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EPL Extra Time - Matchday 26 Edition
When was the last time either of the top two teams in the Premier League table weren’t favoured going into a round of matches? Well, that is exactly what happened in matchday 26, with Arsenal and Manchester City favoured at home over first-placed Leicester and second-placed Tottenham respectively.
Danny Welbeck’s goal for Arsenal dented Leicester’s lead at the top of the pile as the Gunners won 2-1, but the more telling result, as it was last week, came at the Etihad, as Manchester City suffered defeat at home to a title contender for the second consecutive match. This week’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham off the back of last week’s 3-1 defeat to Leicester has, for now, removed City from the title conversation and elevated Mauricio Potchetino’s Tottenham into almost title favouritism, such is the mistrust football fans still have in Leicester’s title credentials.
Spurs are in peak form at the right time of the season, and are a truly fantastic, balanced side when you break them down. They’ve scored the second-most goals in the league – 47, one behind Leicester and Man City. They’ve conceded the least goals – 20, three fewer than the next best defensive record, Arsenal. They have the least number of losses – three, tied with Leicester. They have the most shots on target, and have conceded the least shots on target. They’ve also won eight of their past 11 league games.
And with their win and Leicester’s late loss, they are now only two points behind the league leaders. With 12 games to play, this is the time when we start looking ahead to who is left on the fixture list – in terms of the ‘big’ teams and ‘big’ games, this is what the duo face before the end of the season:
Spurs – Arsenal at home, Liverpool away, Manchester United at home (these two back-to-back to start April), Chelsea away, while also having the Europa League and FA Cup to contend with for however long.
Leicester – Manchester United away, Everton at home, Chelsea away are their last three fixtures in May.
Looking at that, this race has a long way to go yet.
The other big winners from the weekend were Arsenal, whose last gasp win over Leicester kept them level on 51 points with their North London neighbours, only two behind Leicester. I was surprised to read that this was Danny Welbeck’s first Premier League action for the season, and boy did he make it count, glancing in a precise free kick from Mesut Ozil (who else?).
Resilience is not a word often associated with Arsenal, particularly in recent years – this was their first win after trailing at halftime since October 2011. Again, with 12 games to go we look ahead to Arsenal’s remaining fixtures, which also include an FA Cup defence and their now-customary Round of 16 exit from the Champions League (they face Barcelona twice in the next month). Manchester United away, Tottenham away, and Manchester City away (in the penultimate round of the season) are the ‘marquee’ games left on Arsenal’s calendar. We’ll say it again: this race has a long way to go yet.
Despite their defeat – only their third (second to Arsenal) this season – Leicester remain top and full of confidence, with a run of very winnable fixtures coming up. Norwich, West Brom, at Watford, Newcastle, and at Crystal Palace before the end of March, with no cup distractions, could realistically yield 11-13 points, which would be an excellent platform with which to continue this fairy tale.
As for Man City, who lost for the first time this season with Vincent Kompany in the side, they are now six points off the pace and look vulnerable at the worst possible time. Chelsea away in the FA Cup, Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League last 16, and then Liverpool in the League Cup Final are the Sky Blues next three fixtures; their next league encounter is Liverpool at Anfield on March 2. Their season could come to a crashing halt on several fronts in the coming weeks – this is what happens when you have a dead manager walking.
Welcome back, Mr Sturridge. If anyone thinks Liverpool’s 6-0 dismantling of Aston Villa wasn’t at least in part down to the long-awaited inclusion of the England forward, think back to the Reds 6-1 away win over Southampton in the League Cup. Sturridge started both matches, scored the opening goal in both matches, and was substituted with 30 minutes to play with the score 3-0 to Liverpool in both matches.
This is what he brings to the table. It is Sturridge, and no one else, who was envisioned as leading the Liverpool forward line following the departure of Luis Suarez in 2014. The problem has been that ‘Studge’ has only featured in 18 of a possible 60 league matches in the past two seasons, crippling when you consider he has 45 goals in 74 appearances for the club. He has only featured in 352 minutes of Premier League football this season, with 151 of those minutes, and all three of his league goals, coming against Villa, so it will be interesting to see how he goes on from here. If fit, there aren’t enough words to describe how far Sturridge is ahead of £32.5 million signing Christian Benteke in the pecking order (the fact that Benteke wasn’t brought on until the match was already 6-0 is somewhat telling – hello Chinese Super League).
It will also be interesting to see how Liverpool’s preferred front three – Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho, and Roberto Firmino – continue to play as a unit if they are afforded the opportunity. What we saw on Sunday – the buzzing attack, the interchanging of positions and movement, the lightning-quick counter-attacks – were reminiscent of the SAS (and Coutinho and Raheem Sterling) as Liverpool almost won the title in 2014. This is clearly what Brendan Rodgers envisioned when he signed Firmino, a front line he was never able to utilise – this was the first time the trio had started together in the league this season. Move of the same please.
Mignolet bonus: Not only did the Belgian record his first clean sheet in the league since 30 December, he also didn’t allow Villa’s one shot on target to go in. Baby steps, but well done!
Suddenly Liverpool’s 2-2 with Sunderland doesn’t look too bad, as Louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United tenure took another turn for the worst, losing 2-1 at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland’s first home win over United in their ‘new’ stadium.
Sunderland are doing their usual ‘get out of jail’ act late in the season that sees them flirt with relegation all year, only to win just enough points to stay up. Sam Allardyce’s side have taken an upturn since the New Year, with 11 points from their past seven matches following a run of five straight defeats to close out 2015. While they’re still in the relegation zone, they’ve pulled seven points clear of Villa to sit a mere two points from safety.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is – the Black Cats finished two places and three points away from relegation last season following a run that saw them take 12 points from their final eight games.
As for United, following a week that saw free agent manager Jose Mourinho heavily linked with the Old Trafford hot seat, they have now failed to win 17 of their last 26 games in all competitions. Don’t be surprised if Van Gaal features in a future ‘The Sack Race’ item. That ‘keeper David De Gea was (again) keeping United in this game is an embarrassment, given how pathetic Sunderland have been for much of the season.
It ain’t easy being a ref
It’s not like Mark Clattenburg to make a big game all about him, now is it? No matter which way you look at it, the penalty call that became Harry Kane’s goal was extremely harsh on Raheem Sterling – the City man’s arm wasn’t away from the body, and if anything the ball came up off his mid-section. Exactly what is he supposed to do? This result allowed Spurs to take a big step towards the title, and in this kind of race you need a little bit of luck. They had it on Sunday.
As for another penalty shout from the weekend – Schneiderlin’s? No way. Just stop.
Let’s start with the entire Aston Villa defensive effort against Liverpool, an effort that prompted former Reds defender Jamie Carragher to say on Sky that the current Villa side are the worst team he’s ever seen in the Premier League. Where was the marking for Daniel Sturridge’s opener? What was ‘keeper Mark Bunn doing for James Milner’s free kick? Left-back caught ball-watching as Nathaniel Clyne ghosts in to grab his goal, Kolo Toure completely unmarked on the penalty spot to head in his first goal for the club – it finished 6-0, but it genuinely could have been that bad by halftime.
Newcastle were also abject defensively against Chelsea, showing zero fight and commitment to find themselves 3-0 down in the blink of an eye. It finished 5-1, but like the Liverpool Villa game, Chelsea could have been up by five by halftime. Maybe Newcastle will go down after all.
We’ve already spoken about Tottenham, the owners of the best defence in the league, but there were some shaky moments against City. Sergio Aguero found himself unmarked in the box in the first half, only to blaze over, while the Spurs marking was non-existent for City’s goal, with no one from midfield tracking Kelechi Iheanacho’s late run into the box. Then, right at the death, Spurs nearly blew their lead, with no one picking up Nicolas Otamendi at the far post as he almost grabbed a late, late equaliser. #RidingTheirLuck
Top defence bonus: Southampton haven’t conceded in six games. Their 1-0 win over Swansea was their third by that margin in their past four matches. What a turnaround.
Just on Iheanacho, he is the top-scoring substitute in the Premier League this season, grabbing a winner against Crystal Palace, a winner against Swansea, and now the equaliser against Spurs to go along with a hat-trick against Villa in the FA Cup and goals against Hull and Palace in the League Cup. Like Dele Alli, how much time Iheanacho spends in the first team, both this season under Manuel Pellegrini and going forward under Pep Guardiola, that will determine if he can be the player the City academy hope he can be in the long-term success.
Speaking of young bright spots in Manchester, we can’t move on without talking about Anthony Martial, a player who’s youth and price tag were roundly mocked (including by this column) when he was signed on deadline day in September. His deft goal against Sunderland was a bright spark on a dour day for the Red Devils, and gave the French forward seven league goals for the season, including two in his last three games. In amongst United’s expensively-assembled squad, he has been their best player not named David De Gea.
What have you done for me lately?
Giving away a penalty against Leicester was the first time I’d heard Raheem Sterling’s name mentioned in a while. That’s because the £50 million attacking midfielder/winger/forward hasn’t really done much this season, contributing only five goals and three assists for his new paymasters. Three of those goals came in the 5-1 win over Bournemouth, with the other two coming against Sunderland (in a 4-1 win) and Watford. His assists have come against Everton (2-0 win), Norwich (2-1 win), and Southampton (3-1 win). He is without a goal or an assist since Boxing Day.
While we’re on the subject of young Manchester attackers that have failed to deliver this season, we can’t move on without talking about Memphis Depay, who was supposed to carry on the tradition of United number sevens this season. Yet his output has been worse than Sterling’s, contributing only two goals – in a 3-0 win against Sunderland and a 2-1 win over Watford – and one assist against Southampton in 20 league appearances since his move from the Netherlands.
Stop me before I shoot again
This column has long detailed the shooting stats of teams like Liverpool and United as they have stumbled through this season, but what about Everton this past weekend. 33 shots on goal. Let me repeat that – 33 shots on goal, more than any team has had in a Premier League game this season. Problem was they only got six of them on target for their 76 per cent possession, and lost to a West Brom side that scored with their only shot on target. Classic Tony Pulis.
Some quick hits following January transfer business:
• I don’t think I’ve ever seen Andros Townsend cut inside on his left and shoot (tongue firmly in cheek). At least this one went in, unlike most of his shots for Spurs – three league goals in 50 appearances, but sure, he’s worth £12 million.
• Emmanuel Adebayor’s goal against Watford was the first from open play by a Crystal Palace striker this season. Yikes.
Not down yet, and not as dire as Villa, but Norwich are going backwards, as they still can’t defend, having now conceded 18 goals in their past six matches, two of which came in throwing away a 2-0 lead against West Ham. The sides with the four worse defensive records in the division now reside in the bottom four rungs on the table. Telling?
Troy Deeney looks to have taken the goal scoring burden off Odion Ighalo at Watford, and Deeney’s second against Palace shows exactly why. Let’s call it the Ighalo effect – as Ben Watson swings in the cross, three Palace defenders are drawn to Ighalo’s near post run. The ball finds its way to the unmarked Deeney, who finishes with aplomb at the far post. Need to start marking both Watford strikers, gents.
Goal of the Week – Robbie Brady
Before the Canaries threw away their lead, Brady had put them in front with a goal of both determination and beauty. Determination, as he harry’s West Ham’s midfield, winning the ball deep in Hammers territory, and beauty, as his shot from distance curls majestically into the top right corner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cpoeTKFl20
Goose of the Week – Danny Simpson
Why, oh why, oh why, in a game of such importance, against one of only two teams to have beaten your lot this season, would you get yourself sent off for two silly yellow cards. Perhaps Leicester win, or hold out for the 1-1, if they aren’t forced to play over 40 minutes with ten men.
Assist of the week – Olivier Giroud and Erik Lamela
Two assists that led to goals that may yet have a massive bearing on the title race. Giroud’s cushioned header down for Theo Walcott to score Arsenal’s first was a sublime touch, as was the weight on Lamela’s through ball for Christian Eriksen to net Tottenham’s winner at City.
Think Philippe Coutinho liked having Daniel Sturridge back in the team? The little Brazillian was buzzing alongside Sturridge and Firmino, grabbing three assists and the top bonus on his way to 15 points.
It might not end with Chelsea getting any silverware, or finishing in the top four, or anything decent, but you cannot dispute the Hiddink factor at Chelsea. Just look at everyone’s favourite pantomime villain, Diego Costa – under Hiddink, Costa now has eight goals and four assists in his last ten matches in all competitions.
