Leicester City absolutely dismantled a helpless Southampton side 0-9, yes- at St. Mary’s. Jamie Vardy and Summer signing Ayoze Perez scored hat-tricks. Everyone was stunned (at least I bet) with the result, although we all knew Leicester can break through the top four this season. Stunning Friday night football from Leicester
Records this developing club has broke/equaled
Recorded the biggest ever victory by an away side in an English top-flight league match in the 131-year history of the Football League
Inflicted Southampton’s biggest ever defeat as an English league side in all competitions in their history
Became only the second team in Premier League history to establish a five-goal lead in the first half of an away game in the competition, after Manchester City against Burnley in April 2010 (also 5-0)
became only the second side in Premier League history to have two players score a hat-trick in the same game (Perez and Vardy), after after Arsenal in May 2003 – also against Southampton (Pennant and Pires)
Above: Daniel James celebrates his debut goal against Chelsea.
Manchester United started the Premier League sweetly, thrashing Frank Lampard’s Chelsea 4-0.
Chelsea stated off dangerously as Tammy Abraham hit the bar four minutes after Kick-off. However, Marcus Rashford slotted home a penalty kick for United to narrowly take the lead.
United were a different animal, though in the second half, scoring three goals in 16 minutes. Rashford’s and Martial’s goals were just 90 seconds away from each other, and Chelsea were left helpless.
While it is a day to forget for Frank Lampard, United, after an eternity, looked clinical. New signings Harry Maguire and Aaron-Wan Bissaka proved worthy of being in the starting XI, making vital clearances (including one which led to the second goal). Paul Pogba looked surprisingly different (no, not his hair) by assisting twice in the game, proving he can be a dangerous midfielder to play against when it it his day.
It was no different for Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s Men cruised past West Ham 5-0 at the London stadium, with Raheem Sterling bagging a deserved hat-trick. Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero also found themselves on the scoresheet, with Aguero scoring from the 12-yard box.
The talking point of the game
VAR 100%.When Raheem Sterling’s goal somewhere in the 60th minute was disallowed by VAR. It made it’s Premier League debut in the game, and already it caused controversy. His shoulder was A FEW MILLIMETRES offside.
Then, it helped City as although Aguero’s penalty was saved, it was to be re-taken as the goalkeeper was off his line. It (The rules) states that the goalkeeper should have at least one of his feet on the line in order for the kick to be taken.
So the kick was re-taken, and this time Aguero made no mistake in putting it away.
City’s title rivals Liverpool had a 4-1 win over Norwich soured after Alisson’s injury in the 39th minute.
Four first-half goals put The Reds in front, but it was not good news for them. Alisson, thier star goalkeeper, slipped while taking a goal-kick, thinking that something had hit him. Klopp said the Injury was worrying and indeed it was. Alisson left Anfield in a wheelchair and is ruled out for the next 4 weeks (Missing matches against Chelsea, Arsenal, Southampton and Burnley.)
They’d better be careful.
Brighton stunned Watford away, winning 0-3.
Graham Potter’s men kept a clean sheet and scored 3 away, which is impressive for their 17th-placed finish last season, escaping relegation by 2 points. But with their new manager, it was not looking like last season. Potter said that it was a dream to score three and keep a clean sheet away to a 11th placed Watford (last season). He praised Brighton’s performance and encouraged them to continue to do the same.
Other Matches Include…
Tottenham 3-1 Aston Villa- 3 goals in 17 minutes secured the win for Spurs
Leicester 0-0 Wolves- Wolves goal rightly disallowed by VAR for offside
Crystal Palace 0-0 Everton- Morgan Schneiderlin gets first Premier League Red Card this season
Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal- Aubameyang scores only goal at St. James’ Park
Burnley 3-0 Southampton- Saints go down as Burnley slot 3 past them
AFC Bournemouth 1-1 Sheffield United- Substitute Billy Sharp scores late equalizer for newly-promoted Sheffield (United)
Tottenham looked like taking a 1-0 advantage into half-time only for Arsenal to level in injury time.
Arsenal then netted another 2 past them, finidng themselves 3-1 up.
Tottenham hit back for 3-2, only for Arsenal to score. They then got back, the score at 4-3. Arsenal scored once again and a late strike for Tottenham did not prove worthy as they went on to lose 4-5 at home.
Chelsea 4-4 Liverpool (Agg. 7-5)- UEFA Champions League Quarter-final
Date: 14 April 2009, 2008/09 Season
Chelsea stunned Champions League favourites Liverpool at Anfield as the Reds went to lose 1-3 at home. The reverse fixture, however, would prove to be an 8-goal thriller.
Torres missed a chance in the early stages for the visitors, shooting the ball over the bar.
Then, Lampard procceded to get his free-kick saved by legendary ‘keeper Pepe Reina.
The first goal out of the eight was an improvised free-kick by Fabio Aurelio, which caused the ball to bounce but left Petr Cech on his line, stunned.
In the next 17 minutes, the visitors would lead 0-2 thanks to a Xabi Alonso penalty.
Kuyt would then head the ball only for Cech to save his header.
In the second-half, all hell broke lose. A counter-attach by Chelsea allowed Anelka to pass the ball to Drogba, who squeezed it into the net. Chelsea were leading 4-3 on aggregate.
However, the wanted to euqalise even though they were already up on aggregate. A sublime free-kick from Alex six minutes later allowed the Blues to equalise and lead 5-3 on aggregate.
Then Frank Lampard converted a Drogba pass to allow Chelsea to lead Liverpool 3-2, but it wasn’t over yet.
The determined visitors equalised through Lucas Leiva’s strike with 9 minutes to go.
In the space of 2 minutes, Liverpool would once again take the lead by a header by Kuyt. (Arghhh why did you score? At least 1 last goal to talk about.)
1 minute to go. Another assist for Anelka and a goal by Frank Lampard. It’s 4-4, Chelsea leading 7-5 on aggregate.
Reading 5-7 Arsenal
League Cup, 2012/13 Season, 4th Round
Date: 30 October 2012
12 goals so I’ll just provide a summary.
Reading were up 4-0 after 35 minutes, and Arsenal fans left, not at all expecting a comeback. Reading led 4-1 at half-time thanks to a goal by Theo Walcott for Arsenal.
He would proceed to score a scintillating hattrick.
Deep in injury time, Arsenal scored. Mission accomplished, it’s 4-4.
Arsenal would then lead 5-4, before a volley for Reading to make the scores 5-all. Arsenal would then score 2 goals in injury time at the end of extra time, including a chip by Chanmakh from 35 yards.
5-7 Arsenal.
Other scores include…
Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal (Newcastle 4-0 down at half-time)
Tottenham 5-4 Leicester (A classic, Tottenham were 3-1 down after 60 minutes)
Liverpool 3-3 Crystal Palace (Were set to win the league after they were up 3:0- then conceded 3 to lose to Man City) (Also Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea before that)
Man Utd 4-3 Real ( not all-english but a Brazillain Ronaldo hattrick )
Virgil Van Dijk, an impassible wall in defence, nets Liverpool’s third from a Mo Salah corner.
Liverpool cruised past newly-promoted Norwich 4-1, with goals from Salah, Origi, Van Dijk adding to an own goal by Norwich captain Grant Hanley.
Salah scored an easy tap-in after a pass from Roberto Firmino, while Van Dijk headed the ball from Salah’s corner. Origi headed a pinpoint Alexander-Arnold pass. Origi’s cross deflected off Hanley’s leg, scoring the own goal.
However, all is not well for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
With almost 40 minutes played, Alisson had a ‘problem with his calf’. He took a goal kick and slipped, “thinking that something had hit his calf,” Klopp said in his post-match Interview. “This definitely tells it is more than a strain, and it is very worrying,” he added.
With new signing Adrian in between the sticks, he did a pretty decent job for his first appearance for the Reds.
He managed to save a free-kick and 2 shots from Norwich, although he failed to keep a clean sheet after conceding a goal scored by striker Teemu Pukki in the second half.
However, there are still concerns for Alisson, who will not be playing in the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea, the Europa League winners. This gives Liverpool a disadvantage- as Alisson is generally their star man during deparate occasions.
In other news…
Man City travel to West Ham and try for a third consecutive title
Leicester to play a close game with Wolves in their own backyard
Old Trafford to see a nail-biting match against Europa league winners Chelsea
Tottenham play newly promoted side Aston Villa
Arsenal travel to Newcastle in hopes to reach top four with newly signed players such as David Luiz and Nicolas Pepe
With 5000 to 1 odds to win the title, and just escaping relegation the season before, it seemed impossible for the Foxes to win the title. And they did just that. With an amazing manager (at the time) and future stars, they sealed their title with 81 points. The following season, most of their players left for the bigger clubs (Top 6 inn England, mainly to Chelsea).
But that was not the only stunning Episode of the 2015/16 Premier League.
Southampton Qualify for Europa League
The Saints finished last season (2018/19) in 16th, escaping relegation by a mere 5 points. However, just 3 seasons before that, they finished in 6th, qualifying for the Europa League. However, if you compare from previous seasons- it’s actually not a huge surprise- they finished 7th in the 2014/15 season.
Dmitri Payet Hero as West Ham finish 7th
The Hammers finished 7th as Dmitri Payer starred in many of their matches played. He was a steal in the transfer market, brought from Marseille for a sum of £10m. When sold back, he was worth triple the amount West Ham brought him for. Although he left in disgrace, the 2015/16 would remain sweet to him. The Attacking Midfielder scored 9 goals, many of those free-kicks and volleys. One of his best goals was a sublime free-kick against Manchester United in Old Trafford, scoring from 35 yards (32m). Back to West Ham, they ended the season with 62 points, above their average mid-table performance.
Liverpool and Chelsea go down
Liverpool shocked their fans finishing 8th, with 60 points. However, it could have been worse had they not sacked Brenden Rodgers. Before his recuitment, the Reds only gained 12 points in Eight Matches (50% of the maximum points they could have earned). Also, a poor defence caused Liverpool to end the 15/16 season in a disappointing fashion. However, one of their best games to date in that season was a 4-1 win to Man City away.
I think we all know Jose Mourinho’s Season 3 curse. His team always underperforms and he gets the sack, but for his second spell at Chelsea it was one like no other. In 16 games, Chelsea earned only 15 points (31.25% of the Maximum points he could have earned). Its a Jinx, thats all. In the remaining 22 games, Chelsea earned 32 points (48% of the Maximum points they could have earned).
13 November 1991. Heartbreak. The Danish do not qualify for next year’s EUROs as Yugoslavia edge them by 1 point. Although they defeated Ireland 2-1, the Yugoslavians also won their final game. Here is the table:
(Note that before 1994, a win was worth only 2 points.)
As you can see, Yugoslavia edge them 14 points to 13. They also have much more goal differential then Denmark. However, due to the Yugoslavian war, UEFA banned them and Denmark qualified as they were second in the group. Little was expected of them to win the competition.
And their chances were slimmed even more when they were drawn in a tough group- England, France and Sweden, the hosts of the tournament.
Denmark defeated France in a stunning 2-1 victory. They edged through to the semis along with Germany, the Dutch and the Swedes, with 3 points.
Denmark had a very tough tie against the Dutch, who were the favorites, along with Germany, to win the tournament. They surrendered a 2-0 half-time lead and the match, level at 2-2 after extra time, went to the dreaded penalty shootout.
Denmark weren’t dead. They would do the impossible.
In a dramatic penalty shootout, they won 5-4 on penalties. Meanwhile, in the other semi, the hosts lost to the Germans in a nail-biting 5-goal thriller. The Germans won 3-2, creating another fixture which seemed impossible for the Danish.
Ullevi, Gothenburg. 8.15 Swedish time. 26 June 1992. The Danish never knew they would be playing a crucial match in late June of 1992 when they did not qualify in 1991.
Denmark play the best game possible. They stunn the Germans 2-0.
They won it.
Until now, no other country/club has won a professional football tournament without actually qualifying for it.
PSG’s Neymar Jr has said that he does not want to play for PSG anymore after his injury. We will wait and see where he may go to. Most likely Barcelona.
The president of PSG says that Mbappe will stay at the club and is encouraging him to become more responsible, although he is just 20.
Also, Copa America has started. Argentina are messed up, and Uruguay an Chile started the tournament well.
FootballFanatic 