English Premier League fans were treated to a truly super Sunday with 3 sumptuous derby matches in West London derby, North London derby, and the Merseyside derby, What a match they all turned out to be.
Super Sunday kicked off with an earlier afternoon match between home side Chelsea and their West London rival, Fulham. It was an easy 2-0 win for Chelsea, with Pedro and substitute Reuben Loftus-Cheek getting the goals.
My take from Chelsea's point of view;
▪Sarri remains adamant on using Jorginho at the base of Chelsea's midfield. There have been calls after the defeat to Spurs for the Chelsea coach to restore Ngolo Kante back to his natural position, a place now occupied by Jorginho, no cause for alarm this time though as Fulham posed little or no threat, as Chelsea won comfortably. Sarri has reiterated that Jorginho is still his anchor midfield man.
▪Reuben Loftus-Cheek deserves more playing time. The young lad came off the bench to double Chelsea lead. Coaching team should look into Loftus-Cheek shout for a regular playing time.
The second derby match of Sunday afternoon was between Arsenal and their bitter North London rival Tottenham. Boy! What a match. Fans and spectators were treated to a 6-goal thriller, as Arsenal claimed the bragging right with a 4-2 win over Spurs.
My take from Arsenal's point of view;
▪Emery sure knows what he is doing with his Arsenal team. His response and decision during the match were spots on. He started with a 3-4-3 formation, Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on either side of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in attack, 3 central defenders with wing-backs, He then made changes immediately at start of 2nd half and switched formation to 3-4-1-2, Aaron Ramsey playing behind 2 central strikers with substitute Alexandre Lacazette joining Aubameyang in attack, he then reverted to traditional 4-3-1-2 when Shkodran Mustafi got injured. That's a man with plan B.
▪Aubameyang and Lucas Torreira are making name for themselves at the Emirate, Aubameyang scoring with ruthless precision and Torreira sweeping the midfield for Arsenal. They both are bringing back the good old days' memories of Thierry Henry, Gilberto Silver, and co.
▪Arsenal still struggling in the 1st half of matches. This is a worry for the coach, if every Arsenal matches were to finish at the halftime, Arsenal would have been rooted rock bottom of the EPL table. How long will their 2nd half performances bail them out of trouble, it remains to be seen?
Away from London, to the Merseyside where Liverpool hosted arch-rival Everton. It was the home side Liverpool that stole a dramatic injury-time 1-0 winner. The result did not reflect the full story of the match, it was an entertaining end to end match, it could have ended in a 3 all draw, or a 5 all draw. The match was heading towards a nill all draw until a 96th injury time error from Everton goalkeeper Pickford handed Liverpool's substitute striker D. Origi with a last-gasp winner, a goal that got Liverpool manager running onto the pitch to celebrate with his goalkeeper Allison.
Talking point from Liverpool's point of view;
▪Liverpool on the heels of league leader Man City. Liverpool isn't ready to give up on the league, they keep grinding out results even when they are not in full throttles, for me that is a mark of a champion.
▪Allison proving his worth for Liverpool. He made some great saves to keep his team in the match, reason why the manager went to celebrate with him when Liverpool scored.
▪Liverpool Manager ran onto the pitch to celebrate his team's late winner. Klopp could not control his emotion, as he ran to celebrate with his goalkeeper Allison, and there have been calls condemning his action. We are all humans, sometimes the flesh got the better of us.
I cannot remember the last time fans got to watch 3 derbies in a day, Sunday the 2nd was such day and fans certainly got the worth for their money across the world.
Thank you all for checking by.
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