4/9/12

Last week we occurred one of the busiest weeks of sport of the year, which included the start of the Paralympic Games, a weekend full of football, One-Day Internationals between England and South Africa and also the start of the Aviva Premiership for Rugby Union fans.

We start with the Paralympics Games which had the expectations of the Olympics on its back and how it delivered! With already 19 gold medals and rising, team GB look set to have the best Paralympics ever and that, combined with the efforts of our Olympic team. 

However, the main talking point of the games so far has to be Oscar Pistorius and the comments made by him after he was destroyed in the last 50 metres by Brazilian Alan Oliveira in the T44 200 metres on Sunday night. Pistorius claimed that the length of Oliveira's blades gave him a distinct advantage over the South African. This was later dismissed by the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) and they said that all athletes blades are checked prior the meetings held in London. 

In other news, week three of the Barclays Premier League gave us plenty to ponder. Saturday lunch-time saw West Ham beat a Fulham side, lacking Mussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey, 3-0. This game saw Andy Carroll full of confidence on his debut after his season-long loan from Liverpool. Other games on Saturday included Swansea and Sunderland battling in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Liberty Stadium, Tottenham drawing 1-1 with Norwich with new boy Mussa Dembele scoring on his debut for Spurs. Also, West Brom remain unbeaten in the Premier League after a convincing 2-0 win over a Marouane Fellani inspired Everton. Goals from Shane Long and Gareth McAuley helping them to gain 7 from a possible 9 points. Wigan played an entertaining match with Stoke which ended 2-2 but this game could of had plenty more goals with many guilt-edged chances going to waste. 

In the evening fixture, Manchester City played a re-shuffled QPR side at the Etihad Stadium. Everything was going to plan in the first half and they lead through a pouncing Yaya-Toure who capitalised on a loose ball inside the QPR box. However, in the second half QPR equalised through Bobby Zamora and the stadium erupted with screaming QPR fans. However, QPR's joy went silent when Edin Dzeko scored two minutes later and Man City finished it off through Carlos Tevez in injury time.

Sunday saw three hugely entertaining matches occur with Liverpool at home to Arsenal, Newcastle facing Paul Lambert's Aston Villa and Southampton facing Manchester United at St Mary's Stadium.

First of the triple header was at Anfield where Arsenal triumphed 2-0 over a goal bear Liverpool. The goals were scored by new boys Lukas Podolski and Santi Cadzola in a game where you could not see where Liverpool could score from. With Andy Carroll's departure, Brendan Rodgers has to quickly find a way of getting goals and help Luis Suarez in creating goal scoring opportunities. 

Next up was Newcastle who faced an Aston Villa side which had been struggling of late. However, they took a surprise lead through a Ciaran Clark header and looked in control at points in the match. After half-time, it was a entirely different picture and Newcastle drew level through a magnificent 25-yard strike from Hatem Ben Arfa. Overall, both managers would be happy with a point as overall play was equal between the two team.

On the Sunday though the game of the day was contested at St Mary's Stadium when Man United triumphed 3-2 against Southampton in a thoroughly entertaining game. Southampton went ahead early in the match through a Ricky Lambert header before Robin van Persie produced a moment of magic when he volleyed in from a tight angle. But, after half-time Saints were in-front again through a Morgan Schneiderlin header.

Then RVP created a pen when he was fouled in the area but he couldn't convert it. This was due to a brilliant save by Kelvin Davis diving full stretch to his right. Eventually United  equalised, van Persie scoring from a rebound that hit the post. He completed the United comeback and his hat-trick in injury time by flicking a corner with his head into the top corner.

In other sports, South Africa continued there tour of England with three more ODI's. On Tuesday, England were destroyed by a brilliant 150 by Hashim Amla and therefore they fell short. The third ODI was completely different with England winning by four wickets with contributions from James Anderson (4-44) and Jade Dernbach (3-44) with the ball and Jonathon Trott (71) and Eoin Morgan (73) with the bat. On Sunday, England won again with a victory margin of 6 wickets. Ian Bell lead the charge with a flawless 88 to lead the three Lions home. That victory means that England can't lose the series and hold the No.1 until the new year.

Finally, in Rugby Union, the Aviva Premiership started with a bang. Wasps narrowly lost 40-42 to Harlequins with a late comeback from the reigning champions. London Welsh's Premiership dream crashed back onto the floor with a 13-38 loss to last seasons finalists Leicester Tigers. Other results included wins for Northampton, Bath, Exeter Chiefs and Saracens.