Weekly Roundup

Football


Blackburn 1 - 2 Wolverhampton
This was a game that Blackburn really should be winning to get out of any relegation battles that want to avoid. If this is going to be representative of their season I'd be worried if I was a rovers fan, they didn't really create much and even though they had an inexperienced back line they looked shaky throughout. Wolves will take this win and look to build some momentum, building on wins is the difference between staying up and going down.

Fulham 0-0 Aston Villa
If any of the opening games was going to be goalless it was going to be this one, with villa having lost attacking inspiration Ashley Young and Fulham being consistent if unspectacular. Given proved to be an inspired buy with a couple of saves to keep Villa in the game, but they need to make a signing in the forward department, as Heskey is not premiership quality. Fulham should settle under Jol over the next 37 premiership games and do fairly well this year.

Liverpool 1 - 1 Sunderland
I was a bit surprised when I saw this result, as I thought Liverpool would have started their campaign a bit brighter, and a bit more aggressive. They may well have done better if Suarez had put the penalty away, but he did make up for the mistake later by scoring Liverpools only goal. However credit to Sunderland and they looked far better in the second half, if a little uninspiring upfront. At the end of the day, a fair result, but Liverpool would have wanted a win from this fixture

Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal
Is this a sign of whats to come for Arsenal in a world without Fabregas (or Nasri?), where Arsenal can't get a real scoring chance, let alone fail to miss it. Arsenal really failed to capitalise on some poor Newcastle play, and I can't see them doing as well as I predicted before unless they sign some serious firepower. The match itself was also marred by a strange incident where Barton was the one to go down easily, and it made a bit of a mockery of the match. Arsenal badly need new guns and Van persie to be on some serious form.

QPR 0 - 4 Bolton
If anything says welcome to the premiership, it's a 4-0 defeat at home to Bolton, and unless they're holding something back they're in for a rough ride. Bolton played well, but not that well, and they really punished QPRs championship level defending. Kieron Dyer must be the unluckiest man in football, but I really hope that for him and QPR it's not as bad as the stretcher made out. Great start for Bolton, QPR have some thinking to do.

Wigan 1 - 1 Norwich
I hate to call a season opener a relegation 6 pointer, but in my eyes this was. Wigan have no-one who is a truly premiership class player, and Norwich have signed Championship players, rather than premiership ones. Dull match, dull teams, and i can expect a disappointing season for Wigan and Norwich fans, sorry guys.

Stoke 0 - 0 Chelsea
I was disappointed by the number of nil nil score lines this weekend, and I hope it's not a trend for the season. Chelsea and AVB had some big expectations this season and they'll need to play better if they want to match them. Torres was by far Chelsea's best player, and Stoke really contained him, if sometimes unfairly. Saying that, Begovic played out of his skin and Chelsea had a number of decent penalty shouts turned down. 2 points lost for AVB's Chelsea.

West Brom 1 - 2 Manchester United
Manchester united's old favourite Own Goals came to their rescue again against a resilient West Brom after a gaffe from new kid keeper De Gea. West Brom looked like they were going to be on the end of a thumping after rooney scored and Nani blazed over from close range early on, but after the ball slipped under De Gea West Brom looked like they were holding firm. But credit to united they didn't give up and they pushed the mistake out of West Brom, they did deserve the win no matter how fortuitously it came.

Man City 4 - 0 Swansea
Buy of the season? The fee may have been a huge one but if Aguero keeps this up he could have a wonderful season, and Man City will have an extremely successful season. Will Tevez still want to leave now? Who knows, Man City will hope that he stays to join fellow Argentine but I can't see it. Swansea showed promise and their goalkeeper looks very tidy, so I think they just need to put this result behind them and move on.  Great result for Man City, but not a bad performance from Swansea.

Championship
Cardiff have set the early pace defeating Bristol City 3-1, whilst promotion favourites Leicester and West Ham occupy mid table with 1 win and 1 loss in the opening matches. The championship could prove to be highly unpredictable this year, with some big signings apparently in the pipeline for some of the non-favoured teams.

Cricket
Ten years ago I would not have believed what I am about to write, but England are now the top ranked test team in the world. After another innings demolition of India England have gained the top ranking for the first time. Pundits may forever say that India have lost a few of their top players, but the way England have been performing all round, I really don't see how it would have mattered. England have lost Tremlett, and Bresnan has come in and done an amazing job, scoring runs and taking wickets which simply shows England's strength in depth. If Anderson is out for the final test, England will also be down 3 players, and I'd be interested to see what difference that makes to the scoreline, if any. England have been dominating the Indian bowling, and tearing apart the Indian batting. England to win the final test and to whitewash the series.

Tennis
The build up to the final grand slam of the season is finally underway after the Rogers cup in Canada this week. Djokovic carried on his imperious form, with Federer remaining the only person to beat him this year. Meanwhile, the other big three crashed out in successive rounds, Murray in the second, Nadal in the 3rd, and Federer in the quarters to Tsonga, who seems to be able to beat the former master fairly comfortably now. None of these three would have wanted to exit before the semis at least, so it really will be interesting to see how they pick themselves up over the next few weeks, otherwise the overwhelming favourite will be Djokovic to make it 3 out of 4 grand slams this year.


Golf
If anyone's claiming to have predicted the winner of the final major of the year, they're lying. On Sunday Keegan Bradley became only the third person to win a major on their first appearance at one. He also broke the USA's worst ever run of 6 Majors without a winner, despite being relatively unknown. He won on a playoff after being 5 shots down on Jason Dufner after he triple bogeyed the 15th. Dufner really must feel like he's thrown away his best chance of a major. British interests all faltered with Donald, Westwood and McIlroy all having disappointing times, with McIlroy spraining his wrist in the first round.
In other golf news I've bought a set of golf Clubs! They're WoodWorm make, and were great value for money, so if you're thinking about starting up, a brand new set will only set you back £120, which is great for an expensive sport like golf.