Premier League Picks Of The Week 2

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 2

Here are my Premier League Picks Of The Week 2:

35 goals - most by Man City = 6

259 shots - most by Man City = 32

102 on target - most by Man City = 14

87 corners - most by Man City = 10

223 fouls - most by Southampton = 20

32 bookings - most by West Ham = 6

3 red cards - Hayden for Newcastle, Vardy for Leicester, Wan-Bissaka for Palace

3 penalties - 2 scored (Arnautovic for West Ham, Milner for Liverpool)

What a game! It was a mad first half at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening! It could have been 2-5 at halftime, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan missed some sitters for Arsenal. Chelsea ran them over and took the lead thanks to Pedro (9') and Álvaro Morata (20'). The Gunners did come back with two goals in four minutes by Mkhitaryan (37') and Alex Iwobi (41'), but they just weren’t good enough. The second half was less crazy, Marcos Alonso sneaking in a cheeky late winner under Petr Čech (81'), who had made a couple of good stops to keep his side in the match. It was the first time since 1992 Arsenal lost their opening two fixtures of the season. So far so not so encouraging nor inspiring for new boss Unai Emery, much in contrast to new Blues manager Maurizio Sarri's 100% start with two wins out of two.

What a team! Newly promoted Wolves have been playing brill but things have just not gone their way, recording just one point from the opening two games. Ten-man Leicester were lucky winners thanks to Matt Doherty's own goal (29') and James Maddison's fine finish (45'), even Claude Puel conceded that much after the tough encounter at the King Power Stadium. Jamie Vardy’s recklessness may cost his side in the upcoming fixtures after his straight red card (66') made the rest of the match very difficult for the 2016 champions and will see him suspended for the next three games. Nuno Espírito Santo was rightly proud of his side, but of course unhappy about the result.

The two Manchester rivals could not have had a more contrasting weekend! The champions thrashed Huddersfield 6-1, including Sergio Agüero's 13th City hat-trick which took him into the top ten of all-time Premier League scorers, whilst United fell apart 3-2 at Brighton, Paul Pogba left pointing out and underlining his side's failures and problems and confirming boss José Mourinho's fears and flaws.

What a man! Kenedy had a shocker for Newcastle in the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday, not just because of the missed penalty in injury time! The whole match was shambles! Sub Isaac Hayden didn’t help the home side with his tackle from behind which saw him sent off after just over twenty minutes from coming on (66'). The spot kick in the final seconds was stopped easily by Cardiff City keeper Neil Etheridge, Kenedy left distraught, but Neil Warnock pointed out correctly the Brazilian was lucky to stay on the pitch after kicking out at Victor Camarasa in the first half. Referee Craig Pawson didn’t cover himself in glory with everything he gave and missed...

Everton stopper Jordan Pickford made a couple of crucial stops, one making up for his own failure of catching the ball, denying Danny Ings, who eventually pulled one back for Southampton to make it 2-1 (54'). Did the keeper foul the striker though??? Either way, new boss Marco Silva seems to have livened up the Toffees, much better and livelier football, with Theo Walcott (15') and Richarlison (31') on the scoreboard to bank the three points.

What a goal! Lucas Moura scored his first goal for Tottenham in the London derby on Saturday (43'), a lovely finish, curling the ball in from distance. Aleksandar Mitrović levelled the score for Fulham, heading in their first goal back in the Premier League, to make it 1-1 (52'). Kieran Trippier’s free kick into the top corner made it 2-1 before Harry Kane scored his first goal in August after going 1,000 minutes without one in the Premier League (77'), a low finish into the right corner, set up by a powerful run from sub Érik Lamela, finishing the game off 3-1 at Wembley.

Callum Wilson’s equaliser for Bournemouth at West Ham was brilliant! A wonderful goal, with a beautiful run and take, the Hammers left reeling after they were leading thanks to Marko Arnautović’s first-half penalty. And six minutes later Steve Cook’s header turned the game around, making it 1-2 and three points for the Cherries, heaping more misery on Manuel Pellegrini's men making it two defeats out of two.

What the hell?! It was Burnley‘s sixth game of the season already, in just 25 days thanks to their Europa League qualifiers. It ended up being an easy win for Watford with some quality goals, a first on the road since January for the London club. But did Sean Dyche complain like Moaninho?! Nope, he conceded his side gave the match away.
The refs generally didn’t impress this weekend though, as mentioned above. Roy Hodgson questioned Michael Oliver’s decisions as well after Crystal Palace’s hard-fought 0-2 defeat against Liverpool at Selhurst Park, especially the penalty and sending off - but replays of both incidents showed both decisions were soft but justified. Believe me when I say my heart was in my mouth for most of the match, it was so tense! Not an easy win, but all three points went to the Reds. Click here for my LFC match notes.

My Predictions - Actual Results

Cardiff 2:2 Newcastle - 0:0

Everton 1:1 Southampton - 2:1

Leicester 2:1 Wolves - 2:0

Tottenham 2:1 Fulham - 3:1

West Ham 3:3 Bournemouth - 1:2

Chelsea 2:0 Arsenal - 3:2

Burnley 2:1 Watford - 1:3

Man City 3:1 Huddersfield - 6:1

Brighton 1:2 Man United - 3:2

Crystal Palace 1:2 Liverpool - 0:2 or my match notes.

Click here for last week’s Premier League Picks.

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