Unexpected scorelines

Last weekend was a pretty quiet one as far as controversy goes, so I didn't write, but we have a bit more to discuss concerning this weekend's Premier League games.

The first thing to say though - the Premier League is certainly not predictable! Last season, you got the feeling that you could comfortably predict the way many of the games would go. This season, things seem quite different. An imperious looking Chelsea fell back to earth with a drab draw with Tottenham. The previously pointless Spurs looked in trouble last week, losing to Sunderland. This week, Sunderland looked poor, losing easily to a Manchester City side who lost to Aston Villa on the opening day, an Aston Villa side who then lost to Stoke! Hull started brightly, but fell to a Wigan side who were previously pointless but absolutely thrashed them. Portsmouth won unexpectedly easily at a troubled Everton. The results don't always seem to go the way you'd think, which is excellent, making the Premier League much more watchable!

Anyway, to the analysis of controversy. West Ham had a goal wrongly disallowed against Blackburn, with Matt Derbyshire being level with the last defender and therefore not offside - I guess the assistant referee was unsighted, in that Derbyshire blocked his view of the defender - an unfortunate error. The penalty awarded to Blackburn by Mike Riley was correct though.

The worst performance of the weekend was at Sunderland. Here, Chris Foy made a series of mistakes - there weren't any big decisions wrong, it was just a poor, inconsistent performance. Foy is usually reliable and understated in his ways, but he just lost his way a little bit, losing control and not giving obvious fouls. Everyone has a bad day at the office from time to time, and for Foy this was one such day.

On a more positive note, Mike Dean was on the spot to make two correct calls at Middlesbrough - namely sending off Stoke's Amdy Faye for a dreadful challenge and then later awarding 'Boro a penalty. In both cases he was excellently positioned to make the correct decision.

There were several contentious goal-line decisions this weekend too. Wigan's fifth goal at Hull was one such decision, and I think Amir Zaki's shot did just cross the line, although the assistant referee was not in line with it so must have used some guesswork here. Portsmouth's third goal also came courtesy of a shot rebounding off the crossbar - Defoe's shot might have crossed the line but it isn't certain, and in any case Peter Crouch made sure. At Bolton, Kim's shot also rebounded off the crossbar, but I don't think this one did cross the line. Ishmael Miller should have put in the rebound for West Brom, but messed it up. These three situations show that video evidence isn't totally conclusive in any case; a chip in the ball seems the only answer to solving this problem.

Now we have a two-week break for the Premier League as we turn to the first World Cup qualifiers for 2010. I went to see England's friendly with the Czech Republic a couple of weeks ago and the signs aren't promising. Capello still has some work to do to make us perform convincingly, and the match in Croatia will be a real test. We'll just have to see what happens!