Winners:
Slaven Bilic
The Croat had his doubters when he first arrived in East London 3 months ago and his early run in the Europa League qualifiers did little to improve his standing. However, slowly but surely, Bilic is winning people over, both West Ham fans and otherwise. This win is his biggest success in his short time in England, which is saying something as his side already have away wins against Arsenal and Liverpool under their belt. Manchester City weren't at their best but Bilic set The Hammers up perfectly, defend deep and counter attack, and, aside from De Bruyne’s first City goal, it worked an absolute charm.
José Mourinho
I don't like it, and Mourinho is making himself less and less sympathetic, but this result worked out perfectly for him thanks to his dark angel of death, Diego Costa. Costa was devilish, Gabriel was idiotic and Chelsea ran out winners. All of that mess aside, Mourinho needed this win, and who better to get it against than arch nemesis Arsene Wenger. Mourinho will be hoping that this win will spur his side onto a winning streak but, even in the 2-0 win over Arsenal, it looks like José’s problematic start to the season might continue a little longer.
Tony Pulis
Not that we needed any more confirmation, but Tony Pulis is a fantastic manager. Combining excellent man-management and tactical nous Pulis single-handedly rejuvenated a disenfranchised player and getting an away win in a derby. Much has been made of Berahino’s impetuous behaviour following his failed move to Tottenham but it must have taken a fair bit persuasive talk on Pulis’s side to get the young striker to come almost straight back into the team. Couple that success story with an important win over local rivals and you have a fairly good week for Pulis.
Slaven Bilic
The Croat had his doubters when he first arrived in East London 3 months ago and his early run in the Europa League qualifiers did little to improve his standing. However, slowly but surely, Bilic is winning people over, both West Ham fans and otherwise. This win is his biggest success in his short time in England, which is saying something as his side already have away wins against Arsenal and Liverpool under their belt. Manchester City weren't at their best but Bilic set The Hammers up perfectly, defend deep and counter attack, and, aside from De Bruyne’s first City goal, it worked an absolute charm.
José Mourinho
I don't like it, and Mourinho is making himself less and less sympathetic, but this result worked out perfectly for him thanks to his dark angel of death, Diego Costa. Costa was devilish, Gabriel was idiotic and Chelsea ran out winners. All of that mess aside, Mourinho needed this win, and who better to get it against than arch nemesis Arsene Wenger. Mourinho will be hoping that this win will spur his side onto a winning streak but, even in the 2-0 win over Arsenal, it looks like José’s problematic start to the season might continue a little longer.
Tony Pulis
Not that we needed any more confirmation, but Tony Pulis is a fantastic manager. Combining excellent man-management and tactical nous Pulis single-handedly rejuvenated a disenfranchised player and getting an away win in a derby. Much has been made of Berahino’s impetuous behaviour following his failed move to Tottenham but it must have taken a fair bit persuasive talk on Pulis’s side to get the young striker to come almost straight back into the team. Couple that success story with an important win over local rivals and you have a fairly good week for Pulis.
Losers:
Brendan Rodgers
The vultures are starting to circle for Rodgers; there has been no talk from anyone at the club about his job security but a large proportion of the footballing media are sounding quite pessimistic about the Northern Irishman’s safety in his position as Liverpool manager. An away defeat at Old Trafford is painful but a drab home draw against Norwich is unacceptable for a side which supposedly has top four aspirations. Rodgers is going to have to make some serious improvements if he's going to convince anyone that he still deserves to be head honcho at Anfield.
Arsene Wenger
The Frenchman was let down by his players this weekend, mainly Gabriel who turned an even affair into an unwinnable contest for The Gunners. In the grand scheme of things an away defeat at Chelsea is not a damaging defeat, an expected one even, but missing this opportunity to beat his worst enemy when he was at his very weakest will hurt Wenger on a personal level and may even have a negative effect on the morale of the squad, given the frustrating nature of the defeat, the only consolation that they can take is that Diego Costa has been retrospectively punished for one of his many transgressions.
The North East
It might not be long before we have a Premier League without any teams from the North East of England. You have to go back to the 97/98 season for the last time there weren't two Northeastern teams in the Premier League, so it's impossible to imagine the league without any at all. However, based on current form, it's even harder to imagine how either Newcastle or Sunderland are going to scrape themselves out of the predicaments in which they find themselves. Sunderland’s performance away at Bournemouth wasn't quite as dismal as usual, but resulted in a 2-0 defeat nonetheless. Newcastle’s defeat at home to Watford, on the other hand, was about as dismal as they get, and you could see the pain in Steve McClaren’s face in the post-match interview as he spoke about how hard his job was going to be. The only was is up, or down to the Championship.
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