Game week 4

Portsmouth v Birmingham

A one sided game for the most part as Portsmouth really controlled possession and the majority of the goalscoring chances against a depleted Birmingham defence. Birmingham though defended with numbers and with lots of spirit, with William Carvalho in particular everywhere, especially helping out on the left where Alonso really struggled with the directness of Dembele. Another mismatch was caused by Carvalho’s constant drifting out to the wings though, with De Bruyne and Gundogan left up against Sanson and Kessie, which saw Portsmouth work well between the lines. Birmingham defended manfully though, with Maguire bing very physical on Lewandowski and just about getting away with some rough challenges. Portsmouth did score eventually, the introduction of Mertens causing extra problems, and he took advantage of a lapse by Ake to get in behind and beat Lafont. This however, was only an equaliser, with Birmingham having stolen a goal earlier in the half when Wanyama was caught out by Mbappe, only for the Kenyan to then hack him down. Marcos Alonso scoring from the resulting free kick, meaning Birmingham had a share of the spoils in unlikely circumstances.

Portsmouth 1-1 Birmingham City
Mertens(Eriksen) 83; M.Alonso(FK) 51

MOTM: William Carvalho

Arsenal vs Chelsea

Arsenal came into this off the back of defeat after defeat, whilst Chelsea had been given a difficult set of opening fixtures, with teams largely coming out to get a point against the champions. It was no different today, from the first whilst you could see Arsenal’s game plan, 45 seconds in De Vrij coming through the back of Aguero to end an early attack in its tracks. Arsenal continued much in the same way and it was left to Chelsea to try and overcome this. As the game settled down into its pattern it was evident to see that Chelsea’s players were going to have to overcome strong Italian discipline mixed with a bit more Italian ‘gamesmanship’, and if anyone was going to do it, it appeared to be Khedira, who lives for these kinds of games. With his team mates around him taking a battering, Khedira showed his power and running through the middle and was the most likely in the first half to open things up, but every time he managed it, Pickford made a fine save, or the excellent Marquinho’s made a block. Hamsik’s role was crucial too, with Chelsea’s movement between the lines always excellent, Hamsik seemed to stop the balls being played and he did a great job on Busquets. Later into the second half though, with Fan finally giving Griezmann a free role, rather than leaving him stuck to provide the width for Neymar and Pogba, the game began to become much more difficult for Arsenal who were really clinging on, Bonucci started to find incisive balls to Griezmann with relative ease and he used Sterling well, the winger giving Rodriguez a much harder time than the slower Griezmann. But with a bit of luck Arsenal continued to hold on by the skin of their teeth and they had a chance late on to win it, a rare mistake in possession from Bonucci and Hamsik released Aubameyang behind him, he got through one v one but De Gea made a great save to keep his clean sheet. A heroic display by Arsenal, but Chelsea were very unlucky to not get three points today with such a strong late flurry.

Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea

MOTM: Marquinhos

Tottenham v Hull City

Two very different styles of teams, Welshy’s young squad come out with a plan to work together, absorb opposition attacks and then get at them on the break away’s, whilst Fud is very much Wenger like, rely on the quality of your players and make sure everyone knows just how good they are, regardless of poor results and league positionings in previous seasons. There is no denying though that this season, Tottenham have a very strong side, but they also have a bit of extra experience now too, and whilst Welshy set up well, his team do lack some experience which at times was evident, particularly in the attacking third, where after all their good defensive work, they would break quickly but miss the final pass, or shoot when there wasn’t really the angle to do so. It is a side learning though and you could see, particularly at the back, they were able to match Tottenham and suffocate their attacking play. However, late into the game, a quality ball from Sigurdsson gave Lukaku an easy chance with a header and he made no mistake.

Tottenham 1-0 Hull City
Lukaku(Sigurdsson) 78

MOTM: Niklas Suele

Everton 0-2 Leicester
C.Ronaldo(Marcelo) 12, C.Ronaldo(Mkhitarayan) 58

MOTM: C.Ronaldo

Brighton v Liverpool


Stoke City v Aston Villa

An entertaining contest this one, one playing with pure pace and energy and the other with a more considered approach. Villa kept most of the ball which was to be expected, they have an excellent team, especially through the middle, and at times it was difficult for Stoke to hold on. Villa had plenty of movement too from their front three which really made it difficult for Stoke to defend, especially the FBs who really struggled with Robben and Reus, and will be thankful that their manager was wise enough to keep their lines of defence neat and compact, without that organisation, Villa would have run riot, as man for man they are obviously far stronger. This did show though at times, perhaps a little bit of inexperience on the home teams part and experience from the away side meant that Villa were able to create some one on one scenarios and when these battles arose, they often won out, their opening goal a real sign of this, as Reus got the better of Passlack and played the ball into the box, with Benzema just getting a touch to beat the keeper. Villa martialed Martial and Rashford pretty well too, Matic and the CBs keeping a good block, with help from Zielinski, however Villa’s one weakness was in the wide areas, where once their FB had pushed up, their was acres of space behind and Stoke found it easy to find that space once they had stopped looking for the strikers, with both Stoke FBs comfortable on the ball and able to quickly release their winger whenever they won the ball. Whilst it should be harder to build in smaller spaces, Villa made it all too easy by dropping back way too early, perhaps too scared of Stoke’s pace and constantly then dropping off and allowing Stoke the chance to carry the ball forward, by the time they eventually engaged it was often too late and they needed a lot of last ditch defending, but even with the quality of their defending in these moments, Stoke always looked like getting at least one goal, and Cyprien did so with a rocket, under no where near enough pressure. The winner came simply through naivety and a want all or nothing attitude, and that was obviously Ludy’s mistake. With the game poised at 1-1 and Villa on the front foot, he changed systems, he replaced his defensive minded players with attacking ones, and slow ones at that in the middle of the park, whilst Ska changed to a 4-3-3. Suddenly, whenever Stoke countered they now had space on the wing and men overloading the midfield, which made it easy for them to start counters anywhere on the pitch. Leaving Mata and Marchisio in a CM duo late on against the fresh legs of Stoke was bold, but it did not pay off. Cyprien broke away from Mata with ease and suddenly Stoke had 4 v 4’s and even 4 v 3’s, and they got an unbelievable winner. Cyprien feeding Lemar who had the beating of Aurier and released a great ball across the goal, Malcom stealing in to win Stokes first points of the season.

Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa

Cyprien 62, Malcom(Lemar) 87; Benzema(Reus) 25

MOTM: Wylen Cyprien

Newcastle v Wolves

A very tight game where Newcastle saw almost all of the ball but Wolves were a threat whenever they had the chance to be. Newcastle’s three man midfield, filled with quality, gave them good control but Lucas and Son were unpredictable and flanked by Cancelo and Hector, they were really able to make progress out wide and push Newcastle back into more defensive positions, which to Newcastle’s credit, they defended well, and sometimes it was also a case of Wolves’ wingers unpredictability being mediocrity in the final third, their end product inconsistent throughout the game. Wolves were always in the game though until a red card to Cahill, who brought Salah down after the Egyptien’s pace had taken him away, put Wolves on the back foot for a full 30 minutes. They did their best to keep themselves in the game but as tiredness crept in, space opened up and Coutinho found the room to get the ball, cut inside a challenge and fire a brilliant winner beyond Ter Stegen. A hard fought win, against a good side, but a win nonetheless.

Newcastle United 1-0 Wolves
Coutinho 82

Red Card: Gary Cahill

MOTM: Ander Herrera