Who are the greatest players in EPL history? Our friends at Bleacher report have a list, so lets look at the top ten after the jump...
EPL Today
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Wigan Athletic 1 - 1 Sunderland
Antolin Alcaraz's late header salvaged a point for Wigan after debutant Asamoah Gyan had opened the scoring for ten-man Sunderland at the DW Stadium.
The Wearsiders had their captain Lee Cattermole - a former Latics player - sent off in the first half but took the lead in the 66th minute when substitute Gyan converted Jordan Henderson's cross.
The hosts came away with a point though thanks to Alcaraz, whose effort three minutes from time caught Black Cats goalkeeper Simon Mignolet cold.
Scoring Summary:
Wigan:
Antolín Alcaraz (87)
Sunderland:
Asamoah Gyan (66)
The Wearsiders had their captain Lee Cattermole - a former Latics player - sent off in the first half but took the lead in the 66th minute when substitute Gyan converted Jordan Henderson's cross.
The hosts came away with a point though thanks to Alcaraz, whose effort three minutes from time caught Black Cats goalkeeper Simon Mignolet cold.
Scoring Summary:
Wigan:
Antolín Alcaraz (87)
Sunderland:
Asamoah Gyan (66)
West Ham United 1 - 3 Chelsea
Chelsea's 100% start to the new season continued against rock-bottom West Ham at Upton Park as a brace from Michael Essien and another from Salomon Kalou kept them top of the Premier League.
West Ham midfielder Scott Parker became the first player to score against the Blues this season but his late effort was scant consolation for the home side.
Chelsea's victory over their London rivals piled more pressure on under-fire manager Avram Grant, whose side remained rooted to the foot of the table without a single point from their opening four games and having conceded 12 goals.
Scoring Summary:
Chelsea:
Michael Essien (2)
Salomon Kalou (17)
Michael Essien (83)
West Ham:
Scott Parker (85)
West Ham midfielder Scott Parker became the first player to score against the Blues this season but his late effort was scant consolation for the home side.
Chelsea's victory over their London rivals piled more pressure on under-fire manager Avram Grant, whose side remained rooted to the foot of the table without a single point from their opening four games and having conceded 12 goals.
Scoring Summary:
Chelsea:
Michael Essien (2)
Salomon Kalou (17)
Michael Essien (83)
West Ham:
Scott Parker (85)
West Bromwich Albion 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur
Chris Brunt scored the 50th league goal of his career to rescue a point for West Brom in the Premier League clash with Tottenham at the Hawthorns.
The former Sheffield Wednesday player cancelled out Luka Modric's opener four minutes before the interval.
Harry Redknapp's side dominated the first half with Gareth Bale causing constant problems down the left flank. But they lacked the killer instinct in front of goal, and appeared to miss the influence of Jermain Defoe who will be out for three months with the ankle injury suffered on England duty.
It was a different story after the break with the Baggies more than matching their north London opponents and they came close on three occasions in the final ten minutes to snatching a winner.
Scoring Summary:
West Bromwich Albion:
Chris Brunt (41)
Tottenham Hotspur:
Luka Modric (27)
The former Sheffield Wednesday player cancelled out Luka Modric's opener four minutes before the interval.
Harry Redknapp's side dominated the first half with Gareth Bale causing constant problems down the left flank. But they lacked the killer instinct in front of goal, and appeared to miss the influence of Jermain Defoe who will be out for three months with the ankle injury suffered on England duty.
It was a different story after the break with the Baggies more than matching their north London opponents and they came close on three occasions in the final ten minutes to snatching a winner.
Scoring Summary:
West Bromwich Albion:
Chris Brunt (41)
Tottenham Hotspur:
Luka Modric (27)
Newcastle United 0 - 2 Blackpool
Charlie Adam burst Newcastle's bubble as Blackpool banked another three precious Premier League points on the road.
The midfielder calmly slotted a 45th-minute penalty past keeper Steve Harper and immediately dedicated it to youth team coach Gary Parkinson, who is critically ill in hospital.
Adam then produced the pass from which DJ Campbell sealed the win at the death, but only after keeper Matt Gilks had produced a string of superb saves to deny Newcastle an equaliser.
Gilks, who had kept out Kevin Nolan's first-half effort, frustrated Joey Barton, substitute Peter Lovenkrands and Andy Carroll as the Magpies staged a committed fightback in front of a crowd of 49,597.
The defeat, Newcastle's first on their own turf in 27 attempts, served as a reminder to the Chris Hughton's men, if they needed one, that their 6-0 victory over Aston Villa in the last fixture at St James' Park, was a start and nothing more.
Scoring Summary:
Blackpool:
Charlie Adam (pen 45)
DJ Campbell (90)
The midfielder calmly slotted a 45th-minute penalty past keeper Steve Harper and immediately dedicated it to youth team coach Gary Parkinson, who is critically ill in hospital.
Adam then produced the pass from which DJ Campbell sealed the win at the death, but only after keeper Matt Gilks had produced a string of superb saves to deny Newcastle an equaliser.
Gilks, who had kept out Kevin Nolan's first-half effort, frustrated Joey Barton, substitute Peter Lovenkrands and Andy Carroll as the Magpies staged a committed fightback in front of a crowd of 49,597.
The defeat, Newcastle's first on their own turf in 27 attempts, served as a reminder to the Chris Hughton's men, if they needed one, that their 6-0 victory over Aston Villa in the last fixture at St James' Park, was a start and nothing more.
Scoring Summary:
Blackpool:
Charlie Adam (pen 45)
DJ Campbell (90)
Manchester City 1 - 1 Blackburn Rovers
Former English national team goaltender Paul Robinson put in a great effort and allowed Blackburn to escape as Man City and Blackburn tied 1-1.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini refused to criticise goalkeeper Joe Hart as the club's stuttering start to the season continued.
After City's 1-1 draw with Blackburn the Italian felt it improper to accuse either Hart or Toure for the goal. "It was a strange goal, '' he said. "It can happen. This is football. Joe Hart is a good goalkeeper.''
In contrast Robinson, recently retired from England, was in commanding form between the posts for Blackburn but Sam Allardyce gave a modest appraisal of the goalkeeper's qualities.
Allardyce said: "Paul has played better than that for us. He put himself in the right position to make those saves today. That has helped us get a point.
"We have measured up to a club that should brushing us aside in terms of the quality of players they can afford, the wages they can pay and the limited budget we work on. But good organisation, team spirit and hard working side can always cause an upset. Manchester City fans would see this result as an upset.
"Even towards the end we might have nicked another goal when Kalinic was through but Joe Hart made a good save. But hopefully this will boost our confidence. I was very pleased with our performance. We feel we got what we deserved after an outstanding team effort both in the way we defended and our possession of the ball.
"Nikola capitalised on their mistake and we were pleased he tucked that one away and put us in front. It was an unexpected opportunity to score. We looked very comfortable in the first half. I was disappointed Mame Diouf did not make it 2-0. That would have been an outstanding situation for us.''
Mancini also failed to criticise Tevez for his less than clinical performance: "It was very difficult for him as he only arrived the day before the game. But I still thought he had a good match. We were very unlucky. We must have had 25 chances to score against Blackburn. It is very hard when teams put 10 players behind the ball but we have to try and find a solution.''
Scoring Summary:
Manchester City:
Patrick Vieira (56)
Blackburn:
Nikola Kalinic (25)
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini refused to criticise goalkeeper Joe Hart as the club's stuttering start to the season continued.
After City's 1-1 draw with Blackburn the Italian felt it improper to accuse either Hart or Toure for the goal. "It was a strange goal, '' he said. "It can happen. This is football. Joe Hart is a good goalkeeper.''
In contrast Robinson, recently retired from England, was in commanding form between the posts for Blackburn but Sam Allardyce gave a modest appraisal of the goalkeeper's qualities.
Allardyce said: "Paul has played better than that for us. He put himself in the right position to make those saves today. That has helped us get a point.
"We have measured up to a club that should brushing us aside in terms of the quality of players they can afford, the wages they can pay and the limited budget we work on. But good organisation, team spirit and hard working side can always cause an upset. Manchester City fans would see this result as an upset.
"Even towards the end we might have nicked another goal when Kalinic was through but Joe Hart made a good save. But hopefully this will boost our confidence. I was very pleased with our performance. We feel we got what we deserved after an outstanding team effort both in the way we defended and our possession of the ball.
"Nikola capitalised on their mistake and we were pleased he tucked that one away and put us in front. It was an unexpected opportunity to score. We looked very comfortable in the first half. I was disappointed Mame Diouf did not make it 2-0. That would have been an outstanding situation for us.''
Mancini also failed to criticise Tevez for his less than clinical performance: "It was very difficult for him as he only arrived the day before the game. But I still thought he had a good match. We were very unlucky. We must have had 25 chances to score against Blackburn. It is very hard when teams put 10 players behind the ball but we have to try and find a solution.''
Scoring Summary:
Manchester City:
Patrick Vieira (56)
Blackburn:
Nikola Kalinic (25)
Arsenal 4 - 1 Bolton Wanderers
Arsenal beat ten-man Bolton 4-1 at Emirates Stadium to keep up the pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea.
Laurent Koscielny bundled home his first Arsenal goal after 24 minutes, only for the French defender's poor back header to allow Bolton to equalise just before half-time through Johan Elmander.
Marouane Chamakh headed the hosts back in front, with Gary Cahill then sent off for a tackle from behind on the Moroccan.
Alex Song netted Arsenal's 1,000th Premier League goal under manager Arsene Wenger and substitute Carlos Vela stroked in number four with seven minutes left.
Arsenal:
Laurent Koscielny (24)
Marouane Chamakh (58)
Alex Song (78)
Carlos Vela (83)
Bolton Wanderers:
Johan Elmander (44)
Laurent Koscielny bundled home his first Arsenal goal after 24 minutes, only for the French defender's poor back header to allow Bolton to equalise just before half-time through Johan Elmander.
Marouane Chamakh headed the hosts back in front, with Gary Cahill then sent off for a tackle from behind on the Moroccan.
Alex Song netted Arsenal's 1,000th Premier League goal under manager Arsene Wenger and substitute Carlos Vela stroked in number four with seven minutes left.
Arsenal:
Laurent Koscielny (24)
Marouane Chamakh (58)
Alex Song (78)
Carlos Vela (83)
Bolton Wanderers:
Johan Elmander (44)
Everton 3 - 3 Manchester United
After leaving Wayne Rooney off the roster for the match today versus Everton, the Red Devils had no problem scoring, putting the ball in the net three times. Defense is a different story all together.
Spotting Man U a 3-1 lead 90 minutes in, Everton scored two goals in stoppage time pulling out an improbable draw and getting one point from the Devils. Steven Pinnear started the scoring with a goal in the 39th minute and getting additions from Australian Tim Cahill and Spaniard Mikel Arteta for the injury time goals.
Everton boss David Moyes was left fuming at the end when referee Martin Atkinson blew the full-time whistle just as his team were on the counter-attack.
"There's always ifs and buts,'' Cahill said. "It would have been nice for a bit of commonsense at the end, to see whether (Edwin) Van der Sar would have saved it or whether we would have scored, but it happens.''
Goalkeeper Tim Howard pulled off a string of stunning saves against his former club and was delighted with the fighting spirit showed by his team.
"The first half we dominated and we should have went in 1-0. Obviously they got the goal and in the second half they were powerful and went over the top of us. But we had spirit and we had fight and we got the point which was important.''
Scoring Summary:
Everton:
Steven Pienaar (39)
Tim Cahill (90)
Mikel Arteta (90)
Manchester United:
Darren Fletcher (43)
Nemanja Vidic (47)
Dimitar Berbatov (66)
Spotting Man U a 3-1 lead 90 minutes in, Everton scored two goals in stoppage time pulling out an improbable draw and getting one point from the Devils. Steven Pinnear started the scoring with a goal in the 39th minute and getting additions from Australian Tim Cahill and Spaniard Mikel Arteta for the injury time goals.
Everton boss David Moyes was left fuming at the end when referee Martin Atkinson blew the full-time whistle just as his team were on the counter-attack.
"There's always ifs and buts,'' Cahill said. "It would have been nice for a bit of commonsense at the end, to see whether (Edwin) Van der Sar would have saved it or whether we would have scored, but it happens.''
Goalkeeper Tim Howard pulled off a string of stunning saves against his former club and was delighted with the fighting spirit showed by his team.
"The first half we dominated and we should have went in 1-0. Obviously they got the goal and in the second half they were powerful and went over the top of us. But we had spirit and we had fight and we got the point which was important.''
Scoring Summary:
Everton:
Steven Pienaar (39)
Tim Cahill (90)
Mikel Arteta (90)
Manchester United:
Darren Fletcher (43)
Nemanja Vidic (47)
Dimitar Berbatov (66)
Fulham 2 - 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Fulham got its first two goals from summer aquisition Moussa Dembele but lost striker Bobby Zamora to a broken leg in the mid first half from a legal but rough tackle from Karl Henry. Henry was on the receiving end of angry tirade from Zamora's team-mate Clint Dempsey but it was a fair, if robust, challenge and the injury was more a result of ill-fortune than malice.
Wolves were berated throughout by home fans angry at their physical approach and their display, which resulted in a flurry of yellow cards in the second half, will be scrutinised.
But that will be of little consolation to Zamora, who only yesterday signed a new four-year contract that made him Fulham's best-paid player on a reported £50,000 per week.
The deal came with a ringing endorsement from Mark Hughes who underlined the importance to the club, but the Cottagers manager could now be missing his most influential player for some time.
Scoring Summary:
Fulham:
Moussa Dembele (49)
Moussa Dembele (90)
Wolverhampton Wanderers:
Jelle van Damme (10)
Wolves were berated throughout by home fans angry at their physical approach and their display, which resulted in a flurry of yellow cards in the second half, will be scrutinised.
But that will be of little consolation to Zamora, who only yesterday signed a new four-year contract that made him Fulham's best-paid player on a reported £50,000 per week.
The deal came with a ringing endorsement from Mark Hughes who underlined the importance to the club, but the Cottagers manager could now be missing his most influential player for some time.
Scoring Summary:
Fulham:
Moussa Dembele (49)
Moussa Dembele (90)
Wolverhampton Wanderers:
Jelle van Damme (10)
Friday, September 10, 2010
What to look for this weekend
Lots of fixtures this weekend in the Premier League. Here are some talking points on the most intriguing matchups:
• Last-place West Ham hosts first-place Chelsea on Saturday, 9:55 a.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. Since Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in the summer of 2003, the Blues are 9-0-2 against West Ham in all competitions. The Hammers have been outscored 25-6 in those 11 games and haven't scored more than one goal against Chelsea in a 12-game stretch that goes to 2002. Chelsea, meanwhile, has scored three or more goals in five of those contests.
• Winless Everton hosts Manchester United this weekend, looking to extend its 13-game home unbeaten streak that stretches to last November. It's a run that includes a 3-1 win over Manchester United in February. That loss was United's only road defeat in its last 11 league games.
• Two teams heading in opposite directions meet as Liverpool visits Birmingham. Liverpool is 13th and finished seventh a season ago, the club's worst finish in 11 years. Birmingham is undefeated and sits sixth, a season after finishing ninth, its best top-flight showing in 51 years. The last six Premier League meetings between these teams have been ties, one shy of the league record for consecutive draws, set by West Ham and Aston Villa in 1998-2001.
• Fulham looks for its first win of the season at home against Wolverhampton. Fulham has tied its first three games and could become the second Premier League team to draw its four opening matches, joining Crystal Palace in the league's debut season of 1992-93. Fulham has never defeated Wolves in the Premier League, playing two scoreless draws at home and twice losing 2-1 on the road.
• Stoke City hosts Aston Villa and new manager Gerard Houllier on Monday (3 p.m. ET on ESPN3.com). Villa has won its two home games by a combined 4-0 scoreline but was thumped 6-0 at Newcastle, a result that was even more surprising considering Villa's away form last season. In 2009-10, only Chelsea and Manchester United had more road wins than Aston Villa's nine, or more road points than Aston Villa's 32.
ESPN Stats & Information's Eduardo Souss contributed to this post.
• Last-place West Ham hosts first-place Chelsea on Saturday, 9:55 a.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. Since Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in the summer of 2003, the Blues are 9-0-2 against West Ham in all competitions. The Hammers have been outscored 25-6 in those 11 games and haven't scored more than one goal against Chelsea in a 12-game stretch that goes to 2002. Chelsea, meanwhile, has scored three or more goals in five of those contests.
• Winless Everton hosts Manchester United this weekend, looking to extend its 13-game home unbeaten streak that stretches to last November. It's a run that includes a 3-1 win over Manchester United in February. That loss was United's only road defeat in its last 11 league games.
• Two teams heading in opposite directions meet as Liverpool visits Birmingham. Liverpool is 13th and finished seventh a season ago, the club's worst finish in 11 years. Birmingham is undefeated and sits sixth, a season after finishing ninth, its best top-flight showing in 51 years. The last six Premier League meetings between these teams have been ties, one shy of the league record for consecutive draws, set by West Ham and Aston Villa in 1998-2001.
• Fulham looks for its first win of the season at home against Wolverhampton. Fulham has tied its first three games and could become the second Premier League team to draw its four opening matches, joining Crystal Palace in the league's debut season of 1992-93. Fulham has never defeated Wolves in the Premier League, playing two scoreless draws at home and twice losing 2-1 on the road.
• Stoke City hosts Aston Villa and new manager Gerard Houllier on Monday (3 p.m. ET on ESPN3.com). Villa has won its two home games by a combined 4-0 scoreline but was thumped 6-0 at Newcastle, a result that was even more surprising considering Villa's away form last season. In 2009-10, only Chelsea and Manchester United had more road wins than Aston Villa's nine, or more road points than Aston Villa's 32.
ESPN Stats & Information's Eduardo Souss contributed to this post.
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