Southampton 3-0 Leicester
This was a game that was as one-sided as they come. To suggest that 3-0 doesn't reflect the pattern of the game wouldn't necessarily be unfair, but it would flatter Leicester, given how truly awful they were. Southampton are a good football team, but they've struggled to put the ball in the back of the net, even at St Mary's, scoring just 22 goals in 22 games. Thankfully for Saints, they were assisted by a truly abject performance from Leicester.
This was worrying in just about every department for the visitors. Their back four looked like they had never played together before, despite playing the majority of games together in the last season and a half. Their set piece organisation was embarrassing. They had no steel, bite, or control in their midfield, and in fact it's hard to pinpoint exactly what Ndidi or Mendy bring to the table, whilst Danny Drinkwater spent most of the game trying haplessly to defend the right hand side of the pitch from Ryan Bertrand. The tactics were woeful, as a diamond midfield with no quality or tenacity saw Leicester's fullbacks exposed and Okazaki wasted at the tip of a diamond. Jamie Vardy's only telling contribution to this game was a nasty tackle that forced Virgil Van Dijk off with an ankle injury.
The only shining light for Leicester was Demarai Gray, which makes it more baffling that it took Leicester so long to play him out on the left where he belongs, as time and again he caused Cedric Soares problems, although Cedric himself was a constant threat on Southampton's right hand side.
So onto Southampton, who were as excellent as Leicester were poor. Everything Leicester lacked Southampton had in abundance. Even without Van Dijk for most of the second half, Yoshida and his partner Stephens looked composed and calm. Their fullbacks bombed on and caused problems; Redmond and Tadic were lively; Romeu added a much needed steel and bite to their midfield and has proved a fitting replacement for Victor Wanyama. Hojbjerg was very good, apart from the sitter that he missed around the hour mark, that would have finished the game long before it was ended.
And so the incidents. Saints knocked on the door early and despite missing a few aerial chances, took the lead after a wonderful move on the right was cut back to man of the match James Ward-Prowse on the edge of the box, who dispatched with aplomb past the diving Schmeichel. Personally I'm unsure whether Kasper could have done better, but it certainly was a fabulous strike.
The second goal was shambolic from Leicester's point of view, as Robert Huth headed a wicked free kick from Ward-Prowse straight into the path of Jay Rodriguez, who made a brilliant untracked run to get into position to slam the ball in from inside the six yard box. It was the worst set piece defending that I've seen since...well since Saturday to be honest but I'm still trying to block that out.
If Southampton's rhythm was staggered in the second half with Van Dijk's injury, then they still had time for a late flourish, as Wes Morgan had a calamitous second half. First he managed to blaze Leicester's only genuine chance of the match over from about six yards. Then, he headed into his own net from another stunning Ward-Prowse only to be reprieved (falsely) by the linesman's flag. And finally, he bundled over livewire substitute Shane Long, picking up a booking and allowing Dusan Tadic to slam home the goal that compounded Leicester's misery from the penalty spot.
Personally, I don't think that this Leicester team are bad enough to go down. But to be frank, if they play this badly week in, week out until the end of the season, then they will get relegated. On a weekend where most of their relegation rivals lost, at least the likes of Burnley, Hull, Boro and Palace put up better fights than Leicester did. This display was nothing short of pitiful, and they'll have to seriously up their levels over the next few weeks, or they could find themselves losing their next three games. And if they lose to Swansea on 12th Feb, suddenly things could be looking a lot bleaker.
Arsenal 2-1 Burnley
Well. That was something. On a day in which I expected three reasonably comprehensive home wins, Arsenal and Burnley managed to produce a thrilling conclusion to an otherwise pretty limp game of football. Whilst Burnley deserve a lot of credit for keeping Arsenal at arms length for most of the first half, and creating their own handful of chances to keep the first half interesting, if not explosive, the Gunners deserve criticism. Sanchez looked a lone threat, whilst Ramsey played very well in the middle of the park. But Iwobi looked out of his depth, Ozil mediocre.
When Arsenal did get their breakthrough, just before the hour mark, it came from a set piece, as Shkodran Mustafi headed in a Mesut Ozil corner. And that will be frustrating and disappointing for Burnley, who defended so well for an hour, to be undone so simply.
But Arsenal, who could and maybe should have gone on to win easily from that point onwards, let Burnley back into the game when their biggest liability, Granit Xhaka, got himself sent off for a stupid two-footed lunge. I've made my position on two-footed lunges clear before: they're stupid, they're dangerous, and if you do it then you can have zero complaints if the ref sends you off, although the challenge itself was borderline.
Having let Burnley back into the game, Arsene Wenger played his trump card, bringing off the ineffectual Iwobi and replacing him with his other main liability at defensive midfield: Frances Coquelin, who showed his worth to Wenger's side by hacking down Ashley Barnes in the 92nd minute to gift Burnley a penalty and with it, surely a point. Wenger himself completely lost his cool, and was sent off moments later for shoving the fourth official, an act that will surely earn him a touchline ban.
But then came one last sting in the tail. Arsenal pumped the ball forwards, needing every second of the 7 minutes added on as Laurent Koscielny, who was absolutely fantastic yet again, took a boot to the face from Ben Mee, who was lucky not to get a straight red as his foot was dangerously high, and Arsenal were awarded a penalty. The fact that Koscielny was offside just rubs salt in Burnley's wounds. But Sanchez, who was born with ice in his veins, did a panenka penalty right down the middle. 2-1. Full time. After a Saturday that saw Liverpool, Spurs, Man United and Man City all drop points, it was vital that Arsenal retained some momentum, as they moved back into 2nd in the Premier League, and somehow they managed to do just that. This was far from a convincing performance, but it was nevertheless good enough.
Chelsea 2-0 Hull
This is another game overshadowed by poor officiating, but also one overshadowed by the horrific injury to Ryan Mason, who mercifully appears to be recovering well from a clash of heads with Gary Cahill that left him with a fractured skull. I can only wish him well.
It was the moment that will linger on from this game, as Chelsea secured a reasonably comfortable 2-0 win against Hull, with goals from Cahill himself and Diego Costa giving them all three points. Costa's goal, right on half time, is the source of much controversy, as Abel Hernandez appeared to be fouled in the build up, but nevertheless it was well worked to the right, and Moses' low cross was fired in with aplomb by the striker.
And whilst Hull will feel aggreived, both by that decision and the lack of a penalty as Hernandez was caught from behind by Alonso. However, decisions go both ways and Chelsea were also unlucky on a couple of occasions, first as Costa charged in on goal and scored, only to be pulled up for offside when he looked level, and then when the already booked Curtis Davies hacked down Pedro on the edge of the box, a stonewall booking offence.
But this was never a game that had a lot of momentum and as Hull played the better stuff and looked to equalise, simply they didn't have enough quality and as Cahill made it 2-0 off a Fabregas set piece. This is the sort of game Hull never looked likely to win, and it was a classic Chelsea performance. Sharp at the back, control the tempo of the game, and strike with one or two clinical moves when needed to.
This result leaves Hull two points clear of safety, but in reality they have a mountain to climb. And it also leaves Chelsea eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, with two crunch matches to come against Liverpool and Arsenal, two of their closest challengers. Even two points from those would probably be enough to seal the title.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Murray crashes out of Australian Open.
- Jo Konta however, sets up Serena quarter-final.
- England win consolation ODI by five runs.
- And the less said about LFC v Swansea the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment