Results Week 21

Week 21:

Portsmouth v Wolverhampton Wanderers
A tight game from the off as Portsmouth controlled the possession, with Wolves limited to the odd counter. Neither team went close to making a breakthrough though in the early stages as Portsmouth were stifled by organised defending from Wolves, especially in the middle areas of the field, whilst Wolves struggled to break beyond Portsmouth’s midfield, and on the occasions they did, they found De Rossi and the Centre Backs an impossible barrier to breach. Some nice inter play between Gotze, Lewandowski and Cavani did bring the best chance of the first half hour when the latter showed quick feet in the area to open the space for a shot, only to find the side netting. The game was unsurprisingly goalless at half time. Early in the second half Wolves took the lead when Coutinho finally managed to get past De Rossi and the game was opened up for Wolves, with Coutinho opting to try and chip the ball in behind the defence for Dybala. It was a wasteful ball though and looked an easy mop up for Hummels. That was until Lloris came rushing out, flattened his CB and cleared the ball only as far as Schneiderlin, who looked up and pinged a shot over the back peddling keeper, SKA was furious. The game continued much in the same vein, Portsmouth donating the possession but neither team creating many chances. SKA decided to change it and brought on Nainngolan and Anderson, moving Cavani upfront. The move worked immediately as Wolves struggled to deal with the extra pressure of two CFs and diagonal ball into the area from Marcelo was nodded down by Cavani with Lewandowski rifling in. The game was open now after the home side’s change in formation, with more space for Wolves to break. It was Portsmouth though putting on all the pressure and they should have taken the lead when Gotze twisted and turned into space infield and slipped in Cavani down the side, but Martinez somehow managed to get back behind his keeper and scrape the strikers goal bound effort off the line. Wolves were to have the last attack and a rash challenge from Nainggolan gave them a free kick in a dangerous position. Teixeira went for goal, with Lloris pulling off an excellent save, however there was Doumbia lurking and he poked the ball in to win the game for Wolves. Not what Portsmouth deserved from this game but perhaps with the two sides form, not the biggest shock, SKA still has work to do to turn around his new sides fortunes.
Portsmouth 1-2 Wolves
Portsmouth Scorer: Lewandowski(Cavani) 76
Wolves Scorers: Schneiderlin 53, Doumbia 90+3

MOTM: Inigo Martinez - 8 - A constant barrier for Wolves, dealt with the striker very well and broke up a lot of Portsmouth attacks around the area

Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion
This game took a long time to get going, but thats hardly a surprise when one manager seems to be telling his team to switch between counter attacking and possession football every 5 seconds, the West Brom fans took great delight from the confusion on the faces of Ronaldo, Aguero and co. Its weird to think that this team were Champions last season and even weirder to think they are level on points at the top so far this season because they look so out of sorts. Eventually though Ronaldo seemed to take matters into his own hands and began to attack the West Brom defence the way he wanted, shot after shot rained in but Valdes was equal to him. West Brom defended very well and at times even managed to create problems, finding a lot of space to counter, and Lallana and Bony went close on a couple of occasions. Eventually though we all saw why Arsenal are where they are despite the departure of Robin; Cristiano. The Portuguese forward cut inside and fired a rocket into the top corner, giving Arsenal the three points.
Arsenal 1-0 West Brom
Arsenal Scorer: Ronaldo 72
West Brom Scorer: —

MOTM: Cristiano Ronaldo - 7 - Arsenal toiled today between playing counter attacking from deep, defending deep, pressing higher up, controlling possession and it wasn't a pretty sight. Ronaldo though as ever, was.

Newcastle United v Aston Villa
A very tight game between two sides matching up for formation. This lead to interesting battles all over the field. Whilst Villa were on top in the midfield battle, Newcastle caused more problems for the wings which meant chances for both sides. Unfortunately for the strikers they found two defences in fine form and the game was a stalemate. Drama in the 70th minute though when Can looked to bring the ball out of the defence and Luis Suarez went in on him two footed and looked to take a nibble on his groin as he went through him. A straight red for the Uruguayan. Villa put the pressure on for the rest of the game but to no avail, 0-0 it ended.
Newcastle United 0-0 Aston Villa
Newcastle Red Card: Luis Suarez 70

MOTM: Diego Godin - 7 - Excellent in defence.

Southampton v Manchester United
Southampton have been in great form recently, however today they were u against arguably the best team in england this season and they struggled at times to really give United a game. United were well set up for this away match, they controlled the possession well and had the players in advanced positions to probe the southampton defence, whilst any time Southampton got forward Perez and Khedira mopped up quickly. The first goal came early on and it was a sign of things to come, Perez feeding the ball out to Hazard, Gaya made a good overlapping run to draw a CB out and this gave Hazard all the space he needed, dropping the shoulder and leaving Bacuna on the floor, he was too quick for the CBs who couldn’t make the tackle on the edge of the area, allowing Hazard to arrow a shot into the bottom corner. The problems continued to come down that flank for Southampton with Hazard in brilliant form, tormenting Bacuna, once more the Belgian escaped, this time to the byeline where he cut back and pulled off a magnificent rabona style cross but Schurrle was beaten to it by Vertonghen. The second did come though and this time it was from the other side, Fabregas playing in Schurrle who squared for Rooney to tap in. Southampton struggled to threaten the United back line until late on when substitutions from both team saw the home side allowed more time on the front foot. Thorgan Hazard looked to emulate his brother with a drop of the shoulder only to be fouled. Sneijder’s free kick nodded in by Huntelaar. Lesser teams may have succumbed late on but United kept calm and as Southampton upped the pressure, the coolest man around, Pirlo won the ball and pinged a delicious pass to Hazard, 1 v 3 with the Southampton defence, but there was only going to be one winner, the winger dancing inside then out before curling a shot over the keeper.
Southampton 1-3 Manchester United
Southampton Scorer: Huntelaar(Sneijder) 84
Man Utd Scorers: E.Hazard(Perez) 12, Rooney(Schurrle) 38, E.Hazard(Pirlo) 90+1

MOTM: Eden Hazard - 9 - A joy to watch in this kind of form, Bacuna was given no chance and the back 3 just feared making a tackle.

Manchester City v Hull City
An entertaining game at the Etihad with two contrasting styles, Man City going for a more patient possession game and Hull looking to press very quickly and very high up the field. Hull shaded the opening stages as their quick early tempo unsettled City leading to a few misplaced passes, but De Gea made sure that Hull could not take an early lead. City eventually settled a little more on the ball and mistakes disappeared but throughout the game they never really dominated for large spells, Hull working scarily hard off the ball in this game. Despite the entertainment shots on goal were few and far between as the two defences proved rock solid. The only way this game would be separated was by a free kick. Harry Kane on for Tevez to take it, and it looped over the wall and had too much power behind it, Forster got a hand to it but even his strength wasn’t enough and City snatched the points. A disappointing result for Hull as the performance deserved much more, but encouraging sides for the away team.
Manchester City 1-0 Hull City
Man City Scorer: Kane 77
Hull Scorer: —

MOTM: Claudio Marchsio - 8 - His off the ball work was second to none today, and he gave Hull the platform to press City all game long.

Chelsea 2-0 Swansea City: Benzema(Depay) 36, Neymar(Vidal) 72
Birmingham City 0-4 Leicester City: Sterling(Eriksen) 7, Eriksen(FK) 18, Van Persie(Draxler 29), Jese 80