Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 32
Matchweek 32:
Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill
Fulham 0-2 Man City
Man United 2-1 Watford
Leicester 2-0 Bournemouth
Crystal Palace 2-0 Huddersfield
Burnley 2-0 Wolves
Brighton 0-1 Southampton
West Ham 0-2 Everton
Cardiff 1-2 Chelsea
Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham
Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle
Sarri Was Roughly 6 Minutes From Being Fired
In the early Sunday morning fixture between Chelsea and Cardiff City, you had one team who’s talented enough to be a top 4 team and another team who is shaping up to be a relegated. Guess which team probably should have ended up winning this game? That’s right, it was Cardiff City, the team that is sitting in a relegation spot and barring them reeling off some wins in these final weeks will be playing second tier football next year. Now despite Chelsea continuously looking clueless in attack and Cardiff having a 1-0 lead with less than 10 mins to go in the game, they came out losers in this game. It all started with a corner which led to Marcos Alonso heading it towards goal to an offiside Cesar Azpilicueta who scored the goal. They were a lot of moving pieces in this goal so it’s easy to see how this offsides was missed, but Azpilicueta was offsides by a good margin and this led to Chelsea tying the game 1-1. I don’t feel bad for this goal for 2 reasons. Cardiff City’s owner has a history of being a jackass so good riddance if they get relegated and also it’s about time that Chelsea catches a break. Then Chelsea were able to follow this up with a 90th minute goal courtesy of Ruben Loftus-Cheek. So there you have it, 6 minutes away from a loss to Cardiff that would have surely been the final straw for Maurizio Sarri and he looks to have escaped.
Now just because Chelsea came out on top doesn’t mean the Chelsea board should overlook this game. Tell me if you’ve heard this story before, but Chelsea dominated passing and possession but horrible in the final third of the pitch. To tell you the truth, I can’t remember the last good performance by Chelsea. Win, draw or lose, they’ve been terrible for the past couple of months. You’ve got to score goals and when you can’t you got to change it up and try something different. Then you follow that up with Sarri’s team selection which just continues to boggle the mind. The club is in must win mode to make the top 4, which is somehow still attainable, and Sarri leaves Eden Hazard on the bench. We only need to win every match we possibly can at this point in the season so let’s leave a top 5 player in the world on the bench. Kante being on the bench I have less of a gripe with, because while i think that a Jorginho and Kante combo would kill in a 4-2-3-1, Sarri was obviously going with a more attacking group with today’s line-up. Granted I would have started Loftus-Cheek over Kovacic. And lastly, you have Sarri just continuing to leave Callum Hudson-Odoi on the bench. While I’m not clamoring for CHO to be starting every match like some fans, he’s proven to a goal-scoring threat and in a game like this to leave him on the bench is ridiculous. I want to give Sarri the benefit of the doubt but I just don’t see anyway that he can succeed at Chelsea going forward. It’s time for him to go.
Arsenal Out Of Nowhere To 3rd Place
It seems like a short time ago that Arsenal were sitting in 6th place after getting handled by Man City 3-1. And well, it actually was. It was just 6 matches ago and here they are somehow sitting in third place. That’s how quickly things can change in the Premier League. The most shocking thing to me is how bad their team looks on paper. While their attack is second to none, the rest is pretty meh and I would say they have the worst overall line-up of the top 6 teams at the moment. Aubameyang and Lacazette have combined for 30 goals so far, and again their attack is nothing to mess with. An attack that good can keep Arsenal in any game no matter how bad the defense is. Granted I do have to give the defense some credit. While I don’t trust a back 3 consisting of any Koscielny, Papastathopoulos, Mustafi and Monreal as far as I can throw them, they’ve actually played pretty great since that Man City defeat only allowing 3 goals in 6 games since. The real question is can Arsenal hang on to this spot. With 7 games left and a relatively easy schedule remaining, as they have no top 6 teams left to play, they have a 2 pt lead. Everton, Watford and Wolves away from home could be tricky though. My pick back at the halfway point was that Arsenal would snag the 4th place spot due to their scoring and here they’ve gone on and gotten themselves into third.
Other Thoughts:
You need luck to win the title and luck is exactly what Liverpool received yesterday. In what was shaping up to be a 1-1 draw against fellow top 4 team, Tottenham, Liverpool took the lead in the 90th minute thanks to an own goal from defender Toby Alderweireld. Liverpool have a 2 pt lead over Man City, but City also has a game in hand. All Liverpool can do is win out and hope City drops points along the way.
Speaking of Tottenham, who at one point had a nice lead over 4th place when they were in 3rd and even looked like they could challenge for the title, they have a whopping 1 pt in their last 5 games. Losses to Burnley, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool, and then a draw against Arsenal. While it’s a tough stretch of games, 1 pt in 5 games is outrageous. Tottenham could well be on their way to missing the top 4.
Also you know when this awful form from Tottenham started? When Harry Kane returned. I joke after they lost to Burnley in Kane’s first game back after being out for over a month and now look at them. But he obviously not the problem scoring 3 goals in 5 games back. Maybe learn to play defense, Tottenham.
Gonzalo Higuain has to be better if Chelsea are going to get top 4. Just 3 goals in 8 games, and while it could be worse, it could also be a lot better. Maybe not the greatest signing but at least it’s just a loan deal, granted that still leaves a huge void for Chelsea going into the summer with a transfer ban.
With Cardiff losing to Chelsea, we all but have our 3 relegation teams. Huddersfield and Fulham are gone and have been gone for sometime , while Cardiff now drop 5 pts back of 17th place, granted they do have a game in hand. Cardiff would need to reel off 3 or 4 wins in these last 7 games to secure safety, so not likely to happen.
Thanny