No thumping scores this weekend, thank goodness, and arguably the most impressive result was Wigan’s 1-0 win over Spurs at White Hart Lane. Impressive not just because they had conceded 10 goals in their opening 2 fixtures, both at home, but also because the last time they visited White Hart Lane they lost 9-1.

It seems that all that optimism shown by Lactic’s coach Martinez was not so misplaced afterall although perhaps Harry’s buys were suffering from a Champion’s League hang-over, particularly Peter Crouch who managed to score a hat-trick midweek – including two with his head – but not find the target on Saturday.

So, too, a 1-0 scoreline at The Stadium of Light but this time it was the home team prevailing as Manchester City conceded their first goal of the season, a 94th minute Darren Bent minute penalty. This game will be forever remembered though for Carlos Tevez’s miss, who contrived to put the ball over the bar from 12 yards out with no goalkeeper. If Tevez was a Pakistani cricketer the Police would surely be investigating.

Mancini was rightly gutted aware as he is that not winning these games is what cost City 4th spot last year and yet here they go again. They comfortably beat Liverpool one week and then lose to Sunderland the next, despite a 120 million pound summer makeover

That visit from World Cup final ref Howard Webb is obviously working wonders for Steve Bruce’s side – not a single booking in this game. Which is more than can be said for the Wolves Newcastle draw at Moulineux where ref Jeff Attwell dished out 12 yellow cards. Sylvain-Blake opened the scoring for Wanderers and Carroll equalised for Newcastle, and with this coming hot on the heels of his hat-trick against Villa last week there were calls for the striker to be included in the England squad for the upcoming Euro qualifiers. Mind you, it seems that any plaeyer who’s English, fit and wasn’t in South Africa is a potential call-up.

Wolves on 5 points, unbeaten in their first 3 games and although they’ve only played Newcastle, Everton and Stoke, Mick McCarthy must be well pleased with his side’s start to the season.

Wolves sole victory was over Stoke and they had the unenviable task of a trip to Stamford Bridge to face a Chelsea side who had consecutive 6-0 wins under their belts. On that basis, City did well to come out of it with a 2-0 loss. Two penalties for Chelsea: Lampard took the first and it was awful and Sorensen saved quite comfortably; Drogba took the second and scored quite comfortably, so expect a repeat of the ball tug-of-war when the next penalty is awarded to Chelsea.

The result means that both the Blues and the Potters maintain their 100% records, Chelsea 3 wins out 3, Stoke 3 losses out of three, but amazingly Stoke are not bottom of the table, that dubious honour goes to West Ham who conceded 3 for the 3rd straight game, this time to Man Utd, with goals by Rooney (from the penalty spot – interesting take), Nani and an exquisite volley from Berbatov – arguably the most technically proficient footballer in the Premier League since Berkampf. Fortunately for England, he’s retired from international football.

Avram Grant put on his scariest face, which is pretty scary given that his eyes are so far back they appear to be still in his native Israel even when his body is in East London, to assert that now is not the time to panic, that time is after 10 or 15 games. Having only scored 1 goal and conceded 9 in three straight defeats means that Messrs Gold and Sullivan are unlikely to share that timetable and Grant is going to have to get a win in the next 2 maybe 3 games to keep his job.

West Ham’s form not helping Robert Green much as he missed out on call up into the England squad for the Euro qualifiers which seems a little harsh. Does one gaffe take you from being number one choice to not even on the radar? Seems especially unfair when one of his centre-halves in Matthew Upson, has made the squad. Even more bizarre is the fact that WH striker Carlton Cole also got a call-up, despite West Ham only scoring 1 goal so far this season and that was scored by Mark Noble from the penalty spot.

At least Green’s non-involvement means he can have the operation on his hip and still be back in time for West Ham’s next game.

Joining Stoke and WH in the slowest out of the blocks stakes are Everton who have but a single solitary point after their three games and this week contrived to lose to Aston Villa, 1-0. Luke Young scoring a quite brilliant goal for a striker let alone a defender and Everton despite having all the play, had only a Steven Pienaar curler against the post to show or all their domination. David Moyes might say they are playing well but there’s no points for style in this game.

It was a welcome result for Villa after a horror week that started off with the 6-0 drubbing at Newcastle and continued by being knocked out of the Europa by Rapid Vienna. They still need to sort out a manager and Bob Bradley has effectively ruled himself out of the race by singing a new 4 year deal with US national team although perhaps he heard the Villa Chief Exec’s comments that they wanted an experienced PL manager which would also seem to rule out caretaker boss Kevin Macdonald.

The international break offers plenty of time to get this sorted and Villa need their new man in place well before hostilities resume. Initial focus may well be on just getting through the transfer window without losing any more players. There’s at least Spurs hoping to prise away Ashley Young; his departure coming hot on the heels of James Milner would be a huge blow to Villa.

Amazingly, Villa find themselves in 4th spot, a point behind Utd and Arsenal after the Gunners’ 2-1 away win at Blackburn Rovers. Great goal from Walcott who surely has to start for England, and no doubt Arsene Wenger would have been extremely happy with the way his team coped with one of the more physical sides in the Premier League

Blackburn’s goal scored by Diouf who was set up by Diouf – both are Senegalese but not related, so maybe Diouf is the Senegalese equivalent of Smith. Maybe if you open the Senegal White Pages it’s just full of Dioufs – who can all play football. Mame Biran Diouf as distinct from El-Hadj Diouf is actually on loan from Man Utd.

No doubt of much greater cause of concern to Blackburn fans than telling their Dioufs apart is the fact that A666 rivals Bolton Wanderers are 5th, yes 5th in the table which is also of some concern to those who tipped the B Wanderers for relegation.

Owen Coyle’s got this team up and ready and the game against Birmingham was a great example of their team spirit and willingness to battle. 2-0 down after 50 minutes and one man down after 37 minutes when goalkeeper Jaskelinen was sent off for slapping, the Trotters fought their way back to a 2-2 draw with a penalty from Davies and a corker of a free kick from substitute Blake. This was as morale boosting a result for Coyle as it was a gut-wrencher for City boss, Alex McLeish

It was morale boosting stuff at Anfield as well, not the laborious 1-0 win over West Brom, although a win’s a win, but the fact that the winning goal was a well-taken effort by Fernando Torres but what’s more he had several chances and really looked as though he was returning to his old self.

Plenty of comings and goings at Liverpool too with Portuguese midfielder Raul Meireles signed as cover for Mascherano who finally completed his move to Barcelona overnight. That leaves a 6m surplus, some of which looks likely to spent on Paul Konchesky who’ll be joining the Reds from Hodgson’s old club Fulham and Roy is hoping for another signing, a striker, before the end of the transfer window.

And speaking of Fulham, they maintained the Premier League’s other 100% record with a 3rd consecutive draw, this time with Blackpool with an 87th minute Ethutu goal, a lovely little chip over the keeper, denying the Tangerines a first-up home win in the Premier League. Many still predicting that it is going to be a tough season for Blackpool but they certainly seem able to put the ball in the back of the net and that’s always got to be a plus

Bobby Zamora scored the opener for the Cottagers and got an England call-up but will miss the Euro 2012 qualifiers because of a knock he sustained. Likewise there was talk that goalkeeper David Stockdale would have got a call-up if not for an ankle injury he picked up in this game. It’s all backfiring a bit for Aussie keeper Mark Schwarzer and if he doesn’t get his move to Arsenal he could find himself spending more time on the Fulham bench than he had bargained for.

No games this weekend due to the Euro games which are mostly being played on Friday – don’t know who’s bright idea that was, what’s wrong with Sat afternoon?