0
0
The past week of Premier League football produced some comebacks, some stunning and some controversial. Two of the biggest surprise results were Brighton’s win over Liverpool and Nottingham Forest’s triumph over Leicester.
But the first and most controversial of combacks came in the Manchester derby when United hosted City at Old Trafford. City took the lead through Jack Grealish on the hour mark, only for Bruno Fernandes to equalise 12 minutes from time. The goal caused a fracture within the footballing community as Marcus Rashford was in an offside position chasing a through-ball before Fernandes swooped and struck a sweet shot past goalkeeper Edderson.
The City players surrounded the referee, Stuart Attwell, protesting that Rashford’s position and interference allowed Fernandes to score. But VAR allowed the goal to stand as Rashford had not touched the ball. Four minutes later, Rashford made sure of the three points for United, bringing the Red Devils into the title race and denting City’s chase of leaders Arsenal.
Later on Saturday, Southampton, rooted to the foot of the table, heaped more pressure on Frank Lampard, coming from behind to secure a much-needed 2-1 win at Goodison Park. Amadou Onana opened the scoring to give the Toffees the lead at the break but a Jamie Ward-Prowse double in the second half handed Southampton just their fourth win of the campaign and draw them level with Everton on 15 points.
On Wednesday, United were on the receiving end of a comeback of sorts as an injury-time strike from Michael Olise – a rocket of a free kick – flew into David De Gea’s net to earn Palace a draw at Selhurst Park after Fernandes had given Erik ten Hag’s charges the lead shortly before the break.
There were wins for Aston Villa, Brentford and Wolves while Graham Potter’s Chelsea snapped their losing streak with a 1-0 win over Palace on Sunday. Newcastle continued their defensive dominance of the league, pipping Fulham 1-0 thanks to a late goal from substitute Alexander Isak. But this match also had its controversy’s with former Newcastle striker Aleksander Mitrovic scoring from the spot, only for the goal to be ruled out.
Mitrovic stepped up to take the penalty but slipped as he planted his left foot. The strike sent Nick Pope to his right, only for the ball to cannon off Mitrovic’s left, slipping foot and into the back of the net.
The North-London derby produced some beautiful football with Arsenal running out 2-0 winners, earning their first league double of Spurs since 2014. Arsenal took the lead early on as Bukayo Saka struck hard from the byline, only for Hugo Lloris to turn the ball into his own net. The Gunners dominated the opening half and reward was granted as captain Martin Odegaard struck from outside the box, beating Lloris low to his left.
Thomas Partey also saw his rocket of a volley smash against the upright. But the Gunners went into a more defensive mode in the second period, allowing Spurs a foothold in the game but Harry Kane and Co could not find a way past the Arsenal defense, with Aaron Ramsdale producing some excellent saves.
The Arsenal keeper was also involved in an unsavoury event after the final whistle. The goalkeeper kissed his badge with the Spurs fans giving him stick. Richarlison ran up to the England stopper and remonstrated his behaviour. When Ramsdale went to the back of the goals to pick up his bottle and towel, a Spurs fan jumped up onto the advertising boards and kicked Ramsdale in the back.
The Spurs management have since banned the individual for life and he was charged by the police and will appear in court in due time.
The final come-back of the game week saw City on the right-end of a result. Playing Spurs at the Etihad on Thursday, Pep Guardiola’s men fell 2-0 down at the break with goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Emerson Royal.
But a second half fightback is exactly what Guardiola expected from his players and they duly delivered, with Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez and a double from Riyad Mahrez handing City a 4-2 win and bringing them to within five points of Arsenal, although having played a game more.
There are some big games this weekend with Liverpool kicking the action off when they host Chelsea at the Kopp. The teams find themselves in ninth and tenth respectively and a defeat, along with an Aston Villa win, could see either of them drop further down the table in what is becoming a very troubled season for the giants.
The other big one on Saturday sees fellow relegation fighters West Ham and Everton fight it out for survival at the London Stadium. David Moyes has brought in former Villa striker Danny Ings and the Scotsman will be hoping he will bring much-needed firepower to what has been a toothless Hammer’s side.
Lampard, after having lost to Southampton, will need nothing more than a win to delay what most see is the inevitability of his sacking.
Sunday sees another big rivalry kick-off at the Emirates stadium when Arsenal host Man United. Ten Hag’s men are the only team to have beaten Arsenal this season, a 3-1 win at Old Trafford in September. With Casemiro missing for United and Partey back for the Gunners – he missed the Old Trafford trouncing – Arsenal fans will be hoping to turn the tables on their old rivals.
Monday see’s another London derby when Spurs travel south to face Fulham at Craven Cottage on the edge of the River Thames.
Chippy is the only one calling an Arsenal win while both Paddy and myself are staking our bucks on United. The other surprise prediction is my call for a Fulham victory over Spurs, while Chippy has predicted Newcastle to lose their second game of the campaign, calling Palace to win 2-1 at Selhurst Park.
The predictions table has seen Woody drop to the foot of the table as a 13-point haul from Paddy sees him move up to third and now just nine points behind Chippy, who notched up 14 points. I have now extended my lead at the summit to 30 points after notching up 20 points.
The Fantasy Premier league is not so shiny for me, although I did move past the 1000-point mark (yay) and scored the second-most points of the game-week. But Woody’s haul of 85 points moved him into second, just three points behind Chippy.
#WOut is suddenly not #WOuting anymore and this game week could open up some real bantering depending on who scores what.
There will definitely be some crowing on Tuesday morning on our Whatsapp group – and some of us just ignoring messages for a few days!
