Premier League Notes - Week 18

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 18

The 18th week of the 2019-2020 Premier League season saw:

18 goals - most by Southampton and Man City = 3 each
197 shots - most by Man City = 23
67 on target - most by Man City = 12
83 corners - most by Wolves = 11
217 fouls - most by Burnley = 21
41 bookings - most by Burnley, Wolves and Spurs = 4 each
1 red card - Son Heung-min for Spurs
2 penalties - 2 scored (Gündogan for City, Deeney for Watford, Willian for Chelsea)

#EVEARS

The lunchtime kickoff was a dire game, dismal to watch. Both new bosses have a hell of a job ahead of them. Carlo Ancelotti looked miserable in the crowd, watching the Toffees not produce a single shot on target in Duncan Ferguson's last game as caretaker manager, whilst Mikel Arteta looked on pondering, his Gunners firing blanks, the result dragging them down to 11th. 

#AVISOU

Danny Ings put the visitors ahead with a cheeky side-footer after Shane Long’s shot was saved but not cleared (21’). Jack Stephens doubled the lead nodding the ball past the diving Tom Heaton (31’). Ings was gifted his brace and it sealed the victory shortly after the break (55’), making it seven goals in the last seven games for the former Liverpool striker. The Saints were on fire! Jack Grealish did pull one back for the Villans (75’), but the home side couldn’t avoid their fourth defeat on the trot, a disappointing run after their well deserved point at Old Trafford at the beginning of the month (week 14), taking them down to 18th.

#BOUBUR

Like the early kickoff, there wasn’t much action to write about in this match at the Vitality Stadium. Until the final minute. Jay Rodriguez with the winner (89’), a powerful header to break the deadlock, his first goal in eight games for the visitors. It was the only shot on target. Three points is what counts most, taking the Clarets up to tenth, whilst the Cherries remain 14th.

#BHASHU

John Egan’s early goal for United (8’) was disallowed by VAR for handball (9’). Neal Maupay saw his tap-in disallowed for offside, provider Martin Montoya not keeping his line right. The visitors were ahead eventually, record signing Oli McBurnie with a really strong finish (22’), his third goal of the season. Jack O’Connell thought he had doubled the lead (56’), but was disallowed for offside, again, busy flags and VAR! The Blades have now had four Premier League goals awarded on the field only to be ruled out by VAR this season, more than any other club. Overruled, but still worthy winners, climbing up to fifth.

#NEWCRY

The visitors were pinned back by the Magpies for most of the first half, but both sides didn’t make much happen in front of goal. Miguel Almirón broke the deadlock with a top-notch winner (82’), totally unmarked, his first goal for the club after 27 games and 47 shots, the wild celebrations reflected the relief. Roy Hodgson will have been gutted after his men worked hard creating more chances, making up for a disappointing start, but the Eagles just let themselves down overall, dropping down to 12th, whilst Steve Bruce's men climb up to ninth.

#NORWOL

The Canaries bossed the first half. Todd Cantwell gave the home side the lead they fully deserved (17’) after Alex Tettey hit the woodwork early on. Teemu Pukki could and should have had a hat-trick, so many clear chances wasted wide or softly, not discrediting the keeper Rui Patrício’s top saves. Romain Saïss made the home side pay for all those misses, capitalising on poor defending and heading in the equaliser (61’). Raúl Jiménez had enough time and space in the box to net the rebound off Tim Krul’s save (81’). Just one win in the last 13 for Norwich sees them remain stuck in 19th, the Wolves coming back and hurting them, the win taking them up to 6th.

#MCILEI

Jamie Vardy opened the scoring for the Foxes dinking the ball over Ederson with a top-draw finish (22’). Riyad Mahrez levelled against his former team with a fine low take turning/deflecting the ball around and past Kasper Schmeichel (31’). And İlkay Gündoğan turned the game around from the spot, softer than soft penalty, Raheem Sterling making the most of Ricardo Pereira’s contact (43’). Tap-in for Gabriel Jesus off a perfect setup from the right by Kevin De Bruyne made it 3-1 (69’). If it weren’t for Leicester's top stopper, it would have been an absolute thrashing. Brendan Rodgers and his men’s momentum’s halted, their gap in second place is closed to within a point by Pep Guardiola and co in third, ten and 11 points away from the top spot respectively.

#WATMUN

After a quite uneventful first half, both sides unable to get anything on target, a mad four minutes saw the Red Devils pushing the self-destruct button, which the Hornets gratefully accepted and capitalised on. First David de Gea let Ismaïla Sarr’s weak shot slip through his gloves and into the goal (50’) - since the start of last season, no player has made more errors leading to Premier League goals than the Spanish stopper. Then Aaron Wan-Bissaka brought down the scorer very clumsily in the box, Troy Deeney smacking the spot kick into the back of the net to make it 2-0 (54’). That woke up Vicarage Road, witnessing their first home victory and only their second win of the season. Not bad at all for new boss Nigel Pearson’s first home game! Merry Christmas! How much longer will Ole stay at the wheel after his fifth defeat in the league? They’re eighth, their lowest position at this stage of a season since 1989. Where’s Santa when you need him?

#TOTCHE

Form went out of the window in this Super Sunday London derby. Willian gave the visitors the lead with an absolute cracker (11’), a lovely unstoppable curler from just inside the box into the far corner, beauty. From cracker to comical: the penalty - what was Paulo Gazzaniga and the referee thinking? The keeper bashed into Marcos Alonso with a high boot, the ref Anthony Taylor gave a free kick against the Blue, the French commentators were laughing. VAR revised and corrected it, definite penalty and booking. Willian made it 0:2 from the spot to end the half, which the visitors bossed. And it went from bad to worse for Spurs when Son Heung-min received a straight red after the VAR revised his daft kick-out at Antonio Rüdiger following a fowl by the Blue defender (62’), his third sending off in his last 17 league starts. I don’t know what José Mourinho was arguing about with the fourth official, it looked clear to me and the VAR. Racist chants followed, and eight minutes added on to top it all off! Frank Lampard celebrated thoroughly with the away fans after the FT-whistle, the win against his former boss widens the gap between the top four and the rest to four points.

My Predictions - Actual Results
Everton 1:2 Arsenal - 0:0
Aston Villa 2:1 Southampton - 1:3
Bournemouth 2:2 Burnley - 0:1
Brighton 1:1 Sheff United - 0:1
Newcastle 2:2 Crystal Palace - 1:0
Norwich 1:2 Wolves - 1:2
Man City 1:2 Leicester - 3:1
Watford 1:3 Man United - 2:0
Tottenham 3:1 Chelsea - 0:2
West Ham P:P Liverpool - postponed because of the Club World Cup.

Click here for last week’s Premier League Notes.

All pictures, facts and stats were taken from the BBC match reports, RUSH and RMC Sport coverage.