Premiership review - 18th/19th January 2014

The Premiership games where played over the weekend and Arsenal beat Fulham by two goals to nil. 

It was a tense match and the goals where scored quite late in the match by Santi Carzola and he is one of my favourite players. 

I strongly believe that he is one of  the players that holds the keys to Arsenal sucess this season. 

Man City beat bottom of the league Cardiff City by four goals to two. Man City are really playing free flowing football and are scoring goals at will. 

However there problem is that they don't have a great defence so they have to constantly score more goals than they will concede. 

Liverpool drew two all at home to Aston Villa and they will probably see that as two valuable points dropped. However they are still top four so they still have it all to play for. 

 

Tottenham beat Swansea by three goals to one to keep them top five. They still are in with a good chance of bagging a Champions League spot. 

 

Chelsea beat Man United by three goals to one and this loss has effectively ended Man United chances of winning the league. 

 

For Chelsea this was a great win and Samuel Eto scored a hat trick! Samuel might be older now but he is good player to have in your team and I think Jose Mourinho has finally started playing him more. 

So Arsenal are still top of the league but only by the narrowest of margins, so there is still all to play for. 

Australian Open - Day Seven

Day seven at the Australian Open and Ana Ivanovic beat the favourite and World Number One Serena Williams in three sets. 

It was certainly a shock for me and I was disappointed to see Serena tamely returning the balls and not really going for winners. Apparently she had a back injury  which explains the tameness in her game. 

However Ana served and returned the ball well and she could do very well at this tournament if she keeps playing with this level of consistency. 

Eugenie Bouchard beat Casey Dellacqua in three sets. Eugenie started off a little slow but by the third set the momentum she had all the momentum. Eugenie now plays Ana Ivanovic for a place in the semi- finals. 

Flavia Penetta beat Angelique Kerber in three sets it was a surprise result as Angelique has been playing well. 

Ni La beat Ekaterina Makarova in straight set and it was a very solid win for Ni La who now faces Flavia Penetta in the quarter finals. 

In the men's draw, Novak Djokovic beat Fabio Fognini in straight sets. It was a very comfortable match for Novak who was never really danger of losing the match. 

Australian Open - Day Six

Day six at the Australian Open and Victoria Azarenka hammered Yvonne Meusburger in straight sets. 

It was a very routine win for Victoria who played well but didn't have to over extend herself to win the match. Next she plays Sloane Stephen and this match could be a very good match. 

Maria Sharapova beat Alize Cornet in straight sets. But Maria was made to work considerably harder in the second set.

In the men's draw, Rafael Nadal beat Gael Monfils in straight sets. It was the kind of game where Rafael was in completely in control and never any worry about him losing.

Andy Murray beat Feliciano Lopez in straight sets it was a comfortable victory and nothing like the mini drama he had in previous match. 

 

Australian Open - Day Five

Day five of the Australian Open and Serena Williams beat Daniela Hantuchova  in straight sets. To be honest it was quite a boring match and Serena did not need to get out of second gear to win. 

I think if Serena had been super motivated the scoreline would have been a little more embarrassing for Daniela. 

Ni La beat Lucie Safarova in three sets and after losing the first set badly Ni La regrouped and was able to win the remaining sets. 

However if Ni La struggled to beat Lucie then winning the Australian Open has just become an even bigger challenge.

Eugene Bouchard beat Lauren Davis in straight sets to make it to the fourth round. 

Eugene is doing really well at the moment only time will tell how well she is doing when she meets tougher opponents.  

In the men's draw Novak Djokovic beat Denis Istomin in straight sets. So far in this tournament Novak has not really been stretched and that can sometimes work against a player in the later stages of the slam. 

David Ferrer also recorded a straight sets win against Jeremy Chardy to make to the third round. 

He is making is way through the draw largely unnoticed and has a great chance to win his first grand slam. 

Australian Open - Day Four

Day four of the Australian Open and Sloane Stephens beat Ajla Tomljanovic in three sets. Sloane has not be firing on all cylinders and has been fortunate to make it this far.  

Maria Sharapova beat Karin Knapp in three sets and she really struggled with her serve and was fortunate to win in tight third set. 

In the men's draw Andy Murray beat Vincent Millot in straight sets. However the scoreline does not tell the story of this match. 

As Andy was five games to one down in the third set but somehow managed to regroup win the set and the match.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal also won in straight sets and with a little less drama than Andy's match. 

 

Australian Open - Day Three

Day three at the Australian Open and Serena Williams beat Vesna Dolonc in straight sets. Serena played well and will now play Daniela Hantuchova in the next round. 

Jie Zheng beat the talented American Madison Keys in three sets. For Madison this will be a learning curve and as she was leading by four games to one the third set. 

These are kind of losses that Madison will learn from and will hopefully come back stronger. 

Sam Stosur hammered Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets which included a six love second set. It was a suprise result considering that Tsvetana won the Sydney tournament over the weekend. 

Another surprise result was Monica Niculescu beating Sabine Liscki in three sets. I still feel that Sabine saves all her best tennis for Wimbledon and is not that motivated for the other slams. 

In the men's draw Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer both recorded straight sets wins to progress to the third round. 

Australian Open Day Two - A very hot day!

Day two at the Australian Open was all about the hot weather. It got has hot as forty two degrees and yet the tournament Doctor thought it was safe to carry on playing. 

Sloane Stephens beat Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets. However it was no ordinary straight sets victory and in the first Sloane got off to a very slow start and had to come back from being five games to one down to win the set.

Sloane was able to win the match but it was not a very convincing win and she really need to step it up in the next round. 

Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both recorded straight sets victories to put them in the next round. 

In the men's draw both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal recorded wins. Rafael was up against Bernard Tomic and some pundits where hyping this match up. 

However it never really an exciting match as Bernard retired with an injury after the first set.