On another sensational weekend of top flight football, Manchester City went one point clear at the top of the Premier League after a pulsating 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
An 85th minute goal from Rodri looked like it had won the game 4-3 for the Sky Blues, but former City player Cole Palmer scored a 95th minute penalty to earn Chelsea a point.
Another VAR controversy set the visitors on their way as Erling Braut Haaland won a penalty after falling to the ground under a challenge from Marc Cucurella. The technology chaps looked at it for three minutes but still failed to spot that Haaland had pulled the fullback’s shirt to get ahead of him in the first place. Haaland slid home the spot kick and, just to annoy the Blues fans even more, Cucurella and Cole Palmer were booked for their protests.
But Chelsea’s sense of injustice soon faded when 39 year old Thiago Silva got a faint touch to convert from a corner. And then an uncharacteristically sloppy piece of defending saw former City boy Raheem Sterling slide home from a Reece James cross. And at the end of a breathless first half Manuel Akanji powered home a header to make it 2-2.
Two minutes into the second half and City were ahead again as Haaland smuggled the ball home after a flowing move, to make it 13 for the season for the Norwegian goal machine. The Sky Blues looked to kill off the game but Nicolas Jackson breathed even more life into it when he followed up to score after Ederson had parried a shot from Conor Gallagher.
3-3 and that teed up what looked like a winner for Rodri, a thunderbolt of a strike which took a deflection off Thiago and flew into the Chelsea net. But then cometh the hour cometh the man. Ruben Dias felled Armando Broja, the ref pointed to the spot and Palmer stroked it home.
After toppling Tottenham last Monday, a meeting with Manchester City was another huge ask and the SBOTOP odds were firmly in favour of an away win… but Chelsea fans are singing the Blues while City stay top.
Magic Mo sees off the Bees
Liverpool’s clash with Brentford was a chance for Jurgen Klopp’s men to move up alongside Manchester City on 27 points (and Arsenal) in advance of the Sky Blues’ meeting with Chelsea. And the Reds duly put the pressure on with an impressive 3-0 win, as Mo Salah scored a brilliant brace to make it ten for the season and lift the Egyptian hitman to second place in the race for the Golden Boot.
He fired in the opener to make it 15 home league games in a run in which he’s scored or assisted a goal, and when he nodded in his second it was his 200th goal in English football. Diogo Jota smashed in a third from the edge of the penalty area to seal the win and send Liverpool up to second. The Premier League 2023 betting odds have Manchester City heavily odds on; but the Reds are gathering momentum.
Ange’s first real challenge
After a sparkling honeymoon period as manager of Tottenham Hotspur Ange Postecoglou has some work to do to keep Spurs on track after suffering a second league defeat in five days. And, once again, it was a hard result to take after his team led away to Wolves for 90 minutes before the hosts struck twice in injury time to take three points in a spectacular smash and grab.
Spurs went ten games without losing before they fell in bizarre fashion to Chelsea on Monday and it looked like they were ready to respond when Brennan Johnson converted a cross from Pedro Porro with just three minutes on the clock. Spurs dominated possession but the hosts had more chances, recording 17 shots to six over the 98 minutes. Wolves needed every minute as they went into injury time still 1-0 down but a moment of genius from Pablo Sarabia lifted the roof off Molineux. He flicked the ball up into the air and fired a volley home to level. And, with 97 minutes on the clock the Spaniard hit a slid rule pass to Mario Lemina who sent the Wolves fans into dreamland as he fired the ball into the corner of the net.
To make matters worse for Spurs, North London rivals Arsenal leapfrogged them into third place thanks to a 3-1 win over struggling Burnley.
Magpies looking weary
Bournemouth picked up probably the biggest surprise of the weekend’s Premier League 2023 results when they beat Newcastle United 2-0 to record their second win of the season. The victory took the Cherries three points clear of the drop zone while the Magpies dropped to seventh place and six points adrift of the top four. After picking up a controversial win over Arsenal last week Eddie Howe’s team slumped to a 2-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday, and they looked leggy on their return to domestic action.
It was a tough evening for their fans too, who made the 600 mile round trip from the most northern club in the top flight to the most southern. Former Liverpool star Dominic Solanke scored twice to give the Cherries a deserved victory after they had dominated the first half but with no reward. When a shot deflected into his path Solanke smashed in the opener, and he was first on the spot again to score his second when Luis Sinisterra’s header had bounced back off the post.
It’s been a long week for Newcastle, who were without star striker Callum Wilson and saw Miguel Almiron limp off, and I suspect the international break has come at a good time for the Geordies.
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