I've only just got a espresso machine at home (it's a Morphy Richards model 47570), but i'm not having great success at making the perfect espresso.
My main trouble is that coffee is extracted very quickly... coffee is therefore somewhat watery, and lacks crema

The manufacturer's spec says the machine is capable of producing 15bar.... i have no idea if that's the case in practice or not.
so far my findings have been as follows:
1. usually coffee is displaced after i remove the filter holder from the espresso machine....
some of the coffee even sticks to the bottom of the espresso machine, which later gradually falls off on the tray.
but the coffee ground does turn black in the filter.
coffee starts to appear 4 seconds after i press the "espresso" button and fills the two ounce cups in 5 to 6 seconds (too fast i recon)
2. i thought i wasn't packing the coffee enough and maybe that was the reason for quick channeling and coffee displacement in the filter...
so i put more coffee and packed it harder.... this time the coffee hadn't displaced but it was noticeable that the steam/water hadn't gone through the entire coffee (some middle parts were still brown)... coffee did channel through quickly again.
it's worth mentioning that after i switch off the "espresso" button and try to release the filter holder from underneath the machine it often releases some pressure or air, is this normal?
I'm not a professional, so please feel free to ask me questions if i've left out anything important.
i hope someone can guide me here to make a better use of my machine.... and if these are just the signs of a bad machine, please let me know to return it back asap.
many thanks for your time,
Shane