After a two week international break that felt like a month, it was a welcome return to see the Premier League back on our television sets this past weekend.

It almost felt as if the teams had bottled up all of their energy and excitement into one weekend of matches as there were arguably 10 entertaining games in store.

But for those of us watching the tv sets and digital devices this past weekend, what were some of the most notable highs and lows from the weekend action?

Highs

1. Not a single misstep

Throughout the entire weekend, each of the Premier League Live programs as well as all of the shoulder programming and half-time analysis were packed with stats, riveting conversations and plenty of drama. Rebecca Lowe, Kyle Martino and Robbie Mustoe were fired up and in top form.

2. The Smiths

On Saturday morning, NBC debuted a new promo to start getting sports fans excited for the Manchester derby on November 2. The best part of the promo spot was the music, “How Soon Is Now” by legendary Manchester band The Smiths. NBCSN couldn’t have picked a better song for this promo.

3. Premier League highlights on ESPN FC

ESPN delivered an unexpected surprise on Saturday when goal highlights from Premier League matches were made available on ESPNFC.com in addition to the NBC Sports website. The more places where legal highlights are available, the better.

4. Live radio commentaries on talkSport.com

For soccer fans outside the United Kingdom, talkSport continues to provide reliable live commentaries of all Premier League matches every gameweek at talkSport.com. While this isn’t new news, as you’ll see in the ‘Lows’ below, talkSport’s service is indispensable.

5. Premier League News

I finally had the opportunity this week to watch an episode of Premier League News, the 30 minute news program from Premier League Productions and IMG, that aired on Monday on NBCSN. The show was presented by Georgie Bingham (remember her?) and Chris Ford, and was exceptionally good — providing news and analysis of the day’s stories, as well as a preview of the West Bromwich Albion against Manchester United game.

Since the show does such a good job of keeping viewers updated on the day’s news, I don’t understand why NBCSN isn’t broadcasting this show more often.

The next episode will air next Monday on NBCSN before the QPR-Aston Villa match.

6. Bonus coverage

Hats off to NBC Sports Group for deciding to show the second half of the Newcastle-Leicester game on NBC. The last minute change was done after Newcastle had trouble with their jumbotron screen not being safe, which meant that the game was delayed by an hour. NBC Sports took full advantage of the mishap by Newcastle to air the second half on free-to-air network television, which was then followed by more Premier League soccer news, analysis and coverage from NBC for a great afternoon of coverage.

 

Lows

1. NBC Sports Live Extra breaks down

NBC Sports couldn’t have picked a worse time for its NBC Sports Live Extra streaming service to break down than during the second half of Saturday’s 10am-Noon ET Premier League matches. With six matches being played simultaneously during that time window, NBC Sports should have known better that a large portion of those users would be watching the Arsenal against Hull City match, which wasn’t shown on television (other than the Premier League Extra Time overflow channels).

With Hull City leading 2-1 at the Emirates, the NBC Sports Live Extra service crashed, leaving Arsenal supporters (and fans of other clubs) stranded with nothing to see other than a black screen.

Thankfully, talkSport came to rescue with its online audio of Premier League matches, so I was able to hear commentary of Danny Welbeck’s stoppage time equalizer.

2. Flub by Arlo White

No one could have predicted that four goals would be scored in the final few minutes of the QPR-Liverpool match, but NBC Sports lead commentator Arlo White committed a rookie mistake on Sunday morning when Philippe Coutinho scored in the 90th minute to give Liverpool a 2-1 lead away at Loftus Road.

After Coutinho’s deflected shot found the back of the net, Arlo’s commentary proclaimed “Coutinho has won it for Liverpool in the final minute.”

White couldn’t have expected QPR to grab an equalizer just a minute later after Eduardo Vargas scored in the opposite net. If the scores had remained the same, White would have had egg on his face, but luckily for him Liverpool came back again just three minutes later and secured their winner thanks to a Steven Caulker own goal. Liverpool was saved, but so too was Arlo White.