The fifth round of the Premier League saw largely one-sided games and yielded 22 goals in five matches on Saturday as Arsenal, Manchester City and surprisingly, West Bromwich Albion went to score four goals each.
On a day of statistical anomalies, Gareth Barry was the most celebrated man across English football as the 35-year-old Everton midfielder became only the third man to complete 600 appearances in the Premier League, after Ryan Giggs (632) and Frank Lampard (609).
Not often celebrated in the same breath as the other two men, the milestone is a testament to Barry’s long-term fitness and reliability for Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton. He has played at least 100 games for each of these clubs and has 53 England caps to his name.
City make it five wins out of five
Pep Guardiola’s perfect start to the season continued as he won his fifth League game on the trot in City’s 250th Premier League game at the Etihad. Pep also became the first Manchester City manager to win his first eight games in charge of the club, including three games in the Champions League.
Manchester City blew Bournemouth away by their incessant pressing, as the away team struggled and could have conceded more to the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling. The Belgian continued his brilliant run under the new manager, registering a 86% passing accuracy, creating three chances resulting in an assist and took four shots with the return of one goal through a low free-kick which kept low and fizzed into the goal.
De Bruyne’s brilliance has overshadowed the resurgence that Raheem Sterling seems to be enjoying under the new manager. Heavily criticised for his non-performance at the Euro 2016 with England, Sterling has registered three goals and five assists in his seven appearances for the club this season. Bournemouth were poor all afternoon, but that should not take nothing away from another masterful performance from City, who dominated the game from start to finish.
Bad day for the new boys
Hull City, who started with two wins from their first two games, have now taken one point from their last three matches. The problem for newly promoted teams in the Premier League are the sheer number of top class teams who are difficult to beat both home and away, thus consigning them to picking up points against the mid-table clubs or other clubs in the relegation battle.
Middlesbrough and Burnley were at the receiving end of convincing defeats as well as the three League newcomers conceded a total of ten goals, while managing to score two goals, including a penalty and a contentious own goal.
The trio may have attacking problems, but clean sheets are the ideal cornerstone for a successful survival campaign. Hull, Boro and Burnley may want to plug the holes at the back before trying to be expansive up front.
Everton show spine with Koeman in charge
The Merseyside clubs have enjoyed a solid start to the season, which Everton continued on Saturday with a 3-1 win under Middlesbrough. Gareth Barry in his 600th league game equalised after Boro’ had taken the lead after Alvaro Negredo clattered into keeper Maarten Stekelenburg and appeared to have fouled the Toffees keeper in the process.
The old Everton under Roberto Martinez might have wilted under the pressure but Ronald Koeman has added to the steel at Goodison Park and the home team duly responded by scoring three goals to seal the game before half-time to ensure that Everton had their best start to a league campaign in 38 years.
Barring Spurs on opening day, a fixture list of West Brom, Stoke, Sunderland and Boro’ might not sound too testing, but Everton have shown consistency in dispatching these teams. A return of 13 points from their first five games sees the blue side from Merseyside climb into 2nd spot in the table, a position they will retain till the next Gameweek.
West Ham’s misery piles up
This was supposed to be the season that Slaven Bilic was supposed to take West Ham to the next step; with a new stadium and both the futures of Dimitri Payet and additional season ticket-holders secured for the near future, the Hammers were on their way to consolidate on their 7th placed finish last season.
Instead, the Hammers lie in 17th place after five games, having just won one of those and conceding 13 goals in the process with four goals conceded in their last two games each. Worrying for Bilic, his defence which appears to be leaky conceded these goals against Watford and West Brom, not known for their goal-scoring exploits.
West Brom’s four goals were typical of Tony Pulis’ smash-and-grab style but the Hammers’ back-four made some schoolboy errors. The visitors didn’t really spur into action until they were four goals down and Michail Antonio did grab his fifth headed goal in as many appearances this term but Bilic will know even Payet will be unable to save the London club in the face of such a shambolic performance defensively.
The Results
- Hull City 1 (Robert Snodgrass penalty) lose to Arsenal 4 (Alexis Sanchez X 2, Theo Walcott, Granit Xhaka)
- Leicester City 3 (Islam Slimani X 2, Ben Mee own goal) beat Burnley 0
- Manchester City 4 (Kevin De Bruyne, Kelechi Iheanacho, Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan) beat AFC Bournemouth 0
- West Bromwich Albion 4 (Nacer Chadli X 2, Salomon Rondon, James McClean) beat West Ham United 2 (Michail Antonio, Manuel Lanzini penalty)
- Everton 3 (Gareth Barry, Seamus Coleman, Romelu Lukaku) beat Middlesbrough 1 (Maarten Stekelenburg own goal)
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