Premier League Talking Points weekly column on Playing for 90 by Kevin Kelly brings you all the latest essential talking points from the weekend’s action. This week we discuss how the big boys – beside Manchester City – continue to falter, while the historically mid-table teams keep on ripping up the rule book.
While transfer deadline day will take up all the headlines for the coming days, the aftermath of a weekend where Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea all lost, the talking points arising prove far more interesting for the football purist.
Chelsea Abysmal
In what will prove to be an inevitable theme for this week’s column – the story for each noted talking point has a dual nature to it; for every bad result for a ‘big theme’ it was dealt by one of the Premier League’s reinforced historically mid-table teams.
For Chelsea, this was certainly the case, losing 201 at home to Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace. The Eagles went ahead through new signing Bakary Sako, but the Blues equalised through Falcao with ten minutes to go. To the shock of the masses Palace responded immediately, with Joel Ward scoring the winner goal in the 81st minute.
The loss for Chelsea was the second of the season, with the Blues only picking up four points from four games; by far the worst start to a season for any team managed by Jose Mourinho. The Blues next travel to Merseyside to take on Everton after the international break; with the Portuguese manager surely in for a further test of the champions’ mettle.
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Manchester United Worse
If Chelsea were bad, Manchester United were even worse, losing their first game of the season against Swansea City away at the Liberty Stadium. The Red Devils had drawn their previous Premier League game 0-0 but were buoyed by an impressive victory against Club Brugge, which saw them qualify for the Champions League group stages.
Louis Van Gaal’s men went 1-0 up at the start of the first half through Juan Mata; but their lead was cut short when Andre Ayew headed in Gylfi Sigurdsson’s cross in the 61st minute. Five minutes alter Sergio Romero will have wishes he could have headed home: the keeper allowing Bafetimbi Gomis’ near-post shot roll past him in an embarrassing fashion.
The loss confirms a poor start to the season for Van Gaal, despite consecutive opening victories against Spurs and Aston Villa. While the David De Gea furore will keep the papers full for days, surely Manchester United fans will be happy the Spaniard will take back his place from the dodgy Argentinean.
Liverpool Lost – Again
And to end this week’s column on a similar theme we come to Liverpool were hammered by the Hammers; conceding three unanswered goals at Anfield. West Ham hadn’t won in Anfield in the Premier League era – just one of the stats either arisen or banished following the shock victory for Slaven Bilic’s men.
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Once again without their captain Jordan Henderson, Liverpool started slowly and were 1-0 down within three minutes; Joe Gomez misjudging a cross which was turned in by new signing Manuel Lanzini. It was all downhill from there for Rodgers’ men who couldn’t get out of second gear all game.
It was 2-0 to West Ham by the 29th minute following arguably the worst mistake by any Premier League defender in years – by Dejan Lovren of course. Mark Noble slotted home to all but seal the points for the Londoners.
It wasn’t until the 90th minute for West Ham to score the 3rd, but the game was well over long before then. Rodgers’ tenure is now back in the spotlight and under deep scrutiny.