The Weekend - Winners and Losers

This has less to do with results and more to do with who exceeded, or fell below, expectations or who can take something positive, or very negative, away from the weekend.

Winners:

Aston Villa: Managed to hold on for a point despite playing for 40 minutes with 10 men. Many Villa fans, and the players and manager for that matter, will want to win games like Norwich at home but Villa finished four places below the Canaries last season and they will probably secretly be happy that they didn’t lose a game that could easily have gone against them.

Arsenal: The result was a win but so was the performance. For years this is the kind of game Arsene Wenger’s side would lose titles on. Not playing well so they don’t win. Grinding out results like this one is something the Gunners are going to have to learn if they are going to make a serious push for silverware this season.

Wigan: This is the kind of result that keeps a relegation struggler like Wigan up. Latics fans will be hoping that more of these wins will see them avoid another coronary-inducing end to the season.

Man United: Obviously.

Roberto Mancini: Chelsea lose and the Citizens grind out a win after a very disappointing mid-week loss against Ajax, three points will have been exactly what the doctor ordered for Mancini whose tactical nous is beginning to be called into question.

Papiss Cisse: Has looked all season as if an accident was the only way that he was going to score a league goal and he will be hoping that this will be the kick-start he needs to regain his form of last season.

Losers:

The Officials:  Mikel Arteta was offside for Arsenal’s only goal of the game, Hernandez was offside for United’s winner, Luis Suarez wasn’t offside for a winner that got disallowed, Torres was sent off for the wrong incident, Clattenburg accused of inappropriate comments of a racial nature. Every weekend must be a bad weekend to be a match official but this one has been particularly bad.

Liverpool and Chelsea: Both stemming from the above problems, these two teams will feel they have had points taken from them by incompetent decision-making on the part of the match officials.

West Brom: Steve Clarke will be left wondering how on earth his team have not come away from St. James’s park without a point after a sterling display from his team, losing only to a Papiss Cisse deflection. The baggies will be hoping that two losses on the trot will not be the beginning of the end to their good start to the season.