Tears, sweat and blood as football virus struck big boys

Tears, sweat and blood as football virus struck big boys - Premier League Matchweek 4 review

(Mohammed Salah left distraught after watching Liverpool ship seven vs Aston Villa. Photo credit: Premierleague.com)

Like in war movies, blood spilled across grounds in the premier league to the tune of your favorites shipping goals like it's pre-season.

Surprises are a huge part of football, from time immemorial, smaller clubs have tried to upset the odds and record shocking wins but what was witnessed in the English Premier League over the weekend was everything new, strange and unbecoming, while it’s okay for Leicester City to get destroyed by at home by a team they really should be beating based on squad quality and technical balance, no one, absolutely no one would expect the hurricanes that swept across Old Trafford and Villa Park.

 

Just so we don’t take the shine away from teams that delivered on their promises, Chelsea found a way to clip the wings of Palace’s Eagles and the Saints were too holy for visiting Baggies, wasn’t a surprise that Wolves overpowered Scott Parker’s Lilywhites but the real news would be the happenings around grounds on Sunday.

 

The trolley dash is well and truly on, like the annihilation of Arsenal in the 2012 summer that led to five signings in one night, Manchester United might go crazy and drag everyone seen on the street to their medical room for possible signing, as Jose Mourinho waxes lyrical of his lads, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer on the other hand would be busy making calls, tracking flights and hoping hard that no one fails medical.

 

What went wrong? Manchester United hosted Tottenham on a day a lot of people expected a boring affair, but five minutes in, United already had a penalty (as always) and Tanguy Ndombele already drew Spurs level, and then Heung Min Son, who was passed fit late on handed Spurs the lead, that was the end of sanity as Anthony Martial led bedlam that swept across the entire Manchester.

 

Manchester City dropped points against Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United, in the real sense of what happened in the final half hour, City could have lost, even Pep knew it and he had to jump the gun by bringing on Fernandinho and Nathan Ake to shore things up after the demons broke lose, Rodrigo equalized and then sensed they could get all three points, one would have thought the result would spur United on to gain points on their city rivals, they didn’t get the memo.

 

United shipped six right in front of those that matter at the helm of affairs and news broke out later that security operatives around chief executive, Ed Woodward is being doubled for extra safety measures but at what point would fingers go the board’s way? Patrice Evra severally mentioned on TV shortly after the debacle that he’d love to see some good slaps across the board, he should be listened to.

 

Not long after the rampage of Spurs at Old Trafford, the pandemic year took a new direction as Aston Villa, roundly expected to ship goals went against the norm to heap seven on Liverpool, the defending champions, a team with Virgil Van Dijk, Mo Salah and Fabinho, being torn apart by a team that barely survived relegation last season… Is Villa the new Leicester?

 

Arsenal beat Sheffield at the Emirates Sunshine but it wasn’t pretty, heading into the final ten minutes, the Gunners were firmly in charge and it felt like a routine win till McGoldrick fired in a long ranger, a goal that in actual sense was a testament of how solid Arsenal was defensively as they limited the Blades to efforts from outside the box, but the melee that followed the Sheffield goal proved Arsenal needs a creative midfielder, Ceballos won’t play every game, if he does, he won’t shine in all.