Well..........that
was some weekend (and Monday) of games. After the dreary hell of the
previous week in which the worst of the game was showcased, this
weekend saw the light and (for the most part) the best of football
was on display. At the very least, most fans could point to this
weekend and say: “Why do I watch football? That's why”.
High-tempo goal-fests nestle alongside raucous upsets and ,hell, even
United seem to have gotten their shit together. It was a good
weekend. Unless you're a Chelsea fan. In which case,
hahahahahahahaha............
Spurs
Vs Man City: Lamela derails the money teams gravy train..........
For all the guff being blown about who has the “strongest eleven”
it's very often missed that leagues are won by the team, usually,
with the strongest depth. City are a living example of this. While
they have by some margin the best starting XI in the league on paper,
they've yet to be able to field it this season and the injuries
they've sustained and the hectic schedule of the premier league will
ensure they won't be able to for at least the couple of months.
City's soft underbelly lie in the comparative weakness of their
understudies, despite the team still being worth somewhere in the
region of 300 million. While the focus in the aftermath,
understandably, was on the lack of the first-choice centre-backs
(Kompany in particular) it's clear form this and previous games that
City miss Silva more. Shorn of their wizard and there is a noticeable
lack of cohesion to how City play. They create less, concede more and
have less possession. For now, De Bruyne is decent replacement but he
has no-where near the impact on the game for City even with his
goals. How they'll cope without Toure now will be interesting to see.
City's fast start to the season seems to be unraveling even faster.
Poor
decisions helped Spurs out too. Not that this should detract from how
well Spurs played. Even after conceding the first goal they never
stopped attempting to play their way and it paid off. The opening
goal came from a mistake from Walker which allowed Toure to rumble 60
yards through midfield and he fed De Bruyne who thumped past Lloris.
There was a hint of offside about the goal but it was nothing
compared to how far off Walker was in the build-up to the equaliser.
Son had a good shot parried back by Cabellero and it fell to De
Bruyne. His pass to Fernandinho was beyond awful and cut out by Dier
whose shot skidded in off the post. De Bruyne's sloppiness was to
become a theme for all of City's players today and was personified by
Cabellero for the second goal. Running out to challenge for a ball he
had absolutely no chance of ever getting he left the net wide open
for Alderweireld to head home and give Spurs the lead. Had he stayed
where he was the ball would have been delivered straight to him. If
there was any doubt as to why he will never displace Hart in goal
it's surely gone now. The third goal was from a superb Erikson
free-kick which smacked off the upright and fell to an offside Kane
who thumped home and wheeled away to celebrate. Lamela iced the cake
in the 80th
when, sent clear through, he rounded Cabellero far too easily, left
the stumbling goalkeeper on his arse along with Demichelis and
stroked home the fourth goal. To his credit, after the match,
Pellegrini did not blame the poor officials for his sides loss but
rather their abysmal performance. With a midweek champions league
game and a possibly resurgent Newcastle next weekend it will a race
against time to get his team back together. Spurs have Monaco in the
Europa league on Thursday followed by Swansea and this result will
have them flying high for the foreseeable future.
Leicester
Vs Arsenal: The red beast of London is back.......
A
game between two, free-flowing attacking sides was always going to be
good. But this match took the biscuit with end-to-end thrills, goals
and none of the disdainful theatrics of previous weekends, this match
galvanised the notion of football as “the beautiful game” and
gave the Gunners' spirits a further boost after dispatching their
Derby rivals in midweek. Arsenal are a confidence team and that
result along with this one will ensure that they will be a force to
be reckoned with over the next few games. Such was the display of
skill at times that even the Leicester fans were applauding.
Leicester came to impose their, now signature, brand of all-out
assault football on Arsenal only to find a team that can not only
play that way too but add a bit more on top. That Alexis was back to
his best will give Arsenal and it's fans no end of joy and he was a
joy to watch today. Hunting for his first goal he wound up netting
his first hat-trick at a stadium where visiting players are used to
walking away with nothing but frustration. His protracted adjustment
back to the Premier league following his Copa America win was
disconcerting but all worries were erased today with a stunning
performance. Raneiri summed it up best himself: “The ball and him
are born together”.
Not that Arsenal nor Alexis had it all their own way. In fact, they
went 1-0 down in 13 minutes and were lucky not be more down had it
not been for the post and Petr Cech. Kante picked Ramsey's pocket and
let Drinkwater loose to swing in a cross that Vardy smartly headed
down and finished past Cech to send the King Power into eruption. He
hit the post a few minutes later. This spurred Arsenal into life and
Ozil fed Cazorla who threaded a neat through-ball for Walcott (who
was excellent throughout the game) who finished low with his left
foot into the far corner, a proper strikers finish. The second
Arsenal goal came from a similar lightning fast breakaway. Vardy was
dispossessed by Koscielny, Ozil claimed the ball and played a
reverse-pass to set Bellerin up to cross. Walcott scuffed his attempt
but the ball fell for Alexis to drive home. Blood in the water,
Arsenal never stopped going for more goals and Alexis claimed his
second when Ozil dinked a peach of a ball over the entire defence
perfectly for Alexis to beat Schmeichel with a header. While his
first two goals were set up brilliantly by his team-mates his third
was all Alexis. Picking up from near the halfway point a deft touch
found him space 25 yards out and he rifled a ball low in the corner
to cap his hat-trick. Leicester went full “Kitchen sink” mode and
Arsenal did well to repel the onslaught but Vardy's second was
signposted and well deserved. A brief box scramble saw the ball fall
to him and, with literally no-one moving, he finished sweetly into
the far corner of the net. Giroud would gloss the finish a minute
later sweeping home Monreal's cut-back for a much-needed goal for the
maligned striker. Leicester can be proud of their game and how they
played and should be able to continue their fine form when they host
Norwich next week. Arsenal have Olympiacos midweek and desperately
need a win to keep their Champions league hopes alive followed by Man
United on Saturday which will really test this Arsenal team.
Liverpool
Vs Aston Villa: Sturridge saves Rodgers' Bacon..........
Under a kind of pressure not usually seen outside of a political sex
scandal Rodgers welcomed a Villa side under a similar, but not nearly
as intense a, pressure. Sherwood's youngsters haven't won since the
start of the season and the deficits in their squad are starting to
be shown up with alarming regularity. Their careless play is really
starting to cost them huge amounts of points and it was only further
carelessness on Liverpool's part that allowed them a measure of hope
that their performance did not even remotely merit. Villa fans should
really start be concerned and you could tell by Villa's line-up it
was going to be a long day. Despite great success against Liverpool
in recent seasons away from Villa Park, Sherwood clearly didn't fancy
his chances with a conservative line-up that essentially isolated
Gestede up front and they didn't come out of their shell until they
were 2-0 down, relieved of the expectation of getting anything from
this match. Which was when Liverpool nearly conspired to shoot
themselves in the foot by allowing Villa to saunter back into the
game.
Liverpool certainly didn't waste any time at the start, however, as
they were 1-0 up after 66 seconds. The Villa central midfield pairing
of Sanchez and Gana were clearly given orders to charge down Coutinho
at every opportunity and this left a chasm of space for Milner.
Coutinho put him through and, with literally no-one near him, Milner
controlled the ball and fired home inside the left post. Villa had
two chances to equalise later on when Liverpool twice failed to deal
with crosses from Hutton, the first was “cleared” by Can to
Gestede on the edge of the box only for him to fire wide, the second
was meekly palmed away by Mignolet (to groans from the home support)
into the path of Westwood who also fired wide. Milner then created
the second when he finished a one-two with Sturridge by lobbing the
ball over the defence to the striker who twacked home his volley for
his first goal since March. More worryingly, it's the first time
Liverpool have scored more than once in a game since May. Villa
pulled one back from (yet again) a Hutton cross that Liverpool's
defence and goalkeeper decided to ignore and Gestede headed in at the
back post. Despite being partially at fault himself for the goal
Sahko was seen screaming at Mignolet. Sturridge restored the two-goal
cushion only seconds later when his snazzy one-two with Coutinho
finally produced the result they'd been threatening all game with a
solid finish into the left corner. That should have been that but for
Sahko again failing to mark Gestede properly from a cross, this time
from Amavi, setting the game up for a nail-biting finish. Liverpool
have a brief respite now ahead of their weekend game against the
Toffees that's sure to be a good one whereas Villa lurch towards a
potential tipping point match against Stoke. Lose and Sherwood's grip
on the team will fade rapidly, Win, and they gain the respite they
granted Liverpool today.
Man
United Vs Sunderland: Come on, not even Van Gaal could cock this one
up......
On
paper this looked like three easy points for United. Facing a
plodding Sunderland that were also shorn of their main striker,
Defoe, leaving the striking responsibility on the shoulders of
Borini. And while the scoreline and stats will paint a picture of
near total United dominance the actual match didn't really play out
like that. At least the first half didn't. With Sunderland already
playing like a team setting up for championship football next season
United should have put them to the sword but the first attempt of
note came from Sunderland when Lens was let through, thanks to some
woeful defending, and fired straight at De Gea. The only other
attempt of note resulted in the first goal. Blind slung a lovely 35
yard cross to Mata on the right, he served the ball across the box
and Memphis tapped home for his first league goal in the 49th
minute. United notched up a second one within a minute of the second
half starting when Martial raced down the right, cut into the box and
fired the ball into the net off Rooney's knee. Rooney was one minute
off going 1000 minutes without a goal.
Sunderland
had two attempt afterwards with a floated free-kick to the near post
and Cattermole releasing Van Aarnholt with a magnificent
through-ball, both stopped by De Gea. Memphis was put through
one-on-one but fired straight at Pantillimon. It was set to end 2-0
until the 90th
minute when Rooney created space for Young on the left who slung in a
low cross for Mata to thump into the roof of the net. No defender
moved to prevent him from scoring. Sunderland are looking like a team
devoid of any spirit due to their position and lacking any ability to
get out of it. They are surely dead-set to go down. United will now
go top of the table for at least a week and face a resurgent Arsenal
on Sunday who will have a day more rest ahead of their Champions
league exertions after United face Wolfsburg on Wednesday. Sunderland
will host West Ham next weekend with even less hope of salvaging
anything from this match or this season.
Southampton
Vs Swansea: Saints smash the swans to stay in the top ten.........
Games
between these two tend to be tight affairs even though the Saints'
record against the Swans is three wins, two draws and one loss since
their top-flight return. Swansea have seemingly lost their good form
at the start of the season and arrive without a goal in three games.
Soton, in contrast, had an awful start to the season and have
steadily picked themselves up over the last few weeks. Their first
goal came in the 11th
minute when Cork failed to track Van Dijk on a corner and he headed
home at the near post. Goals from set-pieces are a rarity at Soton
and not being able to threaten at set-pieces is a glaring weakness
for a team (just ask Arsenal, whose corners are no more than gilded
chances for the opposition to counter-attack) so their ability to do
so this season is a nice addition. The first half saw Swansea
restricted to shots from range and Stekelenburgs' shaky hands were
starting to worry the fans.
The
second half saw Swansea throw on Montero to shift into “speedster”
mode. He has made a name for himself exploiting defensively suspect
full-backs and both of Southampton's have clouds over them; Bertand
just returning from injury and Cedric never being that good anyway.
Fans need not have worried, however, because Swansea did not show up
for the second half at all. The Southampton attack turned up the
style and while the second goal had a bit of fortune about it no-one
could say it hadn't been coming. Following a fine move from Pelle
with a looped pass Tadic's cross was diverted into the net by Ki.
Mane nailed the coffin shut less than ten minutes later when Bertrand
started off a great counter-attacking move than ended with Pelles'
shot being blocked, but only as far as Mane who swept home. Swansea
restored some semblance of pride when Fonte stupidly cleaved down
Taylor in the box on the 83rd
minute and Sigurdsson slotted home from the spot. The Swans face an
uphill battle to right their ship with a weekend travel to a (they
hope) mid-week match drained Spurs whereas Southampton have the
(still) daunting task of taking on Chelsea.
Stoke
Vs Bournemouth: Injury blight strikes as the walking dead finally
win......
Bournemouth could be forgiven for feeling optimistic heading into
this fixture. They had over twice as many points as Stoke who were
enduring their worst start to a season ever. Plus they'd an in-form
striker in Wilson who'd racked up five goals in six games. By the
end, neither of those would be true. Eight minutes in, Wilson
appeared to badly twist his knee, he received some treatment, hobbled
back on and then promptly collapsed to the ground in agony. Scans
later revealed that he's done his ACL in and will be out for six
months. Bournemouth will now have to rely on an unproven prospect in
King and Glenn Murray as strikers.
Stoke
pulled ahead on the 34th
minute with close range strike from Walters which will do his request
for a new contract no end of good. Arnautovic (MOTM by a country
mile) pegged down the left flank, skinned Francis and pulled the ball
back for Walters. Bournemouth, over the shock of the Wilson injury,
now steamed forward but the half ended 1-0. They resumed their
pressing attack in the second and equalised 14 minutes from the end
when Pughs' shot bounced back to Gosling who fired low. Bournemouth
kept up the pressure and Stoke capitalised with a solid counter.
Johnson slung in a cross and Diouf met it with a diving header that
sealed all three points for Stoke. Bournemouth can count themselves
unlucky to lose, regardless of the injuries (which are now starting
to become an issue). Stoke really flattered to deceive here and I
agree with Hughes' assertion that they've “played much better and
lost”. Bournemouth, now without their main striker, must bring
their same pressing style to Watford if they hope to gain more ground
and Stoke will revel in this victory for a bit and will seek to chalk
up another when they play a beleaguered Villa next weekend.
West
Ham Vs Norwich: Injury-time switch off rescues a point for the
Hammers......
Given their form the first question people ask themselves when
playing or watching West Ham should be: “Which West Ham will show
up?”. Away from the Boleyn they look indestructible, at home their
record is 1 win, 1 draw and two losses. Not so indestructible. In
fact, such is the abject nature of their home form that this draw,
snatched deep into injury time with practically the last kick of the
game, feels like a win. The Norwich supporters will be happy with
that result even though, if their team had held it together for
another minute or so, they could have left with all three points.
They'll also be happy with the solid nature of their performance
although it says something that in a game with four goals the MOTM is
a goalkeeper (Ruddy). Norwich are starting to become indebted to
their keeper, he kept them in it against Liverpool and he was
certainly the main reason they were in with a shot of a win today.
So
what can be the excuse for the poor home form? Complacency certainly
has a look in, the first goal could be laid down to that. Noble
received the ball from a throw-in and did the thing that absolutely
no defender should ever do, pass square across his own box (I think
Alex Ferguson used to actually fine defenders who did that). His pass
was undercooked and Brady stole it, jinked into the box and scored.
West Ham still didn't wake up and only awful finishing prevented them
from going two down, Howson smashing a volley just over the bar after
he was left un-marked in the box and Jerome thumped a lovely chance
into the side netting. West Ham finally woke up on the half hour when
Sahko found Payet free on the flank and his run was perfectly timed
to meet the return cross to slot home. The second half saw fingertip
saves form Adrian and Jerome, clearly incensed at the Hammers keepers
skill, blasting a ball point-blank into the keepers face. Then, in
the 83rd
minute, Redmond took the ball into the box, the defence went to sleep
and his shot bobbled slightly on the way into far corner. West Ham
threw everything forward, including Andy Carroll for Christ’s sake,
until Payet floated in a free-kick in the 92nd
minute and from the resultant scramble, Kouyate fluffed the ball home
to salvage the point. The Hammers now travel to Sunderland and,
surely, all three points. Norwich can take heart from this display
and will pit their own pressing aggressive play against Leicester
next weekend.
Newcastle
Vs Chelsea: Magpies blow two goal lead as the Chelsea boat
lists.......
The build up to this match could be summed up with: “How much are
Newcastle going to lose by?”.McClaren entered the this game with
his head firmly in the crosshairs. Their meek loss to Sheffield
Wednesday in the League Cup had ratcheted up the temperature on his
seat to boiling point and it seems as if he could finally be the
manager to drive away, arguably, the most loyal die-hard fans in the
league. Mourinho arrives looking to stop the lack of urgency in his
players that has crippled them in recent weeks both in the Premier
league and in Europe. There is no passion in the starting lineup to
take the game to their opponents. It took going two goals down to one
of the most pointless teams in the league to finally rouse them from
their torpor (and it took 75 fucking minutes for that to happen) and
get them going. The fact that his substitutions made a huge impact
should give Mourinho some food for thought on who should be starting
games.
That
said, the intensity of the Newcastle pressing game surprised
everyone, probably even Newcastle themselves. The Chelsea central
pairing of Zouma and Cahill were completely unable to deal with
Mitrovic (probably out of fear he'd eviscerate one of them) and Mbabu
had Pedro in his pocket the entire game. The lack of any wide play by
Chelsea played straight into Newcastles' hands too. Mbemba and
Janmaat both had great games repelling what little they had to deal
with until Chelsea woke up. The first goal was a direct product of
that sleepyness when Ivanovic and Zouma did a “You deal with this”,
“No, you deal
with this” when Anita slung in a long ball and it dropped straight
into Ayozes' lap and he had all the time he needed to line up a shot
and score while the two defenders discussed the philosophic
consequences had one of them bothered to tackle him. If the crowd
were delighted at half time with the scoreline they were properly
euphoric on the 60th
minute when Ayoze served in a weak corner a Wijnaldum scored with an
even weaker header. On went all three subs for Chelsea and then the
game started to turn. Hazard finally had someone to pass to that
wasn't being overtaken by stationary objects and his cut-back pass on
the 79th was thumped home by Ramires. Chelsea then steamed forward
and Willian equalised from a free-kick on the 83rd
when it bobbled through the defence with no-one touching it. Ending
2-2 was a sigh of relief for both teams, Newcastle's was because they
were beginning to buckle heavily and Chelsea's because a loss here
would have been humiliating. Now it's only embarrassing. They host
Southampton next and Koeman will be praying for another Chelsea
performance like this, they'd be out of sight in half an hour if so.
Newcastle take on City next and, with City's defensive frailties now,
if they apply their game like they did today and not crumble towards
the end they may salvage another point which would be some tonic for
them. Or they'll get smashed........yeah probably smashed....
Watford
Vs Crystal Palace: Eagles claim yet another road victory as the
Hornet lack sting...
It's funny how time sometimes repeats itself. These two teams last
met in the 2013 Championship play-off final and Palace scored only
from a penalty despite playing the much better football with the
lions share of the chances. Zaha was the player fouled that day. Both
those happened again today. Hell, Cabaye even put the penalty in the
same direction. Palace have now won three from four away games this
season and, sitting in sixth, are quickly becoming a force to be
reckoned with. They expertly exploited Watfords near total lack of
any threat on the flanks outside of Anya running from left back.
Telling stat for Watford is that none of their wide midfielders have
registered an assist this season.
Even
though Ranieri will forever be known as the “Tinkerman” despite
the fact he's been fielding pretty much the same team every game this
season, maybe that moniker should pass to Pardew. He rotated his
players on the pitch so often it was actually confusing. Sako started
on the right flank, shifted to the left, then inside to the centre
before finishing back out left. Puncheon started on the right and
finished in the centre. Bolasie was started on the left and finished
on the right. But for all these the best chance fell to the one
forward who didn't shift, Gayle, he somehow got to Sakos' arrowed low
cross and fired into into the right corner of the post only to see it
whack back and land in Gomes' hands. Hangeland had a point-blank
bullet header incredibly saved by Gomes. Nyom then cleared out Zaha
to give away the penalty in the 71st
minute. Cabaye stayed calm and buried the ball in the top left corner
for the win. Palace host West Brom next weekend and will need all the
pace they can muster to gain a win. Watford need to start scoring and
soon and a trip to high-pressing Bournemouth may not be the best
platform to start off from.
West
Brom Vs Everton: Toffees unstick themselves in the second half to win
through....
Truly there was not a match that better defined the “game of two
halves” saying. An insipid first half, in which Berahinos' opener
was the only action of merit, led to a four-goal second half and the
first home win for Everton. But they sure went the hard way to
getting it. Ending a thoroughly dreadful first half a goal down they
furthered their misery by conceding another wihin ten minutes of the
re-start. Berahinos' first goal was from a brainless piece of play
form Mori, on his debut on less, running out from deep he was tackled
by Dawson. The resulting ball was fluffed by Barry straight to
Morrison who threaded a perfect ball through to Berahino, who simply
ghosted into the box, and he fired home first-time. More brainless
action resulted in the second goal although, this time, it was the
entire defence that went “slack-jawed yokel”. Allowing one player
a free header in the box is bad, two is deplorable. Both Fletcher and
Evans were allowed free to head at Berahinos' corner which was
needlessly diverted wide, Brunt took this one and Dawson shrugged off
Jagielka to head past Howard for 2-0.
This
was when Everton woke up. The exact moment they woke up too, because
it took a mere 27 seconds for Everton to pull one back. West Brom
fans were actually still celebrating when the goal went in. Deulofeu
picking
the ball up from the kick-off and serving in a perfect cross for
Lukaku to head home. It should have two a few minutes later when he
set up McCarthy running into the box. McCarthy, however, decided that
running and shooting were far too much effort and dove theatrically
to the ground over Gardner who was no-where near him with the tackle.
He was duly booked for his swan dive to the turf and if there is any
justice in the world Martinez will be having a a stern, very
threatening, word with him. Lukaku had shifted into high gear by this
point and his second set-up, this time for Kone, met an Everton
player who wanted to stay on his feet and he pelted the ball past
Howard from around six yards out. Then Lukaku crowned an epic
comeback with a headed goal when Deulofeu , again, picking him out
with a cross with six minutes remaining. It would end 3-2 with a
brief flurry of activity. Everton now host Liverpool who are surely
going to have to produce something special to get anything from this
game, assuming Everton don't roll out the red carpet like they did
today. West Brom will lick their wounds, lament at points lost and
try to pick up again at Crystal Palace.
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