Your Weekly Premier League Update
By Jonathan Gault
The Premier League may have taken the weekend off, but there
were still plenty of intriguing FA Cup matches to watch across England and
Wales (please ignore the thousands of empty seats).
Four of the six FA Cup fifth round games this weekend were
all-Premier League affairs; a fifth pitted Premier League Cardiff defending
champion Wigan. So let’s take a run through those four fixtures, including two
rematches where Manchester City and Arsenal had revenge on their minds.
Sunderland 1
Southampton 0
Sunderland’s form in the league has been uneven, but the
Black Cats have been brilliant in the cups this year; they also knocked out
Chelsea and Manchester United en route to the Capital One Cup Final.
Southampton will be glad to be done with Sunderland this season. The two clubs
have played four times and the Saints have yet to win one – Sunderland knocked
Southampton out of the Capital One Cup and the teams drew both of their Premier
League encounters. Neither team was at full-strength for this match, but a
Southampton squad that included Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert
probably should have been favored, even away from home. However, Sunderland didn’t
have to play in midweek when its match against Man City was postponed, while
Southampton was playing its third game in eight days. That may have dulled the
impact of the normally-sharp Shaw and Lallana and allowed the Black Cats to
sneak the victory.
Manchester City 2
Chelsea 0
In the first of the weekend’s two revenge games, Man City
put in a much better performance than the one that saw it lose 1-0 to Chelsea
on February 3. Rarely-used Stevan Jovetic was the key man for City, creating
several chances and scoring the hosts’ first goal in the 16th minute. Eden Hazard,
hat-trick hero in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Newcastle last week, had little impact
on the game, and Chelsea struggled to attack without him, failing to generate
even a single shot on target. It didn’t help that Chelsea’s fullbacks,
Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta, were never able to get forward as
City shut down the wings. Nemanja Matic could not contain Yaya Toure as he did
in the teams’ last encounter, giving City an advantage in the middle of the
pitch. Perhaps most importantly, it was City, not Chelsea, that seized the
early advantage, requiring the visitors to chase the game instead of sitting
back in their defensive shell. After over three hours without a goal, City was
pleased to get two in this contest against the league’s best defense. It will
need that form to continue against Barcelona in the Champions League on
Tuesday.
Everton 3 Swansea City 1
Everton looked uncomfortable in a 1-0 loss to Tottenham last
weekend, and Toffees fans were worried an hour into this one with a
full-strength Everton level with a weakened Swansea side. Enter Steven
Naismith, who turned the match around after replacing Lacina Traore in the 61st
minute. Just four minutes later, Naismith had Everton’s first when Neil Taylor played
him in perfectly behind Ashley Williams. Taylor’s pass was a thing of beauty,
made all the more impressive when you consider that he didn’t even have to look
before finding Naismith. Taylor probably would have enjoyed the goal a lot more
if he didn’t play for Swansea. Naismith went on to win a penalty, which
Leighton Baines converted to send Everton into the last eight. Swansea, with
two Europa League games on the near horizon (and possibly more to come), at
least have the relief of no more FA Cup games this season.
Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1
Arsenal joined Man City in avenging an earlier defeat thanks
to the play of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. That 5-1 defeat at Anfield last week
doesn’t look any prettier, but this win does put Arsenal one step closer to
claiming its first trophy since it won this tournament in 2005. The main
talking point will be the decision by Howard Webb – England’s referee
representative at this summer’s World Cup – not to award a penalty for
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s challenge on Luis Suarez late in the game. Ox collided
violently with Suarez and sent him to the ground, but, after granting Suarez a
penalty minutes earlier, Webb decided not to give one (and later compounded
things by failing to issue Steven Gerrard a second yellow card for a reckless
challenge in his own half).
This was a game both sides were capable of winning.
Liverpool’s S and S men, Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, may soon have to expand
to S, S and S given that Raheem Sterling has been one of the team’s best
attacking threats recently, and he repeatedly found space down the left side.
Sturridge had several chances to extend his eight-match goal streak, but his
finishing was just short of his lofty recent standards. Arsenal goalkeeper
Lukasz Fabianski was also superb, making six saves, the best among them a
reflex kick save of a Sturridge shot inside the box.
Sharing the role of hero alongside Fabianski was
Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was the first to react for the opening goal when
Gerrard blocked Yaya Sanogo’s shot 16 minutes in. If the first goal revealed
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s reflexes, the second revealed his pace. Mesut Ozil, quiet
of late, played a through ball down the right side. Oxlade-Chamberlain roasted
Daniel Agger, easily beating him to the ball and setting up Lukas Podolski
nicely for Arsenal’s second. A draw would probably have been the fairest
result, but the brilliance of Fabianski and Oxlade-Chamberlain was the
difference in this tight cup match.
Up next
February is when the football season really starts to heat
up, and with a World Cup on tap, the action will be nearly nonstop until the
middle of July. The Champions League returns on Tuesday with a great matchup
(Man City-Barcelona; Arsenal hosts Bayern Munich on Wednesday) and Man City
plays Sunderland in the Capital One Cup Final in two weeks. And of course
there’s the most wide-open race for the title in Premier League history, with
four teams separated by four points with 12 games to play. I can’t wait to
watch it all unfold.
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