The Barclays Premier League returned with a bang this weekend as 36 goals were fired in across 10 matches. The game of weekend saw two former title favourites battle it out. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side bounced back from defeat to Champions Leicester to pile more misery on Arsene Wenger whose decision to leave Alexis Sanchez on the bench backfired. Goals from Firmino, Mane and Wijnaldum secured a 3-1 win at Anfield as they replaced Arsenal in the top 4.
Chelsea took another huge leap towards the title with a comfortable 2-1 win over West Ham United at the London Stadium on Monday evening. First half goals from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa secured a 21st league win of the season for Antonio Conte’s Side, who maintained a 10-point lead over Tottenham at the top of the table. Unbeaten at home in the league this season, Harry Kane scored his 18th and 19th goals of the campaign as Spurs defeated a resilient Everton 3-2 at White Hart Lane to keep pressure on the runaway leaders.
Manchester City eased to a 2-0 victory over bottom side Sunderland, who are now 6 points adrift of safety while Man United’s game at Bournemouth was marred with incidents from start to finish. From Tyrone Mings’ stamp on Zlatan Ibrahomvic’s head, to the deliberate elbow that followed. Both incidents went unnoticed at the time by referee Kevin Friend (both players have since been retrospectively banned by The FA), who also sent off Bournemouth captain Adam Surman and awarded two penalties at Old Trafford as Jose Mourinho’s men drew for the 10th time this season, dropping 10 points at home alone.
Leicester City, under Caretaker Manager Craig Shakespeare, secured consecutive wins for the first time this season, beating fellow strugglers Hull City 3-1 at the King Power Stadium.
Elsewhere, Manolo Gabbiadini continued his scoring streak as Southampton came out on the right side of a 7-goal thriller beating Watford 4-3 at Vicarage Road. Swansea City scored a late winner as they managed to overcome Burnley 3-2 in another see-saw relegation battle. Crystal Palace made it back-to-back wins under Sam Allardyce as they defeated a West Brom side 2-0 managed by former Palace boss Tony Pulis, while Stoke City beat a Middlesbrough side, goalless in the last 4 league games, by the same score line.