What a weekend of football we had! 1st vs 2nd, 19th vs 20th, 3rd vs 5th, and plenty of other talking points besides. VAR (or on occasion the lack of it) raised its ugly head again, a couple of managers are under increasing pressure, while the pressure might be easing elsewhere.
Norwich 0 – 2 Watford
Friday night’s game saw 19th host 20th, with Watford leapfrogging Norwich (and Southampton) up into 18th with their first win of the season. Watford’s recent performances would suggest it had definitely been coming, and they were definitely the superior team here, although Norwich certainly didn’t help themselves by giving the ball away so cheaply for Gerard Deulofeu’s early goal (defensive frailties were a bit of a running theme this weekend). Having finally secured their first win of the season Watford will certainly go into the international break with added confidence, although there is now a bit of gap at the bottom of the table – Watford would need to win again to move level on points with Aston Villa, and they would also need there to be a 13-goal swing for their goal difference to overtake Villa’s. For Norwich things are looking pretty bleak – their defensive record is now the worst in the league, and Teemu Pukki, who had started the season so brightly, is now 7 games without a goal.
Burnley 3 – 0 West Ham
Every week I think “this will be the match that West Ham get back to winning ways”, and every week they prove me wrong. They’re now without a win (and a clean sheet) since they beat Manchester United 2 – 0 on the 22nd of September. The fact that they’re defensively struggling is perhaps not a surprise given their absence of regular first-choice keeper Fabianski, but against Burnley their defense looked absolutely shot of confidence, with Fabian Balbuena losing the ball cheaply, and far too close to his own goal, for Burnley’s second, as McNeil pounced and set up Chris Wood. McNeil looked sharp all game, he absolutely tormented West Ham down the left hand side. Some of the teams West Ham have lost to in this dismal run (Everton, Oxford United, and Newcastle for instance) they should definitely have hoped to do better against, and given their next four matches are against Spurs, Chelsea, Wolves and Arsenal, it might be a while until they win again. Manuel Pellegrini has apparently been given more time to turn things around by the board, which I think is probably a good decision, but these days a chairman’s patience only stretches so far. If results do not improve do not be surprised to see Manuel’s neck on the block.
Leicester 2 – 0 Arsenal
Speaking of managerial candidates likely for the chop, Arsenal’s Unai Emery is now second on that list. I think he can consider himself fortunate to not be top! Arsenal have now won only 2 of their last 10 matches, and have won 1 point fewer in Emery’s 50 matches in the Premier League than they did in Wenger’s last 50 matches in charge. Ahead of this match Leicester were in third and Arsenal in fifth, and Leicester completely outplayed them – victory did not flatter them at all. The first goal was particularly stylish, with Leicester working it around nicely before Tielemans slipped it to Vardy to slot home – Wenger himself would have been proud of that one. Victory here was a massive statement for Leicester, who have won 8 of their last 10, with the only losses coming against Liverpool and Manchester United. With extremely winnable fixtures coming up against Brighton, Everton, Watford, Villa, and Norwich, you would expect Leicester to keep winning, and Vardy to keep filling his boots – since Rodgers has taken over, no player has scored more league goals than Vardy.
Manchester United 3 – 1 Brighton
If the pressure is racking up for Emery, perhaps it is starting to ease a little for Solskjaer. United are now up in 7th, hot on Arsenal’s tail, and having scored three goals in back to back matches (for the first time since March) their troubles in front of goal certainly seem to be easing. Although most would think a team of United’s caliber should be beating teams like Brighton every time out, it’s not always so easy to beat what’s in front of you – just ask Tottenham. Although Vardy is certainly the Englishman in red-hot form, Rashford isn’t doing too badly either with 6 goals in his last 6 games – but he should have had at least two in this match after missing a virtual tap in after excellent work down the flank from Daniel James. Fred also played well for United – starting for five games in a row for the first time since he moved to United in the summer of 2018, perhaps he is finally starting to adapt to his new surroundings.
Liverpool 3 – 1 Manchester City
The clash of the heavyweights certainly lived up to the billing. The controversial moment came early on, when the ball flicked Trent Alexander-Arnold’s arm in his own box, before Liverpool broke away and scored the opening goal, Fabinho lashing in an excellent shot from 25 yards. Although much has been said about Bravo’s ability not standing up compared to the injured Ederson, I doubt even Ederson would have been able to save that. From my perspective, I think City were pretty unlucky there. I don’t think they should have had a penalty, as the ball hit Bernardo Silva’s arm before it hit Alexander-Arnold’s, but if VAR had spotted both handballs, then the correct decision should have been to bring it back for a Liverpool free-kick – as it was, Liverpool have benefitted from the handball law being applied inconsistently, as we have seen penalties awarded for far softer handballs already this season. Liverpool also scored with their first two shots on target in the game, which again showed perhaps luck was on Liverpool’s side in this game. City’s defensive pairing of Stones and Fernandinho did not look especially stable, perhaps showing once and for all that it was a mistake to not replace Kompany in the summer. Liverpool have a 9-point lead over City for now – can they keep it up?
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