Arsenal Back On Track While Atletico Chokes

Premier League football was back this weekend and despite the international break, it was a case of deja vu for pretty much all the teams. Hull City continued its wonderful start to the season both home and away to notch up another win against West Ham while Manchester United and Chelsea imposed their dominance in ruthless fashion with thrashings against West Bromwich and Middlesbrough respectively. Arsenal's poor form also looked like continuing for yet another week until a wonderful second half assured a come from behind victory at home against Everton.

Hull has been the revelation of this season, bringing back memories of Wigan's sensational start to the season about 3 seasons ago. Just when you thought that the international break would end their form, they won comfortably against West Ham and are starting to look like not getting relegated at the end of the season. I know it's too early to make such a prediction but one would be foolish to count against them.

The 4 big teams also had wins on the weekend, 2 of them in thrashings and the other 2 in tight and tense affairs. The thrashings handed out by Chelsea and Manchester United emphasises the gulf between the big clubs and the rest in domestic leagues in Europe. I discussed this point and the need to find a remedy to the problem a couple of months back. The fact that Chelsea won this easily with so many first team players out through injury shows the devastating effect of this great financial divide.

Arsenal and Liverpool both had their work cut out as both had to come back from behind to win their respective games. Arsenal looked to be continuing their poor run of form with a very lacklustre and forgettable first half where Everton looked the more composed and confident team on the pitch. A better team would have punished Arsenal with more than a solitary goal in the first half.

In the second half however, the real Arsenal turned up to play, and spurred on by Nasri's great long range goal, ran out comfortable winners by 3 goals to 1. Liverpool were also forced to play catch up after conceding a early goal in the first half. After 80 minutes, Wigan were 2 goals to 1 ahead and looked likely to snatch victory until Liverpool conjured up 2 goals in the final 10 minutes of the game to take home the points and stay in touch with the leaders.

Meanwhile in Spain, the Madrid derby was the big fixture of the weekend and it didn't disappoint. There's a saying that "it's only over when it's over", and this couldn't be truer for Atletico Madrid. Seemingly destined to fall 1-0 at home to their fierce rivals, Atletico's Simao scored a goal to bring them level. This sent the home fans into rupture as it seemed that would escape with a draw.

However, the action did not end there. At the other end of the pitch, in the final minute of injury time, Real Madrid got a penalty which was converted by Higuain. The home fans went home devastated, the away fans went home rejoicing. This is the beauty of football where anything can happen in the blink of an eye. It's for moments like this that millions of fans live and breathe football every day of their lives.