Manchester City are dominant, Liverpool tease their fans and Everton squeak a win. Here are five things we learned from the Premier League weekend.
Premier League matchweek 6 is in the books, and we’ve seen more consolidation at the top of the table as all the title contenders came away with wins. Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal are all now in the top seven places in the league, with only sixth-place Watford managing to break up the big six.
In a week without any marquee matchups, Manchester City crushed Crystal Palace and look like the gold standard of the league, Manchester United edged out Southampton on the road, Philippe Coutinho’s performance gave Liverpool a win at Leicester and unlikely hero Oumar Niasse scored twice for Everton, possibly saving Ronald Koeman’s job in the process. Here are five things we learned.
Liverpool will tease their fans all season
Wins like the ones Liverpool registered away at Leicester on Saturday are exactly the type of results that championship teams pull off. Three points away from home against an uncomfortable opponent, who also happen to be a recent Premier League champion.
Unfortunately for the Liverpool fanbase, that type of win is unsustainable. While the Reds should continue to create plenty of scoring opportunities, especially with Sadio Mane returning to the lineup, they can’t keep allowing opponents to crawl back into games by allowing two goals to go along with a missed penalty. Jamie Vardy’s penalty miss was the only thing that prevented Liverpool from dropping two points.
Scoring three goals on the road (for the second time this season) is should confer a significant sense of comfort for Liverpool fans. There’s no reason to doubt the Reds will be able to repeat this feat on the road at other mid-table opponents.
The problem is that time and again the Liverpool back line allows enough chances, and by all indications lacks the ability to play a key part in shutting down games that Liverpool lead. Absent that shut-down defensive ability, the narrative for Liverpool fans will be about what could’ve been.