Kieran Davies rounds up a week of bouncing back, a brace of Harrys, and cats with no whiskers.
After another weekend of highs and lows in the Premier League, the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ again managed to come up with excuses for his sides’ lack of points this season, this time declaring that his side is the unluckiest team in the Premier League. It is possible for a team to be unlucky in a game, but in twelve games? Mourinho must employ a clowder of black cats to meander in front of his players as they step off the team bus every week at various locations around the UK and Europe. I wonder if the cats earn similar wages to his band of cursed footballers? After watching the early kick off with Arsenal, as a ‘neutral’ I wouldn’t have described them as unlucky. They were probably the better team over the course of the game but considering that, they really didn’t create too much. Cech made a couple of good saves but they were both chances from distance. Jose also went on to say how his defence were phenomenal. I’ve tried googling the word ‘phenomenal’ in Portugese just in case it means ‘four individuals, never playing as unit, looking solid as long as no one attacks them’ but it seems the word isn’t in the Portugese language. Let’s face facts, Arsenal fans were left feeling they had less opportunities than a Mexican illegal immigrant at a Donald Trump rally yet they still managed to come away with a point thanks to super-sub Olivier Giroud. While Jose publicly outed Marcus Rashford as being culpable for the goal, I would actually cite Phil Jones as the main contributory factor. Whilst marking no one when the cross was delivered, he shows the spatial awareness of a cat with no whiskers, completely oblivious to the oncoming Giroud behind him. United now have less points after twelve games than David Moyes achieved. Mourinho needs to stop talking and start doing as his side find themselves 9 points behind the league leaders.
Chelsea now lead the way in the title race after a single goal victory away at Middlesbrough with a Diego Costa goal. That’s six consecutive wins and also six consecutive cleansheets for Antonio Conte’s side. After winning the manager of the month award, justly so on current form, the Italian’s Chelsea team will fancy themselves to go the distance without the distraction of European football. Despite their impenetrable form at the back, even a Middlesbrough team firing more blanks than the territorial army managed to create chances. The Blues next two games should be a real test of their defensive resolve as they face Tottenham and Manhester City. He may not get any birthday cake, he may have had less games than a branch of Woolworths this season, but Yaya Toure bounced back in true style this weekend. Reinstated to the Man City team after apologising to the manager (allegedly this was spurred on after his brother Kolo told him he had sorted a move to Celtic for him in January) Toure scored both goals in an important 2-1 win away to Crystal Palace. Currently Alan Pardew couldn’t get a win defending an innocent man in court with DNA evidence of the actual criminal. His Palace team are flirting dangerously with the bottom three. His huge outlay on Christian Benteke has yet to reap its reward with him hitting the back of the target less than an armed insurgent. The Eagles will need to find some form soon before heading into the busy Christmas fixture schedule.
At White Hart Lane this weekend it was a case of the two Harry’s as goals from Harry Winks and Harry Kane saw off Bilic’s West Ham. Plus the two Harry’s sounded better than the headline ‘Co-Kane’ and the legal team said it was less of a worry to them. The Hammers will feel they did enough in this game to come away with all three points but they didn’t take their chances when they had the lead and allowed Tottenham the chance to turn this game around late on. It was a big win for Pochettino’s men as the three points propelled them back into the top five, leaving United five points behind them in sixth place. Swansea City find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table despite earning a creditable draw at Goodison Park. They took the lead through a goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson just before half time and their new manager Bob Bradley would be forgiven for thinking his side were about to gain their first win under his management until a late Seamus Coleman goal ruined the day for the American. Given the Welsh side’s plight currently those two points dropped even at this early stage of the season are massive to them. It was enough to see them change places with David Moyes’ Sunderland after an emphatic win at the ironically named Stadium of Light. There have been weeks where the home fans probably wished Jim could fix it for them to see nothing, the football was that poor, this week was not it though. Playing a struggling Hull City at home was just what the doctor ordered with Moyes’ team running out 3-0 winners. Although the scoreline sounds very convincing, Hull did have chances and some excellent saves by Jordan Pickford and some resolute defending got them the cleansheet they deserved. Jermain Defoe bagged his 150th Premier League goal and his form could be worth its weight in gold in securing the Premier League status of The Mackems.
Showing how quickly the league table can change in-form Stoke City welcomed Bournemouth at the bet365 Stadium. The form guide would say Hughes’ resurgent Stoke would win this one but Howe’s Cherries managed to get a rare three points on the road. Even a very dubious penalty awarded to the home side wasn’t enough to derail Bournemouth as Bojan almost justly hit the woodwork. The win meant that Bournemouth leapfrogged Stoke in the table to finish the weekend in the top half of the table. The current champions, Leicester, are in serious danger of getting themselves dragged into a relegation battle, now only two points off the bottom three. This weekend they travelled to Watford to face Walter Mazzarri’s side. All the action in this one seemed to happen in the first 15 minutes as Watford sprung out of the traps and took an early 2-0 lead. A Riyad Mahrez penalty brought Ranieri’s team back into the game but despite having chances to extend their lead Watford held onto the win. The Hornets now find themselves 8th in the table, a position a lot of teams who consider themselves bigger sides than Watford are envious of. Leicester fans are starting to run out of excuses now but their defence of their title could be over even before the first window of the advent calendar is opened. As the prices of their prize assets drop like Hilary Clinton’s stock, the owners may have wished they cashed in on them in the summer.
Going into this round of fixtures Liverpool had the privilege of sitting at the top of the table with a tricky trip to Southampton on the cards. Klopp’s side bossed this game and really should have seen this one off but for the first time in a long time, they struggled to create clear cut chances. Roberto Firmino may have had as poor of a night’s sleep as his wife has been having since he had his teeth whitened Saturday night. He missed the easiest chance of the game in the second half when he slid the ball wide of the post. Apart from a half chance for Charlie Austin, Southampton really weren’t in this one. Klopp will be disappointed that they dropped points here but that shows just how far this side is progressing under his guidance as this is a game they would’ve lost last season. They have surrendered top spot to Chelsea but with the fixtures they have coming up, they have the chance to show that this is a point gained rather than two points lost.
