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Premier League Round Eight: The good, the bad and the ugly

By Michael Peters

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The Bad

Throwing Away Points

Sunderland. What more can be said about this club?

The floundering club from the Northeast of England had a two-goal lead against West Ham. Steven Fletcher scored in the 10th minute and Jeremain Lens doubled The Black Cats’ lead on 22 minutes.

Sunderland looked to be well on their way to picking up three points. As it pertains to Sunderland, though, there is always a “but” involved.

West Ham full back Carl Jenkinson pulled one back for the visitors just after halftime. That is bad enough, right? Sunderland lost the cushion of a multi-goal lead. It is definitely “hold on to your butts” time at the Stadium Light.

That was before Lens earned a straight red card on 57 minutes. In a matter of twelve minutes, Sunderland turned a two-goal lead into a one-goal lead and a man deficit to overcome with 33 minutes remaining in the match.

Of course, Sunderland managed to hold the slim lead for only three minutes. The good news for the hosts is that they held on for one point. The bad news is that they have yet to win a match this season and are already on to a new manager.

Sam Allardyce is taking his crack at being the next in a long line of managerial miracle workers to ply their trade at the Stadium of Light.

Big Sam has a good track record, as clubs under his tutelage have never been relegated from the Premier League. He has a big test on his hands and we will see just how much of a miracle worker Allardyce is.

Poor Play Continues

Two clubs are in particularly poor form at the moment, and I do not mean Newcastle and Sunderland. Swansea City and Chelsea are in a rut they just cannot seem to escape.

The Swans made a great start to the season, but have failed to win a match during the month of September and they drew their first match of this month 2-2 home to Tottenham.

The Swans problems start with their lack of consistent scoring throughout the squad. Since Gomis’ scoring has gone dry so, too, has the Swans attack. If Gomis or Andre Ayew are not scoring then Swansea City are going to struggle.

The key to having success in the Premier League is to get players from throughout your squad to contribute to scoring goals.

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When you are Norwich City and you get a good run of three goals from defender Russell Martin, you take it because at some point your attackers are going to go through a run of games where they do not get the goals.

The problem at Swansea City is that no one is helping Gomis and Ayew. They need Ki sung-yueng, Jonjo Shelvey, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jefferson Montero to chip in with some goals. Ashley Williams and Federico Fernandez need to head in the odd goal from a set-piece at some point too. The Swans need all hands on deck if they are going to get out of this rut.

Chelsea, once heralded as the runaway favorite to repeat as champions, have not come anywhere near the form required to be in a title race – let alone win it.

With Chelsea, their problems start with their defense. The backbone of the Chelsea’s title winning side was their ability to defend a lead. This season, though, the performances have dipped throughout the squad. Their porous defense continued during week eight as they conceded three goals at home to Southampton in yet another loss.

John Terry looks like a shell of his former self, which is making Gary Cahill look bad as well. Branislav Ivanovic has been out of position on a frequent basis this season and is not contributing his usual number of goals either.

Nemanja Matic has been a lone bright spot for the side, which makes the slip in play from the back four all the more confounding. The Serbian destroyer has not quite hit the heights of last season, but he is playing as well as could be expected when everyone around you is floundering.

The players in front of Matic have struggled severely. Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard have been missing in action, while Diego Costa seems more interested in winding up his opponents than moving up the scoring charts.

Right now, Chelsea seems like a team that has rested on its laurels, being content with last season’s domestic triumph. Their transfer business belies a team that felt as though it was so much better than the competition last season that it did not need to strengthen the squad in any significant way.

Clearly, The Blues overestimated their abilities as this has been the worst start to a title defense since Blackburn’s failed attempt to repeat after winning the 1995 Premier League.

Both of these teams need to figure out their issues – and fast – or they could see their goals of European football and domestic glory slip away.

Next: The Ugly

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