José Mourinho is back to the Premier League and with Chelsea starting the league with two home games, he continued his incredible run of staying unbeatable at home by winning both games. Curiously the recipe for Chelsea's win in these two games against Hull City and Aston Villa was the same: they started to use high pressure all over the field, not giving any space to Hull City to do anything on build up plays and as Hull City's defenders aren't skilled enough to execute fast, they would constantly make errors that were explored by Chelsea, who quickly built a 2-0 lead and if it wasn't for Frank Lampard's missed penalty and they would be up by 3-0 at halftime. In the second half, Chelsea ignited their autopilot by dominating the ball possession without being interested in accelerating the game and they ended up winning the game in a fairly easy way. On their second game against Aston Villa, same old, same old. However, Aston Villa is a much better offensive team than Hull City and they scored the 1-1 right before halftime and after the break, they put a great fight against Chelsea. Their speed on the front is phenomenal and they trashed Arsenal in London with some furious counter attacks and the truth is that the slow footed Chelsea's defense struggled in stopping Christian Benteke, Fabian Delph and Andreas Weimann. Chelsea had 69% of ball possession, they had more than twice shot attempts than Aston Villa, so a tie in here wouldn't be a scandalous result at all.
Manchester United won 4-1 at Swansea in a game where the score is misleading, as the Welsh team gave a lot of work to the United in the first half until Robin van Persie decided the game with an amazing goal that was followed by another goal by Danny Welbeck two minutes after that. Swansea actually had more ball possession (54% vs 46%) and they even shot more (17 vs 14), while showing that Michael Laudrup's coaching style remains the same. But Man Utd's superior individual talent made the difference at the end.
Arsenal continues without making any big transfer and their supporters only got more livid with the team after their home loss against Aston Villa. Arsenal actually scored first and they put their usual fluid build up offensive game in action, but they just couldn't capitalize on it. In fact, from their 15 shots, only 4 were on target! They need urgently a strong defensive midfielder that is able to cover the field, as Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere can't do that and so, every time Aston Villa would make a quick counter move, Arsenal would be in trouble, something that resulted in two penalty kicks favoring Aston Villa. However, note that even with down to 10 men, Arsenal was still able to create several chances to tie the score until the final blow happened in the 85th minute with Aston Villa putting the game at 3-1.
Liverpool and Manchester City were the two teams that showed the most offensive and enthusiastic soccer of the round. Liverpool dominated their game and could have blown out Stoke City, but oddly enough they needed their GK Simon Mignolet to save a penalty kick down the stretch to save the 1-0 win for his team. Even without Luis Suarez, Liverpool showed some good build up play with a pretty dynamic midfield composed by Steven Gerrard, Lucas Leiva and Philippe Coutinho, whose gameplan was to make some through passes to serve Daniel Sturridge's blazing speed! Luckily for Stoke City, their GK Asmir Begovic was the star of the game with some amazing saves!
Finally, Everton and Norwich tied 2-2 in a fun game to watch. However, both teams had some major absences for this game. Norwich used their new signings Ricky Van Wolfswinkel and Nathan Redmond on their starting lineup, but Leroy Fer's debut was postponed due to suspension, while Robert Snodgrass missed the game with a groin strain. On the other side, none of Everton's acquisitions made into the starting lineup, as Gerard Deulofeu, Joel Robles and Arouna Kone all started on the bench. Everton's new coach Roberto Martinez is already making his presence felt, as Everton dominated the game with 67% of ball possession. However, they weren't efficient as from their 20 total shots only 7 of them were on target. This is an area where Arouna Kone will help them in the future. Norwich was ridiculously efficient on this game, as they were able to score on their only shots on target due to good individual efforts from their Right Back Steven Whittaker and from their new signing Ricky Van Wolfswinkel. But the highlight of the game was Everton's phenomenal youngster Ross Barkley, who is a very strong player full of power and good skills as well. His goal was a massive shot full of speed!
Liverpool and Manchester City were the two teams that showed the most offensive and enthusiastic soccer of the round. Liverpool dominated their game and could have blown out Stoke City, but oddly enough they needed their GK Simon Mignolet to save a penalty kick down the stretch to save the 1-0 win for his team. Even without Luis Suarez, Liverpool showed some good build up play with a pretty dynamic midfield composed by Steven Gerrard, Lucas Leiva and Philippe Coutinho, whose gameplan was to make some through passes to serve Daniel Sturridge's blazing speed! Luckily for Stoke City, their GK Asmir Begovic was the star of the game with some amazing saves!
Finally, Everton and Norwich tied 2-2 in a fun game to watch. However, both teams had some major absences for this game. Norwich used their new signings Ricky Van Wolfswinkel and Nathan Redmond on their starting lineup, but Leroy Fer's debut was postponed due to suspension, while Robert Snodgrass missed the game with a groin strain. On the other side, none of Everton's acquisitions made into the starting lineup, as Gerard Deulofeu, Joel Robles and Arouna Kone all started on the bench. Everton's new coach Roberto Martinez is already making his presence felt, as Everton dominated the game with 67% of ball possession. However, they weren't efficient as from their 20 total shots only 7 of them were on target. This is an area where Arouna Kone will help them in the future. Norwich was ridiculously efficient on this game, as they were able to score on their only shots on target due to good individual efforts from their Right Back Steven Whittaker and from their new signing Ricky Van Wolfswinkel. But the highlight of the game was Everton's phenomenal youngster Ross Barkley, who is a very strong player full of power and good skills as well. His goal was a massive shot full of speed!
No comments:
Post a Comment