Another week of exciting Premier League football is over. Manchester United’s 3-2 defeat at Brighton was the biggest surprise. Their rivals Manchester City thrashed Huddersfield 6-1. On Saturday, Tottenham beat London rivals Fulham 3-1 at Wembley and Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-2 at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park on Monday night. In the other matches, Watford, Everton, Leicester, and Bournemouth took maximum points while Cardiff and Newcastle played out a 0-0 draw.
Goals and drama are two things that Premier League guarantees and this week was no different.
On the late kickoff on Saturday, two of the title challengers faced each other at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea beat their Arsenal 3-2. Goals from Pedro and Morata put Chelsea 2-0 up within 20 minutes. Arsenal grew into the game and hit two in four minutes Iwobi and Mkhitaryan to make the score 2-2. Marcus Alonso scored the winner in the 81st minute.
It was a great game of attacking football at Stamford Bridge. Both teams attacked each other relentlessly as they battled for the title rights of the city. But in the end, Arsenal came up short. Arsenal are yet to pick up a point this season.
Brighton delivered the first shock of the season as they beat Manchester United 3-2 at Amex stadium on Sunday. Goals from Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy gave Brighton a 2-0 lead inside 27 minutes. Lukaku pulled one back for United, but Pascal Gross made it 3-1 before half-time. Pogba scored second for United in the second half injury time.
It was a game that raised a lot of questions about United. The most important one was why did United reject Mourinho’s request to sign a centre-back. Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly were at fault for United.
Glenn Murray got on to Lindelof goal side of Lindelof to open the scoring while Bailly made a reckless challenge on Gross in the 44th minute which resulted in the penalty. It looks like Mourinho’s prediction of a difficult season becoming true.
On Monday, Liverpool travelled to Selhurst Park to take on hosts Crystal Palace. It is a game with significant history in the last few years, most notably, in the 2013-14 season when Palace hit two late goals to end Liverpool’s title challenge.
On Monday night, Liverpool proved why they are the closest challengers this season. It wasn’t their best performance, but in the end, Liverpool won comfortably with a 2-0 scoreline, thanks to goals from James Milner and Sadio Mane.
The result was harsh on Crystal Palace except for two crazy moments. First, one when former Reds player Sakho fouled Mo Salah in the box to gift his former side a penalty, and in the second half when Wan-Bissakka fouled Salah that resulted in his dismissal.