Manchester City are now the only team in the Premier League with a perfect record in their opening four matches. Pellegrini’s men defeated the newly promoted Watford 2 – 0 at the Etihad, courtesy of goals from Sterling and Fernandinho.
As things stand, the Citizens look the most dominant side in the Premier League. The other teams who finished inside top four last season are yet to grab momentum. The international break would certainly be welcomed by the managers of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United. These three teams along with Arsenal need build momentum to stay in contention for the title and Champions League spots.
Jose Mourinho’s men suffered a humiliating 1 – 2 loss to Crystal Palace at the Stamford Bridge. Alan Pardew’s men were too good for the reigning champions as Sako and Ward’s goals gave Mourinho a lot to ponder about in the break. According to Bet365, Crystal Palace were 6/1 to beat the Blues which is why it was one of the profitable bets of the weekend.
After the loss, Mourinho congratulated the Eagles. He said, “Congratulations to Crystal Palace. It’s a fantastic result for them and was a very good performance from them. I think we didn’t deserve to lose but I think Palace gave us a very difficult game and for me the result should have been a draw which would still be a bad result for us. But I think we did enough not to lose, we’ve had very good opportunities, we had a huge penalty when it was 0-0, but Crystal Palace played very well.”
Liverpool were decimated 3 – 0 at home by Slaven Bilic’s West Ham. Lanzini, Noble and Sakho scored one each for the Hammers which raises more questions to Brendan Rodgers’ future at the Merseyside based club. West Ham were 7/1 to win the game at Anfield according to Bet365, hence it would have reaped huge profit for the bidder favoring a West Ham win.
“You saw Arsenal, who are terrific on the ball, lose 2-0 at home to West Ham,” Brendan Rodgers said in the post match interview. “All teams will be looking at ways to beat that block.
“There will be lots of games like that so we have to find a way on the training field in order to develop that patience, work the ball and exploit it.
“There is a long way to go yet. We will learn from it, we always analyse every game.
“You have to be better and you want to be better in your next game.”
West Ham’s Mark Noble and Liverpool’s Coutinho got sent off by the match referee and they’ll miss their next matches in the Premier League. Coutinho’s absence against Manchester United, twelve days later, can prove costly to the Anfield based club.
Manchester United threw away a 1 – 0 lead against Garry Monk’s Swansea City. Louis van Gaal was criticized for his first loss of the season and his third defeat against Swansea. The Dutch manager has went on a selling spree and he is keen to make up for all the reparations before the transfer window closes.
Arsenal won 1 – 0 against Newcastle United with Coloccini scoring an own goal to the delight of Arsene Wenger. The Gunners are also struggling and they’d need a consistent goal scorer as the season progresses.