An interesting week of football in the Premier League with 29 goals scored over the ten matches including a 5-0 win for Leicester City. Here are the results:
Sheffield United vs Liverpool 0-1
Aston Villa vs Burnley 2-2
Bournemouth vs West Ham 2-2
Chelsea vs Brighton 2-0
Crystal Palace vs Norwich 2-0
Tottenham vs Southampton 2-1
Wolves vs Watford 2-0
Everton vs Manchester City 1-3
Leicester City vs Newcastle 5-0
Manchester United vs Arsenal 1-1
Here are the ratings for the teams:
SHEFFIELD UNITED 6.5/10
Unlucky not to get a point as they did battle bravely against Liverpool. One error cost them the game and it does show they have the ability to defend against the best.
LIVERPOOL 7/10
A bit lucky but a win is a win and if you want to be champions, draws won’t do under those circumstances. Liverpool look like champions but it’s too early to tell who will win it.
ASTON VILLA 7/10
Good performance with incisive attacking play. They are not going to go down without a fight but their defence is still somewhat of an issue.
BURNLEY 7/10
Standard Burnley performance with good goals from Wood and Rodriguez. They should aim for top 10 this season and could easily get it.
BOURNEMOUTH 7/10
Quality in attack but still issues at the back for Bournemouth. Needs addressing in January if they are to challenge the top 7.
WEST HAM 7/10
Better than against Oxford, needed to perform and the usual suspects did. Yarmolenko looks like the perfect replacement for Arnautovic and it is good to see Cresswell playing well after being injured for such a long time.
CHELSEA 7.5/10
Eased into a 2-0 win. Look a better outfit than the team that started the season. Interesting to see how they do in their Champions League matches and when United come to the Bridge for the Carabao Cup, it will show how far they have truly come.
BRIGHTON 6/10
Didn’t have the quality to beat Chelsea. Looked like they would be relegated at the end of the season but look a decent side these last seven matches and could make their way up the table.
CRYSTAL PALACE 7.5/10
Solid performance and good attacking play. Zaha seems back to his best and is probably waiting to impress for January. If they get going, they’ll have very few problems.
NORWICH 5/10
Injuries are finally hitting them and it doesn’t look too good. They can attack and play very well but when half your team is injured, it’s very difficult to keep playing the way you want. Only time will tell if they can remain in the Premier League.
TOTTENHAM 7/10
Stupid red card and even worse goal to concede but Tottenham prevailed. Would be expecting to do better at home but seems their squad depth is still not good enough to challenge for the title. They also got demolished against Bayern with the high press, something to ponder for other Premier League managers.
SOUTHAMPTON 6/10
Would expect them to do better with 11 vs 10. They won’t go down but they aren’t making it easy for themselves.
WOLVES 8/10
All Wolves fans will be glad for their first win in the league. If they lost this game, they would have been in serious trouble. Neto looks dangerous as both a starter and an impact player and Doherty is always a dangerous fullback. Will hope to surge up the table from this point now.
WATFORD 5/10
Not sure what to say about Watford. Are they going to be like Aston Villa in 15/16? No one expecting them to get relegated but playing so poorly that they drop? They desperately need to sort themselves out or they are never going to recover.
EVERTON 5/10
Wasn’t a bad performance but certainly not what Marco Silva needed right now. He is one or two bad losses away from being sacked and the players are not helping him. Zouma was one of his most trusted defenders last year and he stayed at Chelsea with Everton not replacing him. Jagielka also left who is a big voice in the dressing room so who do they have leading the side now? Troubling times.
MANCHESTER CITY 8/10
Good win and one they could not afford to drop points against as Liverpool won earlier on. Mahrez seems to flourish with Sane injured and if the German goes to Bayern, he will only improve after a poor debut season for the Algerian. Difficult game against Wolves but the Cityzens should triumph.
LEICESTER CITY 9/10
Ripped Newcastle apart. The red card will have helped but Leicester were ruthless and clinical. After their toothless performance against United, they have really stepped up and been attacking with precision and pace to effect.
NEWCASTLE 3/10
Poor red card but worse defending. Not something you associate with Newcastle in recent seasons. Couldn’t live with Vardy’s pace nor with the crosses into the box. Tried to attack but nothing came off. Joelinton needs to score more goals as the sole attacker for Newcastle, hold up play is not enough if you’re in a relegation battle.
MANCHESTER UNITED 7/10
I am only giving United a 7 because they looked like winning the game. One mistake led to the equaliser and then United kicked on and should have won despite being seriously injury-hit. Rashford seriously needs a rest and Lingard should not be starting week-in week-out. Alkmaar next and only a win will do. Also, it was a penalty. I don’t know how this handball law is still intact – it needs sorting as soon as possible as that changes a game completely.
ARSENAL 6/10
Arsenal were very lucky not to lose. Good finish from Aubameyang but that’s all they really had. Guendouzi and Saka were the only ones trying and Pepe looked awful. Ceballos helped a lot in attack for the equaliser but after that period they dropped off, not something you associate with Arsenal.
