Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 31 & FA Cup Quaterfinals
Matchweek 31:
Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle
Burnley 1-2 Leicester
West Ham 4-3 Huddersfield
Fulham 1-2 Liverpool
Everton 2-0 Chelsea
As you can tell, only half of the matchweek 31 matches were played this past weekend and that was due to games being postponed for the FA Cup. This just means that the table will be uneven for the foreseeable future which kind of sucks in my opinion because it’s nice to see the teams at the top battling it out every week to be on the same number of games played, otherwise it doesn’t seem to have the same excitement or intensity.
Liverpool Almost Blow Their Title Chances
James Milner penalty
Photo Credit: The Independent
Despite the fact that Liverpool have been blowing their title chances on what seems like a weekly basis over the past month and a half, they almost went nuclear on Sunday and threw away any chance they had of winning the title. They only thing that saved them was Fulham’s goalkeeper, Sergio Rico, making an incredibly awful play on a shot and as a result making an even dumber decision to hold Liverpool attacker, Sadio Mane, which resulted in a penalty to Liverpool. James Milner stepped up to the spot and buried the penalty to give Liverpool the 2-1 advantage in the 81st minute which they would hold on to till the final whistle. Scrapping out wins is what title winners do, but still not a good look to need a penalty to beat lowly Fulham. Not only are Fulham sitting in 19th place and already relegated, barring a Leicester City miracle, they’ve given up 70 goals this season. I made a joke a week or two ago that surely to god Liverpool can break their goal drought and score some goals on the road against Fulham, but that looks to not be the case. 2-1 win, which is all that matters in the end, but a lot of worrisome signs for Liverpool with 7 matches remaining. Liverpool temporarily jump into 1st place with Manchester City having a game in hand, and Liverpool’s next game in two weeks after the international break is against Tottenham.
Top Four Out Of The Question For Chelsea
This Chelsea team just doesn’t have it. They can’t score to save their lives and it’s not for lack of chances. Chelsea dominated the first half of the game against Everton yesterday and could have had 2-3 goals in the first 15-20 mins of the game, but instead wasn’t able to find the back of the net once and went on to lose 2-0. Surprise, surprise, Chelsea dominated the game with 67% possession and created 15 chances to Everton’s 9, but in the end it’s the same old song, meaningless possession. They’ve now fallen 3 pts behind Arsenal, who sit in 4th place, and only continue to drop further back. On the bright side, their is another route for Chelsea to qualify for Champions League next year that doesn’t involve finishing in the top four. That is of course, winning the Europa League. Chelsea are through to the quarterfinals of the Europa League and have a very favorable matchup against Slavia Prague. While it would be a tall task for Chelsea to go all the way, it should be the sole focus of the club. Europa League or break for Chelsea.
FA Cup Quarterfinal Round:
Swansea 2-3 Man City
Millwall 2-2 Brighton (5-4 on Pens)
Watford 2-1 Crystal Palace
Wolves 2-1 Man United
Photo Credit: Fox Soccer
As you can see, this FA Cup title is Manchester City’s to lose. Swansea got off to a hot start going up 2-0 inside 30 minutes, but City battled back and snuck through to the semifinal. Manchester City will take on Brighton in the semifinal on April the 6th. Brighton followed a very similar path that City had in their quarterfinal game going behind 2-0 and having to battle back to advance. Brighton actually scored 2 goals in the 88th and 90th minute of the game that forced extra time and eventually penalties which Brighton would win. On the other side, Watford took care of a hot Crystal Palace team 2-1 and Wolves upset Manchester United 2-1. The honeymoon stage is over for Ole Gunnar, granted it last 3 months, as they’ve now picked up a big loss to Arsenal and got bounced from the FA Cup in the last 2 weeks. At least they are still in Champions League. Watford will face off against Wolves on April 7.
Other Thoughts:
We are on to another international break which means that Premier League action will return on March 30th.
The quarterfinal draw in Champions League has been made with Manchester United getting Barcelona, Liverpool getting Porto and Tottenham and Manchester City facing off against each other. The first legs of the quarterfinal matchups will take place on April 9th and 10th.
Congrats to Huddersfield who scored 3 goals on Saturday against West Ham. 3 goals is 1/5th of the total amount of goals they had scored up until that point in the season, which yes was 30 games. Don’t let Huddersfield get hot.
International breaks suck
Thanny