Liverpool remain unbeaten, yet more pain for the Red Devils & Maddison and VAR Make Spurs Pay
After another dramatic weekend of Premier League soccer, Liverpool were left sitting pretty at the top of the table after their 100% continued at Stamford Bridge. Manchester United continued to look lightweight on the road, while Manchester City thrashed Watford. There was controversy too, in the early kick-off on Saturday.
Leicester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
With teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all in transitionary stages of their respective rebirths this season, the door is open for both these clubs to cement a Champions League place.
For Spurs, that would merely represent a continuation of the progression they have made under Mauricio Pochettino. For Leicester City, however, qualification for the Champions League group stages in 2020/21 would mean a huge amount. Having lost their iconic ‘Boss’, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, to a helicopter tragedy last season, The Foxes have put Brendan Rodgers in charge and already look to making strides to returning to something of their golden 2015/16 vintage.
With a youthful exuberance and attacking prowess not many other teams in the top six can boast of, Leicester look primed for a fight at the top end of the table this season, and despite falling behind to a brilliant improvised Harry Kane finish, they survived the most marginal of offside VAR calls to rule out a second Spurs goal through Heung Min Son.
Thereafter, it was all Leicester, and after Ricardo Pereira slotted in an equaliser, it was left to James Maddison to hit a stunning winner and put Leicester into the top four.
West Ham United 2-0 Manchester United
It was a poor game at the London Stadium as two ineffective teams bored many fans to sleep in a soporific, mid-table looking clash. With virtually the only shot of an abysmal first half, Andriy Yarmolenko gave West Ham the lead, and after the withdrawal of Marcus Rashford to a groin injury, Manchester United never looked likely to stop the home side taking all three points.
With Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Rashford (at the break) and Mason Greenwood all missing through injury, United simply didn’t have the weapons with which to fight their way back into the game, and it was a mercy killing to false hope when Aaron Cresswell curled a delightful free-kick into the top corner to send United to their second consecutive defeat against West Ham at the new home.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might be spending much of the week in the treatment room hustling action in restoring his ailing squad back to health.
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool
A terrific game took place at Stamford Bridge as Liverpool battled to a sixth consecutive win in the Premier League this season and a 15th league victory in a row, a record in the modern era.
It was an early goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold that opened the scoring for the Reds as Jurgen Klopp – one day before being named manager of the year at the FIFA Best Awards – celebrated ecstatically on the sidelines.
Roberto Firmino made it two on the half-hour and at that stage, Liverpool looked out of sight, indeed, they dominated much of the play after half-time too. But on 71 minutes, a superb solo effort from N’Golo Kante saw The Blues find a route back into the game and they laid siege to the Merseysiders goal. Klopp withdrew both Sadio Mané and Mohammed Salah for James Milner and Joe Gomez respectively in a bid to shore up the three points, and it worked…just.
Gameweek #6 results:
Southampton 1-3 Bournemouth
Leicester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Burnley 2-0 Norwich City
Everton 0-2 Sheffield United
Manchester City 8-0 Watford
Newcastle United 0-0 Brighton
Crystal Palace 1-1 Wolves
West Ham United 2-0 Manchester United
Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool
