Premier League Bits: Round 9 Headlines and Highlights.
This round contained a big upset of Manchester United, Chelsea getting a much needed three points and Tottenham looking to take on Manchester City with their best Wembley showing yet. We also saw two managerial sackings within the past week. Craig Shakespeare became the second manager sacked by Leicester within a calendar year and Ronald Koeman received his walking papers from Everton.
Here are some highlights from the past weekend.
Huddersfield 2, Manchester United 1.
Manchester United boss; Jose Mourinho, was convinced he had witnessed more motivation from his team at a friendly following their shock loss at Huddersfield. The Terriers very much looked the much more inspired side and earned those three points. United may have been affected by defender; Phil Jones, going off in the 23rd minute with an injury to his left leg from a tackle by Aaron Mooy. Jones was replaced by the not so ready, Victor Lindelof. Huddersfield pounced quickly there after, doubling the number of goals United has conceded in league play. Aaron Mooy; (28'), and Laurent Depoltre; (33') put the Terriers ahead, 2-0 at the half. United picked up the pace a little in the second half by subbing Marcus Rashford and Henrich Mkhitaryan at halftime, but wasn't enough. Rashford pegged one back in the 78th minute.
United fell five points behind City. This was Huddersfield's first win over United since 1952, and snapped a six game winless streak. Huddersfield visits Liverpool next week, while United travels to Swansea; Tuesday, for a league cup match. The next league match for United is Saturday against Tottenham.
Chelsea 4, Watford 2.
The Blues received a much needed three points after back to back league defeats. A corner kick in the 12th minute from Eden Hazard connected with Pedro and inside of the net. But the in form Watford got the equalizer just before the half by Abdoulaye Doucoure. The Hornets put the Blues on the ropes four minutes into the second half with a Roberto Pereyra goal to take a 2-1 lead. That lead would last until the 71st minute when the late game heroics of Michy Batshuayi returned with a goal to tie and another goal five minutes into stoppage time. Last year, during the Chelsea title run, Batshuayi scored a couple massive goals, including the goal that would be the title clincher. Cesar Azpilicueta scored the go ahead goal in the 87th minute.
Chelsea leapfrogged Watford from fifth to fourth place. Chelsea has a league cup match at home with Everton; Wednesday, and travel to Bournemouth, Saturday. Watford hosts Stoke, Saturday.
Manchester City 3, Burnley 0.
City extended their lead to five points with their 11th straight win Saturday. Sergio Aguero's penalty shot in the 30th minute was his 177th goal for City, tying the club record. Nicolas Otamendi; (73'), and Leroy Sane; (75'), rounded out the scoring.
Manchester City have piled up 32 goals in nine league matches. They host Wolverhampton, Tuesday for a league cup match and travel to West Bromwich, Saturday.
Tottenham 4, Liverpool 1.
The Spurs cut the porous Liverpool defense to shreds in their best outing to date at Wembley Stadium. The record crowd of 80,827 witnessed a team ready to embark on another title push with Tottenham. Harry Kane should have had plenty of inspiration and motivation going into this match. The inspiration came from meeting the great Diego Maradona. The motivation came from Jamie Carragher's claim that Kane is not a world class player yet. The result was two Kane goals in the 4th and 56th minutes. Goals by Son Heung-min; (12') and Dele Alli; (45'+3'), lifted Tottenham to a second place tie with Manchester United.
The Liverpool defense had no answer to the Spurs rampant attack. Jurgen Klopp yanked dizzy defender; Dejan Lovren, after the first 30 minutes and replaced him with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The move steadied Liverpool until the back breaking Alli goal just before halftime.
Liverpool's school boy defense at times is not nearly good enough to challenge for a Premier League title. They fall to ninth place, 12 points behind City.
