Matchday 38 - Quick Round Up

Match Day 38 Round Up

Sunday 24th May

Brighton & Hove Albion 0-3 Manchester United

Despite having nothing to play for, Man Utd showed one of the strengths of the Premier League, that teams continue to play and very rarely do any of them ever give each other an easy day. As usual, the Seagulls got hold of the ball and passed it around for long periods, but both teams struggled to attack incisively, a corner from Fernandez being required to open the scoring after half an hour, with just about the first real attempt on goal. It was significant in giving Fernandez the record for most assists in a Premier League season, which no doubt delighted Roy Keane. From that moment on, United seemed to have the measure of Brighton, who wilted in the sun. In the end, the Seagulls were lucky to end up with an 8th place finish and Conference League football for next season, doing nothing to help themselves and were well beaten.

Starman:
Dorgu - returned from injury to impress massively on the left wing.
Fernandes - ended an excellent season on a high with a goal and an assist.

Flops:
Hurzeler - had no idea what to do to get his team to perform when it mattered.
Brighton players - let themselves and the fans down badly.

Burnley 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

The wooden spoon battle to decide who finishes bottom produced a low quality match (unsurprisingly) and ended in a draw which consigned Wolves to last place. On this showing, both teams will struggle to make an immediate return and if they do come back up, they have a hell of a lot of work to do to give themselves even a slight hope of survival.

Starmen:
Pires - a bit dodgy defensively, but shows some genuine flashes of quality on the ball.
Flemming - not a top class goal scorer, but he works incredibly hard for the team and scores a decent amount on top of that.
Mane - the one attacking threat Wolves look to possess.

Flops:
Moller Wolfe - offers very little to the team.
A. Gomes - been a huge disappointment since joining.
Edwards - Wolves have looked so disjointed under him, it is all just moments, flashes of play, with no real sign of any patterns of play or organisation in defensive situations.

Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal

Two teams with their eyes on European finals and nothing to play for in the league, the game ended up as a leaving party for Glasner and a celebration of the Premier League title for Arsenal fans. The game itself was pretty much incidental and almost a reserve match, which saw the Gunners second string run out with a fairly routine win over Palace's back ups.

Starmen:
Cardines - a very impressive debut for the teenager.
Jesus - popped up to score on the final day once more.

Flops:
Munoz - looked tired.
Strand Larsen - struggled badly since his move from Wolves.

Fulham 2-0 Newcastle United

Another of those games with nothing riding on it and not even Guimaraes' presence could lift Newcastle into producing a performance. They looked like they had already headed off to the beach and were comfortably beaten by Fulham. The Toon were not helped by the back three system Howe chose to use, which did not work at all and helped Fulham to end their run of games without a win.

Starmen:
Diop - a mostly comfortable day and a goal.
Castagne - was able to help push back Hall on the Newcastle left.

Flops:
Osula - a poor day after his run of good form.
Woltemade - Howe has not figured out how to get the best from the big German.
Murphy - was pushed back and offered little attacking threat.

Liverpool 1-1 Brentford

Another in a long line of slow, boring limp performances from Liverpool this season, which is probably most interesting for the bizarre new kit with mismatched shirt and shorts colours (mismatched as a metaphor for LFC and Slot maybe?). Sadly, what should have been a wonderful send off for two of Liverpool's greats in Salah and Robertson was fumbled badly by the club. Even the chance to finally give Henderson a proper send off from LFC on his first return to play against it was handled poorly. It contrasted so badly with the way Klopp leaving was handled. All of the good feeling from his reign seems to have been completely destroyed by this season. I have to admit I was very surprised by the Bees' attitude. Knowing how toxic it has been at Liverpool games recently, it almost seemed like they were taking it easy to ensure they did not ruin the send off.

Starmen:
Salah - looked more like the Salah of old and picked up an assist as well as hitting the post with a direct free kick.
Szoboszlai - Liverpool's best player this season once again put in the work notably missing from that of some of his team mates.

Flops:
LFC - made a complete mess of the final day, beginning with Slot's speech to Salah and Robertson on the training ground the previous day, which was bordering on disrespectful. The presentation was so badly handled, with a total lack of any real feeling to it. Then it ended with Slot still hanging undeservedly onto his job. Absolute shambles.
Ngumoha - people call Gakpo one dimensional and then rave about this lad, who plays the left wing role in exactly the same way, except with an added leg wave or seven. He has such a long way to go. Normally I would be thinking that a bit of coaching should make him a much better player, but having seen the regression of just about every player under Slot, I am fearful for the lad's future.
Ouattara - quick but brainless.

Manchester City 1-2 Aston Villa

Despite the defeat, this was a set of goodbyes done well by Citeh as not just Pep Guardiola leaves, but also Bernardo Silva and John Stones. Even a loss and failure to clinch the Premier League title could not dampen the party atmosphere as the fans celebrated their heroes. Even Emery joined in with a gift for Guardiola before kick off, though he was unwilling to gift him a final day victory! The guard of honour for Bernardo Silva, when he was taken off, might have been a step too far though. The first half of the game was very much dominated by Man City, but they just lacked a final ball to get the goals they wanted. The second half quickly changed things as Villa got their first attempt at goal in the match within 30 seconds of kick off and it was scored by Watkins to completely change the game. After that, the game lost its way as a football match, though Watkins second was a lovely goal, but everything was sidetracked by the substitutions and celebrations of those going off.

Starmen:
Semenyo - City's goalscorer and best player.
Silva - pops up everywhere.
Watkins - two goals for the England forward.
Buendia - in good form at the moment.

Flops:
Stones - a horrible error for the Villa opener and then sold himself badly for their second.
Lewis - does not look like a right-back.
Ake - a poor game at left-back, lacks positional sense there.
Bailey - he must be a nightmare to play with, so much pace and running power but his end product is horrible. Sometimes he struggles to control his feet, let alone the ball.

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Bournemouth

Bournemouth went into the game with a chance of Champions League football, an incredible achievement for a team that sold its entire defence in the summer. They did fall short but just qualifying for any kind of European football was almost miraculous. Forest have had a season of turmoil, but they managed to reach the Europa League semi-finals and survive in the Premier League. Their fans will be looking forward to a season of consolidation while praying they can hold onto their gems. Forest took the lead, very much against the run of play in the first half, where Bournemouth had been comfortably the better side. Despite keeping a huge amount of pressure on Forest via their press and quick movement, the Cherries struggled to create chances against a very resilient Forest side.

Starmen:
Gibbs-White - after struggling to get his form back following his summer transfer to Spurs breaking down, he has been growing again as a player to become the key to everything Forest do, including scoring their goal. Shocking that he is not in the England squad.
Milenkovic - despite a couple of minor errors, the Serb was strong at the back.
Tavernier - got the Cherries' equaliser.
Truffert - looks to be the next player they will sell for big money.

Flops:
Cunha - is so uncomfortable at full-back.
Evanilson - wasted too many opportunities to score or play someone else in.

Sunderland 2-1 Chelsea

The Mackems got a surprise European place off the back of this victory, which is something that could stretch their squad even further next season. Even more surprising was Chelsea's failure to qualify for a European place, despite all the extra ones being handed out these days and all that money spent. They will no doubt rue the day they appointed Liam Rosenior to age their men. Sunderland looked back to the bright, breezy, aggressive team that started the season so strongly. All hard running and attacking intent. Chelsea are still struggling to shake off the problems of the season, looking slow and ponderous, rolling the ball about too slowly when in possession. The players are there, but the tactics and style of play has just not worked for them.

Starmen:
Le Fee - having a stellar end to the season.
Hume - excellent finish for his goal.
Pedro - at times he has been excellent for Chelsea this season.

Flops:
Roefs - he had a good season before getting injured, his error cost them a goal.
Gusto - even playing as a wing-back he looks completely out of position constantly. Added an own goal for good measure.
Fofana - hard to figure out how he has held down a place amidst constant poor performances. He reminds me of Konate, absolutely no positional sense or intelligence to his play at all. Little wonder he ended up with two yellows, he is too stupid to be in the right place to deal with anything, so ends up giving away needless fouls.

Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Everton

With most of the country behind them, the Toffees failed. Considering how defensively Moyes sets them up to play, it is amazing how poor they are defensively this season, the combination of Tarkowski and Keane does not work at all. It draws them deeper and often has them on top of Pickford, which is when he struggles under pressure to deal with balls in. That is not helped by having two very poor options chosen at full-back, who seem utterly incapable of getting near to stopping crosses. Everton need changes in the summer to take the club forward, with the backline in dire need of a refresh. Spurs just wanted it more. They are not a good side, they are in the drop zone deservedly, but they were the better side simply due to a desire and will to win that the Toffees did not possess in this game.

Starmen:
Palhinha - scored the goal and put in the hard work to keep Spurs afloat.
Porro - got forward well and was rarely put under any defensive pressure.
Garner - he has been a shining light this season.

Flops:
Barry - a strange choice to start with, another awful performance.
O'Brien - completely out of place at full-back.
Pickford - struggles when put under pressure.

West Ham United 3-0 Leeds United

Leeds started brightly but quickly tailed off and pretty meekly submitted in probably their worst performance of the season. It was clear that the Hammers just had so much more on the line and were fired up and at it, while Leeds looked like what they were, a team with nothing on the line. In the end it was a very comfortable win for West Ham but it had no effect on their future, as they still went down.

Starmen:
Bowen - the captain finally showed up and got a goal and an assist after a season to forget.
Castellanos - another goal for him.
Fernandes - picked up an assist.

Flops:
Calvert-Lewin - needed better service.
Ampadu - struggled to cope in midfield, with West Ham going all out he was getting a bit overrun.
Rodon - has been excellent this season, stepping up well, but had a poor game.