Eugene YS Han takes a look at the best and the worst from the fifth weekend of the Barclays Premier League.

Heroes

Arsenal
Arsenal have managed to quietly sneak into the lead of the Premier League marathon amid the Battle of the Bridge II and Liverpool’s inability to break the Potters. Not only did the Gunners secure an impressive win at Bolton, they did it in style. Arsene Wenger’s side, inspired by England’s newest hero Theo Walcott, has regained their swagger in the league yet again. Gunners fans will be hoping Arsenal will have more in reserve and not collapse in the title race like last season.

Manchester City
Mark Hughes hailed Manchester City’s 6-0 thrashing of Portsmouth as “the best performance by one of his teams by a country mile”. Portsmouth had no answer to City’s attacking talents – even defender Richard Dunne popped in with a goal. The real star for City was, of course, Robinho. The Brazilian seems to have galvanised City into a whole new attacking outfit and it was just like watching Brazil!

Daniele Di Michele
Di Michele’s debut at Upton Park was overshadowed by West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola who was also making his debut in the Premier League. It was soon to change as the Italian striker had a debut to remember as he hammered in two goals against a hapless Newcastle side. His second goal was a sublime individual effort that had echoes of Paul Gascoigne’s goal for England against Scotland in Euro 1996. Di Michele even had a chance to seal a hat-trick but selflessly passed to Matthew Etherington to score the Hammers’ third.

Stoke City
The Potters were not given much of a prayer at Anfield and they responded with fantastic rearguard action. Their defenders literally put their bodies in the line of fire for their club. Although Stoke City manager Tony Pulis was gracious enough to admit Stoke were a little lucky, the Premier League new boys put Liverpool back in their place after the high over their win over Manchester United.

Michael Chopra
‘Chops’ was the hero at the Stadium of Light by scoring two goals to win the game against Middlesbrough. Chopra came off the bench in emphatic fashion to announce his long-awaited return to the game. The former Newcastle player was plagued by personal problems at the start of the season. A three-game suspension at the beginning of the campaign did not help much as well. But Chopra, backed surprisingly by Roy Keane, became the unlikely hero in Sunderland’s first home win of the season.

Zeroes

Liverpool
Four points from the last two games could easily have been six points if not for the stumble against mighty Stoke. Liverpool huffed and puffed but they could not blow Stoke’s defence down. Failure to secure crucial wins at Anfield contributed to Liverpool’s downfall last season, the Reds now face another worrying lacklustre home form this season.

Newcastle United
The Magpies are still without a full-time manager and without a win ever since Kevin Keegan left. A disappointing 3-1 loss to West Ham last weekend was only illuminated by the return to form of Michael Owen. The off-field feud of the Newcastle board and the fans is taking its toll on the players and it’s showing in the worst possible sense. If the Magpies cannot find stability fast, they could drop to the English Championship.

Tottenham
Tottenham’s nightmare start to the season continues with just two points from five games. The 0-0 draw over the weekend showed some promising moves from Roman Pavlyuchenko so the only way for Spurs should be up from here.

Stewart Downing
The adage ‘Once bitten twice shy’ probably does not apply to Stewart Downing. The winger has now missed two penalties in a row and he was not even close in the last miss against Sunderland. Either Downing did not bother to practice taking penalties during training or there are really no other penalty-takers at Boro.