Underneath you can listen to Kit and I speaking about Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Spurs, the other Premier League games which happened yesterday and who will win the Golden Boot.
A few previews of the Premier League games happening in the forthcoming weekend
To get this fixture-filled Premier League weekend started, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal take on Hull, a game that will be vital for the future of Arsene Wenger because if they lose then it would be Arsenal’s third loss in a row and some fans may turn against their manager.
Soon after Arsenal’s game against Hull, Sunderland play Southampton. Sunderland are definitely on an upbeat after their passionate and disciplined 4-0 win over Palace and they could once again escape being relegated, but if they do stay up then they should be beating Southampton who have found it reasonably hard in the league after Ronald Koeman has left the club.
The last game on Saturday is probably the biggest game of the day as Liverpool take on Spurs. Liverpool have dropped in the league after their electric start to the season. However, a win at Anfield would make them climb up the table. Spurs, unlike Liverpool, had a mediocre start to the season but have gone further up in the table and they’re now in second position.
The last game of the weekend is Leicester vs. Swansea. Both clubs are in a relegation battle so both teams must treat this game as a must-win. At the start of the season, no one expected Leicester to be in this position but awful form has put them in a relegation scrap.
I apologise for there being no podcast this week, we decided due to illness not to do it but we’ll return next Wednesday for another podcast.
Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A round up of the season so far
As I’ve only written articles on the Premier League so far on this blog I thought I would write something on the other European leagues, so below you can see what’s been happening in those leagues.
Bundesliga
Top four:
- Bayern Munich
- RB Leipzig
- Eintracht Frankfurt
- Borussia Dortmund
Top Scorer: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
The Bayern Munich dominance in the Bundesliga could come to an end this season,as surprise team Leipzig are hot on their heels in the league. Leipzig were in the Bundesliga 2 last season but got promotion and are somehow now second in the league.
Borrusia Dortmund are only fourth in the league which is poor as they’re probably Germany’s second best team and they are below Frankfurt who finished 16th in the league last season.
Serie A
Top four:
- Juventus
- Roma
- Napoli
- Lazio
Top scorer: Edin Dzeko
Juventus are set to march onto their sixth consecutive league title but Roma still have a chance of winning the league because of top scorer Edin Dzeko, who netted his 17th Serie A goal of the season yesterday.
Napoli have fared rather well this season despite losing their striker Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus and also with their replacement striker for him Arkadiusz Milik getting injured for a spell of time.
Ligue 1
Top four:
- Monaco
- PSG
- Nice
- Lyon
Top scorer: Edinson Cavani
For what seems like a long time PSG are struggling in Ligue 1 after the departure of manager Laurent Blanc. A main reason that PSG are finding it difficult this season is the exit of Zlatan Ibrahimovic last summer who was such an influential player for them and he scored a large majority of PSG’s goals.
This season in Ligue 1 seems to be the one of Premier League rejects doing well in the French League as players such as Gomis, Balotelli and Falcao’s combined goal tally this season is thirty six.
La Liga
Top four:
- Real Madrid
- Barcelona
- Sevilla
- Atletico Madrid
Top Scorer: Lionel Messi
La Liga is very tight at the top of the league with just three points separating the top three- Sevilla, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Sevilla have suprised Barca and Real with their excellent form as their were many doubters of Sevilla after manager Unai Emery parted company to manage PSG in France.
Who will be getting relegated from the Premier League this season?
With the teams at the bottom of the league very close together on points I decided it was best to analyse which teams could stay up this season and who could go down.
Middlesbrough
Why they could stay up: With the attacking talent in their team Middlesbrough do score quite a bit, and also they’ve a great manager in Aitor Karanka.
Why they could go down: They’re on a bad run of form in the league and if their results don’t improve they’re heading straight to the Championship.
Leicester
Why they could stay up: Many players from last season are still here so if they can recreate their form of last year then they could stay up.
Why they could go down: There just seems to be no mentality in the club that they can achieve what they did last year, and the players don’t seem to believe in Claudio Ranieri.
Swansea
Why they could stay up: Paul Clement has got Swansea on an exceptional run of form and they seem to brimming with confidence to stay up.
Why they could go down: The start of the season’s poor form has not put them in a great position in the league and also Swansea have struggled to completely replace Ashley Williams so their defence still is quite poor.
Hull
Why they could stay up: Marcos Silva has signed some quality players for Hull and furthermore they are on a good streak of form which is racking up the points for them.
Why they could go down: Hull’s midfield is now very weak with the departure of Jake Livermore and Robert Snodgrass and the injuries of Ryan Mason and Markus Henriksen so that could cost them in many games.
Crystal Palace
Why they could stay up: The defence has been poor for all of the season so the signings of full backs Schlupp and van Aanholt and centre back Sakho could tighten it up. Another reason why they could stay up is their manager- Sam Allardyce has never ever been relegated from the Premier League before in all the clubs that he’s managed.
Why they could go down: Palace’s loss against Sunderland has had a major impact to the confidence of their players and fans, and one thing you need to have when you’re facing a relegation battle is confidence.
Sunderland
Why they could stay up: As much as it looks like Sunderland are going to get relegated, they always seem to get themselves out of the bottom three and they’ve been in the Premier League for six seasons in a row now.
Why they could go down: If Defoe gets injured then Sunderland will almost certainly go down as he’s scored half of Sunderland’s goals in the Prem this term.
Verdict: I think the clubs who will get relegated this term will be Leicester, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace because Palace aren’t winning enough games and have got such low confidence compared to Hull and Sunderland. The reason I think Boro will go down is their very inexperienced in the Premier League and they don’t look like they’re going to pick up any form. As far fetched as it sounds I think that Leicester will go down because the belief in the players is poor and the star players last year seem to be completely different footballers.
Premier League Round up
Saturday was a great day for Chelsea as they absolutely played Arsenal off the park winning 3-1. Hazard once again showed his quality, scoring a wonder goal where he ran all the way from the halfway line and in the process shrugged of Francis Coquelin with his strength then got past Laurent Koscielny by going on the inside then outside of him, and lastly slotted the ball past Petr Cech to make it 2-0 to Chelsea. The last Chelsea goal just summed up how bad Arsenal were and how good Chelsea were with Cech playing an awful pass straight to Cesc Fabregas, who lobbed it wonderfully over the stranded and embarrassed Cech to score his second Premier League goal this season.
Sunderland surprised me and the whole football world as they beat Crystal Palace 4-0, with the goals coming from Lamine Kone, Didier Ndong and a brace from Jermain Defoe. Crystal Palace must have found the result unexpected after their win against Bournemouth in mid week and Sunderland’s poor form in the league, but as I said in the podcast with Kit- Sunderland just always perform in big games under pressure.
Another surprise result was Hull’s win over Liverpool, which leaves Liverpool with an extremely low chance of being in top spot when it comes to May. Liverpool are also now without a Premier League win in 2017 and they have only got one victory in all competitions, and the win was against League Two team Plymouth. Although, times right now are not great for Jurgen Klopp, things are looking up for Hull’s manager Marcos Silva as his team are now 18th- one point off getting out of the relegation zone, and also they have bought well in the transfer window and the goals yesterday both came from new signings, Niasse and N’Diaye.
Leicester City are finding it very hard to reignite their form from last season and they lost again this weekend, this time to Manchester United. If Leicester have a chance of staying up then they’ve got to be winning their home games like this game was – as they’re still winless away from the King Power stadium. However, United just ran riot against the leaky Leicester defence, scoring three goals in the game with Ibrahimovic scoring one of them to net his 20th goal in all competitions this season.
Football Podcast with Kit- Sunday 5th February 2017
On this podcast Kit and I talk about the Championship season so far, Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Arsenal and the rest of the Premier League results which happened yesterday.
Some Premier League previews of the games happening this weekend
Starting this intriguing Premier League weekend it’s the great London derby- Chelsea vs Arsenal. The last time these two clubs met Arsenal hammered Chelsea 3-0 and that defeat was so bad for Chelsea that it caused Conte to change their formation to 3-4-3 which has been working so well for them. During the encounter, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will sit amongst the Chelsea fans after picking up a touchline ban against Burnley for pushing and abusing fourth official Anthony Taylor.
We’ve got a fixture where the teams near the top of the league play against each other, and we’ve got a fixture where the teams at the bottom of the league play each other- as Crystal Palace clash with Sunderland. Sam Allardyce and Palace should be hopeful of securing a win as they beat Bournemouth comfortably in midweek 2-0.
With the later kick off Tottenham will expect to get a better result than their game against Sunderland mid week when they play Aitor Karanka’s Middlesbrough. Spurs unsuprisingly didn’t make any signings over the Summer, but Middlesbrough were the opposite of Spurs in signings buying four players, two of them strikers.
The final game of the weekend is Leicester against Manchester United. Leicester look dangerously close to the relegation zone in 16th, and they’re just two points off the zone too. Leicester and Manchester United are both winless in their last three Premier League games, although United have drawn all of them.
What I think about the main transfers that happened this transfer window
With the transfer market finished and a lot of big moves for players I reflect on those moves down below.
Dimitri Payet to Marseille from West Ham for £25m.
When a player hands out a transfer request- which is what Payet did, it’s almost certain that he’s going to leave the club, but if I was him I wouldn’t be looking to play for a team like Marseille as their sixth in the table and if he moved to a big club, then he would still get game time as he’s so good and would have the opportunity to win trophies.
Joey Barton to Burnley as a free agent.
I don’t understand why he left Burnley this summer but anyway Burnley looked like the only club who wanted to sign him, and also he will play a big role in Burnley’s team as centre midfielder Dean Marney is out for the rest of the season.
Saido Berahino to Stoke from West Brom for £12m
It think Berahino will be a great addition to Stoke’s team although he needs to rediscover his fabulous form of the 2014/15 season where he scored twenty goals in all competitions. I think also that Berahino will benefit massively from his move to Stoke as he’ll play regularly for Stoke because they don’t have many options up front.
Jose Fonte to West Ham from Southampton for £8m.
Exactly like Dimitri Payet, Fonte handed out a transfer request to his club Southampton which he has loyally stayed at for about seven years. Which is quite odd as surely if he had spent so long at Southampton he would have an attachment to the club and not want to leave.
Memphis Depay to Lyon from Manchester United for £21.7m
Memphis understandably found it hard to adapt to life in the Premier League because of his young age and the amount of attacking talent which United have who play in his favoured position, so if I put myself in his shoes what I would decide to do would be – move abroad on a few year loan spell, then when he’s developed into a better player and grown older he could be one of United’s main men. So I don’t think moving on a permanent basis to Lyon is a wise idea.
The round up of the Premier League games that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday
Many managers find it hard to get off to a good start after getting a new job, but Paul Clement is definitely not finding it hard to adapt to a new job as his Swansea team defeated Southampton to secure back to back wins on Tuesday.
Liverpool needed a win against Chelsea, but David Luiz’s free kick denied Liverpool the victory. The goal was a controversial one as Mignolet wasn’t actually focusing on the ball when Luiz struck it; he was telling his defence what to do. However, Mignolet said in an interview that he didn’t hear the whistle, but we’ll never know the truth about that incident. Liverpool equalised through a close range header from Georginio Wijnaldum. Liverpool now sit 4th in the table, which is disappointing as they started the season so well.
Manchester City played extremely well at the London Stadium against West Ham with Gabriel Jesus impressing on his first start in the Premier League setting Kevin De Bruyne up for his goal then scoring for himself. Pep Guardiola signed Jesus from Palmeiras and he’ll be hoping he can take Sergio Aguero’s place in the team more often.
The Premier League has lots of big upsets with underdogs winning, and there was another one Tuesday as Watford beat Arsenal 2-1. The goals for Watford came from centre back Younes Kaboul and striker Troy Deeney. Despite Arsenal’s loss manager Arsene Wenger has given his team two days off meaning Arsenal will only have one training session to get ready for their important clash on Saturday, when they take on Chelsea.
So, Arsenal fans, is your title race over after your defeat to Watford and the excellent form of your title rivals Chelsea? Please leave a comment.
Sam Allardyce got his long awaited first win in the Premier League as Crystal Palace boss, seeing off Bournemouth at the Vitality stadium. The win was important for Palace after slipping into the bottom three and with their fellow relegation fighters having good results.
Football Podcast with Jack- Wednesday 1st February 2017
This Wednesday we discuss the draw between Liverpool and Chelsea, the other Premier League games that night and we analyse big signings and how well clubs did in the transfer market.