Week 33 of the English Premier League sees Spurs closing the gap to four points, with six games to go, after destroying Bournemouth at home while Chelsea lost to Man Utd at Old Trafford.
Spurs closed the gap to just four points after annihilating Bournemouth 4-0 at White Hart Lane. It was Spurs 12th home league win on the spin, and 15 in all competitions. The place is a relative fortress.
Bournemouth didn’t half make it easy though. Eddie Howe’s side has not won a Premier League game away from home this side of the New Year festivities, and he must be concerned about the way his team have lacked desire once safe, particularly since they finished last season in the same way.
Harry Kane returned to the starting lineup for the first time since injuring his ankle. It was a solid comeback scoring one and assisting for Son Heung-Min to score his 19th goal of the season. Kane’s delightful turn and finish was his 13th goal in 13 games and 20 goals in the Premier League. He is only the third player behind Alan Shearer, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Thierry Henry to score 20+ league goals three seasons on the tamp. Moussa Dembele and Vincent Janssen were also on the scoresheet.
Last week, Spurs played earlier than Chelsea and won by 4-0, but Chelsea replied with a notable victory of their own. This week, Antonio Conte’s side were in a similar spot, only you had a feeling that Man Utd at Old Trafford was going to be an entirely different proposition than playing Bournemouth.
There is nobody who knows Chelsea better than Jose Mourinho, and he used all of that experience to put one over Conte. Despite scoring 17 league goals this season, Mourinho relegated Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the substitute’s bench preferring the lightning quick duo of Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.
The two youngsters were a nightmare for the Chelsea backline, and it was Rashford who opened the scoring in the seventh minute after latching on to a superb through-ball from the industrious Ander Herrera, barely a minute after the future England star had another great opportunity to open the scoring.
The other crucial decision Jose Mourinho made was to do a man-marking job on Eden Hazard. Herrera was superb in the role and had the little Belgian on a leash all afternoon, and he still had time to seal the points for United with a deflected shot in the 49th minute – his first Premier League goal of the season.
It was a big day for Spurs, but to highlight the gargantuan task ahead of them if they are to overtake the Blues, Chelsea is going to have to lose another two games in six, with Spurs going through the season unbeaten.
Here is the run in and you have to say, Spurs have the tougher task with three London derbies, Man Utd in a Champions League race, and Hull desperate to escape relegation. Chelsea, on the other hand, has a tough trip to Everton, and that’s about it.
But the pair face each other in the semi-final of the FA Cup at the weekend. If Spurs can beat Chelsea in that game then maybe the seeds of doubt planted at Old Trafford may begin to stretch towards the light?
Spurs
Crystal Palace (A)
Arsenal (H)
West Ham (A)
Man Utd (H)
Leicester (A)
Hul (A)
Chelsea
Southampton (H)
Everton (A)
Middlesbrough (H)
West Brom (A)
Watford (H)
Sunderland (H)
Premier League Odds (Courtesy of Bodog)
Chelsea 1/6
Spurs 9/2
Hull or Swansea For the Drop
With six games remaining it’s starting to look increasingly likely that the battle for relegation will be a straight punch up between Hull and Swansea with Middlesbrough and Sunderland already flopping around like two dead fish.
Swansea is the favourite to leave the 2018 Premier League season an all-English affair as they currently lie two points adrift of Hull with six games left.
The Welsh side travelled to Watford on the back of five away defeats in succession and returned after making that six courtesy of a mistake by Alfie Mawson. The Swansea defender had his pocket picked by Etienne Capoue who scored at the second attempt despite a save from Lukasz Fabianski.
That’s six games without a win for Swansea at a crucial moment in the season prompting Paul Clement to call his next game against Stoke ‘a must win’ if they are to avoid the drop. Watford was jumping for joy after reaching the safe zone of 40 points with their 1-0 win. They are tenth in the table after winning three of their previous four games.
Hull travelled to Stoke without an away win since Marco Silva joined the club in the New Year, but with the knowledge that Mark Hughes’s side had lost their previous four games. Tom Huddlestone also returned to the team after missing the last few through suspension.
But all hope was dashed after Marko Arnautovic, and Xherdan Shaqiri decided today would be the day they would turn up to play. The pair scored two net-busting goals either side of a Peter Crouch header to send the Tigers back home licking their Tiger bits. Harry Maguire scored a consolation goal for Hull.
Looking at the run in you have to fancy Hull to pick up six points at home to Watford and Sunderland. Clement is spot right, Swansea will have to beat Stoke at home if they are going to save their season because they won’t get much change from Man Utd and Everton leaving a tricky tie away at Sunderland and a home match against the defensive fortress of West Brom.
Hull
Watford (H)
Southampton (A)
Sunderland (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Spurs (H)
Swansea
Stoke (H)
Man Utd (A)
Everton (H)
Sunderland (A)
West Brom (H)
Relegated Odds (Courtesy of Bodog)
Sunderland 1/200
Middlesbrough 1/16
Swansea 8/13
Hull 5/4
Here are the rest of the weekend results in full:
Week 33 Results
Spurs 4 v 0 Bournemouth
Crystal Palace 2 v 2 Leicester
Sunderland 2 v 2 West Ham
Everton 3 v 1 Burnley
Stoke 3 v 1 Hull
Watford 1 v 0 Swansea
Southampton 0 v 3 Man City
West Brom 0 v 1 Liverpool
Man Utd 2 v 0 Chelsea
To Be Played (Mon, 17 April)
Middlesbrough v Arsenal
Premier League Table
1. Chelsea – 75
2. Spurs – 71
3. Liverpool – 66
4. Man City – 64
5. Man Utd – 60
6. Everton – 57
7. Arsenal – 54
8. West Brom – 44
9. Southampton – 40
10. Watford – 40
11. Stoke – 39
12. Leicester – 37
13. West Ham – 37
14. Burnley – 36
15. Crystal Palace – 35
16. Bournemouth – 35
17. Hull – 30
18. Swansea – 28
19. Middlesbrough – 24
20. Sunderland – 21
