Weekend Review 3rd,4th and 5th:

After last weeks disappointment, we had three volleys last weekend with two drastically altering the result of the game, a first for the Premier League and Lovely Volley.

We’ll start with the best, Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian striker executed a sublime, albeit un-orthodox bicycle kick, to score against Sunderland on Saturday evening. It appeared that the game was heading for a draw after Sunderland had taken the lead then equalised, in what was an impressive performance by the Black Cats. However Anton Ferdinand who was still dazed by the majesty of Berbatov’s volley then attempted his own. Unfortunately Anton’s was neither a volley, nor in the Man United goal and he downed his side to a undeserved loss at Old Trafford.

Next we will look at the most inform volleyer in the Premier Leage, Hull City’s Geovanni. Geovanni now has two volleys in as many games and puts him joint first with Dirk Kyut. Geo’volley-me-senseless’Vanni’s goal came on 68 minutes, when he struck home into an open net in the game against Wigan. Hull won 3-1 and picked up a much needed three points.

The last volley of the weekend came at Upton Park in the game between West Ham and Fulham. Zoltan Gera’s 57 minute volley won the game for Fulham, despite Junior Stanislas deflected effort in injury time. This was the second volley that altered a games result as Fulham won 2-3.

The rest of the action went as follows, in a new feature i like to call ‘One Line Reviews’:

Portsmouth finally get a point! and three at that: Wolves 0-1 Portsmouth

Burnley win at home, again: Burnley 2-1 Birmingham

Tottenham get lucky thanks to some Croatian goals: Bolton 2-2 Tottenham

Liverpool play badly, Drogba doesn’t: Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool

Arsenal score lots, Blackburn score two: Arsenal 6-2 Blackburn

Dunne wont celebrate, Bellamy will though: Aston Villa 1-1 Man City

Meh!: Everton 1-1 Stoke

Tables to updated later. Volley on.

26th,27th and 28th September Review:

After last weeks fantastic weekend of megs and volleys we have nothing but disappointment to report after this weekends events. Only two volleys went in and even they were just about worth mentioning.

The best of the pair fell to Blackburn’s defender/striker Christopher ‘Big Leg’ Samba. We have penned the name ‘Big Leg’ for Samba as it appears his leg was the only reason he scored the volley. Samba stretched his leg out after falling over and managed to connect with the ball to send it past Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel. Blackburn won the game 3-1.

The next volley actually surprisingly failed to effect the game. Hull City’s Geovanni scuffed an effort it for the Tigers, but it failed to spur them on as they went down 6-2 to Liverpool at Anfield. You would think a volley of any magnitude for any team would inspire the team to victory but Hull were useless and Fernando Torres was rather fantastic.

The rest of the weekends action proved to be more eventful, especially at the DW Stadium which saw Wigan finally beat one of the big four in the shape of Chelsea. A series of defensive blunders by Chelsea alllowed Wigan to win 3-1, it also helped that Petr Cech was sent off early in the second half. Ryan Giggs revival continued at the Britannia Stadium where Man United beat Stoke 0-2 with, Giggs providing both goals for Berbatov and O’Shea. Liam Lawrence also denied what would have been a fantastic volley from ‘The Ginger Volleyer’ Paul Scholes. Harry Redknapp seems spoilt for choice in terms of Strikers at Tottenham. Mid week hat trick hero, Peter Crouch was left on the bench, but that didn’t seem to matter as Robbie Keane knocked in four to see off a sorry Burnley team 5-0, with Jermaine Jenas scoring the other goal. Portsmouth’s terrible start continued as they lost 0-1 to a Louis Saha goal, earning Everton three points. Arsenal managed to weather a storm against Fulham at Craven Cottage with deputant keeper Vito Mannone pulling off several great saves, to make sure that Robin Van Persie’s effort took the three points back to the Emirates for Arsenal.

The two glamour of the weekend actually proved to be rather entertaining. Sunderland beat Wolves 5-2 which actually flattered the Black Cats as Wolves put in a good effort at the Stadium of Light, but the combination of Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones eventually proved too strong as Sunderland continued on their best start to a Premier League season. St Andrews also saw an interesting game between Birmingham and Bolton, that saw Bolton take the lead twice after Kevin ‘The King’ Phillips thought he had done enough for a point for the Blues but Bolton’s determination saw them win 1-2.

Monday’s match saw Man City beat West Ham 3-1. Carlos Tevez scored two against his old club but obviously didn’t attend the Adebayor school of celebrating and was decent enough to hold his hand up in apology to the away fans. Roque Santa Cruz made his debut for the club as a substitute but isn’t likely to get in the starting line up anytime soon as he missed a sitter of a volley. Bad Santa Cruz!

Tables to be updated later. Keep Volleying.

Weekend Review 19th and 20th September:

Well another exciting weekend in the Premier League and it appears that several players have heard of Lovely Volley as we have Three Volleys and Two Megs to tell you about this week.

Firstly we’ll start at the tie of the weekend at Old Trafford between Man United and Man City. United went ahead early through a poor bit of defending from Man City that allowed Wayne Rooney to slot home early. Man City managed to equalize through Gareth Barry who latched onto Carlos Tevez’s pass after Ben Foster had spilled the ball on the edge of the area. Darren Fletcher added another after the break but the lead didn’t last long as Craig Bellamy scored a fantastic solo effort to draw City level. However the game would soon end (well in our eyes anyway) when old faithful Ryan Giggs brilliantly megged Shaun Wright Phillips to win the game 4-2 for United. Wright-Phillips immediately knew that game was lost as he held his hands up to apologize to his team mates. The teams however ignored Shaun’s response and bizarrely continued to play, and claim the game finished 4-3 to United! Craig Bellamy was obviously as confused as us and decided to hit a delirious fan in frustration.

Next we will look at what is possible the classiest volley of the season, coming courtesy of Cesc Fabregas With Arsenal a comfortable three goals up against Wigan, Fabregas knocked in a volley very similar (although not as spectacular) to Gianfranco Zola’s back heeled effort against Norwich from a few years ago. We will try and post a video of the goal if we can find one because it is a very classy finish from the young Spaniard. Arsenal won the game 5-0 thanks to the volley.

Dirk Kuyt is fastly proving himself to be a contender for top volley scorer this season as he scored another scrappy volley against West Ham. The game was tied at 1-1 thanks to goals by Torres and a penalty from Diamanti, when Steven Gerrard headed to ball goal bound before Dirk Kuyt deflected the ball in. The ball would have probably go in anyway, but knowing the rules of Lovely Volley, Kuyt decided to give his team an extra goal advantage. And it proved worth while as West Ham nearly got back in the game after a Carlton Cole header, but Fernando Torres got his second of the game to give Liverpool a 4-2 win and the three points.

Lois Saha also submitted his form for Volley contender this season, knocking home a nicely placed cross by Leighton Baines. Saha added another for Everton before Joseph Yobo sealed the points for the Toffees as they saw off Blackburn 4-0.

Now remember the article a few weeks ago where we asked you to spot any megs we might have missed, well it seemed to have worked as Christian ‘Chucho’ Benitez converted what is said to be a fantastic megs for Birmingham in their game against Hull. We at Lovely are yet to see the megs but will post it when we find a video. So for know we will take the word of Dan Copeman from Loughborough and Johnny Ryall from Newcastle, and accept that Birmingham won the game 2-0. Cheers for that lads.

With the megs and volleys rounded up, we’ll look at the rest of the weekends action. And we’ll start at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea proved that Tottenham have still got a long way to go before they can contend with the big boys as they were comfortably beaten 3-0 with goals coming from Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba.

Congatulations to David Nugent, after a torrid time at Portsmouth, Nugent wasted no time in opening his account for Burnley. Nugent came off the bench to win three points for Burnley scoring two in the Clarets 3-1 victory over Sunderland. Dave Kitson also continued his rich vein of form for Stoke against Bolton. Unfortunately Kitson’s effort wasn’t enough as Matty Taylor scored a late penalty to earn a point for Bolton. Wolves grabbed their first home victory of the season, beating Fulham 2-1 thanks to goals from Kevin Doyle and Dave Edwards, with Danny Murphy grabbing the consolation goald for Fulham via the penalty spot. To wrap up this week we will consoling Portsmouth as they set a new record for the start of a Premier League season, yes even Derby started better than this! Pompey slumped to their sixth consecutive defeat at the hands of Aston Villa after goals from James Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor. Sorry Pompey, perhaps look for a few megs in you next couple of games and you might creep up our league at least. 

Tables to be updated later. Keep Volleying.