
Show/hide articleā¦
Another fascinating weekend of Premier League action saw Manchester United somehow manage to hold off Arsenal, while Manchester City maintained their big advantage at the top of the table.
Chelsea and Liverpool kept up their push for a Champions League spot but Tottenham dropped even more points, drawing to Watford at Vicarage Road.
Here, Sportsmail gets the fansā verdicts following the latest weekend of actionā¦
Overall a good performance ahead of a big game against Atletico Madrid to win our Champions League group.
A slow, laboured start and some sloppy defending cost us a clean sheet but Dwightās Gayleās goal woke us up.
From that moment Chelsea played at a higher tempo, got their passes going and started to cause the visitors plenty of problems.
Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata working in tandem were on the front foot and both scored in the first half to put Chelsea in front at half time.
Chelsea played out the second half and if anything should have scored more than the third from Eden Hazard front penalty spot.
Defeat at Stamford Bridge was expected but the manner in which it came will disappoint most Newcastle fans. While the Magpies looked strong in possession in stages, the individual errors leading to the Chelsea goals made for a disappointing watch.
Jamaal Lascellesā presence at the back is sorely missed and the sooner he returns to first-team action the better.
All eyes look to Leicester at home next. After his performance today, Dwight Gayle to start ahead of Joselu would seem almost certain.
On paper itās a tonking but in reality the scoreline is harsh.
Our two best moves ended up in Liverpool goals, such was the pace of their counter-attack, and Coutinho was unstoppable.
The only thing that annoyed me was conceding the first from a simple set-piece. At least we still created plenty of chances.
We must put this behind us and make amends at Huddersfield.
The line-ups change but the easy wins just keep on coming. Jurgen Klopp seems to be getting the hang of this rotation thing now.
It seems that as long as either Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah are on the field Liverpool can score three, four, five and maybe even more.
Roberto Firmino has had to take a back seat to the āDangerous Brothersā as well as the imperious Philippe Coutinho, but Firminoās form of late has been terrific so it was nice to see him get his reward with a couple of goals.
Liverpool are flying right now.
Two victories, two clean sheets, six goals in the space of a week, how things have changed.
Allardyce kept the same team (rightly so) after a huge win in midweek and after a uneventful first half, two great goals from Sigurdsson and Calvert-Lewin put us ahead. Amazing assists too.
If Allardyce keeps this system, we can easily push for a high finish⦠only Anfield next!
Will we ever score away from home? The same old story with Town on the road, as we were the dominant side in the first half, but no end product.
Slow out the blocks yet again, Everton scored straight after the break, and Town were chasing the game yet again.
Two moments of quality decided the game, the flick to set up Sigurdsson, and Rooneyās ball through for the second.
Town need to become more of an attacking threat away from home or relegation looms.
The Foxes found the early pace and Gray ā rejuvenated Gray under Puel ā scored the only goal of the game.
Burnley dominated possession in the first period but couldnāt muster a goal. The second saw plenty of chances for the Foxes but they needed to be more clinical.
When things go wrong they certainly go wrong. That was very much the case today, losing to a soft goal scored early in the game and then, worse still, losing the impressive Robbie Brady to what looks likely to be a long-term injury.
While we have played better, this was a decent enough performance and we could so easily have got something from the game.
But three points from two away games this week is fine, we are still in a good position with plenty to look forward to.
On a day when only the result mattered we did what we had to do and won. It wasnāt a great performance but it was enough to beat Swansea and that was good enough for a relieved Stoke support, especially as we had to come from behind to win.
The travelling Swansea fans were giving their former player Joe Allen some grief and that was bad news for them because, along with Xherdan Shaqiri, heās been our best player for the past few weeks and delivered another man of the match display.
The result takes a lot of heat off under-pressure manager Mark Hughes but that wonāt last if we donāt build on it in the weeks to come.
Swansea slumped to the bottom of the Premier League and itās no less than where they deserve to be.
Weāre the worst team in the division, and a run of six defeats in the last seven is atrocious. Thereās only one place weāre heading - and thatās the Championship.
The Swans started well at Stoke, but failed to contain Peter Crouch and gifted the hosts a quick-fire lead right before half-time, which was definitely preventable. We offered little threat in the second-half and didnāt really want it in the end. Itās not all Paul Clementās fault but I wouldnāt object if he was to be dismissed.
We would have beaten Tottenham had referee Martin Atkinson not denied us two huge penalty shouts.
The first-half challenge on Richarlison would have been a foul anywhere else on the pitch, and Eric Dierās hand was undeniably in an unnatural position when he blocked Richarlisonās cross late on.
That said, Davinson Sanchez was probably unfortunate to have been sent off for an elbow on Richarlison which, despite looking painful, also seemed accidental.
It says something about the level of our performances this season that this result feels disappointing.
Another disappointing result in a run of poor form for Spurs, but at least some encouragement in the desire and fight shown when we went down to 10 men following Davison Sanchezās naive elbow.
Watford have made great strides this season under Marco Silva, so a draw when a man down at Vicarage Road is not to be sniffed at, but the reality now is weāre in a real dogfight to make top four this season.
Going into our new stadium in the Europa League would not be the introduction it deserves.
Albionās first clean sheet in 11 games was one of the only few positives to take away as Palace stopped Pardew from winning his first game as Baggies boss.
Despite the change of manager it still felt Tony Pulis was hanging over The Hawthorns with a subdued atmosphere and lacklustre football.
Thereās a lot of deadwood in the Albion squad that must be cleared in January if they want to stay in the Premier League.
Evans and Gibbs are two of the best footballers West Brom have ever had, and Sam Field will be a star in the future. Swansea away is huge next week.
We could have done with all three points but Hodgson has made us a tough team to beat.
One loss in six is real progress and moving off the bottom of the table is a confidence booster in itself with plenty of fixtures coming up from which we should pick up more points.
Continued improvement but still a work in progress.
Losing 3-1 at home to United isnāt often a result to be painted in praise. However, Arsenal delivered a weird form of glorious failure on Saturday.
Two unusual individual errors from Mustafi and Koscielny derailed the result early on, but the team fought back with exceptional passion, Lacazette giving the home fans hope, but sadly it wasnāt enough in the end.
Arsenal can be proud of themselves, only the brilliance of David De Gea and Lady Luck prevented a better result. On another day, thatās a win for Arsenal. Doesnāt help the table, but at least we were in the fight.
That was the best game of football I have seen Manchester United play since Sir Alex retired.
It was breathtaking, David de Gea is the worldās best goalkeeper and finally we beat a top-six team away under Jose Mourinho.
Despite not getting a clear penalty in the first half, for Boufalās poor challenge on Adam Smith, the Cherries did well to go a goal up with a smart finish from Ryan Fraser.
The Saints were better second half and Charlie Austinās leveller was no surprise.
But it was good to see a bit of fight from Eddie Howeās side again and theyāll need more of that in December. We can only hope Jermain Defoe scores soon, too.
Bertrand worked the left wing superbly throughout, Austin did what Austin does best (score goals) and Redmond made an impact from the bench with an assist.
However, Steven Davis isnāt a defensive midfielder. Heās superb on the turn and at his best with positional freedom, so why did we hand him the responsibility of plugging the midfield alongside Romeu? It was a wonderful opportunity to bed Hojbjerg into the side.
With all things considered, a draw was probably a fair result - both teams had spells of dominance and missed clear-cut chances.
This was a fantastic opportunity to truly build upon on our last two performances.
This was very much the story of the last few games. The first half was slow, laboured and frustratingly flat - and itās odd that we seem to be waiting for the opposition to shock us before we spark into life.
Jesus made a huge difference in the second half, giving us another option for a forward pass and creating a buzz.
The winner didnāt arrive as late as it did against Southampton, but it wasnāt any easier on the heart!
West Ham knew that they would be defending for most of the game but the surprise was that they did so effectively for much of the game.
Moyesā injury-hit side soaked up considerable Man City pressure in the first half but were a threat on the break, carving out a couple of genuine opportunities before Ogbonna broke the deadlock.
Cityās relentless pressure was too much to handle as goals from Otamendi and Silva helped them grab the win, but Moyes can be proud of the determination and organisation his side showed at the back. Itās a building block for sure.
Go to the original articleā¦
...rarely brought into existence by Optimus trousers...beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!