Premier League Review - Arsenal Stay Top, Liverpool Impress in Week 7

Jack Wilshire celebrates his equalizer for Arsenal (Image Courtesy: BBC.co.uk)

     It was business as usual this past weekend in the Barclay's Premier League, as Arsenal held onto first place with a come-from behind 1-1 draw away at West Brom. Claudio Yacob gave the hosts the lead before a deflected Jack Wilshire effort earned the Gunners a point and kept them top of the table.
     Liverpool climbed to second in the table with a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. Luis Suarez opened the scoring for the Reds, before Daniel Sturridge doubled the lead to maintain his impressive goal scoring streak. Captain Stephen Gerrard tucked home a penalty to make it 3-0, before Dwight Gayle scored a second-half consolation for Palace.
    The pressure on David Moyes looked set to boil over Saturday morning when his side fell behind to Sunderland in the first five minutes of their game at the Stadium of Light. The Scot was rescued by teenage man of the match Adnan Januzaj from Belgium/Albania/England/Turkey/Serbia (seriously, he's eligible to play internationally for all 5). The youngster made his mark with a cool finish to tie the game and then one-upped himself with an audacious left-footed volley to win the game for United.
     Manchester City ended Everton's recent run of good form with a 3-1 victory at the Etihad. Romelu Lukaku's early goal for the Toffees was immediately cancelled out by City's Alvaro Negredo, setting the stage for Sergio Aguero to give the Citizens the lead on the stroke of halftime. A Tim Howard own goal compounded a miserable day for Everton, who now sit 7th in the league.
     Elsewhere, goals by Oscar, Eden Hazard, and Willian helped Chelsea to a 3-1 win over Norwich that sees them sitting third in the table. Spurs slumped to a miserable 3-0 home defeat in the London Derby against rivals West Ham, while Southampton upset Swansea 2-0 to crack into the top four. Fulham secured a tight 1-0 home win against Stoke, Newcastle beat newly promoted Cardiff 2-1 on their travels, while Hull and Aston Villa drew 0-0.

-LM      

New NFL Pro Bowl Uniforms Pit Oregon Against Oregon State

The transition from Reebok to Nike as the NFL's partner has been pretty seamless. Two years ago, Nike started producing NFL apparel, and only the Seattle Seahawks have seen a major makeover. Most of the NFL teams have maintained their current styles, and only a handful of teams had minor adjustments made that are hardly noticeable to the average fan.

Remember the Seahawks before they went retro?
Courtesy of www.komonews.com

This all changed today as Nike completely stripped the commonplace blue and red jerseys for the Pro Bowl. Traditionally, the AFC squad donned the red jerseys while the NFC wore blue. However, the NFL implemented a new system this year similar to the NHL's All-Star draft format. For hockey's All-Star Game, captains are selected, and they "draft" their team from the pool of players selected for the game. The NFL will be doing the same this year in their umpteenth attempt to generate interest in an otherwise lackluster event that few viewers have ever tuned in for.

With the change in format apparently comes a change in appearance as Nike unveiled the uniforms that the two squads will now wear. Nike went with neon orange and neon yellow as the new trademarks of the NFL's All-Star event, and they pretty much resemble something straight out of the Pac-12. The neon colors feel more affiliated with college uniforms than anything else as Nike attempts their first bold splash as the NFL's apparel partner.

A picture of the new uniforms is below. What's your opinion? If these uniforms, coupled with the Seahawks' new look, is any indication, then the NFL appears to be on a collision course with a retro movement. I don't know how I feel about the changes personally, but I understand Nike wants to establish a brand and identity for themselves independent of Reebok. All I know is that I might actually tune into two minutes of Pro Bowl action this year just to see the new format and new uniforms. After that, the honeymoon will be over and I'm sure I'll switch back to anything else that's on television at the time.

Are we watching the Ducks vs. the Beavers?
Courtesy of ESPN