Week 28 – Its All Just A Big Mess

First off, apologies for missing last week. Thankfully very little happened outside of Leicester being screwed by VAR. TWICE! Also, Liverpool have started the gradual bottle of the campaign. Honestly Nigel Pearson is a legend who has done this before, Watford build this man a statue!

Might as well start with that game. What the hell did we witness? Liverpool, unbeaten in 44 Premier League games, undone by the Hornets who have looked diabolical at times until Pearson’s appointment. Sarr is the second coming of Messi based off that three-nil performance, watch Liverpool look to snatch him in the summer. The other game I need to talk about: Norwich vs Leicester. What a disgrace of a handball decision! Iheanacho’s goal ruled out for handball despite it hitting the defender’s arm first. I must give credit to Lewis, a superb strike to aide Norwich’s survival. Probably got Delia Smith shouting at her own fans again. Also, can we stop with all these key injuries! Vardy’s turned into a pensioner already, having been touted for an England call-up. He wouldn’t look amiss in that case but I’d still like rapid a Vardy back.

Other games included a bring nil-nil draw between Newcastle and Burnley. The less said the better. Crystal Palace won one-nil against Brighton. Every possibility that they will go down with the performances of the bottom three this weekend. Jordan Ayew apparently can actually score goals. Seems his Swansea days must have just been a joke with some mates. West Ham also took a revitalised Southampton side to the cleaners. Despite their capitulation at Liverpool last week, there may be a glimmer of hope under Moyes’s leadership.

Bournemouth and Chelsea played out an entertaining two-two draw. The Champions League qualification run-in couldn’t be more insecure. Leicester should be fine, but they need to stop dropping points. Chelsea have let Manchester United, Wolves and Sheffield all creep up. Lampard has a big job ahead to stem the losses. Talking of Manchester United, they drew one-one with Everton as De Gea and Pickford lost all class and embarrassed themselves to the watching world. Dean Henderson will be relishing that England call-up. On top of that, Tottenham need a striker. They lost three-two to Wolves who look every bit a top six team. Next season will be interesting.

Apparently, Corona-virus could spell the end of the Premier League early, meaning… Liverpool don’t win! They don’t need to bottle it; the Premier League and FA will do it for them!

Match Week 26 – Man City Sunk

Match week 26 has been splintered into a whole weeks’ worth of fixtures, with a couple still to come, but alas here are the roundups from those played so far. The relegation battle continued to heat up, Liverpool marched on and Manchester City decided to become the Saracens of football.

First, Goodison Park saw the possibilities under a Carlo Ancelotti revolution, with Everton running out three-one winners against Crystal Palace. Despite the amazing moment where Benteke finally scored, Palace struggled to maintain any form against the dominance of an Everton side hoping to aim high next season. Richarlison will possibly be eyeing a move to Barcelona and shone as if in anticipation of a dream move. On the same day, relegation fodder Watford and Brighton drew a match of two halves, the first belonging to Watford before Brighton’s assertive second half. Watford remain in the bottom three, whilst Brighton continue to deny their title of “Premier league Basement Boy’s.”

Sheffield marched on towards Europe, coming from behind to win two-one against Bournemouth who certainly must be set for the drop back to the championship with their form. A dismal season so far. Sheffield, aiming possibly for Europa League, could now be in contention for Champions League after Manchester City’s sponsorship regulations breaches. Now no one ever suspected this did they… ok they’ve been suspected for quite a while! Wolves and Leicester drew a bore nil-all draw save for Choudhury’s stupid red card, unlucky to be honest, and shared the spoils. Ndidi needs to return to implement more balance for Leicester to smash the remaining fixtures.

Southampton, despite their form and massively improved season, saw themselves downed by bench-player Vydra, who ran the pitch with the ball to score a sensational solo goal and secure the points for Burnley. On the same day, Liverpool saw them take a further step towards the title through Mané’s 100^th Premier League goal, beating Norwich one-nil. Norwich remain bottom and likely to return to the Championship. Liverpool now only need four more wins to secure the title, meaning an enthralling encounter at Goodison Park could see them smash their closest rivals and lift the trophy. That would be something!

Aston Villa fought hard and long but succumbed to Tottenham as they lost three-two at Villa Park. Alderweireld scored twice (one for each side) as Son stole the spoils in the 94^th minute. That same day, Arsenal awoke from their long-time slumber to smash Newcastle four-nil. Even Mesut Özil scored, that’s how bad Newcastle were. Pépé looked the talisman part that Arsenal have needed for several years but could not hide the still serious issue underlying Arsenal’s mid-table position: Defence!

Still to come, Chelsea versus Manchester United, and fresh from their European punishment Manchester City versus West Ham United.

Match Week 25 – TITLE RACE OVER!

This weeks Premier League action saw Liverpool set their title deadline, the battle for fourth place heated up, and of course more VAR controversy.

We started the weekend with Leicester versus Chelsea. A mixture of recent bad form for both clubs was the main pre-match talking point, with Leicester having dropped points recently and Chelsea’s away form looking dire. It seemed it was a day where Antonio Rudiger decided to go full Sergio Ramos and become a deadly scoring machine at the back, scoring both of Chelsea’s goals from corners. Barnes continued his hot streak, with Leicester’s second coming from Chilwell. Questions remain over whether Vardy, who hasn’t scored for a few games now, will pick up the golden boot.

In the battle for survival, Bournemouth continued their unbeaten streak, beating fellow relegation fodder Aston Villa two-one. It took two of their giants in Aké and Billing to secure victory. Special recognition for Villa’s Samatta, scoring on his Premier League debut after becoming the first Tanzanian to play in the Premier League. Liverpool now only need to win their next six matches to secure the title, beating a resolute Southampton side four-nil. It’s becoming a scary prospect that Henderson will win the PFA Player of the Year Award and lift the Premier League. How will he have been a more successful captain than Gerrard!

Newcastle drew nil-nil with Norwich in a boring affair, with neither pleased with the result in the fight for survival. The game was so boring that Mike Ashley might finally sell up. Watford led two-nil against Everton at half-time only to go on and lose three-two in the 90^th minute, Yerry Mina bagging a brace and Walcott playing like his youthful Arsenal days, all despite Fabian Delph’s red card. Crystal Palace goalie Guaita will have nightmares after his sloppy own goal gave Sheffield United a simple one-nil result at Selhurst Park. Palace may be nearing safety, but as royals do their form risks causing an unnecessary slip up!

West Ham and Brighton played out an emphatic three-all draw, Glen Murray managing to keep some relevancy by bagging Brighton’s third. West Ham have been vastly improved with the appointment of David Moyes, but at this rate they will remain relegation contenders for the rest of the season despite their best efforts. Manchester United drew nil-nil with Wolves, with new signing Fernandes making his debut in a team struggling for drive or direction. It’s a shame his promising career had to end here.

Burnley will rue not putting Arsenal to the sword in their nil-nil draw. The less said, the better! Finally, the game that effectively ended the title race saw a VAR-boosted Tottenham slay Manchester City two-nil, new signing Bergwijn scoring on debut as Manchester City whimpered and admitted defeat to Liverpool. Now for the first ever Premier League winter break!

Match Week 24 – YEEESSSSSSSSS!

Back again with the best bits from match week 24, including the race for survival, the race for European football, and the race for biggest disappointment of the last decade. Also, can’t forget to mention a few times that Leicester finally won again!

To start, the bottom of the table. Aston Villa beating Watford through a 90+5 minute goal from Tyrone Mings after Troy Deeneys headed effort had put Watford’s first in. It took Manchester City reject Douglas Luiz to get Villa back on track before Mings struck late. It’s heating up down there! Another important relegation battle saw Bournemouth take on Brighton, rolling out three-one winners after seven games without a win. Callum Wilson was on target to secure the victory after goals from Harry Wilson and an own goal from Pascal Gross. Aaron Mooy’s goal gave some consolation to Brighton fan’s, who can’t complain with their team’s performances having seen how they’ve performed in recent seasons.

Attempting to keep up the efforts of the South Coast, Southampton beat Crystal Palace, the same team who held Man City to a two all draw previously. A little bit embarrassing for Pep Guardiola I would think. Redmond and Armstrong secured the victory within 50 minutes, as Palace simply wasted their opportunities. Now, remember #SteveBruceOut? Safe to say Newcastle fans are swinging now, and Florian Lejeune will end up with a statue at this rate! They came back from two-nil down to score two goals in the 90+4 and 90+5 minutes. Lejeune stealing in for two within a minute. Ancelotti needs time with this rubbish Everton squad, but that was simply embarrassing.

Sheffield United performed admirably in their game against Man City, losing one-nil despite an inspirational performance from Dean Henderson. Honestly where’s his England call-up. With Pickford’s form, Henderson deserves to start in the next friendlies. Talking of England call-up’s, when will Vardy accept the call? Seeing how rubbish Kane is, he is what the country needs up front! Chelsea drew two-two with Arsenal despite Luiz’s sending off. How they let Arsenal back in can only really be compared with THAT Gerrard slip. Tottenham run out lucky two-one winners in their match against a Norwich side still rooted to the bottom of the table. Shame if they go down, they possess some nice attacking play but a defence like play-doe.

Manchester were at it again… losing two-nil to Burnley at Old Trafford for the first time since 1962! It was nothing short of shambolic, but they will accept the second as a wonder goal from Rodriguez. Leicester puled off a four-one win over a poor West Ham side whose only goal came from a Noble penalty. Ayoze Perez was on fire, but I am praying Vardy’s injury isn’t too serious! Finally, Liverpool. Two-one winners against a spirited Wolves side, with a game in hand. If Liverpool throw this away, they will never live it down!

First Weekly Round-Up… Why did we have to lose this week?

This weekend saw Liverpool put one hand and a finger (or two) on the Premier League title, Manchester City and Leicester City fell further behind, and the “basement boys” as Hoffenheim have accordingly dubbed Norwich, secured an important victory.

To start the weekend, the opening game was a resurgent Watford versus a leaky Tottenham Hotspurs. Despite their normally uncoordinated defensive approach, Spurs withheld Watford pressure throughout most of the game, until VAR happened. VAR drama is never too far away with Spur’s (Champion’s League anyone?) with Watford awarded a penalty (SAVED) and goal-line technology ruling out a Spurs goal in the 90+2 minute by 10.04 millimetre’s!

Continuing, Arsenal looked back to their old, dreary days as they played out a one all draw with Sheffield. Imagine, Sheffield United in the Europa League! What will this world have come to? The same result was played out between West Ham and Everton, despite West Ham dominating and simply just being the better team. The Carlo Ancelotti revolution may take a while. In the battle of the one-one draw’s, Brighton and Aston Villa shared the spoils, a rather easy game to miss, unless you were one of the Leicester faithful happy to see that Danny Drinkwater is actually alive and that he has not just faded away altogether.

As mentioned previously Norwich, despite trolling from across the water, were able to secure a one-nil win in a tight and ugly affair. Bournemouth decided to play with two goalkeepers as Steve Cook provided a save any actual goalie would be proud of. His sending off for his audition and Teemu Pukki’s penalty gave Norwich the win. In turn, Norwich’s Ben Godfrey decided to attempt ankle amputation on Callum Wilson, an apparent yellow card challenge upgraded to red by VAR and THE PITCHSIDE MONITOR! Took them long enough to use them.

Crystal Palace decided Liverpool should have some help, providing a two-two draw against Manchester City that ruined Pep Guardiola’s birthday celebrations. He must have flashbacks every time he sees this fixture now seeing how these home games against Palace have played out. Wolves had to fight back from two-nil down against Southampton for their three-two win. This sees them up to sixth, still in the hunt for Europe despite the fact it will be gone in 11 months. Newcastle upset the big six, scalping Chelsea as the Lampard revolution continued to suffer against the smaller teams.

Finally, the two biggest results. Liverpool echoed the class of United’s Ferguson era, a rather mean taunt, in their two-nil win whilst Leicester threw it all away and lost despite dominating Burnley. Harvey Barnes may have finally scored, despite his usual useless demeanour on the pitch, but it was easy to see where it was going when Nick Pope saved Vardy’s tame penalty to secure a two-one victory. Maybe it is time to bring back Chris Wood to the King Power.