In the fourth round of the English Premier League, we witnessed some magic from some of the old guard. The three most senior United players, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand led the team to a 4-0 win against Wigan. The combined age of this trio is almost 111 years, and the total number of league appearances among them is some 1,700! Scholes came back from retirement last season and last weekend scored his 155th goal in his 700th league appearance for United.
The biggest winners last weekend were Arsène Wenger and Alex Ferguson, the two most experienced managers in the league. After the goal drought in their first two games, Arsenal’s goals are now flooding in. They beat Southampton 6-1, the biggest score so far this season.
Young Brendan Rodgers is still waiting for his first win of the new season. The Reds travelled to Light Stadium, but only managed a draw through Luis Suarez’s late goal after trailing 1-0 at halftime to the Black Cats. You have to go back 101 years to find the last time the Reds were without a victory after the first four games of a season. The unlucky Rodgers might have to wait even longer, since the Reds face Manchester United this weekend.
Manchester City’s league performance was obviously affected by their upcoming midweek European Champions League game against Real Madrid. They could only manager a draw in their away game against Stoke City. The Champions League starts this week, with Group D being the obvious “group of death”. The group includes Manchester City, Real Madrid and Dortmund. Chelsea’s home game against newly crowned Italian champion, Juventus, is also something we can look forward to. Manchester United and Arsenal’s opponents are comparatively weak. Montpellier and Galatasaray can hardly cast serious challenges to the EPL’s biggest clubs. However, the performances and injuries in the European games are likely to have a direct impact on the upcoming weekend league results.
