Premier League Review – Matchday 12
Friday 8th November, 2019
Norwich 0 Watford 2
Watford got their first Premier League win of the season and leap-frogged over Norwich, who have now lost 6 of their last 7 games since they beat Manchester City in mid-September. Deulofeu gave the visitors an early lead after he took advantage of a midfield error and advanced all the way to the Norwich area before slotting inside Krul’s right post. (2 minutes) Foster was out well to clear the ball off the feet of the advancing Hernandez. Pukki’s attempted follow-up shot was blocked.
Andre Gray made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute with a neat flicked finish after Deulofeu crossed from the left. Watford held onto their two-goal advantage despite losing Kabasele to a second yellow card after 65 minutes.
Saturday 9th November, 2019
Chelsea 2 Crystal Palace 0
Chelsea won a sixth consecutive league game. Gary Cahill played for Palace against his old team. This was Palace’s ninth consecutive league game in London!
Guaita made a good early save from Pulisic who had shown useful skill inside the box. James was fouled less than 25 yards from goal, and Willian hit the free kick wide. Milivojevic hit a free kick wide of the far post at the other end after Zaha had been fouled. Cahill blocked a goal-bound shot by Willian on the stroke of half-time.
Abraham gave Chelsea the lead in the 52nd minute, at the end of a slick move with Willian making the final pass to Abraham’s feet. This was Abraham’s 10th league goal of the season. Pulisic hit a powerful right foot shot well saved by Guaita. Pulisic hit a pass to substitute Batshuayi whose deflected shot fell into the path of the advancing American to score Chelsea’s second goal. (79 mins)
Burnley 3 West Ham 0
Burnley bounced back from three consecutive defeats with this convincing win over a West Ham side which, like Spurs, hasn’t won a league game since September. Unlike Spurs the "Hammers" haven’t won any game in that time.
Burnley’s first goal came from a corner hit deep after 11 minutes. Tarkowski pushed the ball back to the middle where Barnes stabbed home for his first goal since August. Replays showed that the corner that led to the goal should have been a goal kick. VAR did not review that! Wood powered home a header after McNeil’s cross in the 36th minute, but VAR did disallow that goal for offside on the finest of margins. The same combination (McNeil’s cross and Wood’s finish) led to a confirmed goal in the 44th minute. This time Wood scored with his left foot.
McNeil starred for Burnley all afternoon, and after he won a corner which was taken by Westwood, West Ham’s reserve keeper Roberto simply flapped the ball into his own net. West Ham are missing Fabianski (who won’t be back for the Spurs game) and might regret letting Adrian go to Liverpool in the summer. Roberto did make three decent saves to keep the score at 3-0.
Newcastle 2 Bournemouth 1
Newcastle have lost only one of their last five games (that was at Chelsea) and won three. They might have the fans racing back to St. James’ Park yet! They went one down though to a 14th minute Harry Wilson goal in front of the Gallowgate End. Wilson’s left foot shot followed a clever corner move. Rico hit the woodwork with a shot from the left-hand side, with Dubravka beaten. Fraser also had Dubravka beaten but Yedlin was on hand to clear the shot from in front of his goal-line.
Saint-Maximin hit the crossbar with a rising shot after a mistake by Bournemouth’s Steve Cook, and Ramsdale had to save a shot by Willems. Former Spur DeAndre Yedlin did score with a flying header at the back post after Saint-Maximin’s shot was deflected in the 42nd minute.
The winning goal came in the 52nd minute and came from a Newcastle corner. The move and finish were not pretty, but Ciaran Clark’s scuffed shot crept inside the net to the left of the keeper. Saint-Maximin is an exciting player and had the ball cleared from his feet by Ramsdale after a great run. The follow-up shot by Almiron was deflected over the bar by his fallen team-mate.
Josh King had a great opportunity to equalise at the back post in the last throes of the game, but managed to put the ball wide.
Southampton 1 Everton 2
Everton took an early lead after 4 minutes at St. Mary’s. The goal came from a corner taken by Sigurdsson which was headed on by Holgate and headed past the Southampton keeper by Tom Davies. Later in the half McCarthy found himself having to push over a long shot by Davies which nearly caught out the keeper.
Southampton welcomed the return of Djenepo who hadn’t started a game since mid-September, and he won the corner which led to Danny Ings’ equaliser in the 50th minute. The corner had been picked up beyond the far post by Boufal, who crossed low into the 6-yard-area for Ings to finish. McCarthy saved well from Sigurdsson at the other end after Richarlison had raced away with the ball which had been lost by the “Saints” in midfield. Pickford flew to his right to save a Ward-Prowse free kick at the other end.
Everton secured the points in the 75th minute when Richarlison met Sidibe’s super cross from the right. It was a welcome three points for the “Toffees” which leaves Southampton stuck in the bottom three.
Spurs 1 Sheffield United 1
Spurs' goalscorer Son Heung-min was your Spurs Odyssey man of the match, and i can tell you he is our leading player after 17 games in all competitions so far. Spurs are the only team in the bottom half of the table with a positive goal difference, and I personally take that as a sign that we will return to the top half before long.
One regular correspondent - Peter Coton - has recently emigrated to Australia and his comments included the following:-
"I stayed up late to watch us bag 3 easy points and instead endured possibly the worst performance at home by a Spurs side in 3 decades. Where to start? The passing was uniformly bad, marking non-existent, desire absent and altogether it was a disaster. Of course I don't have access to all the facts/injuries etc., but there was no excuse for a shabby performance and only the dreaded VAR saved us from a humiliating defeat. McGoldricks 'goal' looked perfectly good to me and it would have been a travesty if Sheffield United hadn't left with something."
Leicester 2 Arsenal 0
Leicester climbed to second place and stayed there after Sunday’s games too. As a result of this win, they are one place and one point better off than they were after 12 games in the title winning season of 2015-16. As for Arsenal, they finished the weekend 8 points adrift of the top four.
Aubameyang and Lacazette threatened the Leicester goal in the early exchanges, and Vardy just failed to make contact with a cross by Perez. Maddison hit the roof of the Arsenal net with a free kick taken minutes before half-time.
Ndidi hit the bar with a shot early in the second half. Aubameyang had the ball in the net, but he had correctly been flagged offside. Leicester took the lead after 68 minutes when Vardy got on the end of a great team goal, with the ball having been moved from right to centre. Tielemans got the assist. Vardy had another shot saved by the legs of Leno.
Maddison made it 2-0 after 75 minutes following another good Leicester move. Ndidi had won the ball and there were subsequent passes by Ricardo and Vardy. The happy clappers of the King Power stadium were at full volume!
Sunday 10th November, 2019
Manchester United 3 Brighton 1
With this win, United leapt to seventh place in the Premier League. In fact, there are just three points separating fifth and fifteenth in the table. United have won five of their last six games in all competitions. The Old Trafford fans have seen their side score three in successive games this week.
Pereira opened the scoring after 17 minutes with a deflected shot after a pass from Martial. Pereira had initially advanced to the edge of the area after a previous ball by Martial. Two minutes later it was 2-0. James had been fouled out on the right and Maguire had challenged for the ball. It looked as if McTominay had scrambled the ball in, but it was given as a Propper own goal.
Fred hit a powerful shot from 25 yards in the second half which Ryan struggled to hold at the second attempt. Lewis Dunk put his side back in the game with a header from a corner in the 64th minute, but within two minutes Fred sent Martial away down the left channel. Martial passed inside to Rashford whose rasping shot went in off the underside of the bar. Rashford somehow missed an easier chance to score after a James run and low cross.
United were on the rampage and Ryan made good saves from Brandon Williams and (from close range) James. The Brighton keeper also managed to save between his legs from another Rashford shot. Martial wasted a good opportunity as added time loomed.
Wolves 2 Aston Villa 1
Wolves won the bragging rights after this Midlands Derby game. They also climbed into the top half of the table. Villa were again missing Jack Grealish. Villa also had number two keeper Jed Steer in goal in place of Tom Heaton, and when he landed awkwardly early in the game after reaching for a Doherty ball, he had to be replaced by Orjan Nyland.
Wolves definitely had the better of the first half and when Tyrone Mings felled Traore, Moutinho took the free kick passing to Ruben Neves outside the area from where Neves hammered the ball home.
Traore hit the bar after 50 minutes and was the provider for Jimenez to score after 84 minutes. Traore is having a successful season and made a very good run down the right wing before passing inside to the top-scoring Wolves striker.
Villa had shown little going forward but did give Wolves a late scare when Trezeguet’s shot was cleared from behind the line. Goal-line technology confirmed the goal.
Liverpool 3 Manchester City 1
This game had top billing for obvious reasons, and Liverpool have a nine-point lead over City as a result of their win. City aren’t even second as Leicester and Chelsea are a point closer to the Anfield side. Number two keeper Bravo was between the sticks for City due to Ederson’s thigh injury. Fabinho scored a fabulous goal with his right foot from over 25 yards after a poor City clearance, but City were upset over a handball in the Liverpool area by Trent Alexander-Arnold just before the goal in the sixth minute. No penalty was given, and the goal stood.
Liverpool scored a second goal in the 13th minute. Robertson crossed from the left and the ball bounced invitingly across the City area where Salah met it with a header into the net from the back of the 6-yard area. Anfield was rocking! City left back Angelino hit the outside of the post with a deflected shot at the other end. Firmino had a shot saved by Bravo, having been provided by Alexander-Arnold. Kyle Walker cleared the loose ball. Sergio Aguero was playing his 250th Premier League game for City, but he has still not scored at Anfield. Salah had a good shot well saved by Bravo, diving to his right.
Liverpool went three up in front of The Kop after 51 minutes. Henderson delivered a fine cross from the right and Mane headed home from the back post. Aguero missed a good chance to break that Anfield duck when De Bruyne crossed. Bernardo Silva got a goal back for City in the 78th minute after Angelino crossed from the left. The shot came from 15 yards and was inside Alisson’s left post. City wanted a second handball when Sterling hit Alexander-Arnold’s dangling arm with a strike almost as deliberate of that of Mane against Sissoko in the Champions League Final. Pep Guardiola was not happy, but claimed he was not being sarcastic when he shouted "Thank you” at referee Michael Oliver from close range in the middle of the pitch at the end of the game.
There was a spat between Liverpool substitute and Raheem Sterling at the end of the game which apparently carried over when the two players met at the England camp this week. As a result, Gareth Southgate has dropped Sterling from England’s first game against Montenegro.
You might like to check William Hill's big issues from Matchweek 12 of the Premier League
Fixtures & Results 08-10.11.19
Friday
Norwich 0-2 Watford
Saturday
Chelsea 2-0 C. Palace
Burnley 3-0 West Ham
Newcastle 2-1 B'mouth
S'hampton 1-2 Everton
Spurs 1-1 Sheff Utd
Leicester 2-0 Arsenal
Sunday
Man Utd 3-1 Brighton
Wolves 2-1 A. Villa
Liverpool 3-1 Man City
Premier League Table
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Liverpool 12 11 1 0 28-10 18 34
2. Leicester 12 8 2 2 29-8 21 26
3. Chelsea 12 8 2 2 27-17 10 26
4. Man City 12 8 1 3 35-13 22 25
=========================================
5. Sheff Utd 12 4 5 3 13-9 4 17
=========================================
6. Arsenal 12 4 5 3 16-17 -1 17
7. Man Utd 12 4 4 4 16-12 4 16
8. Wolves 12 3 7 2 16-15 1 16
9. B'mouth 12 4 4 4 15-15 0 16
10. Burnley 12 4 3 5 17-18 -1 15
11. Brighton 12 4 3 5 15-17 -2 15
12. C. Palace 12 4 3 5 10-16 -6 15
13. Newcastle 12 4 3 5 11-18 -7 15
14. Spurs 12 3 5 4 18-17 1 14
15. Everton 12 4 2 6 13-18 -5 14
16. West Ham 12 3 4 5 14-20 -6 13
17. A. Villa 12 3 2 7 17-20 -3 11
=========================================
18. Watford 12 1 5 6 8-23 -15 8
19. S'hampton 12 2 2 8 11-29 -18 8
20. Norwich 12 2 1 9 11-28 -17 7
