Chelsea and Liverpool gain, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham drop points and Jose Mourinho faces his worst defeat with United in his Stanford Bridge homecoming. Here are the highlights from key results of week 9 of the Premier league.
Bournemouth 0-0 Tottenham
Tottenham still remain the only unbeaten team in the Premier League but with 4 draws then put of 9 they are floundering away points. It seems October has not been good for them and they seem to have lost their goal scoring touch. Son Heung-min, who was player of the month for September was substituted after half time summing up Spurs form. Bournemouth will be extremely happy to get one point out of it for they were beaten 5-1 in the same fixture last season.
Though Spurs are only a point away from the leaders they will be kicking themselves for not making most of the opportunities to open up a gap at the top.
Arsenal 0-0 Middlesbrough
The newly promoted side frustrated the Gunners on Arsene Wenger’s 67th birthday. It was well not exactly a Happy Birthday for the boss and could have been worse had Cech not been up to the task. Infact the match was mostly about the keepers with Cech standing tall for Arsenal and Victor Valdes for the Boro.
Much was expected from Arsenal coming on back of a 6-0 win the midweek Champions League but they were held for a draw. The draw however takes them on top of the table with 20 points with three sides now level on the same points.
Leicester City 3-1 Crystal Palace
Leicester City seem to be returning to winning ways. A win in the Champions league on Tuesday night and a 3-1 win over Crystal palace summed up a perfect week for reigning Premier league Champions.
Claudio Ranieri made two changes to the team that beat Copenhagen 1-0 midweek. He dropped Marc Albrighton and Jamie Vardy in favour of Musa and Okazaki and the Italian’s decision paid off with both men ending on the scoring sheet as Leicester scored 3 before Palace got one back in the 85th minute as a consolation. Foxes are well on target to avoid the relegation battle as per Ranieri first goal and when top teams dropping points they could well be in the mix.
Liverpool 2-1 West Brom
After a stutter against Manchester United the Reds were back to their scoring best however the scoreline may not tell you the true story. But the result sure takes Liverpool to the top spot with Manchester City and Arsenal and further strengthens their title credentials. On a day when most top teams drew Liverpool were the only one barring Chelsea to come up with 3 points.
Mane and Coutinho were on the score sheets for Reds however the only possible threat that Liverpool faces which teams will look to expose is with set pieces. West Brom managed to pull one back from a set piece and Klopp needs to find a way to stop giving away goals from set pieces. Also barring the goaless draw Liverpool have failed to keep a clean sheet.
Manchester City 1-1 Southampton
After a dream start as Manchester City manager Per Guardiola seem to have lost his way. he just cannot figure out a way to win. After winning 10 matches,City have lost 2 and drawn 3 of their previous five matches. After suffering a humiliation at the hands of Barcelona in the mid week City were expected to come out all guns blasting but its was the Saints which took the lead in the 27th minute through Redmond.
City’s best player at the start of the season Kevin Du Bryne seems like a shadow of the past. Such was the case that he was subbed off after half time for Iheanacho who scored the equalizer in the 55th minute. It seems Pep cannot turn around his side winless ways and they have all but given away their 6 points lead that they had at one point in time in the table. With City facing off United in the mid week EFL clash it will be exciting as both teams are going through a slump maybe a high intensity encounter may turn their fortunes around.
Chelsea 4-0 Manchester United
Jose home coming was put to the axe by an inspirational Chelsea side. Conte’s men were ready from the word go as Pedro putting behind his last season woes behind scored the fastest premier league goal of the season. 30 seconds all it took for Chelsea to lead 1-0 and if that was less they made it 2-0 at the 20 minute mark. Both goals coming from United’d defensive lapse with defenders caught sleeping on both occasions. United had their chances in the first half but were not convincing in front of the goal.
With the two goal cushion and a host of fast players Chelsea sat deep and pounced on counter attack with United probing forward to look for goals. Eden hazard was a man on purpose he wanted to prove a point to Jose and with some brilliant movement in the box and poor marking he scored Chelsea’s third at the hour mark and then Kante the 40 million but from Leicester scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea to add insult to injury. The win takes Chelsea on 19 points one point away from the leaders Unites stay on 14 and future looking dark.
All teams will now focus on the midweek League Cup ties with United derby and Liverpool v/s Tottenham being the most sought after matches.