Premier League Picks Of The Week 30

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 30

The 30th week of the Premier League action saw:

29 goals - most by Leicester & Tottenham = 4 each
229 shots - most by Huddersfield = 30!!!
79 on target - most by Chelsea = 11
116 corners - most by Liverpool = 13
180 fouls - most by Liverpool = 16
25 yellow cards - most by Swansea & Leicester = 3 each
2 red cards - Anthony Knockaert for Brighton, Jordan Ayew for Swansea
2 penalties - 0 scored

What a game! It could not have been more one-sided at Huddersfield, 30-0 shots, Swansea down to ten men after just ten minutes when Jordan Ayew was sent off for catching Jonathan Hogg with his studs. Keeper and MOTM Łukasz Fabiański was kept busy busy busy, but the Welsh side somehow held on, it ended 0-0 and a point each!!! Swans boss Carlos Cavalhal was full of praise, understandably, the Portuguese called it an epic point, and it was, whilst Tigers manager David Wagner was left wondering WTF?! Krass!!!

Arsenal avoided losing a fourth league game in a row for the first time in over 30 years thanks to PETR ČECH SAVING A PENALTY!!! That's a first for Arsenal! And the Czech keeper's first since 2011! And finally kept his 200th clean sheet after a long long wait, the first goalkeeper to achieve this feat in the PL! It ended 3-0 against Watford at a half-empty Emirates, the Gunners still making the clear win look difficult. Goals from Shkodran Mustafi, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan completed the London side's first league win since 3rd February when they beat Everton 5-1 and Arsène Wenger's 700th win in his 1,222nd match in charge of Arsenal. Party time? I think not.

What a team! West Brom's and West Ham's illness and injury list did not help them, both ended up well thrashed, continuing their miserable form! The prior lost 1-4 against Leicester, the latter 0-3 v Burnley, both Alan Pardew and David Moyes not gaining any points nor fans respectively, it especially over-boiling in the London Stadium, more to that below. Not. Nice.
Chelsea got back to winning ways beating Crystal Palace 2-1 in a dominant display at Stamford Bridge and closing the gap to the top four. Former Liverpool defender Martin Kelly was involved in both goals for the Blues, Willian aided by a deflection for the first, the second a ping pong own goal, Patrick van Aanholt's goal too little too late. Unfortunate for Roy Hodgson once again, finally back on track for Antonio Conte.

What a man! Brighton manager Chris Hughton won the PL manager of the month award for the first time in his career and fully deserved it after seeing his side remain unbeaten for the whole of February. Much in contrast to that form, the Seagulls self-destructed at Everton, conceding two goals and seeing Anthony Knockaert sent off for his mad tackle on Leighton Baines, all in the last half an hour after frustrating the hell out of the Toffees. A Gaëtan Bong own goal broke the deadlock, Cenk Tosun doubled the lead with a quality finish and it could have been worse, Wayne Rooney missing a penalty. Sam Allardyce ended up being happy despite that miss, 2-0 winners which took them up to ninth.

Mauricio Pellegrino accused his side of giving up after watching Southampton downed 3-0 at Newcastle on Saturday, Kenedy scoring twice for the Magpies, the first a lovely turn and take after just 63 seconds, and Matt Ritchie adding a third and more misery on the visitors, leaving the Saints just one point above the relegation zone, Rafael Benítez on the other hand with a big smile. On Monday night, the news of the sacking of the Argentinian boss was confirmed during City's easy 0-2 win at Stoke thanks to David Silva's brace, no surprise there, with neither the news nor the result. Not even 48 hours later, Mark Hughes was announced the new boss, a lot of fans not happy with that news it seems...

What a goal! Marcus Rashford's first-half brace was enough for Manchester United to cut open and beat arch rivals Liverpool 2-1 in the Saturday lunch-time kick-off at Old Trafford, widening the gap between the two in 2nd and 3rd place respectively to five points in the Premier League table. It wasn't the visitors' day, the referee helping the hosts with a lot of decisions, more to that below and click here for my full match report.
Son Heung-min's double made it 1-4 for Tottenham at Bournemouth on Sunday, completing the perfect comeback after falling behind in the seventh minute thanks to Junior Stanislas and losing Harry Kane due to injury in the first half. It was the South Korean's sixth and seventh goal in his last four outings. Dele Alli's equaliser and Serge Aurier's header added up to complete Mauricio Pochettino's 150th league win as a manager to see the club up to third one point ahead of Liverpool after their defeat against United mentioned above.

What the hell?! The referee at Old Trafford missed and messed up a lot. I may be bias, but please, how there weren't any penalties after Antonio Valencia's handball, Ashley Young wrapped himself around Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané was felled down by Marouane Fellaini and how Rashford didn't get booked for his celebrations with the crowd, which would have added up to two bookings a couple of minutes later = red card, is beyond me!!! Aaaaah!!!
It wasn't just one pitch invasion at the London Stadium, but FOUR!!! WTF?! That's taking the mick!!! What the hell happened to the security staff?! Did they forget to do their job?! What about safety of the players and everyone else on and around the pitch?! I understand the fans' frustration, but have you forgotten you are a football fan, as in the sport, the game?! Yes, you can present and demonstrate your frustrations, but please not by disrupting and destroying the game and sport!!!

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

Click here for last week's Premier League Picks.

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