Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 23
Matchweek 23:
Wolves 4-3 Leicester
Watford 0-0 Burnley
Southampton 2-1 Everton
Newcastle 3-0 Cardiff
Man United 2-1 Brighton
Liverpool 4-3 Crystal Palace
Bouremouth 2-0 West Ham
Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
Huddersfield 0-3 Man City
Fulham 1-2 Tottenham
Disasterclass From Chelsea
Sarri could definitely go for a cig right about now, real shame England doesn’t allow him to smoke on the sidelines
Photo Credit: Daily Express
When I did the halfway point blog for the Premier League and made my predictions for the 2nd half of the season I chose Arsenal in the top 4 over Chelsea, and yesterday is the exact reason why, Chelsea can’t score. Despite Arsenal being in terrible form and a mess defensively, Chelsea not only lose but get shutout 2-0. Yesterday was a chance for Chelsea to go 9 pts clear of Arsenal had they won, but now they are separated by just 3 pts. Chelsea still sit in 4th place with 47 pts, but Arsenal and Man United are just behind with 44 pts each. At this point in time it’s Manchester United that scare me a lot more in the top 4 battle than Arsenal, as they’ve won 6 straight Premier League games.
So what went wrong with Chelsea yesterday? The actual question is, where do I start? Chelsea went in to yesterday’s game, still having not finalized their deal with Juventus for Higuain, so this lead to Maurizio Sarri trotting out a striker-less lineup. After eventually getting fed up with Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud, Sarri has deployed the striker-less formation with Hazard up top on multiple occasions and the results haven’t been any better. I don’t care if Higuain is on your team yet or not, I would rather have Morata or Giroud starting that having Hazard in the middle. Hazard plays best when he’s a winger, shocking to no one, and the team plays better when we have a focal point in the middle to target. Hazard isn’t that type of player, because guess what, he’s not a striker, Sarri!!! So that’s the first mistake, then add onto it the fact that that Kante is playing out of position, you have basically 3 CDMs on the field when Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic are playing at the same time, and the unwillingness by Sarri to rotate the squad or change anything up. It’s the same line-up and same substitutions week in and week out. So yeah, that’s what happened yesterday at The Emirates and Chelsea gave up 2 sloppy goals and couldn’t breakdown a miserable Arsenal defense.
I also just want it to be known that I don’t like a 4-3-3 formation. Give me a 4-2-3-1 any day of the week. I know that’s not Sarri’s style but a 4-2-3-1 fits this team so much better than this 4-3-3 nonsense. With a 4-2-3-1 you have Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic who can rotate at the CDMs, then you have Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Barkley, Hudson-Odoi, Loftus-Cheek who can rotate in the attacking midfield, and then boom have your striker up top, preferably his name is Higuian in the next couple of days.
Other Notes:
FA Cup action next week again, so next Premier League games are the following Tuesday and Wednesday on Jan. 29-30.
Liverpool gave up 3 goals yesterday in their 4-3 win over Crystal Palace and have now given up 13 goals so far on the season. While that’s still the best in the league at the moment, it’s pretty much official that the 04-05 Chelsea team (greatest PL team of all time), who hold the record for fewest goals allowed with 15 in a season, have nothing to worry about. As of the halfway point, this Liverpool team had only allowed 7 goals which put them on pace to beat the record but now having given up 6 goals since, there’s no shot they can beat that record. But hey, yesterday was the type of game that teams wanting to be champs have to win. An impressive 4-3 win by a pestering Crystal Palace, and Liverpool are just another step closer to that title.
Two of the most exciting matches of the year took place yesterday, as I just mentioned the Liverpool and Palace match which ended 4-3, and the other was the Saturday morning game between Wolverhampton and Leicester which also ended 4-3. Diogo Jota finished off his hat-trick and Leicester City with a goal in stoppage time.
Manchester United win-streak watch: 6 straight PL games and 7 straight games overall. Again, United sit just 3 pts back of 4th place.
Tottenham barely get by 19th place Fulham with a last minute winner from Harry Winks and move 4 pts clear in 3rd place.
Transfer News:
Higuain to Chelsea was reported a done deal by SkySport this past Wednesday but the deal still hasn’t been finalized or announced by clubs. Reports that Atletico Madrid are working on a deal to bring Alvaro Morata over on a loan after he is replaced by Higuain.
It appears West Ham have staved off interest from a Chinese team willing to offer big money for their star player, Marko Arnautovic.
Callum Hudson-Odoi continues to turn down contact offers from Chelsea to try an push through a deal to Bayern Munich according to reports. Even though he wouldn’t start for Bayern Munich either.
Midweek we have the 2nd leg of EFL Cup semifinal matches. The only one that matters (b/c City killed Burton 9-0 in their first leg) is Chelsea vs Tottenham in which Tottenham hold a 1-0 advantage.
Notable FA Cups next weekend: Asenal vs Man United on Friday and Crystal Palace vs Tottenham on Sunday.
Thanny