It's been snowing a lot recently and it's freezing outside so I've been forced to watch football against my own will. Luckily Tottenham have learnt how to win football matches once again so for the first time in weeks I'm buzzing to review the latest week of football!
Last Tuesday marked the start of the final round of group stage fixtures in the Champions League and every English team secured their place into the knockout stages. The only real highlight from these fixtures was Fernando Llorente finally scoring a goal for Tottenham so instead of reviewing the matches on Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to talk about the last 16 draw, which took place this morning. As the draw began the nerves quickly hit me as I was convinced Tottenham would be drawn against Bayern Munich. Much to my delight Tottenham managed to avoid Bayern - get in! Oh what's that? They've got Juventus instead? F*cking fantastic. Spurs win the 'group of death' beating Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund only to be rewarded with two games against the Italian Champions. Year I've had...
Manchester City were drawn against Basel, Liverpool face Porto and Manchester United entertain Sevilla. Obviously I was fuming witnessing these three English clubs avoid tough fixtures such as Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, however, Chelsea were then drawn against Barcelona which made me feel slightly better about Spurs' draw. The Europa League draw took place shortly afterwards where Arsenal were drawn against Ostersunds. If you haven't heard of them they're a small English club from Woolwich!
Saturday swiftly arrived starting off with West Ham entertaining Chelsea at the London Stadium. Another day of laughing at West Ham whilst tweeting hundreds of David Moyes memes right? Wrong. The Hammers picked up all 3 points thanks to an early goal from summer signing Marko Arnautovic as Chelsea failed to really threaten them at all. Yer da was absolutely fuming when he saw Michy Batshuayi with a hot water bottle on the bench; "THE GAME'S GONE MAD. BACK IN MY DAY WE DID SHIRTS VS SKINS IN THIS WEATHER..."
In the afternoon fixtures Huddersfield triumphed 2-0 over Brighton, Swansea managed to score an actual goal for the first time in 12 decades in a 1-0 win against West Brom, Burnley kept their hopes of finishing in a Champions League spot alive with a 1-0 win at home to Watford, Tottenham also kept their hopes of finishing in a Champions League spot alive after demolishing Stoke 5-1 at Wembley, and finally Christian Benteke took another appalling penalty to cost Crystal Palace the 3 points in a feisty 2-2 draw against Bournemouth. Surely Benteke is one of the worst penalty takers in the league now? Almost felt sorry for Roy Hodgson, but England's Euro 2016 campaign will forever remain unforgivable. Later on in the evening Leicester defeated Newcastle 3-2 at St James's Park and this was actually a pretty good match to watch. Saturday evening games really have been delivering recently!
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Sunday morning arrived and I know what the main talking point for this huge day of football was; "Did Simply Spurs bang in another brace for his Sunday League team?". Unfortunately my game was cancelled due to snow so I'm afraid I was sat at home in the warm instead of going into multiple 50/50 challenges with 'old Graham' from the pub. Southampton took on Arsenal in the early game where Oliver Giroud came off the bench to rescue a point for the Gunners in a 1-1 draw. The amount of late goals Arsenal manage to pull out the bag enrages me as it feels like it happens every game. Frustrating.
Next up was the Merseyside Derby. As expected, Liverpool absolutely dominated the game as they created multiple chances against Everton and inevitably Mohamed Salah put the Reds ahead. Fortunately for Everton Dejan Lovren decided to be Dejan Lovren as he gave away a debatable penalty for a foul on Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Rooney converted from the spot and the game finished 1-1. More daylight robbery in Liverpool, a Big Sam masterclass.
The final game of the day was the Manchester Derby. Finally a chance for Romelu Lukaku to step up in a big game, to prove that he's the best striker in the league, in a game where City were aiming to achieve their record breaking 14th consecutive win. Lukaku sure did step up, for City that is, as he set up both of their goals in a 2-1 defeat. So Manchester United bottled the league right? Anyone got some 'put the pressure on' jokes? Plenty of drama unfolded after the game also, reports claiming that Jose Mourinho had milk thrown over him. Lukaku also got involved...
So another interesting week of football has passed. I'm calling it now: Tottenham will end Manchester City's winning streak this weekend. With midweek Premier League fixtures coming up, this week of football promises to be action packed, so make the most of it and enjoy your week!
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