From Brentford edging a seven-goal thriller against Ipswich Town to Arsenal and Liverpool playing out an entertaining draw at the Emirates Stadium, matchweek 9 of the Premier League was not short of drama, controversy and goals.
A total of 31 goals were scored across 10 games over the weekend, with four games ending in a draw— Brighton vs Wolves, Aston Villa vs Bournemouth, Everton vs Fulham and Arsenal vs Liverpool. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the 5 talking points from Premier League matchweek 9.
#VAR controversy at the London Stadium, hastens Ten Hag’s exit
A controversial stoppage-time penalty, awarded by VAR, was the difference between West Ham United and Manchester United.
With the score 1-1 heading into injury time, West Ham appealed for a spot kick when Danny Ings went down under a challenge from Matthijs de Ligt. The on-field decision was to wave play on. But to the fury of the Man United players and former head coach Erik ten Hag, Michael Oliver—on VAR duty—intervened, making the call to overturn the initial decision and awarded the Hammers a penalty, which Jarrod Bowen stepped up and duly converted.
The defeat at West Ham left the Red Devils tottering at 14th place in the table, applying the final push on Erik ten Hag who ultimately got the boot today. Man United have themselves to blame as they squandered a host of big chances during a dominant spell in the first half. They have only scored eight goals in the first nine games in what has been their worst start to a season in the Premier League era.
#Cole Palmer sparkles as Chelsea beat competent Newcastle United
A big part of Enzo Maresca’s impressive early days at Chelsea has been in finding creative consistency with a dynamic front four: Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke operating just behind the ever-improving Nicolas Jackson. On Sunday, the Blues registered an impressive 2-1 win over Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge, thanks to goals from Jackson and Palmer.
Palmer has been Chelsea’s best signing by a country mile, in the last five years at least. The England international was once again central to his team earning three points; he started the counter-attack with an exquisite long-range through pass for Jackson’s opening goal before scoring the winner in the second half with a powerful low, hard finish past Nick Pope.
With five assists and seven goals already in the league this season, Palmer continues to be the Pensioners’ main man.
#Crystal Palace win their first game of the season
Oliver Glasner would have been the most relieved man when the full-time whistle blew at Selhurst Park, on Sunday as Crystal Palace edged London rivals Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 thanks to a Jean-Philippe Mateta strike in the first half.
The Austrian tactician was feeling the heat at Palace after writing a piece of unwanted history with defeat at Nottingham Forest last week. Glasner is not one to panic in the face of adversity and the much-needed vote of confidence from the club’s hierarchy played a crucial role, with the Eagles beating Spurs. A goal and three points have proven to change so many managerial careers in the history of the game, and Glasner will hope his team’s first victory of the season does that for him at Selhurst Park.
#Beto earns a vital point vs Fulham
Everton were trailing 1-0 to Fulham, whose head coach Marco Silva has shown no mercy to his former employers when returning to Goodison Park in recent years. Victory number four was in sight, and deservedly so, when Beto came off the bench and scored a stoppage-time equaliser to end Silva’s happy streak.
Beto snatched a share of the spoils for the Toffees with a close-range header—albeit a heavy deflection of a Fulham player. It understandably made little difference to the player as he celebrated passionately with a knee slide. The Portuguese striker has seen his minutes in the Premier League limited this season, and having finally made his mark on Saturday evening with a vital equaliser, he broke down on the pitch after the final whistle.
#Arsenal drifting away from the title race
Arsenal were termed as favourites for the title when Manchester City star Rodri was ruled out for the rest of the season last month, but Mikel Arteta’s men are currently feeling the stress of a depleted squad themselves.
Captain Martin Odegaard has been sidelined for nearly two months by ankle ligament damage. Gabriel Magalhaes and Jurrien Timber were forced off with injuries against Liverpool, while William Saliba was serving a suspension.
The forced changes owing to Gabriel and Timber’s injuries led to a reshuffle on the left-hand side of Arsenal’s defence, which Liverpool exploited well with Darwin Nunez squaring Mohamed Salah for the late equaliser in a swift counter-attacking move.
The 2-2 draw with the Reds left the Gunners five points behind Man City so early in the season, and with tough games set to follow, Arteta’s boys can ill-afford to drop more points if they aspire to challenge for the title come May.
