It was the weekend of Premier League football we’d all been waiting for, and despite not being quite the classic that many people had hoped, the situation is beginning to become much clearer, and what place better to start than the game at Upton Park on Saturday.
Mourinho’s Chelsea went into the game knowing that West Ham were no slouch – of course they had already beaten Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City this season, and key players such as Dmitri Payet & co were firing at all cylinders. But the game couldn’t have started any worse for Jose – they went behind after 17 minutes due to a powerful strike by Mauro Zarate.
And it got worse for the blues as holding midfielder Nemanja Matic was sent off for two yellow cards inside nine minutes going into the break. At that point, you what have been forgiven for thinking that the interval would do Chelsea good, but Mourinho didn’t help their cause, after he went to speak to referee John Moss, and was sent to the stands for the remainder of the match as a result.
But it didn’t seem to matter when defender Gary Cahill pounced on an opportunity to level the score after 55 minutes, and it looked like Chelsea could push on and go for the winner until the 79th minute, when substitute Andy Carroll, who has suffered from many injuries in the past, headed home the winner, to complete Mourinho’s misery.
Elsewhere this Saturday, Aston villa lost yet another match, this time at the hands of Swansea,when despite leading through Jordan Ayew , goals from Gylfi Siggurdson and Andre Ayew (Jordan’s brother) turned the game on it’s head, and this result eventually lead to the sacking of manager Tim Sherwood. The away team also prevailed at Carrow Road where Salomon Rondon bagged another three points for West Bromwich Albion, and goals from Troy Deeney and Almen Abdi secured a win for Watford at the hands of Stoke.
Also on Saturday, Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy continued his hot streak for Leicester by making it ten goals for the season and seven games in a row in which he has scored, therefore resulting in a very good three points for the Foxes against a strong Crystal Palace side. Finishing 1-0, Leicester had finally pulled off a clean sheet for the first time this season, and they can now enjoy their pizza.
In the late kick-off, an impressive Arsenal side saw off Everton after goals from Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny gave them a 2-1 win, which temporarily resulted in them going top of the table, before the exciting Sunday fixtures took place.
We began with the Wear-Tyne derby, as Sam Allardyce incredibly carried on a run of four Sunderland managers to face Newcastle in their second game in charge. What wasn’t set in stone though, was the fact that the other three managers had all won the derby in their second game in charge, but, after the disappointing defeat to West Brom last week, Big Sam didn’t let us down, with a comprehensive 3-0 win against their bitter rivals, just like when Paulo Di Canio took over. The big moment came in first half stoppage time when Fabricio Collocini fouled Steven Fletcher and therefore conceded a penalty and was sent off by referee Robert Madley. The decision to award a penalty for Collocini’s shoulder barge seemed fair, but Newcastle could argue that it did not warrant a sending off as it appeared that Steven Fletcher looked unlikely to win the ball ahead of goalkeeper Rob Elliot. Nevertheless, Newcastle were down to ten men and Adam Johnson confidently converted the penalty, making that his fourth goal in a Wear-Tyne derby. Later on in the second half, Billy Jones made sure of Yann M’Villa’s shot to extend their lead, before an exquisite pass by of all people, centre-back Younes Kaboul set up Steven Fletcher to seal the win.
Following this game was an even bigger game that everyone had been waiting for, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to the billing as a good defensive display from both teams resulted in the game finishing 0-0, and Manchester City regaining their spot at the top of the table in the derby with Man United. Due to David Silva and Sergio Aguero’s absence, Pellegrini deployed Wilfried Bony as striker and Yaya Toure ahead of Fernando and Fernandinho, with Raheem Sterling on the left and Kevin De Bruyne on the right. One of the possible reasons why this game finished 0-0 (other than the solid defensive performances) was that neither of their inform players shone, De Bruyne unable to get much success against Marcus Rojo and likewise with Sterling against Antonio Valencia. It seemed as if the pair were crying out to be swapped, as Rojo’s intelligence allowed him to deal with De Bruyne, and Valencia was just as quick as Sterling, but Valencia isn’t as intelligent and therefore would have struggled to deal with the classy Belgian and Rojo lacks as much pace, and also wouldn’t have to been able to deal with Sterling. Pellegrini acted on this and sent De Bruyne out to the left and brought on the fresh legs and pace of Jesus Navas, but while the out of form Spanish winger struggled on the right, Louis Van Gaal countered the threat of De Bruyne by replacing Valencia with Matteo Darmian.
Going forward themselves United lacked creativity, but Anthony Martial had a positive performance on the left, and substitute Jesse Lingard hit the bar late on as the biggest chance of the game went begging.
Finishing off the weekend were Liverpool at home to Southampton, and Bournemouth vs Tottenham. In the game at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp’s men drew once again with the score 1-1, and the point for each team at the end of the game seemed fair. Christian Benteke looked to have given Klopp his first win as Liverpool boss with a superb header from James Milner’s cross, but their lead was cancelled out when Sadio Mane bundled the ball across the line after Gaston Ramirez’s header. Mane was later sent off for two quickfire yellow cards and will miss Southampton’s game against Bournemouth this Sunday as the match finished 1-1.
Finally in the game down on the South coast, despite taking an early lead through Matt Richie after just 49 seconds, goals from Moussa Dembele, Erik Lamela and a much needed hat-trick for Harry Kane eventually saw the game finish 1-5 to the visitors.
So, there you have it- City are still top of the table but Arsenal are following closely behind, things are getting worse for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea, and the two sons of Abedi Pele scored against each other at Villa Park as Tim Sherwood became the third managerial casualty of the season!