Here’s a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly from week five of the Premier League.

Cheers

  1. Swansea City: They ended their 374-minute goalless drought to pick up a solid win.
  2. Tony Hibbert: His pinpoint cross gave Everton the lead late in the match against Wigan.
  3. QPR transfer signings: The veterans who were brought in to stabilize this young club lead Rangers to an easy victory against Wolves. The latest football odds rate QPR as the most likely promoted team to stay up this season.
  4. Shay Given: The Villa keeper made several fine saves to keep them in the match and earned a point against Newcastle.
  5. Norwich City: On this weekend, all three of the newly promoted clubs – including Norwich – played like they belong in the Premier League.
  6. Nani: His wonderful twenty-yard smash helped United defeat Chelsea.
  7. Luka Modric: Hopefully Modric’s goal is a sign that all of the transfer drama is over.
  8. Sunderland: A dominating 4-0 victory for the Black Cats. Steve Bruce saves his job for another week.
  9. Emmanuel Adebayor: The brace he notched this weekend is evidence that Adebayor will provide the scoring punch that Tottenham has lacked in the past.
  10. Martin Jol: Fulham displayed a much better style of football during the second half of their match against Manchester City as Jol’s side received a well-deserved point.
  11. Sebastian Larsson: The Swedish international put in a solid performance in Sunderland’s impressive victory.

Jeers

  1. Wolverhampton: After an encouraging start to the season, it looks like this club has come back down to earth.
  2. Fernando Torres: Yes, he scored a goal, but his wide-open miss against United was almost comical.
  3. Arsenal: It was already a difficult beginning to the season for the Gunners and now they have to deal with the backlash of scoring two goals on themselves?
  4. Stoke City: Normally, Stoke is one of the best defensive clubs in the league, but that wasn’t the case this weekend.
  5. Liverpool: They did not look into the match from the beginning as Tottenham completely outclassed the Reds.
  6. Darren Bent: Bent wasted two golden opportunities to put his side in the lead.
  7. Charlie Adam: Two bookings, which included a high studs-up tackle within twenty minutes of each other ended Adam’s day early.
  8. Ashley Cole: His cheap tackle injured Javier Hernandez and somehow did not result in a red card or a penalty.
  9. Fox Soccer: A rebranding campaign did not fix the lack of quality in Fox’s pre and halftime presentations, as they provide little to no insight into the matches. How does that old saying go, “You can put lipstick on a pig…”?