Tuesday 23 August 2016

Premier League Picks Of The Week 2

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 2

The second week of Premier League action saw:

253 Shots - most by Liverpool = 26

22 Goals - most by Man City = 4

237 Fouls - most by Watford = 20

34 Bookings - most by Man City & Watford = 4

1 Red Card - 2nd yellow for Arter for Bournemouth

3 Penalties - 3 scored, 0 missed

Paul Merson's rant about Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger's team selection and choices

Jeff Stelling promoting Hartlepool to the Premier League and Iain Dowie losing track of the score

David Moyes being blunt about Sunderland's chances

What a game! BAndre Gray fires home Burnley's second goalurnley's win against Liverpool after their seven-goal thriller-victory against Arsenal last week was impressive but less surprising looking at the Reds' mixed form of last season. Jürgen Klopp's men proved once again possession and stats in general don't mean anything and everything. The Reds have created the most chances in the Premier League so far this season (34), but not converting near enough. From top to flop within days and you don't know which one will turn up next. We will wait and see which one will turn up against Burton Albion in the EFL Cup and then at Tottenham in the next Premier League clash (which I will be covering live on ByTheMinute.co).

What a team! Hull City proved all doubters wrong again after beating Swansea 0-2 at the Liberty Stadium. If caretaker manager Mike Phelan doesn't get the job permanently, then fool them. The relegation favourites could not have wished for a better start to the season, flying high in the top four.Cristhian Stuani

What a goal! Cristhian Stuani's opener for Middlesbrough at Sunderland was a stunner. The Uruguayan opened his account for Boro and the Premier League with an unstoppable long-range smacker against the run of play after 13 minutes at the Stadium of Light. He doubled David Moyes' men's misery just before half time and the home side got a goal back in the second half but were not able to recover. Aitor Karanka's side recorded their first win of the season whilst Moyes' account at the Black Cats is still blank, looking more and more difficult and hopeless.

What a man! Zlatan Ibrahimovic can't do anything wrong at the moment. The 34-year old has scored in both opening games to feed United six point out of six and José Mourinho's ego and big mouth. As if the latter needed that! But it's still early days, LVG won the first two games last season as well and we know what happened next...
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
What the hell?! Diego Costa got away with it once again!!! Manager Antonio Conte's changes did work the magic and got his side back late on after falling behind at Watford. Second sub Michy Batshuayi pulled a goal with ten minutes left before third sub Cesc Fabregas set up Costa for the winner just before the end. But like last week, Costa got away with it! The 27-year-old should have not been on the field after appearing to dive to try and win a second-half penalty, when he had already been in referee Jon Moss' book. The rules are there for a reason, new and old, so please enforce them!!!

My predictions - Actual results

Man United 1:1 Southampton - 2:0
Stoke City 0:1 Man City - 1:4
Burnley 0:3 Liverpool - 2:0
Swansea 2:2 Hull City - 0:2
Tottenham 2:0 Crystal Palace - 1:0
Watford 1:2 Chelsea - 1:2
West Brom 1:1 Everton - 1:2
Leicester City 1:1 Arsenal - 0:0
Sunderland 0:0 Middlesbrough - 1:2
West Ham 2:1 Bournemouth - 1:0

Click here for last week's Premier League Picks

Pictures taken from BBC match reports (top picture montage taken from Bing Search)

No comments: