It was a double-dip into Premier League football this week, as the weekend and midweek fixtures took up plenty of our undivided attention. As we were glued to our screens, many storylines unfolded before our eyes, as a couple heavyweight clashes thrilled us to the bone, and a few upsets had us throwing our betting slips out the window.
Arsenal show their quality to pick up 4 massive points against Spurs and United.
One of the biggest talking points of the entire season thus far has been Arsenal's continuous improvement under Unai Emery. The Gunners headed into matchweek 14 having been unbeaten in 18 consecutive matches. Not many expected this unbeaten run to stay intact after this week however, as the Gunners faced both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in the span of 4 days. The first match against Spurs went flawlessly for Arsenal, who thoroughly outplayed their North London rivals and earned the bragging rights in the process. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged twice in the derby, silencing all of his doubters and putting his name #1 on the scoring charts for the time being.
The Gunners were not as impressive at Old Trafford on Wednesday, but their intensity level was high throughout the match and they may consider themselves even a bit lucky not to have won the match. All-in-all, this week showed us that Emery has built Arsenal back up to a level where they not only compete with their direct rivals, but thrive against them as well. Not to mention that both of these performances came without the presence of Mesut Ozil.
League-leaders Manchester City and Liverpool each pick up 2 well-deserved wins to stay atop.
Liverpool's encounter with Everton on Sunday was genuinely a bit tighter than many expected. The Reds haven't been in the greatest form of late, but they were thoroughly expected to pick up the victory against their Merseyside rivals Everton, who have been playing well this season. The game was relatively even throughout, as both sides missed glorious chances to lead. Eventually, Liverpool struck some major luck, as a scuffed Van Dijk volley looped onto the crossbar twice and landed onto the head of Origi. It was a major blunder from Everton keeper Jordan Pickford, who could have simply knocked the ball out of play. Liverpool went on to beat Burnley in their midweek match.
Manchester City on the other hand, maintained their 2 point lead atop the Premier League, beating Bournemouth and Watford relatively comfortably, 3-1 and 2-1 respectively. City rotated heavily through both matches, and flexed their deep muscles as a result of it.
Wolves go from 0 to 100, losing shockingly to Cardiff only to stun Chelsea in the midweek.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were tipped for great things when they sealed promotion to the Premier League this year, as their squad boasts plenty of international talent. Their start to the season has been very topsy turvy, as they took a point off Manchester City earlier in the season, one of only 2 teams to do so, and they also took points off Arsenal and Manchester United. Despite their successes against the top sides, Wolves have struggled against the bottom-feeders. They lost to Huddersfield last week, and they fell 2-1 to Cardiff this past weekend as well. Therefore, when they came up against Chelsea on Wednesday, few expected anything to celebrate for Wolves.
They have their team changes to thank, as they stunned Chelsea 2-1 despite having just 29% possession throughout the 90 minutes. They went into an early lead, but a howler from Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and a fine finish from Diogo Jota to end his scoreless drought ensured a massive victory for Wolves, who are earning a reputation as being giant-slayers.