Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 30
Matchweek 30:
Crystal Palace 1-2 Brighton
Cardiff 2-0 West Ham
HUddersfield 0-2 Bournemouth
Leicester 3-1 Fulham
Newcastle 3-2 Everton
Southampton 2-1 Tottenham
Man City 3-1 Watford
Liverpool 4-2 Burnley
Chelsea 1-1 Wolves
Arsenal 2-0 Man United
To Start Off This Premier League Round-Up We’re Actually Heading To The Championship……
Photo Credit: ITV
Where Jack Grealish of Aston Villa got smoked by a spectator. And by smoked, I mean took a cheap shot from behind from a spectator that was running onto the pitch. Take a look here for yourself.
So this attack happened in the Championship(The second tier of English Football. Yes it’s incredibly stupid to call essentially the Triple AAA the Championship) game between cross town Birmingham rivals, Aston Villa and Birmingham City. Despite both of these teams being out of the Premier League, Aston Villa last played top flight football 3 seasons ago and Birmingham haven’t since 2011, these two clubs are still bitter rivals and as you can tell the game can got quite heated. But who in their right mind would have expected something like this in English football for crying out loud. Sure the fans are passionate but physically attacking a player is insane. I would expect something like this is in South America where the fans take hooliganism to an entirely different level which can become life threatening, granted most of their attacks seem to be on the referees and not players, but not in England. English football as of late has seemed to move past the dark days of the 80s & 90s when hooliganism ran amuck. All in all, not a good look for English football, but at least Jack Grealish was able to get his revenge and score what would go on to be the game winner.
The Race For The Top 4 Is All Over The Place
Photo Credit: NBC Sports Soccer
Heading into the weekend, Tottenham had a semi-comfortable 3 pt lead in third place, with United in 4th on 58 pts, Arsenal in 5th and 1 pt behind United, followed by Chelsea who were 1 pt behind Arsenal with 56 pts but also had a game in hand. Tottenham kicked off their game first of the 4 teams battling for the 3rd and 4th spots on Saturday morning against relegation contenders, Southampton. Tottenham got off to a hot start with a 26th minute Harry Kane goal , only to blow the game in the last 15 mins by allowing not 1 but 2 goals from Southampton to lose the game. Down goes Tottenham and a huge opportunity for the other clubs. Chelsea was next in line with their Sunday morning game against Wolverhampton. With the Tottenham loss and Chelsea having a game in hand, they were in control of their own destiny for the top 4 and could finish 3rd. Well, Chelsea were absolutely abysmal again. They dominated possession as per usual but had nothing to show for it. Wolves broke through in the 56th minute and were minutes away from pulling out the win until Eden Hazard showed a moment of brilliance and saved Chelsea from the L.
Still a huge, huge opportunity missed for Chelsea. Then finally we ended the weekend with Arsenal vs Manchester United. United, who have had all the momentum in the world and have stormed ahead of Arsenal in the table ended up blowing a huge opportunity to match Tottenham at 61 pts. Arsenal got out to a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute thanks to a swerving shot from outside the box by Granit Xhaka and then added another courtesy of a Aubameyang penalty.
In the end, Tottenham stay in 3rd but the lead is down to 1 pt with Arsenal closing the gap to 60 pts. Manchester United fall back to 5th and still sit at 58 points, while Chelsea are still in 6th with 57 pts but still have the game in hand. This is what’s great about the Premier League, anybody can win on any given day. With 8 games to go my prediction is Tottenham and United get the 3rd and 4th spots.
Other Thoughts:
Both Man City and Liverpool keep pace, with Man City having a 3-1 win over Watford and Liverpool topping Burnley 4-2. Of course the Liverpool game was at home for them to have scored 4 goals. Liverpool is on the road against Fulham next week so surely to god they can break their away goals drought. Man City meanwhile will not have any Premier League action this coming weekend as they will return to FA Cup action.
We are in to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup next weekend with Watford taking on Crystal Palace, Swansea City taking on Man City, Wolves taking on Man United and Millwall taking on Brighton. Would love to see some smaller clubs advance like Swansea and Millwall.
Chelsea’s 2 window transfer ban appeal has been upheld in record timing. Chelsea were given a two window transfer ban, which would mean this summer and next January they are unable to buy or sell players, and Chelsea appealed the decision. This has happened to multiple clubs, most notably Barcelona, and most clubs won the appeal to at least delay the ban so they would have one transfer window to prepare but apparently FIFA doesn’t agree that this should be the case with Chelsea. Chelsea even released a statement saying that they were “astonished” at the decision. This just goes to prove that FIFA does favor Barca like we’ve known all along.
The goal that just wouldn’t go in to finish off the blog. An unbelievable video from the Bundesliga as Hannover took on Bayer Levekusen in a blizzard where a shot on an empty net stopped just short of the line due to how much snow was on the pitch. Also Hannover, who could use any points they could get due to being in a relegation battle, ended up losing by just a goal.
Thanny