EPL Roundup Week 37: Delightful Sturridge Hat-trick Caps Off Brilliant Weekend of Football

After a week of being bombarded with news of the retirement of one of football’s biggest legends, the weekend’s action drew our attention back to two others legendary facets of the beautiful game; the battle against relegation and the race for Champions League football. Make no mistake about it, there was definitely some newsworthy drama involved there too!

Good Week For: Chelsea & Spurs (Came from behind to keep European chase alive), Liverpool (Comeback victory against Fulham shows good character and bodes well for next season)

Bad Week For: QPR (Beaten yet again, going down with a whimper it seems), West Brom (Steve Clarke called this weekend’s performance West Brom’s worst of the season)

Two of the fixtures that caught the eye this weekend had a potentially massive effect on the whole complexion of the league table and those two were Chelsea’s trip to Aston Villa and Spurs’ trip to Stoke; two top four sides versus two relegation threatened sides. These clashes showed the unpredictability of the business end of the season as Stoke and Aston Villa both took the lead early on through Steven N’Zonzi and Christian Benteke. Spurs and Chelsea showed their calibre though as they fought back from their deficits to win their games by a single goal; Frank Lampard became Chelsea’s all-time record goal-scorer in the process. Both sides are now ahead of Arsenal in the league standings but Spurs will have to wait until Tuesday to find out whether their efforts were to any avail as Arsenal don’t play their game in hand until then.

Manchester United bid farewell to life with Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm with a 2-1 win over Swansea. Paul Scholes also confirmed his retirement before the game but did feature for United despite a knee injury. In a clash where the teams seemed slightly overwhelmed by the occasion it was left to Robin Van Persie to  take the game by the throat for United as he and Hernandez combined well on a number of occasions before Hernandez opened the scoring after a defensive mix-up in the 39th minute. Michu helped Swansea respond instantly with his 22nd goal of the season with a beautiful flick at goal in a crowded penalty area which thwarted David De Gea. Unite did what they’ve so typically done though in the Ferguson era and won it late thanks to a rare goal from Rio Ferdinand. Ferguson confirmed after the game that Wayne Rooney has handed in a transfer request but will not be sold by the club, I wonder if that standpoint will change in the David Moyes era.

United fans can take encouragement from Everton’s match against West Ham as Fergie’s heir apparent, David Moyes, saw his current side pick up a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win. Kevin Mirallas was in brutally good form for the Toffees as he kick-started and finished the move for Everton’s first goal after six minutes. The Belgian started the move from deep before Baines and Fellaini got in on the act and saw the ball back to Mirallas to guide the ball past a hapless Jaaskelainen from range. Mirallas’ second goal was nowhere near as precise as a big deflection off the leg of a West Ham defender; truth be told had it not been for the otherwise stunning form of Jussi Jaaskelainen the margin of victory would have been much wider. Nevertheless, Moyes’ last home game for the Toffees ended in victory and they travel to Chelsea next weekend in an attempt to end the Scot’s reign with a bang.

Elsewhere in the league Norwich City welcomed West Brom to Carrow Road in one of the weekend’s surprise packages. Norwich undoubtedly had the better chances in the opening hour of the game as West Brom couldn’t even manage a shot on target. Robert Snodgrass opened the scoring for Norwich and this signalled a sustained spell of relentless pressure from the home side which eventually culminated in a second goal for the home side thanks to a horror blunder by West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster. After a pass-back reminiscent of Paul Robinson and Gary Neville’s blunder for England six years ago, Foster completely miskicked a loose ball heading his way to allow Grant Holt through to poach the easiest goal he’ll probably ever score. Norwich then scored twice again to secure Premier League football for another season.

Two penalties from two Frenchmen in seventeen minutes saw QPR and Newcastle get off to a goal-scoring start in their clash at Loftus Road as Loic Remy and Hatem Ben Arfa scored one apiece to make the score 1-1. Chances were scarce for both sides after that though and had it not been for  some calamitous defending  yet again from Jose Bosingwa (who has been pretty shocking all season) to allow Yoan Gouffran a second Newcastle goal I don’t think there would have been another goal. The way QPR are playing I think they’re going to struggle to survive in the Championship never mind the Premier League; Newcastle on the other hand secured safety and that’s the only positive the Toon Army can salvage from this season. Sunderland on the other hand made it increasingly difficult for Wigan to secure safety after they took a share of the spoils from their clash with Southampton. A 1-1 draw for Sunderland means they lie four points ahead of Wigan but have played a game more however if Wigan don’t win their game in hand against Arsenal it could all be over for Martinez’ men.

And to finish up this weekend Liverpool bounced back from Derby day disappointment to trounce Fulham at Craven Cottage. It didn’t look to be Liverpool’s day though as Dimitar Berbatov pounced to head in his 14th goal of the season. Liverpool responded instantly though as a long ball from promising full-back, Andre Wisdom, saw Daniel Sturridge worm his way round the Fulham defence to lash in the equaliser. Sturridge then showed a true striker’s touch to notch his 2nd and eventually his hat-trick and hand Liverpool a thoroughly deserved 3-1 win; in all honesty though Sturridge could have had five or six the way he was playing.

So next week the 2013/14 season comes to an end; it’s been a pleasure covering all the action for you guys and I hope you’ll join me back here again next week as we get to see the conclusion of what has been one of the best Premier League seasons ever. See you then!

 

Results:

Aston Villa 1 – 2 Chelsea

Stoke City 1 – 2 Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester United 2 – 1 Swansea City

Everton 2 – 0 West Ham United

Norwich City 4 – 0 West Bromwich Albion

Queens Park Rangers 1 – 2 Newcastle United

Sunderland 1 – 1 Southampton

Fulham 1 – 3 Liverpool

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *