Goalkeepers proved their worth this week in matches across the board. Everton recorded a draw away from home against a threatening and attacking Manchester City side. For the first time, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has not won at home, but they remain top of the Premier League on 19 points from 8 games. Stekelenberg made a series of magnificent stops. Two from the penalty spot broke the Premier league total penalty saves record at this stage of the season. Elsewhere in the North East, Manchester United held Liverpool to a draw at Anfield in the Monday night derby. Critics have put this down to two outstanding saves from David de Gea in the United goal. This highly anticipated derby failed to meet expectations as a goalless draw occurred for the first time in over ten years in this fixture. It was also the only goalless game of this week and José Mourinho condemned a “cautious” Liverpool, despite Emre Can and Phillipe Coutinho being denied by the right and left hand of de Gea respectively.
At St. Mary’s, the striking pair of Charlie Austin and Nathan Redmond stood out for Southampton as a 3-1 victory moved them into the top half of the table. Southampton had a total of 34 shots and with 14 of them on target, a special mention goes to Tom Heaton for adding to the goalkeeping prowess this week with several eye-catching saves.
Arsenal made it five wins in a row with a 3-2 victory against Swansea, but new Swansea boss Bob Bradley came away from the Emirates with plenty of positives as his side stayed in the match and could almost have pinched a draw in the dying seconds of the match. Walcott was on the scoresheet twice but missed a near-open goal, which would have cemented his hat-trick. Junior Stanislas of Bournemouth could also have had a hat-trick as he scored a brace in Bournemouth’s 6-1 demolition of Hull City. Meanwhile, Sunderland’s winless run continued as they lost to a Stoke side that had also seen a poor start to the season. Joe Allen was named man of the match as his two goals helped to relieve the pressure growing on manager Mark Hughes.
Champions Leicester City failed to get a single shot on target against a Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge. Diego Costa and Eden Hazard provided the goals in a dominant first half for Chelsea and Victor Moses completed the domination in the last ten minutes. While a 3-0 loss is a big setback for the Champions, they have won all 3 of their Champions League matches so far. Perhaps Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri is eyeing his next potential surprise trophy.
The rest of the matches saw a Hoolevas screamer for Watford as they beat Middlesborough, a late Dele Alli equaliser saved a point for Tottenham at West Brom, and a Lanzini finish for West Ham gave them a win against Crystal Palace.
Joey Wright
Photo Credit: Premier League