By: Tagdh McGinty
Burnley Vs Liverpool 1-3
Jack Cork poked Burnley into the lead at 54 minutes but it lasted just a quarter of an hour as James Milner equalized before substitute Roberto Firmino got Liverpool ahead with his first shot. Xherdan Shaqiri’s third goal of the season wrapped up the points in stoppage time as Liverpool maintained their unbeaten start to the season to remain on the coattails of the champions. Burnley remain in the bottom three after a 10th defeat of the season on Sean Dyche’s 300th game in management.
Dyche demanded a response from his Burnley players after Saturday’s abject defeat at Crystal Palace and that was exactly what he got as the Clarets took advantage of Liverpool’s seven pre-match changes, and the loss of Joe Gomez to injury at 23 minutes. After Virgil van Dijk fired a free header straight at a thankful Joe Hart, Chris Wood saw a deflected strike loop over the bar before, from the resulting cleared corner, Phil Bardsley’s rasping 25-yard drive flew just wide of the Liverpool goal.
Burnley thought they had capped a positive first-half display with a goal at 41 minutes as Barnes’ first-time volley from a Robbie Brady free-kick flashed past Alisson into the back of the net, but the effort was correctly ruled out for offside.
Joe Hart saved from Daniel Sturridge early in the second half before expertly tipping a Naby Keita piledriver onto the post at 52 minutes. Those saves laid the foundation for Burnley to take the lead as Cork poked the loose ball home from close range after Wood and Ashley Barnes colluded to make Alisson lose control of a Ben Mee knockdown from the corner.
The lead last just eight minutes as Merseyside Derby hero Divock Origi offloaded the ball to Milner on the edge of the area, and the midfielder drove a crisp shot through bodies into the bottom right-hand corner. Jurgen Klopp introduced Mohamed Salah and Firmino soon after and the latter had an immediate impact, finishing from close range with his first shot after Van Dijk brilliantly hooked a Trent Alexander-Arnold free-kick across the face of goal.
Keita had a deft back-heel shot cleared off the line by Bardsley at 82 minutes as Liverpool pushed for a third, while Alisson brilliantly tipped a looping Mee header onto the crossbar in the final minute. But Alisson’s fast thinking immediately after that save released Salah, who in turn played Shaqiri through on goal, and the Swiss rounded off a fine outing for the Reds with their third goal.
Wolves Vs Chelsea 2-1
The hosts found themselves behind in unfortunate circumstances when Conor Coady inadvertently diverted Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s shot past Rui Patricio in the 18th minute. However, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side roared back after the break as Raul Jimenez brought them even before Diogo Jota’s first Premier League goal soon after secured Wolves a much-needed three points.
Victory moves Wolves up to 12th in the Premier League table while Chelsea, who are now 10 points behind league leaders Manchester City, drop down to fourth following Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Southampton at Wembley Stadium. Wolves, who had lost their previous six matches heading into the game, were given an early warning of the threat posed by Chelsea when N’Golo Kante’s cut-back picked out Eden Hazard in acres of space at the far post. The Belgium international took the shot on first time but could not generate enough power to beat Patricio.
Patricio had no chance of keeping out the visitors’ opener though as Coady could only divert Loftus-Cheek’s shot into the bottom corner, wrong-footing the Portuguese goalkeeper in the process. Willian thought he had doubled his side’s lead five minutes later but Patricio scrambled across goal to make a superb one-handed save to keep out the Brazilian’s free-kick.
Wolves remained a threat on the counter-attack with Morgan Gibbs-White the main danger and the youngster was denied a clear shooting opportunity by a brilliant last-ditch tackle by Cesc Fabregas, before Ryan Bennett produced one of his own at the other end on Willian just before the break. First, Gibbs-White did well to hold off a couple of challenges before picking out Jimenez, who drilled the ball through Kepa Arrizabalaga and into the back of the net.
Then, Willian lost out to Joao Moutinho, who slid the ball through for Doherty and his low cross was converted at the back post by the unmarked Jota. Maurizio Sarri threw on Olivier Giroud, Pedro and Mateo Kovacic as he looked for a response from his side but Hazard shot over and Fabregas sliced off target as Chelsea chased an equalizer which never came.
Manchester United Vs Arsenal 2-2
Arsenal, against an entirely new United back five, took the lead early on through Shkodran Mustafi’s header, which squirmed through David de Gea’s hands and just dropped over the line via the goal decision system. Anthony Martial’s close-range finish brought United even shortly after, before two goals in the space of a minute in the second half as Marcos Rojo’s own goal from sub Alexandre Lacazette’s effort gave Arsenal the lead only for Jesse Lingard to score just 13 seconds after the restart. The result means United are winless in four Premier League games, leaving them eight points off the top four and a whopping 18 points off leaders Manchester City after just 15 games. Arsenal are unbeaten in 20 games in all competitions but move down to fifth.
Jose Mourinho made seven changes from the draw at Southampton, saying in his program notes that “there isn’t space for people that are not ready to give it their all” as the likes of Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku dropped to the bench. After a dull start, Arsenal were ahead as Mustafi lost Chris Smalling from a Lucas Torreira corner, headed straight at De Gea, only for the Spaniard to let the ball loose through his hands and just over the line. De Gea has kept just two clean sheets in 15 games for United this season. But United were level just four minutes later in controversial fashion through Martial, as he finished from close range after Ander Herrera’s centre, but Herrera looked inches offside from Rojo’s initial free-kick.
The second half was lacking in chances until Lacazette’s introduction with 25 minutes remaining, and the Frenchman helped put Arsenal ahead three minutes later after Rojo’s mistake allowed Arsenal to break through Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and he fed Lacazette helped bundle it past De Gea via a touch from Rojo. But just seconds after the restart United were back level as Sead Kolasinac got in a mix-up with Bernd Leno, allowing Lingard to steal in and slot home under the goalkeeper.
Arsenal nearly went back ahead minutes later through Aubemeyang, only to see his shot saved by De Gea as he went through on goal, and the goalkeeper looked to make up for his earlier mistake again with a fine stop from Torreira from point-blank range. Arsenal did have the ball in the net twice late on, once through Lacazette’s cheeky header and finish out of De Gea’s hand as he looked to release it upfield, and then through Mkhitaryan’s acute finish from an offside position.
