Aston Villa 3-0 West Ham United
Aston Villa were off to a good start for the new season. I have heard it said that this could be Villa’s season for breaking into the Champions’ League. But now, it seems as though all anyone is talking about is the departure of Villa’s manager, Martin O’Neill.
Speaking of managers, West Ham sacked the loveable Gianfranco Zola and instead hired a manager who, unlike Zola, failed to avoid relegation at the end of last season. So far, it’s not working.
Aston Villa were without James Collins, who missed both this match and Wales’ thrashing of Luxembourg with a calf injury. Young goalkeeper Elliott Parish (another of those annoying people who could play for Wales but want to play for England) wasn’t in the squad but he might be if one of the Brads gets injured.
Danny Gabbidon is still building up his fitness and was on the bench for West Ham. Jack Collison isn’t expected to play again this season but they said the same thing about Aaron Ramsey.
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Everton
A great start for Blackburn as they beat one of the teams that some have named Champions’ League contenders. Everton seem to make a habit of starting slowly so fans shouldn’t be too worried just yet.
Jason Brown has done well in pre-season while Frankie Fielding made headlines when he failed to follow the example of Blackburn’s No. 1 by accepting his place in the England squad. But it was Blackburn’s other goalkeeper, Mark Bunn, who was on the bench today.
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Fulham
At the start of last season, Bolton manager Owen Coyle was at Burnley while Fulham manager Mark Hughes was at Manchester City. Here they met on a slightly more equal footing – and the points were shared equally too. Mark says the omission of Mark Schwarzer was due to injury, not an impending move to Arsenal. Oh well.
Sam Ricketts was on the bench for Bolton. Simon Davies probably did benefit from his midweek rest as he played the full match and looked pretty good. He came close to scoring too.
Chelsea 6-0 West Bromwich Albion
Not that I really want Chelsea to go around winning matches by this number of goals – or at all – but it could be great news for Boaz Myhill, who was on the bench for West Brom today – even though losing to Chelsea doesn’t necessarily make Scott Carson – or anyone else – a bad goalkeeper although Bo and also Blackburn’s Jason Brown managed to draw against Chelsea last season.
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