Premier League Notes - Week 18

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 18

The 18th week of the 2019-2020 Premier League season saw:

18 goals - most by Southampton and Man City = 3 each
197 shots - most by Man City = 23
67 on target - most by Man City = 12
83 corners - most by Wolves = 11
217 fouls - most by Burnley = 21
41 bookings - most by Burnley, Wolves and Spurs = 4 each
1 red card - Son Heung-min for Spurs
2 penalties - 2 scored (Gündogan for City, Deeney for Watford, Willian for Chelsea)

#EVEARS

The lunchtime kickoff was a dire game, dismal to watch. Both new bosses have a hell of a job ahead of them. Carlo Ancelotti looked miserable in the crowd, watching the Toffees not produce a single shot on target in Duncan Ferguson's last game as caretaker manager, whilst Mikel Arteta looked on pondering, his Gunners firing blanks, the result dragging them down to 11th. 

#AVISOU

Danny Ings put the visitors ahead with a cheeky side-footer after Shane Long’s shot was saved but not cleared (21’). Jack Stephens doubled the lead nodding the ball past the diving Tom Heaton (31’). Ings was gifted his brace and it sealed the victory shortly after the break (55’), making it seven goals in the last seven games for the former Liverpool striker. The Saints were on fire! Jack Grealish did pull one back for the Villans (75’), but the home side couldn’t avoid their fourth defeat on the trot, a disappointing run after their well deserved point at Old Trafford at the beginning of the month (week 14), taking them down to 18th.

#BOUBUR

Like the early kickoff, there wasn’t much action to write about in this match at the Vitality Stadium. Until the final minute. Jay Rodriguez with the winner (89’), a powerful header to break the deadlock, his first goal in eight games for the visitors. It was the only shot on target. Three points is what counts most, taking the Clarets up to tenth, whilst the Cherries remain 14th.

#BHASHU

John Egan’s early goal for United (8’) was disallowed by VAR for handball (9’). Neal Maupay saw his tap-in disallowed for offside, provider Martin Montoya not keeping his line right. The visitors were ahead eventually, record signing Oli McBurnie with a really strong finish (22’), his third goal of the season. Jack O’Connell thought he had doubled the lead (56’), but was disallowed for offside, again, busy flags and VAR! The Blades have now had four Premier League goals awarded on the field only to be ruled out by VAR this season, more than any other club. Overruled, but still worthy winners, climbing up to fifth.

#NEWCRY

The visitors were pinned back by the Magpies for most of the first half, but both sides didn’t make much happen in front of goal. Miguel Almirón broke the deadlock with a top-notch winner (82’), totally unmarked, his first goal for the club after 27 games and 47 shots, the wild celebrations reflected the relief. Roy Hodgson will have been gutted after his men worked hard creating more chances, making up for a disappointing start, but the Eagles just let themselves down overall, dropping down to 12th, whilst Steve Bruce's men climb up to ninth.

#NORWOL

The Canaries bossed the first half. Todd Cantwell gave the home side the lead they fully deserved (17’) after Alex Tettey hit the woodwork early on. Teemu Pukki could and should have had a hat-trick, so many clear chances wasted wide or softly, not discrediting the keeper Rui Patrício’s top saves. Romain Saïss made the home side pay for all those misses, capitalising on poor defending and heading in the equaliser (61’). Raúl Jiménez had enough time and space in the box to net the rebound off Tim Krul’s save (81’). Just one win in the last 13 for Norwich sees them remain stuck in 19th, the Wolves coming back and hurting them, the win taking them up to 6th.

#MCILEI

Jamie Vardy opened the scoring for the Foxes dinking the ball over Ederson with a top-draw finish (22’). Riyad Mahrez levelled against his former team with a fine low take turning/deflecting the ball around and past Kasper Schmeichel (31’). And İlkay Gündoğan turned the game around from the spot, softer than soft penalty, Raheem Sterling making the most of Ricardo Pereira’s contact (43’). Tap-in for Gabriel Jesus off a perfect setup from the right by Kevin De Bruyne made it 3-1 (69’). If it weren’t for Leicester's top stopper, it would have been an absolute thrashing. Brendan Rodgers and his men’s momentum’s halted, their gap in second place is closed to within a point by Pep Guardiola and co in third, ten and 11 points away from the top spot respectively.

#WATMUN

After a quite uneventful first half, both sides unable to get anything on target, a mad four minutes saw the Red Devils pushing the self-destruct button, which the Hornets gratefully accepted and capitalised on. First David de Gea let Ismaïla Sarr’s weak shot slip through his gloves and into the goal (50’) - since the start of last season, no player has made more errors leading to Premier League goals than the Spanish stopper. Then Aaron Wan-Bissaka brought down the scorer very clumsily in the box, Troy Deeney smacking the spot kick into the back of the net to make it 2-0 (54’). That woke up Vicarage Road, witnessing their first home victory and only their second win of the season. Not bad at all for new boss Nigel Pearson’s first home game! Merry Christmas! How much longer will Ole stay at the wheel after his fifth defeat in the league? They’re eighth, their lowest position at this stage of a season since 1989. Where’s Santa when you need him?

#TOTCHE

Form went out of the window in this Super Sunday London derby. Willian gave the visitors the lead with an absolute cracker (11’), a lovely unstoppable curler from just inside the box into the far corner, beauty. From cracker to comical: the penalty - what was Paulo Gazzaniga and the referee thinking? The keeper bashed into Marcos Alonso with a high boot, the ref Anthony Taylor gave a free kick against the Blue, the French commentators were laughing. VAR revised and corrected it, definite penalty and booking. Willian made it 0:2 from the spot to end the half, which the visitors bossed. And it went from bad to worse for Spurs when Son Heung-min received a straight red after the VAR revised his daft kick-out at Antonio Rüdiger following a fowl by the Blue defender (62’), his third sending off in his last 17 league starts. I don’t know what José Mourinho was arguing about with the fourth official, it looked clear to me and the VAR. Racist chants followed, and eight minutes added on to top it all off! Frank Lampard celebrated thoroughly with the away fans after the FT-whistle, the win against his former boss widens the gap between the top four and the rest to four points.

My Predictions - Actual Results
Everton 1:2 Arsenal - 0:0
Aston Villa 2:1 Southampton - 1:3
Bournemouth 2:2 Burnley - 0:1
Brighton 1:1 Sheff United - 0:1
Newcastle 2:2 Crystal Palace - 1:0
Norwich 1:2 Wolves - 1:2
Man City 1:2 Leicester - 3:1
Watford 1:3 Man United - 2:0
Tottenham 3:1 Chelsea - 0:2
West Ham P:P Liverpool - postponed because of the Club World Cup.

Click here for last week’s Premier League Notes.

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

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.

Reds End City Run In 7-Goal Thriller

Sports - Football - Premier League - LFC 4:3 MCFC

Liverpool ended Manchester City's Premier League unbeaten run in shocking style, gob-smacking and handing Pep Guardiola's men their first league defeat of the season in a seven-goal Super Sunday showpiece-thriller at Anfield.

Former Gunner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave the Reds the lead with a smacker after just 8:47 minutes, a nice long strike 45 yards from goal between four defenders, across the keeper Ederson and in, boom!

The visitors were stunned, the Kop loud, but five minutes before the break City replied, Leroy Sané smashing in the equaliser past Loris Karius' bottom right, his near-post, not good for Simon Mignolet's replacement.

Up until then, Jürgen Klopp's men were all over their opponents, chasing, tracking and closing down every ball, thrilling to watch, hell to play against. Or pressing, pressing, pressing as others put it.

Liverpool continued the high-powered, energised and full-on style after the break, Man City dominating possession but not play.

And just before the hour-mark, the Red storm of three goals in nine minutes commenced:

Roberto Firmino with a brilliant individual goal, stayed up, kept the ball, and shooooooot, 2-1. The shirt went off. Yep, and Anfield exploded.

Seconds later, Sadio Mané hit the post, a minute before his left-footer into the top left corner made it 3-1, even Martin Tyler got loud!!!

And that wasn't all, not even six minutes later, Mohamed Salah clipped the ball over Ederson and in, after the keeper made an error of a clearance/pass/cross/whatever it was supposed to be, 4-1, vielen Dank!

Rache ist süüüüüß! (= revenge is sweeeeet! In case you're wondering what I'm on about, here's my report on the last time these two sides met.)

But it would have been too good to be true. It cannot be Liverpool FC without a hick-up (or two) and more drama drama drama!

Sub Bernardo Silva (84') and Ilkay Gündogan (91') pulled two late goals back to make it 4-3 and hand the Citizens a glimmer of hope of avoiding defeat and the Reds that all too familiar horrifying feeling of "NOT AGAIN".

GULP. I couldn't watch...

But it was not to be for the league leaders and record-breakers, the home side held onto the lead and bagged the three precious, unexpected, awesome points.

Only two teams have gone longer unbeaten than City's run of 22 matches from the start of the season in Premier League history - Arsenal in 2003-04 (38 games) and Manchester United in 2010-11 (24).

And Guardiola doesn't seem to like Klopp, having lost five times against the German, more than against any other manager.

Andy Robertson was outstanding at the back for the Reds, controlling and frustrating the Citizens, including former Red Raheem Sterling, which was inspiring especially after all the Reds were so worried about being without injured Virgil van Dijk! And Coutinwho?! Life goes on and looks pretty rosy without the Brazilian!

Emre Can's substitution changed the game and showed how much Liverpool relied on him as City came back into the game minutes after he was replaced by James Milner.

And many were surprised to see under-fire defender Dejan Lovren start and given the captain's armband.

But who cares?! WE WON AND SHOWED EVERYONE YES WE CAN! JAWOHL!!!

Liverpool Goals: Oxlade-Chamberlain 9', Firmino 59', Mané 61', Salah 68'.

Man City Goals: Sané 40', Bernardo Silva 84', Gündogan 90'+1'.

Liverpool Team: 1 Karius, 12 Gomez, 32 Matip, 6 Lovren, 26 Robertson, 21 Oxlade-Chamberlain, 23 Can (7 Milner 79', booked), 5 Wijnaldum, 11 Salah (20 Lallana 88'), 9 Firmino (booked), 19 Mané (17 Klavan 90'+4').
Subs not used: 22 Mignolet, 28 Ings, 29 Solanke, 66 Alexander-Arnold.

Man City Team: 31 Ederson, 2 Walker, 5 Stones, 30 Otamendi (booked), 18 Delph (3 Danilo 31'), 17 De Bruyne, 25 Fernandinho (booked), 8 Gündogan, 7 Sterling (booked, 20 Bernardo Silva 71'), 10 Agüero, 19 Sané.
Subs not used: 1 Bravo, 15 Mangala, 21 Silva, 35 Zinchenko, 55 Diaz.

FT Stats: LFC 4-3 MCFC
Possession: 36%-64%
Shots: 16-11
On target: 7-4
Corners: 5-6
Fouls: 10-7
Yellow cards: 2-3

Referee: Andre Marriner
Man of the match: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Ground: Anfield
Attendance: 53,285

Click here for my previous LFC match report.

All pictures, facts and stats were taken from the BBC match report, MOTD2, Twitter and Sky Sports match coverage.