What a weekend it was following the latest round of Premier League action that had everything from controversies, drama, upsets and a lot of goals.
Southampton and Bournemouth started the action on Friday before Leicester kicked off proceedings on Saturday against Spurs at the King Power Stadium, and it was the Foxes who took the day with a 2-1 victory over last season’s champions league finalist.
The victory strengthened Leicester’s position to gatecrash the top six this season as they currently sit in the third position with eleven points.
Later on Saturday, Man City put the put their shocking loss to Norwich behind them by putting eight goals past Watford. On Sunday, all the actions took place in the capital city of London.
Crystal Palace and Wolves played out a 1-1 draw at the Selhurst Park, while Man Utd’s away misery continued after they slipped to a defeat against West Ham at the Olympic Stadium.
Actions concluded with Arsenal coming back from behind to defeat Aston Villa, while league leaders, Liverpool saw off the challenge of Chelsea.
Having taken a look at the results, here are the takeaways from last weekend’s round of action in the Premier League.
Time running out For Solskjaer: When the Norwegian was announced as the man to replace Jose Mourinho last December, a lot of fans hoped he will be the man to finally return Man Utd to their glory days.
And to be fair it looked like that if one judge from his first ten games as Man Utd manager. The former Cardiff manager won his first ten games including the dramatic 3-1 victory over PSG in the second leg of last season’s champions league round of 16 clash.
But since that famous night in Paris, United have not won an away game with Sunday’s loss to West Ham making it the Red Devils sixth loss in last nine away games.
Their start this season have not been convincing with United winning two, drawing two and losing two in the six league matches they have played so far.
With a series of unconvincing performances and bad results, pressure is mounting up on Solskjaer. According to his predecessor, Jose Mourinho, United are worse than before.
0 – Since winning each of his first nine away games as Man Utd manager in all competitions, Ole Gunnar Solskjær has seen his side fail to win any of his most recent such nine matches. Homesick. pic.twitter.com/YdjamGLbna
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 22, 2019
Solskjaer did not help himself either after he made the strange decision of selling Romelu Lukaku without bringing in a replacement. That showed in United’s loss to Hammers especially when Rashford went off with a suspected hamstring injury which left Mason Greenwood as the only real striker United had in the team.
With games against Arsenal and Liverpool coming up in the next couple of weeks, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may be running out of time to turn United’s fortunes around.
Unstoppable Liverpool: Liverpool made it six wins out of six with victory over Chelsea which coincidentally was their 15th straight win in the Premier League. While the Reds should have been out of sight, they also showed the doggedness that champions are made of.
44/22 – Liverpool have lost just once in their last 44 Premier League matches (W36 D7 L1) and are unbeaten in their last 22 (W18 D4 L0), their longest such run in PL history. In fact, Liverpool last went 23 league games unbeaten in November 1990 (23). Force. pic.twitter.com/kRuI2TT7n9
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 22, 2019
Chelsea piled the pressure on Klopp’s men in the last fifteen minutes of the match after Kante’s brilliant goal gave them a lifeline, but Liverpool resisted everything thrown against them, and it showed they are ready to win ugly if need be.
The result puts them five points ahead of Man City and if they continue in this form, it will take something extraordinary for any team to stop Klopp’s men.
Iwobi and Everton Woes: In a season where they were hoping to gatecrash into the top six, Everton have once again flattered to deceive. The Toffees suffered an embarrassing 2-0 home loss to newly-promoted side Sheffield United which has left Marco Silva under huge pressure.
Despite the money spent heavily in the summer, Everton were all over the place in the loss to the Blades. According to Dailymail, Saturday’s squad was Everton’s most expensive squad in their history, but it appears they keep taking two steps backwards while taking a step forward.
From the Nigerian perspective, Alex Iwobi will be wondering what he needs to do convince Silva to give him regular starts after he was brought on as a sub despite his impressive start with the team.
Nevertheless, Iwobi will be hoping to be included in the starting lineup when Everton take on Sheffield Wednesday in a Carabao Cup encounter on Tuesday. It is a game the Toffees cannot afford to lose otherwise that may be the end of Marco Silva’s reign at Goodison Park.
Arsenal Showed Resilience But Defensive Issues still Lingers: In past seasons, Arsenal have been criticised for not showing enough resilience especially when they are up against it, but that was not the case on Sunday as they came from behind twice to beat Aston Villa.
Emery’s men were up against it when Villa went a goal and a man up in the first half, but Arsenal showed determination to get back in the game after the break, only for Villa to restore their lead immediately.
But Emery showed their willingness not to go down without a fight as they secured the maximum points thanks to goals from Callum Chambers and Aubameyang’s brilliant freekick.
The manner of the victory showed Arsenal have mastered the art of winning when things are not going their away. However, despite the win, they still haven’t found a solution for their defensive struggles which has been their undoing.
David Luiz was caught napping for both of Villa’s goals, and it further brings into questioning if his buy was a wise decision from Unai Emery and his team.
Leicester Send Warning To Rest Of Top Four: Liverpool and Man City are the two untouchables, but outside those two, there’s a general admission that the remaining top four places are open for grabs.
One of the teams hoping to knock off the traditional members of the elusive position is Leicester, and they showed they have what it takes to go toe to toe with them following their win over Spurs on Saturday.
Having taken a point off Chelsea already this season, the Foxes showed they are serious about their intentions to break into the top six this season with another impressive performance against last season’s champions league finalist.
Although these are still early days, and there will definitely be twist and turns, Brendan Rodgers side will be on the upper end of the table if they continue in this form.
