Matchday 20 - Quick Round Up

Match Day 20 Round Up

Saturday 3rd January

Aston Villa 3-1 Nottingham Forest

A game that Villa took charge of from the kick off and looked a level or two above their visitors. The biggest issue for the home team was probably the lack of atmosphere at the ground, as the fans took a while to warm up, surprisingly. With Villa doing so well, I would have expected the ground to be a wall of noise right from first whistle to last, even though generally Premier League grounds are losing their atmosphere. Forest looked like what they are - a struggling team playing outdated tactics which do not suit the players. Jesus is very good with the ball on the ground, but almost every ball to him is lumped up to his head. Dyche really does need to modify his tactical approach if he is to have any chance of a longer spell at Forest.

Starmen:
Tielemans - really shining for Villa at the moment.
Kamara - gives that Villa team some bite and mobility in midfield.
McGinn - showed what an excellent midfielder he still is and notched twice.
Watkins - a good game and a goal as he shows signs of recovering his form at last.
Murillo - without him this would have been much worse for Forest.

Flops:
Jesus - can do nothing with the service he gets.
Hutchinson - shows good pace but lacks experience and so often ends up on the periphery.
Victor - an embarrassing mistake by the Brazilian for the 3rd goal, followed by him feigning injury and going off to hide in shame I think.

Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 Burnley

Despite Brighton not beating the Clarets at home in the league, either in the Championship or Prem, since 2013, this was a very one sided game. Burnley work hard, kick anything that moves, but they are so lacking in quality and attacking ambition that they look completely out of their depth this season. Parker looks to have no clue about what to do to change things either. The Seagulls were clearly the better side and really should be disappointed not to win by more.

Starmen:
Kadioglu - had a good game, he works well with Mitoma.
Rutter - drove forward with the ball constantly, causing Burnley no end of problems. Took his goal well.

Flops:
Parker - his tactics are giving Burnley absolutely no chance of survival.
Walker - could not handle Mitoma at all and mostly resorted to just fouling him.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 West Ham United

An early goal for Wolves set the tone for the match. The Midlanders look a team on the rise, the players look like they have desire and hunger, finally. Edwards has turned things around, but is it too late to save Wolves from relegation? Probably, but at least they look likely to avoid becoming the worst team even in Premier League history. The Hammers, on the other hand, look similar to Burnley, a team being held back by a tactical plan lacking in any kind of ambition. They are not looking to win, just to avoid defeat, even though they need wins now.

Starmen:
Krejci - he was just about the only player impressing in the first part of the season.
Mane - the youngster looks a genuine prospect that they need to hold onto and scored the third.
Arias - playing a new role in central midfield and looked very good, scoring the early opener.
Arokodare - a real handful of a forward, but he does not look like he will be a regular goalscorer at this level.

Flops:
Wilson - struggled to get into the game at all.
Bowen - an uncharacteristically poor performance from him.
Potts/Magassa - got overrun and outnumbered in the middle, though it is probably unfair to pick them out when Fernandes could easily have helped out if he was not so damn lazy.
Kilman - always gives the opposition hope as he makes so many mistakes.

Bournemouth 2-3 Arsenal

A close run match, with the Cherries going at Arsenal and giving them a scare but just lacking the quality, particularly in defence, to take anything from the game. They do look too good to actually go down, but that has been said many times before about teams and those teams have not faced losing their best player midseason. They will badly miss Semenyo, like they are their defenders and keeper from last season. Arsenal will take a lot from this, they were rocking early on, giving away a soft goal from a rare mistake by Gabriel, but fought back and took the win, despite not playing particularly well. The results keep coming and that is all they need to end the season as champions, at long last.

Starmen:
Rice - the best midfielder in the Premier League right now and he was the main difference here. Superb performance, driving the team on like a true leader and scored twice.
Timber - shame about his injuries, because he has been excellent since signing for Arsenal.

Flops:
Truffert - struggles to defend.
Senesi - good on the ball, plays some good passes but not good at his main job, defending.
Brooks - does not do enough for my liking.

Sunday 4th January

Leeds 1-1 Manchester United

This game will probably be better remembered for Amorim getting sacked in the aftermath, after basically handing in his notice, Maresca-style, in the post-match press conference. The game itself was one team, Leeds, totally up for it and going hell for leather, while Man Utd, with a couple of exceptions, just looked like they did not understand the needle between the two teams. There was no sign of Amorim having lost the players, just that they did not seem as fired up as Leeds. Without Bruno, there was a real lack of creativity, with no one to play a killer ball. Leeds are a unit that is greater than the sum of its parts, with every player playing their part in a team performance. They just lack a little in the quality stakes which would have enabled them to turn this point into 3.

Starmen:
Struijk - he has looked at times the weakest link at the back for Leeds, but he was much better in this game.
Stach - has been very good for them this season.
Cunha - stood out as a player who looked like he knew what it was about on the red United team.

Flops:
Perri - a better keeper wins Leeds the points.
Gnonto - does not look Premier League quality.
Sesko - really needs goals.
Yoro - struggled in this game, could have done with a bit more cover from Dalot.

Everton 2-4 Brentford

A David Moyes special, if his team is unable to outmuscle the opposition, they certainly are unlikely to be able to outplay them, no matter what players he has. His limits as a manager are being cruelly exposed at times this season, especially while Ndiaye is away and not there to rescue results with a piece of individual magic. It must be said though, the big difference between the two was the striker, the Toffees have two that are simply not producing goals (though both did notch one this time out!), while the Bees have one who is smacking them in with increasing regularity. There is a reason why top strikers cost more than other players, having a goalscorer in form changes everything and is the main reason Brentford are flying so high in the league right now.

Starmen:
Garner - having a really good season.
Thiago - a hat-trick for the Brazilian striker as he gave the Toffees defence a torrid time.
Janelt - outbattled the Everton midfield and got a couple of assists too.
Collins - a goal and an assist for the centre-back.

Flops:
Pickford - conceded four.
Dibling - looks out of his depth so far.
Keane - struggles against pace.
McNeil - simply not good enough.
O'Brien - is not a right-back.

Newcastle United 2-0 Crystal Palace

As the Toon get their injured players back, they are beginning to return to form and looking more like the team people expected them to be this season. They were very much the better side and fully deserved the win. As for their opposition, it looks a bit like the Glasner bubble has burst and they are sinking fast, but they do have a couple of injuries to defenders to deal with themselves. You would still expect him to get more from this team, but they look very fragile mentally.

Starmen:
Thiaw - he has put himself into the argument for signing of the season with his performances this season.
Miley - another excellent performance at right-back for the youngster.
Guimaraes - he is a real driving force for the Toon.

Flops:
Gordon - needs to refind his form.
Mateta - needs better service.
Clyne - hard to believe he is still able to get near a Premier League team.

Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Sunderland

Is Frank any better than Postecoglou was for Spurs? Right now he looks worse, as at least the football was entertaining under the Aussie. What Frank is producing is defensively poor and no better in the attacking third. It is dire fare and it is little wonder the fans are not taking to him. The Mackems manager Le Bris is showing him up badly. Spurs have a much better team and squad, but Sunderland look a much, much better team. Losing Kudus, the one player who does look capable of creating something, is a big blow for Tottenham as well. Sunderland are impressing massively, despite losing 6 players from their squad to the AFCON, they have continued to pick up results.

Starmen:
Porro - he is a very good footballer, he can be got at defensively but is very good going forward.
Sunderland - this was a team performance, rather than down to individuals.

Flops:
Frank - completely out of his depth.
Romero - such a poor defender, so inconsistent and rash, a very poor choice of captain.
Richarlison - he can make some good runs, but times them badly and his finishing is wayward.

Fulham 2-2 Liverpool

A messy game littered with errors. The main error has to be from VAR, allowing Liverpool's opener from Wirtz to stand, even though clearly offside. Fulham will be extremely disappointed to end up almost losing but delighted with their late winner, which was a cracking shot from Reed. Liverpool only have themselves to blame for not seeing out the game once they took a late lead. It would have been an undeserved win, as they were extremely poor, even when they did have large spells controlling possession, they did little with it. Everything is so slow and laboured, it allowed Fulham to constantly have bodies in place. Though Fulham's defending did leave a lot to be desired, with no one really making challenges, that was nothing compared to the way Liverpool just sat back and let Reed run to the edge of the box and shoot for the equaliser.

Starmen:
None - no one on either side did enough to deserve to get this label. The closest was Reed for his goal, which was excellent, but it is not enough on its own to be considered a star role.

Flops:
Andersen - had a poor game, did not look to have confidence in his teammates.
Slot - his tactics are abysmal to watch, but he still almost came away with the win but for once again making the stupid decision to try and defend a one goal lead with a non-existent defence. Sitting Mac Allister in front of the defence is another stupid decision he was guilty of. The worst of the midfielders starting the match, defensively, but he decided to have him as the protection for the defence.

Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea

Citeh are seeing the title slipping away with results like this, as Arsenal begin to stretch the lead in a similar way to Liverpool last season. There is not just a lack of invincibility about them, even with the return of Rodri, there is not the same work rate or level of quick interchange of passing to create space. They look like a team coming to the end of the manager's time and not quite sure of their futures. Chelsea were freed of the shackles that Maresca's tactical plan placed on them but there were too many players who look rusty. Added to that, probably in large part due to the constant rotation of the defence all season, Chelsea's defence looks like a bunch of individuals with no idea what each other is doing. Both teams are very reliant on moments of individual brilliance to get goals, rather than team play. But, with Chelsea having no manager in place during this game, the result was much better for the Blues of London, rather than the Blues of Manchester.

Starmen:
Haaland - he may not have scored, but he was a constant threat.
Reijnders - not sure the role he was playing is best suited to him, but he still managed to produce a good performance.
Fernandez - looked so much better after Santos came on in place of Estevao and was moved into a more attacking role.

Flops:
Cherki - offered nothing and did not put in the effort to make himself useful.
Silva - like Reijnders, he was played out wide but struggled to get himself involved. The set up just did not suit him and he looked like an ageing player.
Palmer - has yet to get anything like his form back since returning from injury.
Neto - needs to do more.