Game week 16

Chelsea v Birmingham

A game where Chelsea turned up and dominated possession for large periods of the match, with Birmingham working hard just to limit their chances, in particular the midfield 3 worked very hard to be in the face of the Chelsea midfield and limited the impact of Pogba and Rakitic. However Chelsea were able to use the wide areas to their advantage, with the combination of Neymar and Sandro, and Carvajal and Mbappe causing the Birmingham WBs all sorts of issues. Birmingham’s back three defended manfully, but eventually, the wide overloads stretched them and Jesus was lethal in the box. At the other end Alli didn’t offer enough in midfield to take hold of the game and he didn’t have much opportunity to get in the box, but Vardy was a constant handful for the Chelsea CBs. The game became more open from the 65th minute, when 2-1 down Nadz brought on the strikers, but leaving Alli and Perisic as a midfield two opened the game up for Chelsea’s midfield, Rakitic in particular benefitting. In the end a routine victory for Chelsea, but Birmingham fought hard.
Chelsea 4-2 Birmingham City
Chelsea scorers: Jesus(Neymar) 31, Jesus(Carvajal) 37, Mbappe(Neymar) 74, Jesus(Rakitic) 79
Birmingham Scorers: Vardy(Bailly) 44, M.Gomez(Rodrigo) 84
MOTM: Gabriel Jesus



Portsmouth v Hull City

A must win game for Portsmouth if they were to remain in with a shout of the title. They have a very solid team all over the park and were able to cause Hull a lot of problems today, with Hull’s young team battling hard but unable to match the quality of their opponents. The one area I did feel that Hull would cause some trouble would be down the left, with Mahrez on the counter able to get at Martinez and drag him into wider areas where he was more vulnerable. Having said that though I liked Portsmouth’s subs, bringing on the pace of Dembele and Martial meant that even when Hull needed to get back into the game, they could never really throw men forward to do so without leaving themselves exposed. All in all, it was a good day for Portsmouth.
Portsmouth 3-1 Hull City
Portsmouth Scorers: Lewandowski(De Bruyne) 20, Lewandowski(Oxlade-Chamberlain) 43, Lewandowski(Martial) 81
Hull City Scorers: Forsberg(Mahrez) 56
MOTM: Robert Lewandowski


Arsenal v Leicester

With their major rivals all keeping up the pace at the top it was important for Leicester to win, however they came up against an Arsenal side that have been picking up more form recently. Arsenal came out to be boring a defend for 90 minutes and hope they might knick a goal on the counter, essentially turning what could have been a great game into a drab affair. Leicester pushed with everything that they had but the wall of defensive midfielders in front of Arsenal’s back four made it very difficult to find space centrally. Outside they found a lot more joy but balls into the box were well defended, and Pickford was always on hand if the defenders were beaten. At the other end Arsenal offered nothing for much of the game, Azpi’s discipline on the left meant that Berardi barely got a sniff, whilst Otamendi and Ramos coped well with the physicality of Mandzukic and Belotti, and of course Kante was always there whenever a midfielder tried to break forward. Arsenal did bring a more attacking side of their game later in the second half when James came on, but by then the tone of the game was fairly constant. Leicester’s subs for me made things even more narrow and congested, that until Vitolo was introduced. There was a massive chance for Leicester into the final minutes, Azpi’s deeper cross aimed up towards Costa who went down rather theatrically under a challenge from Koscielny, the ref fall for it though and Ronaldo had the chance to win the game. His penalty was well saved by Pickford. However from the resulting corner, Koke picked out Otamendi who crashed a header into the top corner.
Arsenal 0-1 Leicester City
Arsenal Scorers: —
Leicester City Scorers: Otamendi(Koke) 90+1
MOTM: Koke

Tottenham v Liverpool

Everton v Aston Villa
Debut for new manager TAB, up against the only manager in the league that changes formation more times than LSTD, Tino unleashing his take on the 4-3-1-2 today. This one was a really hard one to call for me today, Villa would undoubtedly dominate possession with that midfield, and whilst it is very narrow, I felt that their FBs could negate some of that, both excellent going forward and I feel that Cesc in midfield against good attacking opposition is a weakness, which would have allowed Hamsik to make runs behind him and I would expect Griezmann to get the better of Carvalho given the support he had from midfield. Having said that though, Everton’s CBs are good, Chielini vs Higuain is a battle that id favour the CB, especially with Vertonghen spare just in case, Cavani vs Kolasinac is going to be very physical but I do feel that Kolasinac is better going forward than he is at defending. The same for Everton’s WBs but up against Luis and Candreva,I think both can do their job defensively there. At the other end whilst I think Villa would dominate the ball, they are definitely vulnerable to counters with this personnel, Hamsik and Marchisio obviously wanting to make forward runs, Modric is more forward thinking too and lacks the pace to stop Sterling and Anderson once they get going. Benzema is good at holding the ball up and finding his team mates and Alves and Kurzawa going forward would definitely give the FBs some issues, and whilst Cesc is vulnerable in a 2 man midfield, with players ahead of him able to get into space he is going to pick them out. In the end it was very hard to call, and the generator agreed with me.
Everton 2-2 Aston Villa
Everton Scorers: Sterling(Benzema) 38, Kurzawa(Fabregas) 56;
Aston Villa Scorers: Cavani(Hamsik) 12, Griezmann(Di Maria) 75
MOTM: Marek Hamsik.

Brighton v Wolves
Stoke City v Newcastle