The Barclays Premier League Weekend 12-13th September

Some very obvious and some not so obvious events shaped this weekend's games. Let's get down to the most obvious ones first.

So Liverpool were hosting Burnley at Anfield and who looked like 5 games into the league, had already lost all their initial steam, undone at the seams, by a Liverpool team that looked like they had done their homework for a change. Fairly simple homework though. Who is Burnley's best player? The goal-keeper. How do we beat him? Let us disadvantage him by keeping a poacher up front. This approach was demonstrated by one of the goals, where the parry from Jensen was taken up by Benayoun and put to the back of the net by one of the simplest Berbatov-esque moves. 4-0 demolition, and the pundits are talking about Liverpool's title winning chances already. The mercurial Benayoun really decided to make his point by scoring a hat-trick.

One of the team that does have the potential to play with a lot of heart is Stoke City, who did a remarkable job of restricting a Chelsea team, which, putting it rather lightly is looking rapacious at the start of the season. Still Chelsea did what they do best and scored a goal at the death, maintaining their charge at the top of the Premier League. Perhaps a little unfair to Stoke, who ended up losing at 2-1 at home, despite scoring first. Malouda to the rescue this time, which highlights my previous point about Chelsea's strength being the depth of talent they have even on their bench.

Aston Villa completed their mandatory rout of Birmingham City. The derby game, so uncompetitive that we don't even think of it as a derby. Aston Villa, with better players and better chemistry went about their job with flamboyance and didn't look twice before getting the better of Birmingham. A good day at work for a team that is staring hard at the top 4 spots.

But for a team that has indeed occupied the top 4 spots for a while now looked in manic jeopardy. Arsenal made their second trip to Manchester this year and yet again returned red-faced when faced by a Manchester City squad that proved to be more than a handful for them. Who would think that the mighty Gunners, bolstered by the return of their two of the best weapons in their Arsenal, Fabrgas and Rosicky, hungry for revenge on any team from Manchester, would be so ruthlessly taken apart by a City team that didn't have Tevez and Robinho? Not me... I surely didn't see that coming. I surely didn't see Adebayor scoring! But well, the man scored, did his whole jig, almost took Van Persie's eye out and is enjoying world-wide attention right now. He's a winner for me! He didn't win too many fans on the north side of London (except maybe the Spurs fans) but he never had any! On the contrary, he won a few fans on both the red and blue sides of Manchester! Wenger may whine and Van Persie might complain about malicious intentions and high boots, but no one's listening really. Unless of course FIFA/UEFA/FA decide to make another example of the 'poor, unloved' Adebayor. The result has Mark Hughes smiling wide and Manchester United pretty worried for next week!

Another result which I particularly didn't enjoy was the Spurs vs Utd game. Spurs were all high-flying till 10 minutes into the game. Talking about 'taking the game to United' and 'giving their best'. And frankly, I was with all this talk, thinking that if Spurs really do beat United, good for my Liverpool. And well, Spurs have beaten Liverpool, so beating United wasn't very much out of their grasp. And right on cue, Defoe scored. What a goal that was! A confident goal, from a confident man, playing for a team brimming with confidence. And suddenly all that fell apart. United started making inroads into the Spurs defense, led by the Liverpool-born Rooney, who was clearly the best player at White Hart Lane. Perhaps it was the Spurs' heckling, but Berbatov was rubbish to say the least and missed a few chances even Adebayor would have scored, but Rooney made up for all that. Scholes made his fairly reckless challenge and got sent off, but Rooney made up for that too. Hardworking that Liverpool boy playing for United is! But he took out the Spurs team on his own, assisted by the boorish Fletcher who could have been sent off a few times himself. But eventually the Spurs team totally fell apart and never recovered. A bad day for north London overall, but a fantastic one for Manchester.

Next weekend, amongst others, boasts of an exciting manchester derby, which promises to be competitive for a change!