2016 EPL Week 18 Scores and Reviews

Liverpool 4 – 1 Stoke City:

Stoke had the upper hand early on in the game with strong pressure and high intensity. Their strong play resulted in a 12th-minute goal from Walters, which then put some pressure on Liverpool to reply. Until Lallana found the equaliser, thanks to former Liverpool player Glen Johnson’s mistake. This showed his prowess as an attacking midfielder, but still isn’t Liverpool’s danger man, with Roberto Firmino showing why he is Liverpool’s key player with a brilliant goal in the 44th minute.

However, Stoke City couldn’t handle the strong side of Liverpool and started to make a few to many mistakes and Gilbert Imbula’s own-goal topped off the mistakes from Divock Origi’s cross. Then in the70th-minutee injury-pron Daniel Sturridge found the back of the net to put the icing on the cake in Liverpool’s 3-goal difference win, to secure the second place on the table.

Chelsea 3 – 0 AFC Bournemouth:

Chelsea came into this came with no Kante or Costa as they were out for Suspension. However that didn’t seem to matter has Chelsea still managed to pull away the big W. Now  they are two wins short of Arsenal’s 14 game winning streak back in the 2001-2002 season.

Bournemouth were decisive in the fact that they tried to maintain possession and keep the ball away from Chelsea’s offensive line. However Chelsea’s winger, Pedro found a hole in  Bournemouth’s defence and fired it into the back of the net in the 24th minute. When you look at the stats, Bournemouth were the better team with 54% of the possession to Chelsea’s 46%, and had 5 shots on target to Chelsea’s 2. But Bournemouth’s attackers couldn’t seem to find the netting as Courtois was always their to stop every shot. Although, Chelsea took their chances and made sure they didn’t miss, with Eden Hazard’s clinical penalty just after halftime and Pedro’s second in stoppage time.

Southampton 1 – 4 Tottenham Hotspur

Southampton came onto the pitch, wanting the win from the start with Van Dijk putting the ball into the back of the net in the 2nd minute from a free-kick cross. However Tottenham knew this was a key game to win to secure their top five position, so with Dele Alli opening the score sheet for the spurs in the 19th minute, they got back into the game. Then with Kane’s brilliant put away from a great cross which came from Christian Eriksen, Southampton started to struggle as they were down to 10 men and had the likes of Austin and Clasie out on injury.

Although Harry Kane’s missed penalty gave Southampton a bit of hope, until Heung-Min Son found the goal to make the score 3-1 by the 85th minute. By then, Southampton knew they had lost the game and were just trying to find a consolation goal, but the world-class Dele Alli was on the ball in open space and found the bottom corner of the net. It turned out to be a very convincing win for Tottenham, and helped them on their title campaign.

Manchester United 3 – 1 Sunderland

It was always going to be tough for Sunderland to face the red devils at Old Trafford, with Daley Blind linking up with Zlatan Ibrahimovic to found the bottom corner of the net in the 39th minute after Paul Pogba missed a couple of chances early on. This topped off a very good half from Blind himself. However, Its very hard to stop an attack force with Zlatan Ibrahimovic being the main part of it, has he got 1 goal and 2 assists. He found the net long after the first goal in the 82nd minute.

Then came the real magic with Henrik Mkhitaryan stunning back heal finish in the 86th minute from a great cross of Ibrahimovic’s. Mkhitaryan said himself that it was his best goal of the season, and I think it was the best goal of the month. It wasn’t only Ibrahimovic that was becoming a amazing player throughout the game, their was Pogba who was doing all the hard work to setup the goals. This result helps to keep pressure on Tottenham for that top 5 position on the table.

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