Crystal Palace 2-4 Liverpool
When Jordan Henderson bisected the Palace defensive with a brilliant ball, and Bobby Firmino dropped a couple of yards deeper to exploit the offside trap before darting in behind to chip the keeper and put Liverpool two goals clear of Palace with less than twenty minutes to play, all Liverpool supporters watching breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It was a long, painful game at times, with Dejan Lovren's defensive errors leaving Liverpool hanging on to a 3-2 lead, and Palace, much improved after the break, were putting them under real pressure. This was a game that was ultimately a showcase of both awful defending and sheer class forward play. But whilst both teams had their moments of madness at the back, shambolic defending allowing four headers to go in during a frenetic first half, only Liverpool had the class and brilliant forward play to secure the win. Whilst it was a wonderful pass from Henderson that sealed the win, the England midfielder once again a class act in the middle of the park, once again it was Phillipe Coutinho who was the best player on the pitch. This month Liverpool have played four league games, against United, Swansea, West Brom and now Palace. In all four, Coutinho has been Liverpool's best player, and in three of them he's been the best player on the pitch.
And against Palace it was the same, Coutinho drifting left and right to rip holes in Palace's defence as Liverpool caused endless problems in the first half. It was Coutinho's brilliant pass that released Alberto Moreno for the first goal, a lovely turn over the top to free the left back, whose wicked cross was slotted in by Emre Can. Coutinho again was the creator for the second and third goals, as his excellent set pieces were headed in by Liverpool's central defenders. Whilst Palace's set piece defending was suspect to say the least, Liverpool rarely score off set pieces because the delivery usually isn't good enough. But Coutinho's two assists on Saturday night suggested otherwise.
And it could have been more than just two assists for Coutinho. He freed Moreno again with a stunning reverse pass, and Moreno hit the post. And Coutinho himself could have found the net as his brilliant flicked header hit the post via Mandanda.
Less impressive on the night was Sadio Mane, who also denied Coutinho an assist when he was unable to convert being in on goal after a stunning pass set him away. And Mane also missed a very good chance in the first half, as he skied the ball from a wonderful cut back from Clyne.
But, as mentioned, this game was as much about poor defending as it was the class of Coutinho and Henderson, even though the latter won out. Twice Lovren made critical errors. The first goal was the result of a horrible shank by the Croat, straight up in the air, allowing McArthur to run in and challenge Loris Karius. McArthur got there first, won the header, scored an easy goal. A horror show from Lovren and Liverpool's new keeper didn't cover himself in glory either, although again he wasn't directly responsible. Karius is yet to make any glaring errors resulting in goals in a Liverpool shirt, but he looks uneasy in the role and could certainly do with a confidence boost, which hopefully some big second half saves from Christian Benteke will give him.
Lovren's second big error was losing a header to McArthur inside the box, resulting in McArthur powering the ball into the top corner. Moreno should have stopped the cross, Lovren should have won the header, Liverpool really shouldn't have conceded. But that's been the story of their season so far. And whilst I think Klopp has a point that Liverpool's defensive problems have been overstated, and whilst we have looked significantly more solid with the imperious Joel Matip at centre back, a man who once again turned in a good performance and scored the crucial third goal, there's also no denying that the thirteen league goals conceded so far this season is too many. Even the porous Manchester United defence that conceded four to Chelsea last week has a better all-round defensive record and whilst Liverpool have the best attacking record in the league, their defensive record is preventing them from matching Arsenal and City at the moment.
That said, we will improve, have already improved this season and Jurgen Klopp will no doubt be forcing his players to keep working on improving. The fact that the notoriously error-prone Lovren has made less and less mistakes is a boon for Klopp, who has already isolated Moreno, Mignolet, Lucas and Skrtel, our four most error-prone players in recent years and removed them from the starting eleven. Whilst Moreno offered a lot of attacking threat against Palace, he also looked shaky at the back, and is not someone Klopp is likely to rely on.
From Palace's perspective, they will feel that defensively they needed to do more in this game. Coming forward they offered a threat, and Christian Benteke had several big chances to grab an equaliser in the second half, as Palace recovered well from falling behind time and again. But conceding two headers off set pieces isn't good enough. And whilst Liverpool's fourth goal was down to a brilliant piece of movement from Firmino to drag the central defender out of position, Palace's offside trap was still downright awful.
But as I mentioned, I thought that Palace played well overall. Cabaye in particular was excellent, McArthur scored two very good headers, and Benteke was a constant threat. They offered more than enough to suggest that they'll be fine this season and will beat opposition worse than Liverpool with performances like yesterday's, although defensively they need to improve.
For Liverpool though, the good run of form continues, now unbeaten in eight league games and eleven games in all competitions, with nine wins in those eleven. Having only drawn away at Spurs and at home to Man United since the bad result at Burnley, Liverpool's form is increasingly impressive, particularly away from home where they've won at Arsenal, Chelsea, Swansea and now Crystal Palace. Right now with the way the league is shaking up, top four is still the priority, but the longer Liverpool stay in the mix, the more that they'll fancy themselves.
Sunderland 1-4 Arsenal
Whilst I predicted Arsenal to put Sunderland to the sword, I don't think this was quite how it was expected to go, as Jermain Defoe's penalty midway through the second half pegged back Arsenal. At this point, Arsenal looked, as they have done for a few weeks now, largely devoid of creative ideas. I like Alex Iwobi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but Arsenal are so reliant on Mesut Ozil to provide the creative spark in their team. As it was, Ozil had a quiet game, and Arsenal struggled at times to break down Sunderland. But then, with the game looking like a shock might be on the cards, Arsenal substitute Olivier Giroud stepped up, Alexis Sanchez turned on the class, and Sunderland imploded defensively.
Beginning with Sanchez, a man who oozes quality from every pore and is so easily Arsenal's best attacking player, particularly with Ozil looking slightly off the pace at the moment. The first goal was a lovely piece of play, with Oxlade-Chamberlain's delightful cross thundered home by a stunning header from Sanchez. And all game Sanchez was a threat, with his movement and ball control, not to mention his passing causing Sunderland problems. And Sanchez got the second goal that his man of the match performance deserved when a mishit shot from Aaron Ramsey landed at his feet and he was somehow able to adjust his body and finish brilliantly.
But the game was decided by substitute Giroud, who managed to capitalise as a rank average Sunderland side fell apart, giving Giroud first a free volley in the box which he dispatched with aplomb, and then a free header off a corner which he deftly turned in, as two goals in five minutes killed the game dead, with a brilliant impact from Giroud. Giroud gives Arsenal something different, as he's a target man and a natural goalscorer who will get into goalscoring positions in the box and can win the ball in the air.
And from Arsenal's perspective overall this was a comprehensive victory that could easily have been more comprehensive, with Sanchez scoring early, creating two golden chances for teammates, and deserving a penalty right before Sunderland equalised, as he was dragged down inside the Sunderland box. And once Sunderland equalised Arsenal swiftly and clinically put the game to bed. Four goals against the worst team in the league, and Arsenal avoided a potential banana skin with aplomb.
West Brom 0-4 Man City
Meanwhile, the final member of the top three, Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, returned to both winning ways and the top of the table with a wonderful win over Tony Pulis' West Brom. A lot has been made of Sergio Aguero's poor form, but he answered his critics superbly with two excellent goals, exactly the kinds of goals that you would expect Sergio Aguero to score. The first was a great run into the channel and a clinical finish, the second was sublime, as he picked the ball up on the edge of the box and rocketed it past Ben Foster.
But even at 2-0, West Brom looked dangerous and Salomon Rondon had two big chances to half the deficit. Despite keeping a clean sheet, City still look susceptible to big defensive errors and were fortunate not to let West Brom back into the game. But the longer the game went on, the more comfortable and relaxed City were and a brilliant run from Aguero allowed him to find Iker Gundogan, who scored his second goal for Man City, his third following shortly after following a great cross from substitute Kevin De Bruyne.
City's formation fluctuated slightly to something closer to a 4-2-3-1, with Fernando drifting into the right back role, but ultimately this was a game all about the quality of City's players, rather than Guardiola's tactics. Aguero has had a quiet season so far but his goals, performance and general play were absolutely phenomenal to crush West Brom into submission, scoring the first two and creating the third. After a tough run of recent fixtures, it was vital that City recovered here. And they did so, with Guardiola, and Aguero, keeping the wolves off their back for the time being at least.
Man United 0-0 Burnley
But one team who couldn't get the critics off their back, or the three points that they desperately needed, at home to Burnley, were Manchester United. Despite dominating the possession and having 37 shots, the most of any team since records began, United failed to penetrate a resolute Burnley defence. Part of the problem was the quality of shooting. Less than a third of the 37 shots hit the target, and when they did, a lot of Tom Heaton's saves were reasonably routine.
That is to take absolutely nothing away from the exception Heaton, who did have to make two or three excellent saves to keep out an increasingly dangerous United side, including one that almost broke his Moreover, Heaton was aided by a back four that threw themselves in front of everything to try and block United's attacks.
And if it wasn't their own poor finishing, the excellence of Burnley or even just sheer bad luck, as Juan Mata's shot collided with the post, United could always blame the referee. Except they couldn't, as their biggest appeal for a penalty was Darmian, right on half time, who was offside when he picked up the ball. I think the appeal itself was tight, and would have been soft, but could have been given, and certainly was just, only just, on the line and hence inside the box. But it's not a bad decision so much as two bad decisions by the linesman, as even if he should have given the penalty, he definitely should have called Darmian offside.
Moreover, whilst Ander Herrera was arguably unlucky that he slipped as he went into a tackle, he was nevertheless completely out of control of his body and absolutely clattered his man. It was a booking, even if he was unfortunate that he ended up in that position. It was not a good tackle, and Herrera can have no complaints.
But the biggest culprit has to be Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who missed multiple clear cut opportunities for United, including arguably the miss of the season as he volleyed over from three yards with the goal gaping. Ibrahimovic now hasn't scored in six league games (despite having over 35 shots in that period), and has scored just once since the second game of the season. With a main striker who is horribly out of form, it's no surprise that United haven't scored in three games (the worst run in the Premier League) and have won just once in their last seven games, putting them 16th in the form table.
For United, they really need to go away and have a good hard look at themselves. The problems that have been there since their humblings at Watford and against Man City haven't gone away, and they've reverted to the problematic 4-2-3-1, away from the 4-3-3 that worked very well against Leicester, a win that increasingly looks to have done nothing more than paper over the cracks. And it didn't even really do a good job of that.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Another day. Another England batting collapse. Shambles.
- Murray flying. Number one ranking in sight.
- Hamilton takes pole. Big race in Mexico tonight.
- Sarries massacring everyone in their path right now.
- A controversial kick gave New Zealand the win vs England.
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