Week 23

Birmingham v Newcastle

A game in which Newcastle had the lions share and were always dangerous going forward, that front three is scary and I think the balance in midfield is pretty close to perfect, likewise the defence is solid, hard to find fault. Birmingham have a largely solid team, particularly midfield and attack. In the end they rode their luck and got a solid home point, although any other day Newcastle would have likely snatched it, Alban Lafont the match hero for Birmingham.
Birmingham 2-2 Newcastle
Birmingham Scorers: Gomez (Perisic) 36, Mahrez (Mkhitaryan) 72
Newcastle Scorers: Suarez (Salah) 13, Salah (Pjanic) 44
MOTM: Alban Lafont.

Stoke City 0-2 Wolves
LSTD is an idiot and forgot tactics. Wolves won 2-0 with two goals from Aubameyang, one assisted by Eriksen, the other by Juanfran.

Brighton 3-1 Aston Villa
Tino is just as bad as LSTD, makes for a promising midweek encounter between Liverpool and Villa. Brighton got an important win as they look to keep themselves up. Payet scored a free kick, and Lucas a well taken goal from a Benzema assist, Koscielny with a header from a Payet corner. Higuain stole on back.

Everton v Liverpool
Everton v Liverpool

A must win for the home side to keep up with Brighton and save themselves from relegation, they started quickly and took an early lead through Lacazette after Sterling did well down the right, they were under the cosh a bit however but Vertonghen marshalled the defence well. It took until 73 mins for the equaliser to come tho, A Fabinho corner was met by Christensen who powered home from 6 yards, they had another chance but Mariano fluffed his lines

Everton 1 - 1 Liverpool
Lacazette(Sterling, 17)
Christensen(Fabinho, 73)
MOTM - Vertonghen

Tottenham v Leicester
A very interesting tactical battle, Spurs defensive set up certainly worked in terms of packing the middle but I felt that with Leicester’s threat down the wing, particularly the combo of Marcelo and Asensio, and Luiz’s rashness with so much space to the side and ahead of him to defend, was more than Spurs could really afford to handle, and when the wide CBs were drawn out, there was room in the box for a player like Ronaldo with his movement in the box arguably the best in the game right now. At the other end Spurs were obviously always a threat given their attacking talent. In the end though, Leicester had the extra quality they needed to cause trouble in Spurs’ new shape.
Tottenham 2-3 Leicester
Tottenham Scorers: Icardi (Robben) 44, Icardi (Martial) 70
Leicester Scorers: Ronaldo (Marcelo) 3, Asensio (Hazard) 62, Ronaldo (James) 87
MOTM: Cristiano Ronaldo

Arsenal v Hull City
A very tight game, Hull the more defensive of the two sides but still having a good attacking threat in Forsberg and Lopes. Arsenal were very similar with the majority of their threat coming from out wide. In the end it was a tight game but I felt Arsenal had a little more experience and quality to get them through the game.
Arsenal 1-0 Hull City
Arsenal Scorers: Cavani (Callejon) 64
Hull City Scorers:
MOTM: Leon Goretzka.

Portsmouth v Chelsea
An interesting battle between two top teams, Portsmouth looking to secure top 4 and Chelsea wanting to keep pace with Leicester. I felt Portsmouth’s formation was well set up to control possession, but perhaps lacked a little in terms of stretching Chelsea, certainly until they brought on the pace of Dembele anyway. Chelsea at the other end had a lot of pace and trickery in wide areas but I felt that Portsmouth were solid enough defensively, and had enough control in the midfield to keep Chelsea limited to counter attacks. The red card was given to Alexis for a Chilean style kick out, but it didn’t change the game all that much, coming so late on.
Portsmouth 0-0 Chelsea
Red card: Alexis Sanchez 81