Chelsea went marching on at the top but
Liverpool lost ground and Pep Guardiola is facing his first real test as
Manchester City boss as they crashed 4-2 at champions Leicester.
AFP Sports looks at five things we learnt from the weekend Premier League matches:
Vardy’s party back on
“Jamie Vardy’s having a party!” became a
familiar chant at the King Power Stadium last season as the rough-cut
striker inspired Leicester City to their fairytale title triumph. His
difficulties in front of goal this season had come to symbolise the
club’s post-title hangover, the England striker going 16 games without a
goal as Claudio Ranieri’s side slithered towards the relegation zone.
But he blew off the cobwebs in style in a rain-lashed evening game
against Manchester City on Saturday, firing Leicester to victory with
his first hat-trick since his non-league days. All three goals were
taken in the clinical fashion that was Vardy’s calling card last season,
with the second -– teed up by Riyad Mahrez’s gossamer-soft pass -– a
particular treat. The third stemmed from a blind back-pass by City
centre-back John Stones, whose blunder encapsulated the struggles of a
City defence that has registered just one clean sheet in 17 matches.
Guardiola once again opted for a bold attacking configuration, only to
be left scratching his head. “I try to control games,” he said. “Here
(in England) I cannot do that. I have to analyse why.”
Arsenal show title mettle
Trailing to Charlie Adam’s 29th minute
penalty, Arsenal faced a potentially defining moment in their Premier
League campaign, and to Arsene Wenger’s delight his players rose to the
challenge. Suffering a first league defeat since the opening weekend of
the season would have been a significant blow to Arsenal’s hopes of
winning the title for the first time since 2004. It was the sort of
scenario that has caused Arsenal to collapse many times in recent years,
but this season looks a little different. They equalised in the 42nd
minute when Theo Walcott bagged his 100th club goal and took the lead
four minutes after half-time through Mesut Ozil’s header before
youngster Alex Iwobi sealed the points in the 75th minute to extend
Arsenal’s unbeaten league run to 14 matches and keep the pressure on
title rivals Chelsea.
Conte willing to adapt
Faced with an obdurate opponent in Tony
Pulis’s well-drilled West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea boss Antonio Conte
showed his flexibility by ditching his preferred three-man defensive
formation and his gamble paid immediate dividends. Conte’s side had been
frustrated for over an hour at Stamford Bridge on Sunday when the
Italian sent on Willian and Cesc Fabregas in a switch to a 4-4-2 system.
The move gave Chelsea more attacking options and in the 76th minute a
Fabregas pass induced a mistake from Albion defender Gareth McAuley that
was punished by Diego Costa’s clinical finish. Chelsea’s ninth
successive league win reopened a three-point lead at the top and
underlined that Conte is more than a one-trick pony.
Mkhitaryan United’s missing link?
Having spent the best part of three
months as a virtual spectator following his transfer from Borussia
Dortmund, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has belatedly emerged as Manchester
United’s go-to attacking player. After a pair of assists in a 4-1 League
Cup win over West Ham United and a first United goal against Zorya
Luhansk, he settled Sunday’s game against Tottenham Hotspur with a burst
from deep and an emphatic shot. The Armenian playmaker was stretchered
off after injuring his ankle, but to sighs of relief all round Old
Trafford, manager Jose Mourinho said it was not serious. United have
struggled for goals in the league, scoring eight in their last nine
games, but in the jet-heeled Mkhitaryan they possess a player capable of
bridging the gap that had existed between the team’s midfield and lone
striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Mourinho had publicly questioned whether
Mkhitaryan was physically ready for the rigours of the Premier League,
but after the 1-0 win over Spurs, he held up the 27-year-old’s defensive
industry as an example.
Liverpool case for defence weak
For a second successive match
Liverpool’s dazzling attack wasn’t sufficient as their defence was again
exposed as the Achilles’ heel with struggling West Ham taking a point
in a 2-2 draw. The yield of just one point from the last six could prove
very costly come the end of the season. German goalkeeper Loris Karius
will again be under the spotlight, especially with Dimitri Payet’s
freekick, but the back four do not inspire confidence and January could
see action at Anfield in the transfer market.
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