Premier League Picks Of The Week 14

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 14

The 14th week of the Premier League action saw:

32 goals - most by Arsenal = 5
237 shots - most by Man City = 26
91 on target - most by Man City = 12
113 corners - most by Chelsea = 15
207 fouls - most by Everton = 16
22 yellow cards - most by Liverpool = 5
0 red cards
3 penalties - 1 scored (Troy Deeney for Watford, Wayne Rooney for Everton denied by Joe Hart, Manuel Lanzini for West Ham denied by Jordan Pickford)

What a game! Leicester condemned Tottenham to their fourth defeat of the season already. Jamie Vardy's cheeky opener, his 100th league goal, and Riyad Mahrez's curling beauty from the edge of the box were enough for the home side to grab the three points. Harry Kane pulled one back, too little too late though. It's the first time since 2001/02 the Foxes beat Spurs at home, their final game at Filbert Street.
What a comeback it was by Newcastle at the Hawthorns from two goals down, set pieces costing managerless West Brom two goals and two points, seeing them miss the chance of a first league win since August thanks to Ciaran Clark pulling one back and Jonny Evans' late own goal. No such comeback by Watford... José Mourinho's men led 3-0 thanks to Ashley Young's double and Anthony Martial's cool finish, until the 77th minute, when the Hornets hit two back in quick succession, Troy Deeney from the spot and Abdoulaye Doucouré from close range. But too many too good too strong goals, especially Jesse Lingard's stunning fourth, and display by Manchester United meant it ended 2-4 at Vicarage Road keeping the Red Devils in the race, ish, 8 points behind the Citizens. More to them below...

What a team! Arsenal downed Huddersfield, dancing all over and through the visitors again and again, scoring three goals in 3:58 second-half minutes, bringing the total thrash to 5-0 at full time at the Emirates. Olivier Giroud's double and Mesut Özil scoring one and providing two were just a couple of their shining stars. The win and rivals Spurs' defeat takes the Gunners up to fourth, one point behind Chelsea in third, Arsène Wenger doing his best and very well at the moment to keep a big smile against his doubters and local rivals.
And Manchester City just look unbeatable, more to their win below, equalling the top flight record for points after 14 games = 40 points, level with Spurs of 1960-61 (with 3 points for a win), EIGHT POINTS ahead of rivals Manchester United in second, as mentioned above. It will take more than a miracle/disaster to see anyone knock them off the top!

What a man! Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick came 2,272 days after his last (10th September 2011) – the longest gap between two hat-tricks by a player in Premier League history. The Evertonian bossed the show against his former boss David Moyes netting a hat-trick despite getting denied from the spot, penny for either man's thoughts... The third one was a one-touch smacker from the halfway line beating Joe Hart off his line after an attempted clearance. Wow! Ashley Williams made it 4-0 to complete the first perfect match David Unsworth hasn't conceded two or more goals, taking the Toffees up to 13th. Sam Allardyce will be more than happy to take over from here after watching that from the stands at Goodison Park. Moyes' record against his former side looks more than miserable: Played 5, lost 5, scored 0, conceded 12.
Mohamed Salah came off the bench to net two adding to Sadio Mané's opener and make it 0-3 for Liverpool at Stoke and 17 goals for him so far this season. Double wow. The win took the Reds up to 5th. More to that match below...

What a goal! There were so many crackers, as already listed and described above! Burnley impressed once again producing beauty after beauty, a tap in by Chris Wood after lovely team play and slasher into the right corner by Robbie Brady, to overtake Tottenham and go 6th in the table!!! Joshua King did pull one back for Bournemouth, but Sean Dyche's men held on 1-2 at the King Power Stadium making Eddie Howe the 25th different manager to lose a Premier League game on his birthday.
Southampton's leveller at the Etihad was boom bang whack off a corner, Sofiane Boufal from the left to Oriol Romeu, that's how it's done, 1-1 at league leaders City. But Raheem Sterling topped that in the 95:03 minute of five minutes added on, right-footed curler from the edge of the box to make it 2-1 and three points for the Citizens. That means the former Liverpool man has scored a match winner in the 84th minute or later for the third time in a row for Pep Guardiola's men. Triple wow! It's Pep Time.

What the hell?! Just a booking was a lucky escape for Simon Mignolet after his late tackle on last man Mame Biram Diouf who was ahead of Joe Gomez which made it an open goal scoring opportunity. But was he last? Jürgen Klopp didn't think so... I'm sure the crazy German would have gone mental if it would have happened on the other side! It's all going against Stoke City at the moment, Mark Hughes feeling hard done-by, harsh decisions and scorelines, the defeat dragging the Potters down to 16th, 3 points away from the drop zone.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte apologised to referee Neil Swarbrick after being sent to the stands for protesting to the officials who denied his side a corner. Ridiculous. It wasn't a major decision, like a goal or penalty or sending off (like Mignolet's), just a corner! His side dominated, 10-0 shots on target, and ended up beating Swansea, just about, 1-0 thanks to defender Antonio Rüdiger's header. Not a game to brag or rant about really...

My Predictions - Actual Results
Brighton 1:0 Crystal Palace - 0:0
Leicester 1:2 Tottenham - 2:1
Watford 1:3 Man United - 2:4
West Brom 1:2 Newcastle - 2:2
Arsenal 2:0 Huddersfield - 5:0
Bournemouth 1:2 Burnley - 1:2
Chelsea 4:1 Swansea - 1:0
Everton 2:2 West Ham - 4:0
Man City 3:0 Southampton - 2:1
Stoke City 1:1 Liverpool - 0:3

Click here for last weekend's Premier League Picks.

All pictures, facts and stats were taken from the BBC match reports, MOTD, Twitter and SFR coverage.