) impressed for Swansea. However, Danny Graham with five shots on target in 570mins of action this season did not impress….again. His HT replacement Luke Moore gave The Swans more of a cutting edge and assisted Routledge’s goal.

Dyer was replaced by Hernandez in the second half.

Pogrebnyak and Noel Hunt scored Reading’s goals with a McAnuff assist. McLeary and Guthrie spent the game on the bench as Reading fail to convince.

West Ham v Arsenal 1-3

Mertesacker was brought in for Koscielney no doubt to try and deal with Andy Carroll’s aerial threat. While Giroud started at CF which shunted Gervinho out wide where he was ineffective until Walcott replaced him (61mins).

Walcott had a huge impact scoring one and assisting Carzola’s screamer into the top corner as he keeps chapping on the door. Giroud broke his PL duck and was impressive as he also set up Walcott’s goal. Podolski also saw some assist action. Mannone continued in goals as Arsenal’s clean sheets continue to dry-up.

Diame scored an excellent goal where Demel was heavily involved in the build-up. West Ham’s CS’s are also drying up at the moment but the return of Carroll is a huge boost to their attacking play.

Man City v Sunderland 3-0

There was a whole raft of changes here of which the most galling mustve been for Kompany owners who missed Citys 1st clean sheet with injury. The likes of Kolarov (1 goal), Richards and Milner all came in. Aguero was sub but still came on to score and Milner also got on the scoresheet. There is talk again that Super Marios City career is over after strong words in the dressing room.

Sunderland were poor, the only positve possibly being that bargain priced Cuellar is back in action.