Premier League Picks Of The Week 17

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 17

The 17th week of the Premier League action saw:

245 shots - most by Tottenham = 30!
23 goals - most by Southampton & Middlesbrough = 3 each
216 fouls - most by Chelsea = 15
45 bookings - most by Leicester = 5
1 red card - Vardy for Leicester
3 penalties - 3 scored (Krkic for Stoke, Negredo for Middlesbrough & Noble for West Ham)

What a game! It was a game of two halves at the Etihad. Theo Walcott had given the Gunners an early lead after just five minutes, in a dominant display by the visitors. But the second half saw that change and reversed by Manchester City. Leroy Sané levelled the score a couple of minutes after the break, off David Silva's pass, who looked offside, Arsène Wenger left furious. But instead of fighting back, Arsenal crumbled, the Sky Blues took over. Raheem Sterling scored the winner off Kevin de Bruyne's brilliant cross, condemning the Londoners to their second defeat in a row and widening the gap between them to nine points. ⚽️👊🏻⚽️👊🏻⚽️

What a team! Yes, Chelsea won again thanks to Diego Costa, with a simple header, 1-0 at Crystal Palace this time (their 11th consecutive victory equalling club record from 2009)... But Tottenham were on fire at White Hart Lane! Mauricio Pocchetino's men had so many chances against Burnley! They had fallen behind to a ping pong goal, but Dele Alli boomed in a leveller six minutes later before Danny Rose completed the comeback scoring the winner later in the second half. Good goalkeeping and well-set defence meant the scoreline did not get out of hand as it could have with the flood of chances the home side threw at their visitors! ⚽️👊🏻⚽️👊🏻⚽️

What a man! It seems like an auto-text every week, Chelsea win, Costa winner, as mentioned above. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is on a roll too, his header and deflected goal seeing Manchester United win for the third time in a row, 0-2 at West Brom, taking the Swedish striker's run to 10 goals in nine games. And Jermain Defoe was provider this time, for Patrick van Aanholt to score the winner for Sunderland against Watford. I'm telling you, my phone is recognising and predicting certain names every week... ⚽️👊🏻⚽️👊🏻⚽️

What a goal! On-loan striker Álvaro Negredo produced an excellent finish and a comfortable penalty before a ripper of a pass from Gastón Ramírez found Marten de Roon to make it 3-0. It was a boosting win for Middlesbrough against a sorry Swansea side who are slipping down more and more, now second from bottom with just 12 points. And Liverpool left it really really late in the Merseyside derby to win the scrappy affair deep into injury time thanks to Sadio Mané netting a rebound and keep up with Chelsea at the top!⚽️🙈⚽️🙈⚽️

What the hell?! There were once again questionable refereeing decisions, both Moussa Sissoko and Ross Barkley lucky to stay on the pitch for Spurs and Everton with dangerous tackles that could have ended the careers of Burnley's Stephen Ward and Liverpool's Jordan Henderson respectively. It is just ridiculous that replays cannot be used - I write that every week! Hull City can sing a song of that too, once again unlucky conceding a penalty and losing against West Ham after Mark Noble made no mistake of the spot kick this time. ⚽️🙈⚽️🙈⚽️

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

Click here for last week's Premier League Picks.

Pictures taken from the BBC match reports.