It was a splendid week 32 and with just six games to go, the drool is beginning to drop in our quest on who would be this season’s cha...
It was a splendid week 32 and with just six games to go, the
drool is beginning to drop in our quest on who would be this season’s
champions.
The week began after a long international break; Leicester
came out winners of this week with Tottenham dropping points and Aston Villa
remaining the same with a poor performance against Chelsea drawing the seal on
their fate.
With no further ado, here are the five things we learnt from the
Premier League this weekend.
Foxes Sheer
Determination.
Leicester City continued their reign at the top by beating
Ronald Koeman’s Southampton 1-0 at the King Power Stadium. It would be the
fifth time in a row the Foxes would be winning by that margin and 1-0 might
just be the new cool.
 |
| Leicester captain Wes Morgan salutes the home fans having headed the Foxes ahead on Sunday |
Grinding out wins in such manner for Chelsea, Man Utd, Man
City is clichéd with the talk of mark of champions but the Foxes are not even
that yet.
Sheer determination and the desire to see out the fairy tale story
has seen these set of players play collectively with individual players doing
their star best to help the team see it through and for that effort, have been
rewarded with the luxury of winning four of their next six games and being
champions.
Gunners
Shooting Late
Arsenal’s 4-0 demolition of Watford begs the question,
“where has this performance been all season?” Do we say this performance was
boosted by the return of Jack Wilshere to training? The Gunners were at their
expected best with precision, decisiveness, and determination all excellent.
 |
| Bellerin celebrates with Iwobi and Monreal after scoring the third goal against Watford |
With a game in hand and 11 points behind league leaders
Leicester City, Arsenal have themselves to blame if they step fully on the gas
now and still fall short of winning the title. This season represents Arsenal’s
best chance of winning the title but they have somehow managed to shoot
themselves in the foot in different games.
Arsenal are typical strong finishers
and were they in the position Leicester City are in would have been long declared
as 2015/2016 champions.
Lloris
Epl’s New Goalie Face.
Over the years, the Premier League has been associated with
that stand-out goalie that is driven, commanding, technically gifted and most
especially, produces spectacular saves with names such as Pete Schmeichel,
David Seaman, Petr Cech coming to the fore and Hugo Lloris is making a case for
himself.
 |
| Lloris has kept 11 clean sheets this season for Tottenham as the fight for the title |
Against Liverpool, the French keeper kept Tottenham’s title
chances alive by making key saves as he has done all season. Regardless of the
outcome of the season, Lloris is sure to make the PFA’s team of the year.
Martinez
Tactical Naivety.
Poor old Everton. Roberto Martinez tactical naiveté cost his
side picking up points against Man Utd. The Red Devils were not at top gear
best and Martinez’s inability to get out a draw from a side that he could
really have hurt was due to his choice of play.
At Old Trafford, Martinez tried
to prey on slow and feeble Daley Blind by pinning Romelu Lukaku on him while it
was a brilliant idea, the Belgian was left isolated with second chance balls
picked up by the Red Devils.
The Spaniard put so much faith in it and kept pumping long
balls up field hoping it would come off in the end which to no one’s surprise
did as for over an hour it never looked like it was going to work.
Proud
History, No Future.
Pretty much sums up the Aston Villa’s direction this season.
The Villains were on the end of a 4-0 romp by Chelsea and might just seal their
fate on relegation. Aston Villa used to maintain a healthy middle table
position, and quite frequently broke into the top six.
 |
| Carles Gil and Jores Okore (right) of Aston Villa show their dejection after a defeat in February |
Times have changed for those in the Midlands associated with
Aston Villa, the team has faced relegation dilemma in the past five seasons and
maybe the time has come. Proud History, no future, no effort, no control, no
ambition… no stay in the premier league anymore.
Author: @ChukaMVP
