A Darren Bent short hit a red beach ball that had Reyna fooled into diving to save the beach ball,instead of the deflected ball that ricocheted into the net for the only goal of the match.

This incident raises a lot of questions concerning referees and the decisions they sometimes allow to stand. In my opinion, the goal should never have been allowed to stand. Its so unfair.

A fourth defeat of the league season will only add to the question marks over Liverpool’s title credentials after they were outplayed without injured midfielder Steven Gerrard and striker Fernando Torres.

Ahead of a week in which they face a crucial Uefa Champions League tie against Lyon and host Manchester United, they only added weight to critics who label them a two-man team.

Liverpool were lethargic and looked at unease with a 5-4-1 formation manager Rafael Benitez had opted for as he tried to cope with injuries and tiredness after the recent internationals.

Benitez was probably hoping that full-backs Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio, as well as wingers Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun, would have more of an impact going forward.

But Sunderland, with a near-capacity 47,000 crowd behind them, did not let Liverpool settle and aggressively took control of the game before being rewarded with the lead in somewhat fortunate circumstances.

Bent’s shot went in off a beach ball and, to compound Liverpool’s misery, it was one punched on to the pitch by one of their own fans. A clear case of one causing one’s own downfall you might say..

Oh! for the records, Chelsea were beaten by Aston Villa, while Manchester United and Arsenal both won at home respectively.

Today sees Chelsea take on QPR, while Manchester United tackle Wolves. It is this Man Utd match that gives me sleepless nights. Its not a premier league match, but equally very important as winning it brings some cash and of course the trophy swells your trophy cabinet.

Am scared because Man Utd have a habit of losing at this stage of  the competition, though this one will be different. Read below for some history.

MATCH PREVIEW

Manchester United have reason to be wary as they begin their defence of the Carling Cup. Despite winning the competition for the third time last season they have proved vulnerable in the third round, losing at this stage in ten of the last 25 years. Not that United will be lacking in belief, whatever side they select. Their stoppage-time victory over cross-city rivals Manchester City on Sunday was their fifth in a row. Wolves have only progressed beyond this round once in the last 12 years, despite not having faced a Premier League side since losing 5-1 at Arsenal six years ago. Wolves also have a dreadful record at Old Trafford, and only reached this round with a penalty shootout win at home to Swindon. However, Saturday’s victory over Fulham ended a three-match winless streak and saw the return of key players Michael Kightly and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. MATCH FACTS Head-to-head • This is the first League Cup meeting of these two clubs. Manchester United won their most recent clash by 3-0 in the FA Cup fourth round in January 2006. • Wolves last won – and scored – at Old Trafford in a top-flight game in February 1980. Manchester United • United have won their last five games in all competitions, and hold a 100% winning record in three matches at Old Trafford this season. • They have not been knocked out by a Premier League club since Chelsea won their semi-final tie in 2005. • Ryan Giggs is still looking for his 150th Manchester United goal, John O’Shea could make his 350th appearance for the club and Darron Gibson could face the club with whom he was on loan for most of 2007/08. Wolves • Wolves won the League Cup in 1974 and 1980 but since playing in the quarter-finals in 1996 they have only reached the fourth round once (2003/04). • It is 14 years since Wolves last eliminated a Premier League club; Coventry in the fourth round in November 1995. • Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and David Jones were both Manchester United trainees. United For Life Well, after all of our fears, United will beat Wolves today.

Before this math, two things were on my mind. We needed to get the maximum points but we also needed to confirm that we rule the city of Manchester when it comes to football.

If we drew or perhaps lost, Manchester City fans would have bragged that their big money spending were paying. But if you asked me though, i would tell you that Man City should now be taken very seriously in the premier league. But what a goal by Owen

Adebayo scored the third goal of their 4-2 rout of a harpless Arsenal. And i would say that Man City also played very well in the second half after a rather lack-luster first half.

I had earlier said that the traditional top four in the English Premier League were under a real threat from City, and they have started looking like the team that spent well in the transfer market.

Okay, so they have beaten Arsenal, let’s wait and see how they cope when they play Champions Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool during the season. They are really getting their money’s worth.

Just to remind you guys that Chelsea also won today to maintain their 100% start to the season, Malouda scoring deep in injury time to give the Blues all three points at Stoke who played valiantly.

Win also for Liverpool 4-0 at home to Burnely with Benayoun scoring a hat-trick.

What a season this is turning into, and we are hardly into it.

The punishment was meted out by world governing body Fifa after the club was found guilty of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.

A Fifa statement said the Blues would not be able to register new players in the next two transfer windows.

Chelsea insist they will “mount the strongest appeal possible” and say the sanctions are “totally disproportionate to the alleged offence”.

A statement from the Premier League club, who will make their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), added: “We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision.”

Fifa’s dispute resolution chamber (DRC) ruled French winger Kakuta, now 18, must also pay compensation of 780,000 euros (£682,000), for which Chelsea are “jointly and severally liable”.

Lens lodged a complaint with world football’s governing body after Chelsea signed the winger two years ago.

Now the DRC has ruled Kakuta breached his contract with Lens and that Chelsea induced him to do so.

Fifa’s statement continued: “The French club had lodged a claim with Fifa seeking compensation for breach of contract from the player and requesting also sporting sanctions to be imposed on the player and the English club for breach of contract and inducement to breach of contract.

“The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such breach.”

Chelsea must pay additional “training compensation” of 130,000 euros (£114,000) to Lens, while the player has been banned from playing in official matches for four months.

Kakuta ended 2007/8, his first season with Chelsea, as the youth team’s top scorer and was voted the academy’s player of the year.

He played five times for the youth team and twice for the reserves in his second season before it was brought to an abrupt end in February when he suffered a double fracture of his ankle.

The Lille-born youngster has never played for Chelsea’s first team, although he is back to full fitness and has been featuring in the reserves this season.

Fifa’s decision to ban Chelsea means they will not be able to sign players in the January and summer 2010 transfer windows.

Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin thinks that could mean problems for Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti.

“He’s got a number of worries going ahead,” said Nevin, who played for Chelsea between 1983 and 1988.

“He’s going to lose a number of players to the African Cup of Nations around January-February time.

“Then there is the World Cup coming up. After a World Cup, your players are tired, and many of the Chelsea players will be involved. They’ll need to replenish their squad and, if they fail with this appeal, they won’t be able to.”

Lens president Gervais Martel said he felt the judgement was fair and would send out a warning message to larger clubs like Chelsea who break the rules.

“We expected this kind of decision. The player was under contract with us and they came and stole him away from us,” he said.

“Chelsea didn’t follow the rules. They contacted the player when he wasn’t even 16 and while he had been contracted to our training group from the age of eight.

“The financial sanction isn’t over the top given the nature of the infringement, but it’s really quite significant when it comes to not being able to recruit players.

“It’s an important message given that protecting up and coming youth players who are contracted to clubs is an issue being followed closely by Uefa president Michel Platini.”

Fifa punished Switzerland’s FC Sion for a similar offence in April and the club was told it could not sign players until the 2010 off-season.

This was punishment for luring Egypt goalkeeper Essam El Hadary in 2008 before his deal with Al-Ahly had expired.

Like Kakuta, El Hadary received a four-month ban from playing.

Sion have appealed to Cas, which has frozen the sanctions while it considers the case, allowing the club to trade before the current season began. A ruling is expected later this year.

Meanwhile Uefa, European football’s governing body, is keen to introduce a rule preventing the international transfer of players under the age of 18 after member associations, clubs, leagues and players agreed to the principle.

Speaking in March, Uefa president Platini: “The question of minors is above all a moral and ethical issue. We have a duty to take concrete steps to protect young players and training clubs.”

But one just wonders what might have been the outcome had the penalty not been given, or Diaby’s late own goal. Anyhow, somebody had to win the match and i am glad that it’s Man Utd that won it.

Other results of note are that of Spurs’ 2-1 win over Birmingham to keep their 100% start to the new season, their best in years.

Liverpool finally came good today beating Bolton by 3-1, delight for Benitez, and of course Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Burnely. End of a fairytale two weeks for Burnely you would say.

Rooney's moment

Villa had been heavily criticised after losing their opening home game to Wigan Athletic and slumping to defeat in the Europa League against Rapid Vienna – but they answered all the questions in emphatic fashion at Anfield.

Liverpool faded after a bright start, and have now lost as many league games as they did last season following losses against Spurs and now Villa.

Anfield was left frustrated as Liverpool wasted the opportunities that came their way, but ultimately they were reduced to running up blind alleys, and out of ideas, in the face of Villa’s resilience.

Villa were set on their way after 34 minutes when Lucas deflected Ashley Young’s free-kick into his own net, and they grabbed a second on the stroke of half-time when Curtis Davies headed in Nicky Shorey’s corner at the near post.

Liverpool surged forward after the break, but met a white wall of resistance as Villa defended their precious lead, with Carlos Cuellar outstanding and goalkeeper Brad Friedel a commanding presence.

Fernando Torres gave Liverpool hope with a close-range strike after 72 minutes, but any hopes of a dramatic revival ended three minutes later when Steven Gerrard brought down Nigel Reo-Coker and Young scored from the spot.

Villa boss Martin O’Neill was elated – and rightly so as his side got their season up and running with a landmark victory.

For Liverpool, they will now simply have to produce better – and more creative – performances as they chase their first title in 20 years.

One just wonders what will happen to the much touted acclaim by a lot of people that Liverpool’s wait for the premier league title could be over this season.

Quite frankly, i don’t see the Reds picking it this season with such displays, and with the other big boys and Manchester City started so well already.