Earlier this week, I said that this week was the most important week of the remaining English Premier League schedule because with two games this week, the title picture can be drastically different. Apparently none of the four teams took my advice as only Leicester gained a point and Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City all lost. And what looked like a terrible situation yesterday, Leicester somehow extends to a three point lead.
Leicester City 2-2 West Bromwich Albion
Leicester got things started yesterday and had to fight to earn a point against West Brom. Again, Leicester were forced to possess the ball and struggled to get the 2-2 draw. Little did they know that they would get the best result among the top four teams.
Arsenal 1-2 Swansea City
Not only did Arsenal lose the game and a chance to catch up two points on the leaders, but they lost so much more as Petr Cech injured his hamstring on the final play of the game. While attacking the goal, Cech went up to try run back to defend the goal. At the very least, Cech is out for the North London Derby on Saturday but if he’s out for an extended period of time, in addition to their other injuries, that could be curtains for Arsenal on their EPL title aspirations.
Swansea would seal the win due to Ashley Williams getting through and scoring off of Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free kick in the 74th minute.
While the result wasn’t great for Arsenal, it was great for Swansea. Swansea has a bit of breathing room as they move up to six points ahead of the relegation zone.
West Ham United 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham pushed and pushed at the beginning of the game and were rewarded with an early Michail Antonio goal.
After that goal in the 7th minute, West Ham defended like crazy the other 83 minutes and held out for the 1-0 win. Tottenham could have gotten into a tie for 1st and go ahead in goal differential with a win, but weren’t able to seal the deal when the opportunity was there. Can they do that on Saturday against Arsenal?
Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City
Manchester City may have defeated Liverpool for a trophy this past weekend, but it was Liverpool who potentially got the last laugh as they got their revenge against City and potentially knocked them out of the EPL title hunt.
First, Adam Lallana threaded the needle from 25 yards out and took the first goal.
Next, Liverpool scored goal number two while James Milner slipped in behind Vincent Kompany and with a silky touch, lassoed in the shot.
Then, to finish it all off, Roberto Firmino stayed open while Adam Lallana ran through the City team to dump the ball off to Firmino and take the 3-0 win.
This makes the weekend games much more important. We’ve already established Tottenham playing Arsenal in the early Saturday game. Manchester City will play Aston Villa while Leicester City is playing at Watford in the Saturday afternoon game. Leicester could struggle but Man City would almost certainly be out of the title race after losing to Villa and Arsenal could be just about out if they lose to Spurs. This entertaining race is starting to get down to the wire, and if we’re going to see the top teams give up points like they did yesterday and today, this will go down to the wire.
