Star Strikers on Show

A weekend of hat-tricks as Arsenal and Manchester United have comfortable wins whilst title chasing Manchester City fail to deliver as new signing Darren Bent opens his Villa account. 

Sir Alex's side looked very dangerous as they ran out 5-0 winners over Birmingham thanks largely to Dimitar Berbatov who scored three goals. That takes the rejuvenated Bulgarian to 17 goals for the season, and showed why United splashed out £30 million on him. The other goals came from the ever young Ryan Giggs and Nani who is enjoying his best season since joining the club. 

The Gooners had an easy 3-0 win over Wigan and even afforded the luxury of being able to miss a penalty. Having scored a brace, Robin Van Persie had the opportunity to complete his hat-trick from the spot - only to blast the ball over. Gary Caldwell was sent off for a professional foul that led to the penalty. Five minutes from time the Dutchman managed to complete his hat-trick, his first in England. Roberto Martinez wasn't happy with his fellow Spaniard Cesc Fabregas who he felt dived for the penalty. 

Roberto Mancini will not be impressed with his team as they lost 1-0 to struggling Aston Villa. City's big signing Dzeko is still looking to open his goalscoring account, the same doesn't go for Darren Bent who grabbed the winner on his debut. Joe Hart was only able to palm away Ashley Young's shot and the ex-Sunderland striker was there to tap home - With Bent you will get goals, he had one touch in the box and it resulted in a goal. 

Kenny Dalglish collected his first win of his new era, Liverpool travelled to Wolves and collected three points against the side that put the final nails in Roy Hodgon's coffin. Fernando Torres was back on form as he bagged a brace and Meireles scored a cracking volley, young Shelvey made an appearance and could've scored his first goal since moving from Charlton but sent the ball over the bar. 

A special mention goes to West Ham, having taken a 2-1 lead with a Piquionne scoring a header in the 85th minute but the ex-Pompey striker collected a second yellow card for celebrating with his fans … Having got his marching orders, Everton managed to capitalize on the player advantage and get an equalizer through Fellani. 

In Sunday’s game, Blackburn beat West Brom 2-0 - the Baggies need to find some form. After an excellent start to the season they find themselves three points outside the bottom three where as Blackburn are now up to seventh under Steve Kean’s leadership. 

Monday night sees Chelsea take on Bolton, the London club will be keen to win to have any chance of keeping up with the Gooners and Red Devils.

By Scott Balaam