Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 6
The sixth week of the 2019-2020 Premier League season saw:
31 goals - most by Man City = 8
258 shots - most by Man City = 28
91 on target - most by Man City = 11
98 corners - most by Everton = 12
202 fouls - most by Leicester = 16
38 bookings - most by Arsenal = 5
2 red cards - Saïss for Wolves, Maitland-Niles for Arsenal
3 penalties - 3 scored (Ward-Prowse for Saints, Agüero for City, Pépé for Arsenal)
#SOUBOU
Saints were all over the place on Friday night, unable to cope with the Cherries, hence, two goals down at the interval. And just when it looked like the hosts were getting back into the game after the break (creating 25 shots!), things went from bad to worse to embarrassing! Stoppage time drama saw a brilliant save by Aaron Ramsdale at the one end, keeping the score at 1-2, followed by a comedy error at the other, Angus Gunn and Jan Bednarek producing You've Been Framed material, a present for Callum Wilson to make it 1-3 with the last kick of the game and three points for the visitors, their first ever win at St Mary's! Eddie Howe's side have won four of their last eight away games in the Premier League, having had lost the previous nine in succession!
#LEITOT
The Foxes' comeback was full of ups and downs and controversies. VAR was cheered on and chanted by the fans after a goal was disallowed for offside, to Paulo Gazzaniga's relief after an embarrassing spill! LMAO! But eventually Spurs found a breakthrough, Son Heung-min with a cheeky back-foot pass on the edge of the box, finding Harry Kane, who was falling over like a stumbling drunk but somehow still got a shot away and in to give the visitors a weird but top quality lead (25'). VAR chalked another goal off, Serge Aurier with the finish, eventually disallowed, but this time it was soooooo close, millimetres! The French commentators were not happy! But off is off (more to that below)! Moments later, Ricardo Pereira had all the space in the world, no one near him in the box, easy equaliser (69'). After all the chances, poking and trying, VAR controversies, disallowed goals, the hosts pulled themselves back into the game. And James Maddison completed the perfect comeback, with a screamer to make it 2-1 (85')! Mauricio Pochettino's men have failed to win three consecutive Premier League games when they are leading at the break for the first time since March 2008. Since Brendan Rodgers took over at the King Power Stadium, only Manchester City and Liverpool have picked up more points. Top character.
#BURNOR
After last week's surprise victory against the reigning champions, Norwich were on a high. But Chris Wood had better ideas, shooting the Canaries down with his brace, two goals in four minutes (10', 14'). Lethal. The 27-year old Kiwi opened the scoring with yet another header, his seventh since the start of last season, more than any other player has nodded in. Five of his last six league goals have been scored with his head, and four of those from corners. Nod on.
#EVESHU
Everton scored an own goal to add to all their misery, opening the score for Sheffield United five minutes before the break at Goodison Park. The Toffees have now conceded 20 goals from set pieces since Marco Silva took over, more than any other Premier League team. It was a great counter to double the lead/agony, depending which side you're on. It completed the Blades' first PL away win in 13 years, despite the home side dominating and trying their best with over double the possession, eight times the shots and double on target. A reminder: The blue Merseysiders have spent £195 million on transfers (net) since June 2016, which makes them the fourth highest spenders in the English top tier. Their allocation of resources is one of the worst in the PL history! They are the highest spending club in WORLD football without a trophy with £954m splashed out since 1995. Mind. Blown.
#MCIWAT
This was just ridiculous! The same side that created 31 shots in a great comeback to grab a point against Arsenal last week, just absolutely crashed and burned from kickoff at the Etihad. It was the fastest and biggest onslaught, David Silva finding the net first after just 52 seconds! 17 minutes later, it was already 5-0! I couldn't keep up with the Tweets! It's the fastest any side has ever gone 5-0 ahead in the Premier League and the biggest half-time lead. Bernardo Silva made it six, scoring his first ever PL brace, and netting in back to back home league games for the first time in his City career. And that was not all. It became the Portuguese's first ever top-flight hat-trick in what is his 178th appearance across the English, French and Portuguese top tiers. It was the first time for the Citizens to score eight in a single PL fixture. An absolute mauling. Watford's heaviest defeat ever in English league football. Outclassed. Gerard Deulofeu completed 13 out of his 14 passes - EIGHT of those coming from kickoff! Shocking.
#NEWBRI
There were lots of empty seats at St James' Park! The Seagulls dominated from start to finish with most of the possession! The Magpies only had 24.2% of the ball in the first half, not much more after the restart. A reminder of Steve Bruce's men's possession so far this season: 38% v Arsenal, 37% v Norwich, 20% v Spurs, 49% v Watford, 25% v Liverpool. WTF?! What are they on the pitch for?! To play football, no?! It was an absolute drag by Newcastle on Saturday night, waste by Brighton not to capitalize, the torture ended 0:0. Cheered sub Andy Carroll couldn't make the much needed difference on his return to Tyneside.
#CRYWOL
Leander Dendoncker's own goal was Crystal Palace's 100th goal in the Premier League under Roy Hodgson - the first time the Eagles have scored as many under one boss and they are the first club the former England boss has managed in the competition to reach this total. Centurions. Diogo Jota's last-breath equaliser from close range spoilt the party at Selhurst Park and nicked a point for ten-man Wolves, FIVE MINUTES in to stoppage time!
#WHUMUN
How many times and weeks have I been writing it and will keep on writing it: Man Who?! The Hammers' dominance finally paid off when Andriy Yarmolenko made the breakthrough just before the break, squeezing the ball past David de Gea into the bottom corner (44'). The Red Devils have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last ELEVEN away matches in all competitions, their worst run since conceding in 14 consecutive matches between April and December 2002. It was a smacking free kick by Aaron Cresswell to make it 2-0 with under ten minutes to go, top corner, de Gea no chance. Manuel Pellegrini is the first manager to win against four different United managers in the Premier League: David Moyes, Luis van Gaal, José Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Collection.
#ARSAST
What a comeback it was by the Gunners, first to come from behind being down to ten men, and then in what fashion! Two goals in four minutes, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's late winner was an absolute belter!!! That made it seven in seven this season for the Gabonese striker. The Villans are still pointless on the road, and despite a much improved performance Dean Smith's men haven't won any of their last five Premier League away games when scoring first (D1 L4) and fall down to 18th, whilst the Gunners fly high back up to fourth.
#CHELIV
The Reds bossed the first half, the Blues the second. Jürgen Klopp's men are the first team in top-flight history to win their opening six matches of a top-flight season in two consecutive seasons. Pacesetters, five points clear at the top. The contrast in commentating was surreal! Martin Tyler sounded very bored, whilst the French and American commentators went mad! No wonder, all three goals were top quality and the end was tense! The VAR arguments are getting more and more ridiculous! As mentioned above, close, yes, cruel, maybe, but off is off! (I loved Graeme Souness' quote on those close calls: "You cannot be nearly pregnant!") And with or without VAR, there will always be missed incidents and mess-ups, it is still humans behind the screens (and in front of them)! Nobody's perfect. But there should be a system where they get punished or there should be some consequences for anything missed or messed up, because every call, every goal, every point is oh so crucial! But hey, that would probably take another 20 years for the FA to work it out! Behind every other country and every other sport! Pf! No wonder it's winding everyone up!
My Predictions - Actual Results
Southampton 1:1 Bournemouth - 1:3
Leicester 1:1 Tottenham - 2:1
Burnley 2:2 Norwich - 2:0
Everton 1:1 Sheffield United - 0:2
Man City 2:1 Watford - 8:0
Newcastle 1:0 Brighton - 0:0
Crystal Palace 1:0 Wolves - 1:1
West Ham 2:2 Man United - 2:0
Arsenal 3:1 Aston Villa - 3:2
Chelsea 2:3 Liverpool - 1:2
All pictures, facts and stats were taken from the BBC match reports, Twitter, Sky Sports and RMC Sport coverage.
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