Leicester City on Cloud Nine
What a weekend of soccer. There is so much to talk about!
Chelsea’s American superstar, Christian Pulisic, has finally landed. A hat-trick, not just a hat-trick, but a perfect one. A left footed goal, a right footed goal and a headed goal. In what has been a difficult start to life as a Premier League player this is exactly the confidence boost Pulisic needed, and exactly what Frank Lampard needed to see. Two late goals from Burnley made the result seem less comprehensive. In reality Chelsea dominated an error-prone Burnley.
Manchester City beat Aston Villa 3-0. No surprises here. A late red card for Fernandinho was a blip on what was otherwise a typically perfect performance. Sterling opened the scoring and continues to show he’s more than his early critics made him out to be. It pains me to write this every week, but Manchester City is the best team in England, and you could make a case for them being the best in the world.
What was billed as the fixture of the weekend, Liverpool vs Tottenham, was in fact a tense affair. Kane’s headed goal was typical of his predatory instinct and Son was a constant threat. Despite Tottenham deserving to get more out of that game there were still lack luster performances from the likes of Eriksen and Alli. If I told you Liverpool won a late penalty it shouldn’t take you many guesses to figure out who won it. Mane. It always seems to be him who goes down in the box… I consider him to be one of the 5 best players in the Premier League right now, but he does love to go down.
Manchester United fans will be delighted with another away win. After 15 away games without a win, 2 in a row will be a fresh of breath air for what has otherwise been a deeply disappointing season. Despite both Rashford and Martial missing penalties they both managed to score brilliant goals and the Devils managed to score 3. Fred performed better than he has but he still lacks quality with his forward passes. James, Martial and Rashford were full of energy and pace and caused the Norwich back line all kinds of headaches. With the Blades, Palace, Arsenal & Tottenham all dropping points the Reds see themselves jumping up a few spots. Arguably the biggest news of the weekend was Scott Mctominay’s goal, a wonderfully placed finish that took Manchester United’s Premier League tally to 2,000!
And now we come to the main event. Leicester City vs Southampton. The Foxes went into the game as favourites, but even in their wildest expectations they could never have predicted this result. In a torrential downpour Leicester managed to put 9 goals past Southampton. It’s only happened twice before in Premier League history and not since Tottenham beat Wigan 9-1, 10 years ago. A truly historic result with both Perez and Vardy bagging hat-tricks. (I mention this every week, but Jamie Vardy is a WORLD CLASS #9.) After winning the title in 2016 many people expected Leicester to fall back into mid-table obscurity, especially after selling both Mahrez and Kante who were so instrumental in that title winning season. But they’ve confounded their critics by continuing to be an exciting, organized and effective Premier League team.
Below is the current top 7:
1. Liverpool
2. Manchester City
3. Leicester City
4. Chelsea
5. Arsenal
6. Crystal Palace
7. Manchester United