Premier League – Round Eighteen

December 26, 2016

Watford                                      1-1                    Crystal Palace

Troy Deeney 72’(pen)                                       Yohan Cabaye 26’

In Sam Allardyce first match as Crystal Palace manager, a draw is what he got.

Christian Benteke failed to score a first-half penalty that would have been the game winner if this final result held.

Troy Deeney made no mistakes when he had the opportunity to convert a penalty to secure a point for his team.

Arsenal                                      1-0                    West Bromwich Albion

Olivier Giroud 87’

Olivier Giroud scored a header to secure a very important 3 points for Arsenal.

With all the top teams in the league winning their matches, Arsenal had to score a late goal to get a very important home victory against West Bromwich Albion.  

Burnley                                      1-0                   Middlesbrough

Andre Gray 81’

Burnley came on top against Middlesbrough when the two newly-promoted sides met.  The victory allowed Burnley to leap over Middlesbrough in the league standings.

Chelsea                                      3-0                     AFC Bournemouth

Pedro Rodriguez 24’ 90’+4’

Eden Hazard 49’(pen)

With the exception of Diego Costa not getting a goal for Chelsea in this match, Chelsea made no mistakes again and kept hold of their healthy lead at the top of the Premier League table.  

Pedro Rodriguez scored a brace and Eden Hazard scored a penalty to add to his goal scoring tally.  

Leicester City                              0-2                       Everton

                                                                                  Kevin Mirallas 51’

                                                                                  Romelu Lukaku  90’+1’

Defending champions Leicester City have gone back to their poor league form after their home victory against Manchester City.  It was the third winless match for Leicester City and the that includes two defeats.

Everton visited the defending champions and left with all three points after scoring a goal in the beginning and the end of the second half of this fixture.  

Manchester United                        3-1                  Sunderland

Daley Blind 39’                                                       Fabio Borini 90’+1’

Zlatan Ibrahimovic 82’

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 86’           

Manchester United made it a four-game winning streak in the Premier League after a home victory over a struggling Sunderland.  

The last two of the four goals scored in this match were both a thing of beauty.

Swansea City                               1-4                    West Ham United

Fernando Llorente 89’                                         Andre Ayew 13’

                                                                                Winston Reid 50’

                                                                                Michail Antonio 78’

                                                                                Andy Carroll 90’

After leaving Swansea City to West Ham United, Andre Ayew got his first goal for his new club against his former.

The pressure was piled on Swansea City after finishing at the wrong end of a 4-1 thrashing against West Ham.   

Hull City                                           0-3                        Manchester City

                                                                                      Yaya Toure 72’(pen)

                                                                                       Kelechi Iheanacho 78’

                                                                                       Curtis Davies 90’+4’(o.g)

Manchester City left it later than expected. They scored three in the final 20 minutes of regulation time to beat Hull City in to get a result that keeps their title dreams alive.

December 27, 2016

Liverpool                                                 4-1               Stoke City

Adam Lallana 35’                                                       Jonathan Walters 12’

Roberto Firmino 44’

Giannelli Imbula Wanga 59’(o.g)

Daniel Sturridge 70’

Stoke City tricked us to believe they were going to contest for a point in this fixture after an early goal and early chances made it look like there could be a battle for points, but Liverpool rampant attack was too much for Stoke City to hold on to the lead beyond the halfway mark.

So again another big team did not fall in the eighteenth round of the 2016/17 Premier League.

December 28, 2016

Southampton                                  1-4                          Tottenham Hotspur

Virgil van Dijk 2’                                                              Dele Alli 19’ 87’

                                                                                             Harry Kane 52’

                                                                                            Heung-Min Son 85’

Tottenham Hotspur defeated Southampton to ensure that all the pre-tournament favorites finished the eighteenth round of the 2016/17 Premier League with a victory.

A red card, a missed penalty and plenty goals.

Southampton couldn’t protect an early lead at home against Tottenham Hotspur.  A ‘3-0’ second half victory for Tottenham gave them this vital victory. It could have been four second-half goals if Harry Kane had converted his penalty kick.