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As the race at the top hots up we follow the latest round up form the Premiership, starting at the top…
Man United extended their unbeaten run to ten games in the league as they visited Watford, and an away win was expected. Half an hour in Gavi’s corner was headed home by Martinez and United were ahead. United looked calm and professional, and Watford were aggressive, losing Sierralta just after half time when we went in studs up on Adeyemi.Luis Diaz doubled their lead in the 75th minute, and the home fans started to get their coats on ready to go. Watford however have a strange habit of bouncing back in the later parts of matches, and 3 minutes later substitute Davis grabbed one back for them. It was his 8th goal of the season, and he has started twice - supersub seems to be apt. There was a certain inevitability about Watford’s equaliser, and when Neuhaus smashed home after getting on to Rrhamani’s clearance, the Hornets fans went wild as their team are giving them a glimmer of hope for survival. United stay top but see their lead at two points, with 5 separating the top 7.
MOM: Luis Diaz (Man Utd)
In second position, Leeds United travelled to Leicester , amidst rumours that boss Tim Davey is looking at sweeping changes to his squad as he looks to reduce the age. The current players looked pretty good at the Walkers stadium, Fekir scoring a beauty on 10 minutes to take the lead, and that’s how it stayed until 20 minutes from the end, when the game exploded into life. First Semedo scored from range to equalise, then Rudiger restored Leeds lead 4 minutes later. When it looked like they had nothing left Leicester hero Simeone popped up to make it 2-2 and honours even.
MOM : Nelson Semedo (Leicester)
In third are Manchester City who at times have looked unplayable and at others have looked very ordinary. Away to Aston Villa is never an easy task, and it was a cagey match, with no goals in the first half. Gabriel Jesus is hot property for Villa at the moment and continued his quest for the Premiership golden boot by scoring his 18th of the season to take the lead and the plaudits of his adoring fans. Villa parked the bus and looked like they might snatch all of the points, but new City signing Thiaw equalised with a low drive and City keep pace with the other leaders and grabbed a point.
MOM : Malick Thiaw (Man City)
The only team in the top 5 to win were Spurs, who hosted Sheffield Wednesday, and have been a bit patchy of late. The home side started well, but Bergwijn missed an open goal after rounding the keeper, and then a freak Engels goal put Wednesday ahead. It looked like it could be one of those days at White Hart Lane. However, Gimenez headed home an equaliser despite strong offside claims, and then loan signing Moscardo scored his first goal for Spurs to make it 2-1. Just as the home fans started to relax, their keeper Etienne Green brought down Owls striker Veron. With Ollie Watkins on the bench Veron stepped up to take the spot kick and produced a terrible effort that dribbled wide. Rasmus Hojlund has been a hit with the fans and he made it 3-1 Spurs with a swerving shot in the 76th minute to secure the win.
MOM : Steven Bergwijn (Tottenham)
Liverpool have been in top gear recently and started the game in 3rd place. No one could have predicted the madness that ensued at St Mary’s as they visited Southampton, it was more of a pantomime than a football match! The referee seems to be a little off colour, when firstly in a quiet start to the game, he showed Kulusevski a yellow for what seemed like a good tackle. On 19 minutes Molina made his second clumsy tackle of the game, on Mudryk, and the ref had no hesitation in producing a red card this time - so Saints were down to ten and Liverpool seemed to have it all going their way. Saints attacked with their 10 men and Kulusevski shot, Onana fell over and the ball ended up in the net for a 1-0 Saints lead. On 27 minutes Martinelli doubled the lead,and 7 minutes later Boniface made it 3 which sparked fury amongst the Liverpool fans and prompted missiles to be thrown onto the pitch. To add to the drama Kulusevski then was shown red for a poor tackle and Saints were 3-0 up with 9 men at half time, although the ref still managed to issue two more yellow cards before the break.The second half brought more madness - Isak making it 4-0, then De Jong getting a red for Liverpool, before Isak scored two more goals to complete his hat trick. Just as Graeme Edwards was walking down the tunnel Mudryk picked up an injury to make his day even gloomier. This was the weirdest game of the season so far and keeps everything very tight at the top. 6-0 Southampton and the attempts on goal 11-8 with Liverpool having 60% of the possession! Southampton storm up to 6th, a point behind Liverpool.
MOM: Isak (Southampton)
Arsenal were looking to halt a run of 3 straight defeats, and had a short trip across London to Crystal Palace. It was a pretty dull first half, but just after half time the Humphris rocket did its work and somehow Diawara managed to turn a cross past his own keeper to give the Gunners the lead - perhaps Humphris had got to him? Arsenal huffed and puffed but couldn’t add to the score, and Dike who has scored some useful goals for Palace lately came off the bench again to equalise for Palace. The throat slitting gestures started from the Arsenal boss, and the players looked visibly shaken - and with his words from half time ringing in their ears “Don’t even bother facking coming back in if you don’t win this one” and with 4 minutes added on, Livakovic dropped Fati’s header and seem to throw it into the goal to give Arsenal all 3 points. Humphris seemed to be keener to shake the Palace keeper’s hand than his own players and rumours that he was seen out on the town with Diawara and Livakovic are unconfirmed. Arsenal leapfrog Chelsea into 7th, Palace stay closer to the drop zone than they would like.
MOM : Ansu Fati (Arsenal)
Chelsea were looking to kick on as they hosted luckless Barnsley, and Ant Harris’s men came to avoid losing with a defensive formation. It seemed like business as usual when Kudus scored for the Blues early but it was ruled out for offside. Some genius tactical tinkering from Harris saw Barnsley somehow find the lead when Dia scored from Anderson’s pass and there were limbs everywhere in the Barnsley end of the ground. Chelsea didn’t quite have enough to break the Barnsley defence and a famous away win was secured for the Tykes, who really needed this result to get them out of the mire. Chelsea slip to 8th and Barnsley climb up to 14th.
MOM: Ismaily (Barnsley)
As we start to hit the mid table positions, Blackburn in 9th were looking to capitalise on some recent great form and were at Cardiff. Cardiff are a very tricky proposition in Wales, and this game was no different. The home side went ahead with Silva’s opener, but Aguerd equalised for Blackburn, and it was level at the break. Harris put Cardiff ahead on the hour, but again Rovers equalised through Mata as the golden oldies fought back. With just 4 minutes left Thomas Lemar secured the points for Cardiff as Courtois misjudged his shot and Delilah blasted out around the ground as the Welsh team took all 3 points to climb to 12th.
MOM: Silva(Cardiff)
There was a lot going on behind the scenes at St James Park as Newcastle boss Chris Banks parted company with the club earlier in the week. The new messiah was in town though as Juventus boss Andy Banks came in by helicopter to take over the other black and white stripes. Everton were the visitors, and to say that they have been an unknown quantity would be an understatement. Confais continued at DM for the Toffees, who took the lead through Carrasco who had been on fire lately, in just 6 minutes. Moments later it was 2-0 as Tanganga scored and Banks was furious with the players. Everton simply parked the bus at this stage, and Newcastle had to do all of the work - this they did though and a fantastic comeback saw goals from De Tomas, Clauss and Tarkowski put them ahead at half time, with the icing on the cake from James Ward-Prowse in the 95th minute to make it 4-2 Newcastle, shirts in the air and Geordie’s singing as they welcomed the new Banks. Newcastle go 10th and for Everton it was a first defeat in 5 after some great recent results.
MOM: De Tomas(Newcastle)
Another huge game at Turf Moor as Burnley welcomed West Ham - all claret, both teams miles away from where they should be in the league. This really could have gone either way as both sides had plenty of chances, Bruno Fernandes opening up for the Hammers only to be immediately cancelled out by Araujo’s equaliser. That’s how it looked like staying until after 2 minutes of injury time Podence managed to get on to the end of Sene’s through ball and slotted home to grab all 3 points and send the away fans wild, West Ham just lifting themselves up to 17th and putting Burnley back down to 19th. It looks like this could go to the wire, with Burnley, Watford and West Ham all fighting to reach Everton Palace and Barnsley
MOM : Podence (West Ham)
TOTW: Owusu-Odoro (Arsenal), Semedo (Leicester), Marquinhos (Man C), Ismaily (Barnsley)) Schlotrbeck (Arsenal), Gordon (Man U), Bergwijn (Spurs), Brozovic (Cardiff), Martinelli (Southampton) Jesus (Villa), Isak (Southampton)
POTW : Barnsley winning at Chelsea was huge for them
SOTW: Not that there seemed to be much anyone could do about it , but the absolute shocker of a game for Liverpool at Southampton has to be in this week