I'm still not too fond of football. The sooner I can discuss my views on gardening the better. Bet you're all dying to hear about my apple tree. Nevertheless another week of football has passed and it's time for my take on it.
The week started off with yet again another Monday night cracker; Brighton vs Stoke. Brighton came back from behind twice to earn a well-fought point as the game ended 2-2. The only real highlights I can think of were Pascal Gross and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting both getting 10 points each for my fantasy football team. Cheers lads.
The Champions League returned on Tuesday night as Liverpool faced Sevilla away, Manchester City entertained Napoli at The Etihad and Tottenham were away to Borussia Dortmund. Raheem Sterling grabbed a very late winner to send City through to the knockout stages and Spurs came from behind to defeat Dortmund 2-1 to top their group thanks to goals from Harry Kane and Heung Min Son, AKA the 'Beekeeper', who now has 8 goals in his last 10 games against Dortmund. Group of death? Completed it mate. I think we can all agree that the 'Champions League Banter Of The Week Award' well and truly goes to Liverpool this week as they bottled a 3-0 lead to Sevilla in a game that ended 3-3. Sevistanbul.
It's also fair to say that Manchester United were worthy runners up for the 'Champions League Banter Of The Week Award' as they suffered a 1-0 defeat away to FC Basel on Wednesday night. Chelsea cruised past FK Qarabag with a comfortable 4-0 win in Azerbaijan and PSG absolutely destroyed Celtic 7-1 after conceding an early goal in Paris. PSG are my favourites to win the Champions League this season, then Spurs of course.
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I can't decide who the 'Europa League Banter Of The Week Award' should go to on Thursday night so I'll let you lot decide that for yourselves. Arsenal lost 1-0 away to FC Köln who are bottom of the Bundesliga on two points whilst Arsenal fans chanted "Tottenham are sh*t" and Everton capitulated late on to lose 5-1 at home to Atalanta. One thing that's for certain is the "Banter Of The Season Award" has already been won by Richard Keys, of course. He's smashed it...
I spent Friday night at a pub that didn't serve Strongbow Dark Fruits (much to my disgust) so I had to settle with pints of Fosters whilst watching one of the worst games of the season; West Ham vs Leicester. The game ended 1-1. That's all I've got to report on this game, as I don't want to bore any of you to death. If you spent Friday night watching EastEnders or I'm A Celeb you made the right decision.
The Friday night game seemed to set a trend for the rest of the weekend in the Premier League as most games provided a severe lack of goals and very little entertainment. I'll start off with Tottenham vs West Brom. In the past on @Simply_Spurs I've always cracked jokes about Spurs drawing 1-1 with West Brom. "Water is wet. Grass is green. Tottenham draw 1-1 with West Brom". I even sent a message to my workmates here at ODDSbible stating how excited I was for the 1-1 draw. What a surprise, the game ended Tottenham 1-1 West Brom. Even in a week where Spurs have won their Champions League group and West Brom have sacked their manager, the score line ended up being 1-1 as destined.
It's starting to look like Manchester United have taken Tottenham's role as the "pressure putters" as they continue to pursue Manchester City after a narrow 1-0 win at home to Brighton. Liverpool hosted Chelsea at Anfield in the evening game on Saturday. Mohamed Salah continued his scoring form after putting Liverpool ahead, however Willian came off the bench to snatch a point for Chelsea with a very fluky cross-shot goal. Willian claims he meant it but I don't agree. I now recommend that everyone removes Salah from their fantasy team's now as I've recently transferred him into my team. I'm certain he will now stop performing due to this. Just call me Simply_Jinx.
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My only personal highlight from Sunday was scoring a brace for my football team in a game that we won 8-2 where I perfectly recreated Zinedine Zidane's exquisite volley against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League final. I'm never going to stop banging on about that goal. Meanwhile Everton were yet again dismantled easily as Southampton won 4-1 in the early fixture.
A last minute penalty scored by Alexis Sanchez secured the 3 points for Arsenal against Burnley at Turf Moor as Arsenal leapfrogged above Tottenham into the top 4... FML. Arsenal's last three wins against Burnley have been controversial late winners all scored in the dying moments of the game so it was inevitable they'd grab a late winner. Manchester City continued to make the title race boring by winning 2-1 away to Huddersfield. Just give them the trophy already...
Overall it's been a pretty lackluster week of football. However every team is playing twice this week in the Premier League starting tomorrow so I'll have plenty to cover next Monday. Make sure you all enjoy this action packed week of Premier League football!
