Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 10
Leicester City FC
Credit: SBnation
Matchweek 10:
Southampton 0-9 Leicester (Yes 9 goals is shockingly correct)
Man City 3-0 Aston Villa
Brighton 3-2 Everton
Watford 0-0 Bournemouth
West Ham 1-1 Sheffield United
Burnley 2-4 Chelsea
Newcastle 1-1 Wolves
Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace
Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham
Norwich 1-3 Man United
Leicester City Makes History
Congratulations to Leicester City for making history once again. This time it was Leicester City tying the record for largest win in Premier League history with their 9-0 win over Southampton on Friday. Now while they don’t own the outright record, they’re in good company as the only team to ever win by this big of a margin was the 1995 Manchester United squad that beat Ipswich Town 9-0. It’s funny that this is the second time this season that this has been a topic of discussion. Back on September 21, it was Manchester City beating Watford 8-0, which tied the 2nd largest win in Premier League history. Who would have thought that nearly a month later this would be topped, and by a team not name Liverpool or Manchester City. In remarkable fashion, hat-tricks by both Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez led the way to the absolute dismantling of Southampton. One has to wonder if there is any way that Southampton can rebound from this game. They’re sitting in 18th place and have to be a prime candidate for relegation. Here’s some of the many goals from that game (Refresh page if video doesn’t load).
Pulisic Has Finally Arrived
It has been tough sledding for Christian Pulisic so far at his new club, Chelsea, this season. After completing a $73 million dollar move from Borussia Dortmund last January, but not arriving to the squad until this summer, many US soccer fans were excited to see their star player shine in the biggest league in the world. The only problem is that the start of the season came and went and his minutes were few and far between and only getting smaller. While Pulisic was featured in the first few games of the season, mostly from the bench, there was a stretch between August 31st and September 24th in which he didn’t feature in any game. It also became somewhat normal for him to be left off the bench altogether. It was rather confusing, because as a Chelsea fan I can assure you that we need squad depth and he’s one of the more talented players in the squad. But since late September, Pulisic has started to get back in the squad and this past week for him couldn’t have gone better. He came on as a sub in Chelsea’s Champions League game last Wednesday and got the assist on the last minute game winning goal. He followed that up with a start against Burnley this past weekend where he would go on to score not only his first Premier League goal, but his first Premier League hat-trick. It was a perfect hat-trick with Pulisic scoring with his left foot, right foot and a header. American and Chelsea soccer fans rejoice, hopefully Lampard gives him more starts and this form can continue, which I’m confident that it can.
Other Notes:
Manchester United can’t convert a penalty to save their lives, but thankfully for them they were able to beat Norwich City 3-1 despite their two penalty misses. Rashford and Martial both missed from the spot, and Pogba is now where to even be seen in this United lineup.
Arsenal are a dumpster fire. The moment I saw that Arsenal let Crystal Palace pull a goal back and get back in the game, I knew they would go on to tie the game. Arsenal blew a 2-0 lead at home against Crystal Palace. To make matters worse, their captain, Granit Xhaka, was subbed off in the 61st minute and had a bit of a reaction with the crowd. So Arsenal fans booed their captain as he walked off, some were wishing he might walk a little faster. Xhaka returned the favor by tossing the armband on the ground at Aubameyang’s feet, cursing at the crowd and taking his jersey and dropping it on the ground as he walked in the tunnel. Lol the captain of the club did this. You have to strip him of the captaincy after this, right?
Liverpool survive early scare from Tottenham and get back to their winning ways with a 2-1 win. Granted they did need a 75th minute penalty to bail them out, but hey a win is a win.
Lastly, let me give Brighton a little love. I made a joke week 1 of the season when they beat Watford 3-0 that they wouldn’t score 3 goals again the rest of the season. Well I’ve been proven wrong as they not only dropped 3 on Tottenham a couple of weeks ago but scored 3 goals against Everton this past weekend. I had Brighton primed for relegation but maybe they do have some fight in them. Granted outside the 3 games where they have scored 3 goals each, they’ve only scored 3 total in the other 7 games.
Thanny