The 6th week of animated English Premier League action has come and gone. While some clubs had things going their way, others simply moved an inch further into full-blown crisis. Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea are yet to find the right formula that will produce all the goals they need, while David Moyes is yet to convince us that he’s the so-called Chosen One.

Well, let’s kick things off at Old Trafford where Manchester United succumbed to their 3 defeat of this season’s Barclays Premier League with just 6 matches played. It is the worst possible start to the season that any new manager at a top club could have wished for, especially in Manchester United where winning has become a habit for the past two decades. Filling the big shoes of Sir Alex Ferguson was always going to be a tough task, but even Moyes or Sir Alex himself would not have envisaged that it would be this difficult.
Saturday afternoon saw Manchester United capitulate once more to a shock defeat. This time around it happened right in front of their disbelieving home supporters. The 2-1 home loss to West Bromwich Albion was the first time United would be so embarrassed by the Baggies since 1978. This latest defeat leaves the Red Devils with just 7 points (two wins and a draw) out of a possible 18 so far this season. That is not the only scenario though, they have also found themselves in the bottom half of the Premier League table, somewhere between two Welsh clubs, Cardiff City and Swansea City. Not since the 1986 has United had a worse start to a league campaign.

The fans are grumbling and so are the players. The board too are not happy with the latest developments at the club. Losing 3 of your first 6 matches is not something to be proud of, but it becomes a thing of embarrassment when you are a club like Manchester United. One has to wonder where David Moyes got it all wrong. He made wholesale changes to the side that was humiliated by Manchester City the previous weekend, but that did not pay off as goals from West Brom’s Morgan Amalfitano and Saido Berahino either side of a Wayne Rooney free-kick condemned United to their first home defeat of the season.

David Moyes. The Observer Reports.com
David Moyes is the man at the center of it all
After the match, ecstatic West Brom fans chanted “We’ll sack who we want”. They were referring to the sacking of Paolo Di Canio by Sunderland last week after a 3-0 loss to West Brom. Moyes must now be wondering — should things continue this way though — if he will become the first manager that will be fired at Old Trafford in 27 years. But he would count himself lucky to be working under a board with long term plans for the club rather than instant, short-term success.

At White Hart Lane, two London giants were pitted against each other. Two rival set of players, two managers who are not on speaking terms and two boards of directors who have been bitter enemies in the transfer market were on parade at Tottenham’s 36,000 capacity stadium when they hosted Chelsea. The relationship between Jose Mourinho and his protegee , Andre Villas Boas, which has turned sour in recent years dominated the pre-match proceedings, but it was the result that became the post-match talking point. Skipper, John Terry, rescued a solitary point for the revitalized Blues in the second half with a header after Gylfi Sigurdsson had given Spurs the lead earlier on in the first half.
The result of the launch-time kickoff in the Premier League marked the fourth time the Stamford Bridge outfit has scored 1 goal or less since the start of the season. One has to wonder what kind of business Roman Abramovich and co. did in the transfer window that has made it very difficult for the team to score goals. Summer signing Samuel Eto’o is yet to open his account for his new club, while players like Eden Hazard and Frank Lampard have so far failed to reproduce the scoring form that helped the Blues seal a third place finish in the Premier League last season.

It is bewildering how Chelsea’s star-studded team with an expensive cast of attackers and a manger whose Real Madrid side last season constantly brushed aside opponents with goal margins of 6 or more has managed to score just 6 goals in the last 5 games. This is the same team that could easily put 6 0r 7 goals in the back of the opponent’s net a season ago. Whatever the Special One is doing seems not to be working. The only thing working in the team right now is the defense, but the attack is well below par.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have none of the problems of the two clubs mentioned above to worry about. They are scoring goals an they are winning matches. They comfortably occupy the top position of the EPL with fifteen points out of a possible 18, two points clear of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur and eight clear of Manchester United. The unstoppable Gunners have lost just the opening match of the season and have since been on a 7-match winning streak with Aaron Ramsey continuing his wonderful form as he bagged the winner for Arsenal against Swansea City with his eight goal of the season.

Manuel Pellegrini. The Observer Reports.com
Troubled times
Elsewhere, Manuel Pellegrini, just like fellow new boys Jose Mourinho and David Moyes, is finding life difficult at his new club. His Manchester City side that is worth several hundred million pounds were overpowered 3-2 on away soil by an inspired Aston Villa side. This latest humiliation comes just 6 days after their emphatic triumph over Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium. Inconsistency has really defined City’s campaign so far this season, one week they will give superlative show that will tempt you to hand over the trophy to them, the next they are playing lack a confused bunch.
This was how Pellegrini summed up the game (and their season too) in a post-match interview:
“The way we lost this game was incredible. We led twice, and we had control of the game.”