The second weekend of the Barclay's Premiership comes to a close with another addition Super Sunday. It began with Stoke entertaining Arsenal which was followed by Liverpool versus Manchester City. Both games ended in a draw but one was much more exciting than the other.
Arsene Wenger has been known to take a dislike to Stoke's style of football. But it led for a very defensive match with neither team really being able to break the other down. As expected, Arsenal did carry a greater attacking as their 12-0 corner statistic suggests. But it was Stoke who struck first with a goal ruled out for offside. A Peter Crouch knock down was followed up by Jon Walters who smashed the ball home, in an offside position.
Arsenal then had a soft shout for a penalty turned down when Andy Wilkinson looked to block a Lukas Podolski shot with his arm. In truth, the striker never really appealed as it happened far too quickly and it did initially look as if Wilkinson had headed the ball.
Most chances throughout the game from outside the box, the best came 11-minutes before half-time when a Santi Cazorla shot was magnificently saved by Asmir Begovic. If Arsenal's penalty shout in the first was tame then Stoke definitely had a bigger shout in the second half. Jermain Pennant was tackled to the ground Kieron Gibbs in the box, replays showed Gibbs just about got to the ball before sliding Pennant out. The best chance of the half fell to Olivier Giroud who tried lobbing Begovic from long range, the effort hit the roof of the net and it was perhaps a better option to cross the ball to substitute Aaron Ramsey who was busting a gut. The draw was probably the right result despite Arsenal's dominance in possession. This leaves Arsenal still searching for their first win this season and their first goal. Stoke have also drawn their opening two fixtures.
There was much more goalmouth action in the second game as Brendan Rodgers took charge of his first Liverpool game at Anfield. He had the unenviable task of stopping Manchester City and arguably threw the three points away.
After a good spell in the first half, Liverpool deserved a goal and finally got their rewards 11-minutes before half-time. A corner from Steven Gerrard was headed powerfully home by Martin Skrtel to break the deadlock. City never really got going in the first half and deserved to be 1-0 down at half-time.
Their attacking threat wasn't much more exciting in the second half and were gifted an equaliser. A Carlos Tevez cross was rather flapped at by Pepe Reina and the ball fell to Martin Kelly. Kelly failed to take the ball down on his knee and it rolled to Yaya Toure who gladly smashed the ball home.
But parity only lasted for three minutes before Liverpool re-took the lead. Substitute Jack Rodwell came on to a frosty reception and felt rather aggrieved when he gave a free-kick away for handball. Rodwell was sliding to block a shot and the ball ricocheted off of his knee and onto his arms. Luis Suarez took the free-kick and sublimely curled around the wall and into the bottom corner, leaving Joe Hart no chance.
Liverpool were then the makers of their own downfall yet again ten minutes from time, gifting City a point in calamitous circumstances. Skrtel went from hero to villain when he attempted to play a pass back. But it was far too short and Tevez was on hand to nip in, round Reina a roll the ball home to score his 100th goal in English football. Rodgers is still without a win in the Premiership for Liverpool, but should take a lot of positives from this performance. Maybe extremely premature, but City stay a point ahead of United but are five behind Chelsea with a game in hand.
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