Wednesday 26 September 2018

Premier League Picks Of The Week 6

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 6

Here are my Premier League Picks Of The Week 6:

24 goals - most by Man City = 5
238 shots - most by Man City = 21
96 on target - most by Man City = 10
108 corners - most by Man City, Crystal Palace and Everton = 9 each
210 fouls - most by Burnley, Wolves and Arsenal = 17 each
25 bookings - most by Burnley, Southampton, Brighton, Leicester, Fulham, West Ham and Arsenal = 2 each
0 red cards
1 penalty - 1 scored (Kane for Tottenham)

What a game! Two goals in two minutes by Matěj Vydra (39') and Aaron Lennon (41') gave Burnley a strong lead against Bournemouth and high hopes to end their bad run of four straight defeats before Saturday afternoon. Both keepers Joe Hart and Asmir Begoviç made some solid stops, blocks and saves. Then Ashley Barnes sealed the deal with a brace, making it four goals and three points for the home side, relief all-round. Harsh on the Cherries who tried hard, pushed and pressed, but were denied any way back. What a difference no Europa League made for Sean Dyche’s men.
Super Sunday saw no goals between West Ham and Chelsea, the Blues dropping their first points of the season after both sides missed and messed up everything. Hammer keeper Łukasz Fabiański did a good job with some flexible and quick-reaction saves. The Gunners followed with their fourth consecutive win, 2-0, two goals in three minutes against Everton, more to that afternoon kick-off below.

What a team! Liverpool made it seven wins out of seven opening league games, a club record, leaving them as the last team left in the top-four tiers with a 100% winning run and top of the table. It started with an unlucky own goal for Southampton, the ball went ping pong off a corner to Sadio Mané whose pass to Xherdan Shaqiri caused problems, coming off Shane Long and deflecting in off Wesley Hoedt. Joël Matip’s powerful header off another corner doubled the Reds’ lead. Shaqiri’s stunning free kick came off the cross bar and was followed in by none  other than Mohamed Salah to make it 3-0 before the break. Another goal for the great Egyptian was disallowed offside. The dominance, the play, the speed, the connection, it was lethal, the Saints were lucky it ended just 3-0 at Anfield, the Reds are on fire. Boss Jürgen Klopp also has a 100% record of his own, having beaten Mark Hughes all five times they have met in the Premier League. Boom. 

What a man! Claude Puel’s under pressure at Leicester, some saw this weekend as a must-win against Huddersfield. Mathias Jørgensen put the Terriers ahead within five minutes, Kasper Schmeichel beaten, the ball bouncing in off his glove. Kelechi Iheanacho levelled off a counter, exposing the visitors, cool and accurate as you like. Jamie Vardy put a sitter wide, off a free kick. Laurent Depoitre was just as wasteful at the other end. James Maddison smacked a free kick in, an unstoppable strike to make it 2-1 at the King Power stadium. Vardy made it 3-1 to the Foxes with a nice run and clip-finish. What crises?! It was a heavy-hearted and hard-breathing post-match interview for David Wagner after yet another defeat keeping the Terriers smack bang at the bottom of the table.
It was great to see Sir Alex Ferguson back at Old Trafford, standing ovation and goosebumps all-round - and that’s coming from a Liverpool fan! Fred gave the great Scot’s former team the lead against Wolves with a nice turn and shot, his first for the club, making him his side's 500th scorer. David de Gea made some crucial stops as always, Rui Patrício did just as well at the other end. But João Moutinho levelled things with a beautiful touch and unstoppable finish. And both keepers continued their hard shift and great display until the final whistle, it stayed 1-1. Even José Mourinho conceded the opposition was better and deserved the point! (Nuno Espírito Santo's men had more shots on target causing United all sorts of problems.)

What a goal! What a miss it was by City's İlkay Gündoğan, sending the ball sky-high from inside the box at Cardiff. Pep Guardiola was staring on in the rain. But Sergio Agüero opened the scoring with his 205th goal in his 300th appearance for City, 30 in 13 against newly promoted sides! A delightful header up and over the keeper and in by Bernardo Silva made it two goals in quick succession for the champions. And what a smacker Gündoğan made it three with, a diagonal whacker into the top right corner, making up for his earlier miss. The Citizens were singing in the rain in Wales, and all that, top quality play, dominance and goals came in the first half! Riyad Mahrez made it four and five with his first(s) fine finishes for the club, just awesome all-round! Respect to the Cardiff fans who stayed! It could have been six , seven or more.
Alexandre Lacazette opened the scoring for Arsenal with a lovely curler from 20 yards, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's gaol was more controversial, doubling the score clearly from an offside position. Everton boss Marco Silva was not happy of course, his side had plenty of chances, Petr Čech held on to a lot to keep the sheet clean. The Toffees remain 12th having only won three of their last 30 PL away games. Arsenal are up to sixth, level on points with rivals Spurs in fifth. This fixture is the highest-scoring one in Premier League history, with these two goals taking the total up to 153.

What the hell?! Tottenham ended their losing streak with at Brighton on Saturday evening - Harry Kane gave the London team the lead from the spot after a blatant handball/save by Glenn Murray. What was he thinking?! The Seagulls had chance after chance to get back into the game, but Erik Lamela doubled the lead for the Londoners. Anthony Knockaert pulled one back late on, a nice diagonal slam, but the visitor’s keeper Paulo Gazzaniga did well and held onto the lead. It was a game of two halves, one quite boring, the other with everything in it.
How was that not a red card for Timothy Fosu-Mensah, it was a bad tackle on Troy Deeney, lucky there was no injury. It ended all level between Fulham and Watford, 1:1, although there were plenty more chances to settle the encounter. A weekend of misses and mess-ups.

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

Click here for last week’s Premier League Picks.

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

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