Tottenham dominated a woeful Manchester United, Swansea ended Arsenal’s top four hopes and was Chelsea’s home defeat coming?
Swansea are moving in the right direction. After beating Liverpool last week, they took the scalp of Arsenal to move out of the relegation zone on Tuesday night. But whereas the Swans needed Liverpool to miss several decent chances, they thoroughly deserved to beat the Gunners.
That seemed unlikely when Nacho Monreal gave the visitors the lead. The Spaniard has two goals and two assists in his last two matches, so is in fine form going forward. Unfortunately for Monreal, he was also involved in two of Swansea’s goals.
For all of Arsenal’s qualities, they often give home teams a chance. Since August 2015, no team in the Premier League has scored first and lost more times on the road. Perhaps nobody should’ve been surprised when Sam Clucas equalized for Swansea within a minute.
Alfie Mawson intercepted a sloppy pass, and played in Clucas. He ambled past Granit Xhaka, and beat Petr Cech at his near post.
It wasn’t even Swansea’s first clear-cut chance of the night, but worse would follow. By full time, the home side had registered five top quality opportunities at home for only the second time in the last three seasons. It was all too easy for Swansea.
On average, a team has around 12 touches in the opposition box for every clear-cut chance they have. Swansea had 12 touches in the Arsenal box, but five clear-cut chances.
Petr Cech will get the blame for Swansea’s second goal, but poor choices from his teammates undoubtedly contributed too. The Swans also deserve credit for forcing the mistakes, as the below video demonstrates.
The third goal was little better from an Arsenal perspective, and the Gunners’ top four hopes ended here. They will probably need 11 wins from their last 13 matches, and that won’t happen.
Chelsea slumped to a surprise heavy defeat
Few people would have predicted that Chelsea would lose to Bournemouth at all, much less by three goals to nil. Had Gary Cahill put a header the right side of the crossbar in the first half, it might have been a routine home win.
The Cherries were well worth their victory by the end, though. Thanks to some fine movement and running from them, and some statuesque defending by Chelsea, Bournemouth crafted three clear-cut chances.
Back in 2015-16, when Jose Mourinho’s champions were in full meltdown, six visiting teams had at least three golden opportunities at Stamford Bridge. It had only happened twice since Antonio Conte took charge, and Bournemouth aren’t at the level of Arsenal or Manchester City, the previous sides to do so.
Much like Swansea the night before, Bournemouth were ruthlessly efficient. Their three clear-cut chances came from just 10 touches in the Chelsea penalty box. But the pass of the night came from much further back.
Jordon Ibe played Bournemouth’s one through ball of the match to enable Callum Wilson to open the scoring. The former Liverpool man is in fine form, with a goal and two assists across his last four league appearances.
Perhaps this result has been coming at Stamford Bridge. The Blues struggled past Norwich in the FA Cup on penalties, and Leicester probably deserved to win there recently. With trips to both Manchester clubs on the horizon, Conte’s team need results against Watford and West Brom in their next two matches.
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Tottenham beat Manchester United inside 10 seconds
With hindsight, the timing of the following tweet was unfortunate in light of what would unfold at Wembley on Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/MbetManUtd/status/958704774374936577
The brief clip in the video isn’t much shorter than the time Manchester United were able to hold Tottenham to 0-0. The fact the main star of the clip, Phil Jones, was at fault for both Tottenham goals only adds to the hilarity.
Perhaps it’s harsh to assign fault to Jones for the first, but it’s true to say he failed to clear Jan Vertonghen’s long ball. It then reached Dele Alli, and finally Christian Eriksen, who gave Tottenham the lead after just ten seconds.
Worse was to come for Jones, as he later scored an own goal. This truly was a horrendous mistake. The England international was not within the width of the posts, so should’ve comfortably cleared the ball in to touch. Instead, he sliced the ball past David de Gea.
United didn’t offer much in return, having just six shots in the whole match. Since Jose Mourinho took charge, United have had seven shots or fewer four times in away matches.
They have all been against teams from the big six, and the first three all ended 0-0. Choosing to park the bus and stifle games is fine to a point. However, if you concede soft goals, especially in the first minute, it will always be an uphill struggle to get back in to the match.
Tottenham had 22 shots of their own, and probably should’ve won by a wider margin. Harry Kane was particularly wasteful, having eight attempts at goal but rarely looking like scoring. Regardless of that, Spurs will head to Anfield on Sunday for the weekend’s big game in confident mood.