Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 20
Midweek Scores:
Fulham 1-1 Wolves
Liverpool 4-0 Newcastle
Tottenham 5-0 Bournemouth
Man United 3-1 Huddersfield
Leicester 2-1 Man City
Crystal Palace 0-0 Cardiff
Burnley 1-5 Everton
Brighton 1-1 Arsenal
Watford 1-2 Chelsea
Southampton 1-2 West Ham
Weekend Scores:
Fulham 1-0 Huddersfield
Brighton 1-0 Everton
Leicester 0-1 Cardiff
Tottenham 1-3 Wolves
Watford 1-1 Newcastle
Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal
Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea
Burnley 2-0 West Ham
Southampton 1-3 Man City
Man United 4-1 Bournemouth
So Liverpool eh……
We might be just 1 game over the halfway point this season but we are dangerously close to Liverpool being crowned champions. Liverpool continue to impress picking up a 4-0 win over Newcastle midweek and then smoking Arsenal 5-1 on Saturday(Feed me ArsenalFanTV). I mean what else is there to say at this point, they’ve scored the 2nd most goals in the league and have only allowed 8 goals through 20 games which is half as many as the 2nd best in the league. I don’t want to be dramatic but any result other than a Manchester City win in the Liverpool and City matchup this Thursday and the league is over. You had Tottenham who was starting to sneak themselves in the title race and went and lost a 3-1 game to Wolves at home. Not a good result considering Tottenham lead 1-0 through the first 70 mins of the game. Tottenham now sit 9 points back of Liverpool in 3rd place. This is why Thursday’s match between Liverpool and Manchester City is the biggest game of the season. City currently sit 7 points back, and while I fully expect Liverpool to hit a rough patch at some point, so will City to so they desperately need to bring this lead down to only 4 points.
Not A Good Look For Mourinho
So I’m writing this blog and the Manchester United game isn’t over yet but they’re up 4-1 so i’m going to assume that they’re going to win, but either way what a start to life after Mourinho. A 5-1 win over Cardiff, a 3-1 win over Huddersfield and now a 4-1 win over Bournemouth. That’s 12 goals they’ve scored in 3 games without Mourinho, compared to the 29 goals they scored in 17 games with Mourinho. Also, surprise, surprise but Paul Pogba has been on fire since. In the dying days of Mourinho’s tenure, Pogba wasn’t even starting for United and in the 3 games since he has 4 goals and 3 assists. But we all know he will regress at some point because that’s what Pogba does. He’s one of the most inconsistent players in the world of his caliber. He’ll play a string of games where he looks like one of the top midfielders in the world and then go on a streak where he’s average at best, so don’t get too caught up in the Pogba hype. As a result of this string of results for United and Arsenal failing to win against Brighton and getting smoked by Liverpool, Man United have climbed within 3 points of Arsenal for 5th place but still sit 8 points behind Chelsea in 4th. Again, this is a nice little run that United has put together since Mourinho being fired but the real question is how long can they keep this up and what will the team look like against better competition? Man United are away at Newcastle on Wednesday.
Other Notes:
Chelsea pick up back to back wins this week after losing to Leicester last week and are now 5 points clear of Arsenal in 5th place and are only 2 points back of Tottenham in 3rd place.
7th place through 13th place are still just separated by 4 points.
Midweek Premier League matches coming up, followed by FA Cup matches next weekend.
We are just 2 days away from the start of the January transfer window. For those who aren’t familiar, the month of January, teams across Europe are allowed to buy and sell players. The January transfer window usually doesn’t have the big marquee transfers that we see in the summer, but it’s still a good opportunity for teams to add solid players or missing pieces.
Arsenal’s 5-1 defeat against Liverpool takes me back to the good ol days when Arsene Wenger was coach. But seriously it’s funny that Arsenal fans are talking about that performance not being Emery’s fault since these aren’t “his players” but at the same time it the same players that you complained about Wenger not doing enough with. Actually if anything, this squad is better than the one that Wenger guided to many top 4 finishes and just missed out on the last 2 seasons. I’m not saying that Arsenal weren’t due for a change at head coach but I’m not sure I understand giving Emery a pass for how yesterday went because that was a disaster.
Liverpool are so damn good and cocky right now that you got Roberto Firmino scoring no-look goals
Photo Credit: Fox Sports