Premier League Picks Of The Week 5

Sports - Football - Premier League Week 5

The 5th week of the Premier League action saw:

21 goals - most by Manchester City = 6!!!
267 shots - most by Liverpool = 35!!!
73 on target - most by Manchester City = 10
100 corners - most by Liverpool = 12
206 fouls - most by West Brom, Arsenal & Manchester United = 15 each
30 yellow cards - most by Crystal Palace = 5
1 red card - David Luiz for Chelsea
1 penalty - 1 scored (Anthony Martial for Manchester United)

What a game! Laurent Depoitre woke everyone up with the opening goal at the John Smith's Stadium, but Jamie Vardy levelled the score from the spot minutes later, Huddersfield 1-1 Leicester, Andy King making the most of nothing by Chris Löwe to get the penalty. It was end-to-end stuff after that, the home side dominating but unable to take advantage in the end. Swansea's back five frustrated the hell out of Tottenham and earned the clean sheet and well-deserved point at Wembley. Spurs are still waiting for a league win at the NW London ground, having already dropped more points there this season than at White Hart Lane the whole of last season. Arch rivals Arsenal performed so much better, fighting out a point at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's first league draw at home in 16 months. Both sides came close, creating a lot, but the Blues looked that bit more sloppy, giving the ball away too many times, whilst the Gunners stayed on top, covering and tackling well. David Luiz' stupid sending off late on added to the home side's clumsy and frustrating display and they will be relieved to have squeezed out a point. Antonio Conte's men have had as many red cards in their last five PL games as they had in their previous 73 games combined (3). Arsène Wenger meanwhile will just have felt that hint of disappointment his side couldn't capitalise and walk away with all the points after a het-up, intense, entertaining derby! 👊🏻👏🏻👊🏻👍🏻👊🏻

What a team! Crystal Palace are breaking all records - the Eagles suffered their fifth consecutive opening league defeat without having scored a goal! That's a first in top-flight history! And the longest run without scoring was broken after the 78th minute - a dry run of 439 minutes beating Newcastle's 438 minutes set in 2005-6. The rainy weather fit the mood at Selhurst Park on Roy Hodgson's return after 51 years. Next on the former Liverpool and England boss' fixture list: Man City away, United away, Chelsea at home. Will the 70-year-old still have a job end of next month? Frank de Boer's record shows that should and most probably will not be the case. Will Sam Allardyce be back in October? 💩🙈💩🙈💩

What a man! West Brom's Gareth Barry made a record-equaling 632nd Premier League appearance (Ryan Giggs the former king, now having to share the crown, surely to be beaten next week). How his keeper Ben Foster didn't see red for his full-on sliding tackle on Javier Hernández, I don't know. I think West Ham boss Slaven Bilić is still shaking his head now as I type. There's nothing more to write about the goalless draw. 😴😑😴😑😴
Wayne Rooney's return to Old Trafford was the most discussed topic this weekend, replays of his many top goals shown again and again. The Evertonian had a couple of chances but did not have much to shout about before he was substituted under great applause from both ends of the ground and even a handshake from United boss José Mourinho. The striker has never beaten the Red Devils in the Premier League. 🙈👏🏻⚽️👍🏻🙈

What a goal! Jermain Defoe scored his first goal since arriving at Bournemouth to make it 2-1 and a fine turnaround-win against Brighton. The match-winner came after a nice turn in the box and drill home by the former Sunderland forward. Substitute Jordan Ibe had set up both the winner and leveller, the latter with a clever backheel to Andrew Surman, who tapped it in easy. Solly March had given the visitors the lead ten minutes into the second half after Dale Stephens headed against the cross bar, Shane Duffy saw his header cleared and Davy Pröpper his follow-up blocked off the line by Surman. All that action and the goals after the interval made up for a dismal first half. ⚽️👊🏻⚽️👊🏻⚽️
Each of Xherdan Shaqiri's last six Premier League goals have been from outside the box, including the whacker that levelled the score for Stoke at Newcastle, nice one! 👏🏻⚽️👌🏻⚽️👍🏻 And Jamaal Lascelles' header off Matt Richie's corner gave the home side the lead and winner as it ended 2-1, a proper hard-fought win for the Magpies! 👊🏻⚽️👊🏻⚽️👊🏻
Antonio Valencia's opener for United against Everton in the fourth minute was a smacker! Edge of the box, right foot, smash, boom, bang, left corner of the net, Jordan Pickford had no chance! Unstoppable beauty! The 4-0 result was very harsh as the Toffees did come back stronger after the break, but just buckled under the pressure in the final minutes. Romelu Lukaku's goal and celebration added insult to misery. Either way, there are very happy Red Devils in second place, level on points and goals with City at the top, just the alphabet separating the two rivals. ⚽️😵👌🏻😵⚽️

What the hell?! SEVEN CHANGES FOR LFC! 34 SHOTS ON GOAL! But Burnley remained unbeaten away in the Premier League, after winning at Chelsea and drawing at Tottenham, but haven't won at Anfield for 43 years, Liverpool having won all three previous home games against the Clarets. Man of the moment Mohamed Salah equalised three minutes after Scott Arfield had given the visitors the lead with a nice volley. Ben Mee came close to net a winner, Joël Matip clearing off the line. Clarets keeper Nick Pope kept well and strong to deny Jürgen Klopp's men. The Reds were frustrated once again, similar to the Sevilla game on Wednesday. Argh! Just ARGH for all Red fans! 🙈😡🙈😡🙈
Loved seeing Elton John and Pep Guardiola chatting before the game at Watford! Only in England... "1-0 to the referee" chant by the Hornets fans was a brilliant response to Sergio Agüero's goal that gave Man City the lead at Vicarage Road. It was so close, even the Argentine was looking back at the linesman to make sure the flag wasn't up... But the game was sealed soon after, the same striker doubling the score a couple of minutes later, making it eight consecutive away games he has started and scored in (only RvP has a longer run of 9). Gabriel Jesus made it 0-3 before the break, another dodgy offside- looking one. What was the flag there for again??? Nicolás Otamendi added to the home side's misery in the second half and Agüero completed his hat-trick to make it 0-5 (his sixth in the PL, the only guys left to beat are Alan Shearer with 11, Robbie Fowler 9, Michael Owen and Thierry Henry with 8). Add a Raheem Sterling penalty to seal the deal 0-6, it was all too easy and ended Watford's unbeaten run. Why couldn't Liverpool do that?!?!?! City fans' reaction: "We're taking the piss!" -  with 15 goals to nil in three games for the Citizens, yes, you are taking the piss! Lol! 😂👏🏻👊🏻👍🏻😂
Oh, and how could I forget the Super Sunday clash between the Red Devils and the Angry Birds! 😈 v 🕊 yep, you read right! LMAO! 😂😈😂🕊😂

My Predictions - Actual Results
Bournemouth 1:2 Brighton - 2:1
Crystal Palace 0:1 Southampton - 0:1
Huddersfield 1:0 Leicester - 1:1
Liverpool 2:0 Burnley - 1:1
Newcastle 1:1 Stoke City - 2:1
Watford 1:1 Man City - 0:6
West Brom 1:1 West Ham - 0:0
Tottenham 3:1 Swansea - 0:0
Chelsea 2:0 Arsenal - 0:0
Man United 4:0 Everton - 4:0

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.

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.