It only feels like 2 days since GW16 & that’s because….it is.
So for those of you in need of reminding….
In a weekend of derbies, Chelski popped over to the London Stadium & were crowded out by a 9 man Wet Spam defence as they fell to their 4th defeat of the season in the early game.
Watford went down to 10 men in the 1st half at a snowy Turf Moor as Marvin Zeegelaar saw red. A decision that Silva described as harsh, harsh, harsh, harsh. So harsh then.
Swansea hosted the Baggies in what was billed as the worst fixture so far this season. & it was largely devoid of excitement until Bony broke the deadlock to take all 3 points on the 81st minute
This meant that Palace needed a win to keep them off the bottom & an injury time penalty should have surely done it…..until Benteke stepped up after defying team orders & reminded everyone of just why he’s NOT the nominated penalty taker.
Newbies Huddersfield & Brighton met for the first time this season & it was the terriers who took the spoils, zooming up to 11th.
Over at Wembley, Spurs opened the floodgates with a 5-1 thumping of Stoke & to celebrate their 125th anniversary, Newcastle scored more goals than Leicester. Trouble is one of them was for Leicester. D’oh!
Sunday opened at St Mary’s where an in-form Charlie Austin gave the hosts the lead on 3 minutes. He could have had 2 more less than 5 minutes later. Once again, the combination of Arsenal, Sunday lunchtime & an old Spurs away kit looked to be the undoing of the Gunners until supersub Giroud rescued a point in the 88th minute.
The Merseyside derby was a cagey affair as Fat Scam prowled the technical area barking oders & communicating with Craig Shakespeare via his hi tech communication system. It was Mo Salad who opened the scoring with a shot of pure class on 42 minutes & had Mané on the stroke of half time, he could have had a second. But, at a snowy Anfield, the snow flake count increased by 1 as Calvert-Lewin won the softest penalty you’ll ever see which Ruggy converted 2 minutes later. Suffice to say Klopp was less than happy.
Winding the week up, Old Trafford was the scene of the Manc derby. It took until the 43rd minute for David Silva to break the deadlock as Unitady looked to defend & then score on the break. 4 minutes later, that’s just what they did as a Delph error allowed Rashford to poach an equaliser.
But the spoils went to the blues thanks to a 2nd half Otamendi strike leaving the man with the biggest scarf in the premier league on cloud nine & setting up a bit of a tunnel scuffle afterwards.
In the FPL it’s always derby day & this week the victory went to the IGM with 543 points praise2 , closing in on the BB&S who still lead overall praise2
Nikolas Vitus Lagartija’s Damage Dunfermline hold onto the Yellow Jersey
& also shared the Big Shout Out with emilystrange’s Darkball AFC on 70 points each. praise2 praise2 (wooohooo! - ems)
The H2H went to the BB&S with 21 points to re-establish a 6 point overall lead. praise2
& the crown? well Nikolas Vitus Lagartija’s Damage Dunfermline also hold onto that this week. king2