Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ of 2003/4 can sleep soundly for another year knowing their record is safe. Manchester City finally came away from a game with no points following a thrilling 4-3 loss at Anfield on Sunday. This result cuts City’s lead over Manchester United (who beat Stoke 3-0) to 12 points, while Liverpool rise up to 3rd, level on points with Chelsea. A second straight loss for Burnley, this time a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, sees them dropping back towards their mid-table rivals, while Arsenal’s 2-1 loss at Bournemouth sees them losing ground to the top 5.
The upset on Merseyside
What a result for Liverpool! Despite having lost Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona earlier in the month, there was no clear impact on their attacking quality as they came out 4-3 winners, courtesy of goals from Oxlade-Chamberlain, Firmino, Mané and Salah (obviously). When I was predicting the results at the end of my last article, I was tempted to pick Liverpool for the win due to how prolific their attack has been of late. Their defence may still need some improvement – 2 goals in the last 10 minutes made it squeaky bum time at the end) but as long as they can continue scoring more than their opposition they can beat anyone on their day.
Firmino and Salah are surely having the best season of their careers (Firmino already has more goals in any competition this season than in any other season), while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is looking better by the week as he gets more comfortable in the squad and scored a lovely goal to give the Reds an early lead. Adam Lallana has recently returned from injury and will continue to improve with more minutes. The one place Liverpool do need to look is at the back. Virgil van Dyke was missing for this game and there were mistakes from individuals, most notably for Leroy Sané’s goal, where Joe Gomez misjudged the flight of the ball to leave Sané in acres of space, then Loris Karius failed to save at his near post.
Liverpool are clearly improving as the season goes on and it’s clear where the money needs to be spent at the moment. We have just under half a month left, so it will be interesting to see if they make any more signings this season.
Taking the next step
Burnley may be having an impressive season (7th in the league with 34 points, behind only the big 6) but it could be going so much better. Injuries to Chris Wood and Robbie Brady have left Sean Dyche with limited attacking options and while they may have the 4th best defence in the league, they are also one of only 5 clubs to have not yet scored 20 league goals this season.
This is a team that are not currently able to win from a losing position and to take the next step and challenge for Europe, Sean Dyche needs to find a striker that can contribute 12-15 goals a season. The beauty of the Premier League is that anyone can beat anyone on the day, so if Burnley can start turning some of these draws and 1-0 losses into wins, they will be able to continue pushing for European football.
Bringing football into the 21st century
I know not everyone has been happy with the impact of the video assistant referee (VAR) in recent tests during cup games, but this weekend gave us 2 incidents that highlight exactly why VAR needs implementing sooner rather than later.
While it can also be argued that Southampton threw away a 2 goal lead (again, not looking good for Pellegrino), the equaliser from Abdoulaye Doucouré should never have stood as on review it was clearly controlled at least in part by the hand. The 2-2 result leaves the Saints just a point above the relegation zone, so those 2 points they have been denied could prove crucial in their fight for survival.
Swansea will also feel aggrieved that they had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Newcastle considering they should have had a penalty in the first half when Mohamed Diame clearly (although apparently not to the ref) raised his arm to block a goalbound shot. Not only should this have been a penalty, but this would have also left the Magpies playing the rest of the game a man down and more than likely resulted in Swansea taking the full 3 points. The extra 2 points would still leave them bottom of the table, but within a win of escaping the bottom 3.
2 incidents this weekend, plenty of other throughout the season. It may interrupt the flow of the game slightly, but surely it is more important that the matches are not affected by wrong decisions.
Round 24 predictions:
Brighton & Hove Albion v Chelsea – Chelsea win
Arsenal v Crystal Palace – Arsenal win
Burnley v Manchester United – United win
Everton v West Bromwich Albion – Everton win
Leicester City v Watford – Leicester win
Stoke City v Huddersfield Town – Draw
West Ham United v AFC Bournemouth – West Ham win
Manchester City v Newcastle United – City win
Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur – Spurs win
Swansea City v Liverpool – Liverpool win
Eyes on the Ball 