Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 17
Matchweek 17 Scores:
Man City 3-1 Everton
Wolves 2-0 Bournemouth
Watford 3-2 Cardiff
Tottenham 1-0 Burnley
Huddersfield 0-1 Newcastle
Crystal Palace 1-0 Leicester
Fulham 0-2 West Ham
Southampton 3-2 Arsenal
Brighton 1-2 Chelsea
Liverpool 3-1 Man United
Midweek we had Champions League and Europa League take the stage, which we will get to in a little bit. Upcoming, we continue the mayhem that is December soccer in England with EFL Cup quarterfinal matches midweek followed by more Premier League action next weekend.
Mourinho is Feuding With Paul Pogba
Liverpool finished up matchweek 17 with a big 3-1 win at home over Manchester United. Jose Mourinho interestingly decided to drop Paul Pogba from the starting lineup and Pogba never even saw the pitch in this game. Again, interesting decision considering you lost 1-3, but I’m not necessarily saying that Mourinho is in the wrong here. Pogba has been pretty mediocre as of late and hasn’t scored a goal or even assisted on one since October. Pogba got off to a flying start at the beginning of the season coming the World Cup win but just continues to prove to be one of the most aggravating and inconsistent players in the game. Mourinho is undoubtedly the only coach in that would stand up to Pogba in this situation(and by situation I mean being in 6th place and on the hot seat).
Holy shit do I love Jose Mourinho. That clip is just so perfect. Love him or hate him you have to give it to Mourinho, he’s one of the few coaches that will absolutely not be bullied by a player just because they’re a star. At Real Madrid we saw it when he benched club legend Iker Casillas, at Chelsea when he benched Eden Hazard because he wasn't playing defense and now with Pogba at United. Manchester United’s next match is away at Cardiff on Saturday.
Liverpool Pick Up Another Huge Win
On the other side you have Jurgen Klopp who just continues to get the best out of his players week in and week out. Xherdan Shaqiri burst onto the scene for Bayern Munich when he was just 21 yrs old. Granted he scored 11 goals for Bayern in 52 appearances, he would eventually move onto to mid table mainstay Stoke City, which I can remember at the time was kind of a shocking move for a young player of his caliber. Shaqiri spent 3 seasons at Stoke and the mid table team finally fell on hard times and were relegated last season. Liverpool brought Shaqiri in this summer for a measly 13.5 million and he’s turned into a bit of a super sub for the team. After coming out of halftime tied 1-1 with United, Shaqiri would come into the game scoring the eventual game winner and adding a 2nd goal with just 10 mins left. Jurgen Klopp definitely has this team firing on all cylinders at the moment as Liverpool end matchweek 17 with a 1 point lead over Manchester City. Liverpool’s next game is away at Wolverhampton Wolves this Friday.
Fight For 6th Place is Hotly Contested
After United’s loss to Liverpool that leaves the teams in 6th through 13th place separated by just 5 points. United lead the way with 26 points but have given up an astounding 29 goals. Unbelievable that a Jose Mourinho coached team has allowed 29 goals in 17 games. The 04-05 Chelsea team coached by Mourinho only allowed 15 goals in 38 games, granted of course that’s the record. Wolves have kind of come up out of nowhere winning their last 3 against Chelsea, Newcastle and Bournemouth. West Ham have rattled off 4 wins in a row and have come a long way from the start of the season where they lost their first 4 games. Everton and Watford are starting to slip as each team only have 1 win in their last 5 games. In the end, I fully expect Manchester United to finish top of this group LOL 6th place, but still pretty impressive for a team like Bournemouth to say their only 3 points behind United or Brighton to say their only 5 points behind when we are nearly half way through the season.
Other Notes
The group stage has finished in Champions League and by a miracle all 4 Premier League teams have advanced to the Rd of 16. As I noted last week, Man City and Man United were both locks to advance regardless of their result but Tottenham and Liverpool needed some luck. Well Tottenham was able to pull off a 1-1 draw against Barcelona at the Camp Nou(Yes, it was Barca’s B team but still kind of impressive), and advance on away goals after Inter was unable to beat PSV. Talk about the perfect storm but hey like I’ve always said I’d rather be lucky than good any day and Tottenham were just that on Tuesday. On Wednesday Liverpool who needed a 1-0 win vs Napoli or a win by 2 goals, did just that as they beat the Italian side 1-0 and advance to the Rd of 16. The Rd of 16 draw is tomorrow morning.
Arsenal lose their first game since August to the lowly Southampton. Just like the good ol days when Wenger was coach. I haven’t checked out ArsenalFanTV yet but i’m thinking it should be pretty good.
As mentioned earlier, Manchester United have conceded 29 goals so far this season which is ranked 5th worst in the league. The other 4 teams who have conceded more goals are Cardiff, Southampton, Burnley and Fulham, all of which sit in 16th place or below.
Congrats Fulham, you only conceded 2 goals this week. That’s improvement.
Who goes first, Pogba or Mourinho? My guess is Mourinho, but oh wouldn’t it be hilarious if Pogba is sold in January and then Mourinho is sacked shortly after. I know this blog was very heavy on Manchester United and Mourinho, but at this point in the season and the mess they’re in they are just a content machine.
Thanny