Premier League Headlines: Round 3.
If anything that Round 3 of this Premier League season revealed is that we are moving ever so closer to VAR. It was efficient in the World Cup and last year's FA and EFL Cup Finals. An unlikely draw occurred this past weekend due to a missed call.
West Ham is the only club still looking for points after losing to Arsenal, 3-1. Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Watford remain unblemished. It's appearing that a full blown crisis is underway at Old Trafford after Tottenham throttled Manchester United.
Here are the top five headlines for Round 3, and some other tripe.
Fulham earns first victory.
Following two tough defeats, Fulham manager, Slavisa Jokanovic's men put it together against Burnley in a fast flowing game at Craven Cottage. Fulham's summer signings led the way with Jean Michael Seri putting in a long range shot in the fourth minute. Aleksander Mitrovic added two goals in the 36th and the 38th minutes. Andre Schurrle put the match away with his first goal in the 83rd minute to cap off the 4-2 win.
Jeff Hendrick, (10') and James Tarkowski, (41') were the Burnley goal scorers. They have shown to be negatively affected by Europa League play. Burnley lost at Olympiakos, Thursday night.
Burnley hosts Manchester United on Sunday while Fulham visits Brighton on Saturday.
Chelsea finally solves Newcastle; 2-1.
It appeared to be not a good week for Newcastle. They would not have Jonjo Shelvey available due to a thigh injury. Kenedy had to sit out because of the loan deal with Chelsea. The big question was what happened to Jamaal Lescelles? Either it was an ankle injury or a bust up with manager, Rafa
Benitez. This all caused Benitez to play a five man defense and show no ambition to progress forward. It worked, for 75 minutes.
Chelsea was at a record setting pace with possession time up until the 75th minute penalty kick goal from Eden Hazard. The foul was on Newcastle's Fabian Schar, however his ankle was on the ball and he didn't connect with Chelsea's Marcos Alonso, who had a step on him. The Magpies received payback just eight minutes later when Joselu put in the equalizer. Controversy clouded that goal because Deandre Yedlin forearmed Olivier Giroud in the chops during the build up. Karma showed its head once again four minutes after that when Yedlin bumped an Alonso shot into his own net for the game winner.
Chelsea had a whopping 81% possession advantage.
Chelsea hosts Bournemouth, Saturday while Newcastle travels to Manchester City on Saturday.
Unai Emery gets first win.
Arsenal finally broke through after starting the season with two defeats by beating a struggling West Ham, 3-1. It is Unai Emery's first win as Arsenal's boss.
West Ham's Marko Arnautovic opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Arsenal's Nacho Monreal equalized five minutes later. West Ham's Issa Diop deflected an Alexandre Lacazette pass into the net for an own goal in the 70th minute. Danny Welbeck put the game on ice for the Gunners in stoppage time.
West Ham sits firmly at the bottom of the table and looks to be headed for yet another relegation fight. This is the third time lost their first three games of a Premier League season since 2010-11.
Arsenal travels to Cardiff City, Sunday. West Ham hosts Wimbledon in the EFL Cup, Tuesday and welcome Wolverhampton in league play, Saturday.
Wolves get unlikely draw with Manchester City.
The Manchester City express hit a bump Saturday against an organized and disciplined Wolverhampton side. City was uncharacteristically sloppy in their passing and defending. Sergio Aguero hit the woodwork on two separate occasions.
Wily Boly scored his first Premier League goal with his hand in the 57th minute. Aymeric Laporte saved the point for City with his goal in the 69th minute.
Wolves goalkeeper, Rui Patricio will be one of the better of the summer signings and showed it against City.
Manchester City hosts Newcastle, Saturday. Wolves travel to West Ham on Saturday.
Another Mourinho crisis underway.
They talked the good talk. Paul Pogba claimed that Manchester United was 'mad' after losing to Brighton last week and was planning to take it out on Tottenham, Monday night at Old Trafford. The Spurs usually respond negatively in situations like this one; only winning once against the 'Top Six' clubs in 12 matches. Old Trafford has been a Theatre of Horrors for Tottenham for years, going 2-21 with three draws there during the Premier League era; which includes four straight shutouts under manager, Mauricio Pochettino. That worm turned in a big way Monday night with a masterful second half performance by Tottenham.
The match slowly built up as the first half progressed. Romelu Lukaku missed a great opportunity as he sailed a shot wide of the net. Tottenham wasn't taking the opportunities they had by errant passing. A normally calm and collected Pochettino kicked a water table in frustration with the missed chances.
Whatever the fired up Pochettino said to the Spurs at halftime worked brilliantly as they came out on fire to start the second half. Harry Kane broke his Old Trafford curse and scored on a fantastic header in the 50th minute. Lukaku made Spurs goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris make a tricky save immediately after the Kane goal. Lucas Moura scored the first of his two goals in the 52nd minute; stunning United. Moura sealed the contest in the 84th minute.
All of this has many believing that this is the beginning of the end for Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. His third year at clubs have been tumultuous ones in the past with Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. This third year at Manchester United is following a similar script in that there are clashes with management, players and the media. Mourinho was upset at the top brass about their lack of activity with the summer transfer window. The Anthony Martial situation could have been avoided.
I won more Premierships alone than the other 19 Premier League managers put together.
They have two, I have three.
Respect. Respect. Respect, man.
That is what Mourinho said just before walking out of the post match press conference. Mourinho is excellent at managing a front running team, but has trouble with a team that is chasing. This team will clearly be chasing as Mourinho tries to find answers for his disjointed team, especially at central defense. He made six changes from the Brighton loss and took the captain's armband from Pogba to Antonio Valencia. He left struggling Victor Lindelof and Erik Bailly on the bench and playing Anders Herrera in center. Mourinho, along with Southampton's Mark Hughes is one or two in the early season managerial sack race.
Manchester United tries to get back on track at Turf Moor against Burnley, Sunday. Tottenham tries to avoid a letdown against Watford.
This week's case for VAR.
NBCSN showed a clip of miked referee, Michael Oliver at last year's FA Cup Final. Manchester United's Phil Jones fouled Chelsea's Eden Hazard, causing Oliver to call for a penalty kick. The incident was reviewed by the Video Assistant Referee and confirmed the call. The clip also showed how difficult refereeing has become because of the speed of today's game. The term DOGSO was also learned; (denial of a goal scoring opportunity).
There was a lengthy list of incidents where VAR could have benefited...
- Wily Boly's hand goal in the 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
- Newcastle's Fabian Schar penalty on Marcos Alonso leading to an Eden Hazard penalty kick goal. Schar's ankle was clearly on the ball instead of tripping Alonso.
- Deandre Yedlin's forearm to the chin of Olivier Giroud.
- Watford's Etienne Capouye's challenge on Crystal Palace's Wilfred Zaha. His cleats plunged into Zaha's Achilles and should have been red carded.
Several incidents occurred in the Huddersfield vs. Cardiff City match last week. VAR worked fine in the World Cup. Expect VAR to work in the Premier League starting next year.
Bad Boys. Bad Boys .
Red cards issued for the week.
- Huddersfield's Jonathan Hogg head butted Cardiff City's Harry Arter before shoving him to the ground.
- Southampton's Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for accumulating two yellow cards.
- Everton's Richarlison for head butting Bournemouth's Adam Smith.
- That must have inspired Smith as he was sent off 20 minutes later as he pulled down Theo Walcott.
Nuggets and Bits.
》Wilfried Zaha became Crystal Palace's all time leading scorer in the Premier League with 24.
》Wolverhampton has an 18-2 record with 8 draws at Molineaux ununder manager, Nuno Espirito Santo.
》Bournemouth has accumulated 25 points from losing positions since the beginning of last season.
》Richarlison's red card makes it 91 for Everton in its Premier League history. They are first in that category.
》Mohamed Saleh scored his 29th goal in 29 games at Anfield. 45 since the start of last year.
》Chelsea's Jorginho completed more passes than the entire total Newcastle had. His 158 were the second most in Premier League history behind Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogen's 167 set last year against the Blues.
》The 3-0 defeat to Tottenham is Jose Mourinho's largest home defeat in all competitions.
》Before Lucas Mouda messed it up, Manchester United was headed for its very first 2-0 home loss in a Premier League match.
