A look at the weekend which was in The Best League There Is.
LAS VEGAS — Matchweek Four in England’s Premier League is history. Round 4/38 saw a North London rivalry resumed, a massive upset, plenty of good football, saw plenty of highlights and leaves plenty to discuss heading into the third week of September on the calendar in the best league in the world.
MATCH RECAPS
SOUMUN
For a comprehensive recap of this MW4 fixture, refer to my post match work in MANCHESTER UNITED MINUTES. https://darkseid.sport.blog/2024/09/14/manchester-united-minutes-4/
LIVNFO
- Liverpool Nil Nottingham Forest 1
- Possession: LIV 62% NFO 38%
- SOG: LIV 5 NFO 3
- xG: LIV 0.99 NFO 0.70
- Corners: LIV 7 NFO 2
- Tackles: LIV 13 NFO 24
- Yellow Cards: LIV 4 NFO 4
At Anfield, Anfield, Liverpool: Callum Hudson-Odoi broke a nil-nil deadlock in the 72nd minute scoring a goal for Nottingham Forest en route to a shock nil-1 victory at Liverpool on Saturday morning.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
72nd minute: Hudson-Odoi breaks the nil-nil tie, scores the goal, and gives the Forest the biggest upset of the Premier League season to date…
MCIBRE
- City 2 Brentford 1
- Possession: MCI 52% BRE 48%
- SOG: MCI 7 BRE 5
- xG: MCI 2.1 BRE 1.0
- Corners: MCI 12 BRE 3
- Tackles: MCI 12 BRE 19
- Yellow Cards: MCI 3 BRE 1
At Ethiad Stadium, Manchester: City goal-scoring industrial complex Erling Haaland scored two first half goals en route to a 2-1 jettison of Brentford Saturday morning here Stateside.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
32nd minute: Observe the link-up between goalkeeper and striker, leading to what proved to be the game-winning goal. Quality.
RELEVANT STAT
Auxiliary Discussion: In the spirit of objective journalism, there is another matter at hand regarding City as MW4 concludes which requires mention…
CRELEI
- Crystal Palace 2 Leicester City 2
- Possession: CRY 59% LEI 41%
- SOG: CRY 4 LEI 4
- xG: CRY 2.5 LEI 1.2
- Corners: CRY 5 LEI 2
- Tackles: CRY 24 LEI 18
- Yellow Cards: CRY 0 LEI 3
At Selhurst Park, Croydon, London: Jean-Philippe Mateta converted from the penalty spot for Palace at 90’+2’ to solidify a sharing of points with Leicester on Saturday.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
92nd minute: The Eagles left it late to earn a point in a match the stat sheet says it should’ve won. The goal from the spot…
RELEVANT STAT
FULWHU
- Fulham 1 West Ham 1
- Possession: FUL 54% WHU 46%
- SOG: FUL 5 WHU 3
- xG: FUL 1.5 WHU 0.8
- Corners: FUL 3 WHU 2
- Tackles: FUL 30 WHU 17
- Yellow Cards: FUL 2 WHU 3
At Craven Cottage, Fulham, West London: Raul Jimenez scored in the 24th minute and Danny Ings scored at 90’+5’ for Fulham and West Ham respectively as the points were shared on London’s west end Saturday.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
95th minute: Hammers ST Danny Ings uses his guile and experience to get West Ham level off a splendid Jarrod Bowen feed and earn a point at Craven Cottage…
BHAIPS
- Brighton & Hove Albion nil Ipswich Town nil
- Possession: BHA 59% IPS 41%
- SOG: BHA 6 IPS 1
- xG: BHA 1.6 IPS 0.3
- Corners: BHA 9 IPS 2
- Tackles: BHA 23 IPS 27
- Yellow Cards: BHA 4 IPS 3
At American Express Stadium, Brighton & Hove, East Sussex: On the southern end of England, points were shared after 90 minutes plus stoppage time as Brighton and Ipswich competed to a nil-nil draw on Saturday.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
36th minute: A sensational double-save courtesy of Tractor Boys GK Aro Muric keeps the joust with the Seagulls level…
AVLEVE
- Aston Villa 3 Everton 2
- Possession: AVL 65% EVE 35%
- SOG: AVL 8 EVE 2
- xG: AVL 2.19 EVE 1.01
- Corners: AVL 6 EVE 2
- Tackles: AVL 19 EVE 21
- Yellow Cards: AVL 1 EVE 4
At Villa Park, Aston, Birmingham: A Jhon Duran blockbuster goal in the 76th minute powered Villa to a home 3-2 comeback victory over reeling Everton on Saturday evening across the pond.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
76th minute: The special Jhon Duran goal in all its glory as brought to you by the one and only Peter Drury…
NBC Sports Soccer on X, NBC, Peacock
RELEVANT STATS
BOUCHE
- Bournemouth nil Chelsea 1
- Possession: BOU 39% CHE 61
- SOG: BOU 7 CHE 3
- xG: BOU 1.89 CHE 0.70
- Corners: BOU 6 CHE 3
- Tackles: BOU 15 CHE 12
- Yellow Cards: BOU 6 CHE 8
At Vitality Stadium, Boscombe, Dorset: Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku broke a nil-nil chokehold with a goal for Chelsea in the 86th minute to power the Blues over the home Cherries in a spicy affair on Saturday evening at Bournemouth.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
38th minute: Blues GK Robert Sanchez puts his stamp on the match…
85th minute: Summer transfer window acquisition Jadon Sancho feeds Nkunku the GWG…
RELEVANT STATS
TOTARS
- Tottenham nil Arsenal 1
- Possession: TOT 58% ARS 42%
- SOG: TOT 5 ARS 4
- xG: TOT 0.81 ARS 0.85
- Corners: TOT 7 ARS 6
- Tackles: TOT 20 ARS 20
- Yellow Cards: TOT 5 ARS 3
At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, North London: In the signature fixture of Matchweek Four, visiting Arsenal central defender Gabriel scored a set-piece goal in the 64th minute to power the Gunners to a nil-1 success at Spurs in the latest installment of the infamous North London Derby on Sunday.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
64th minute: The goal off a corner kick by Gabriel to give the Gunners the game-winning goal and a NLD win…
BOSS’S REACTION
WHAT THE PUNDITS SAY
RELEVANT STATS
Set-piece goals matter
WOLNEW
- Wolverhampton 1 Newcastle 2
- Possession: WOL 49% NEW 51%
- SOG: WOL 5 NEW 6
- xG: WOL 1.2 NEW 1.5
- Corners: WOL 4 NEW 7
- Tackles: WOL 23 NEW 14
- Yellow Cards: WOL 3 NEW 3
At Molineux, Wolverhampton, West Midlands: Newcastle scored two second-half goals 5 minutes apart in 75th and 80th minutes by Fabian Schar and Harvey Barnes respectively to facilitate a 1-2 away success at Wolves Sunday afternoon in the West Midlands.
MOMENTS OF CLASS
80th minute: The Barnes banger and GWG to give The Geordies the win…
MW4 KEY STATS
CLUB OF THE WEEK
It’s Manchester United. The easy, simpleton thing to do would be to select Arsenal coming off another NLD win, but I’ll go a different path to select Man Utd here. The Red Devils are scoring again and the club has earned 6 points in four matches and I’d argue no other club in MW4 got more of what it had to have than United.
In Correspondence: there are few people walking this planet whose Premier League insights I trust and value more than former Blackburn, Newcastle and England International footballing legend Alan Shearer. As a player he was an all-time great, classic Striker (he starts at 9 in my all-time Premier League team) and in the second act of his career is an amazing ambassador of the sport who possesses a superpower, as a pundit, to be able to explain the very highest level of the sport, English Football, to the average viewer who may or may not be as familiar with the product as he is. Full marks. Here is Shearer’s MW4 Team of the Week.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
It’s Callum Hudson-Odoi. A sensational goal earning a special victory on venerable grounds such as Anfield earns Hudson-Odoi POTW superlatives.
SAVE OF THE WEEK
To help get the 1-2 win at Wolves Sunday afternoon, Newcastle GK Nick Pope came up with this sensational save…
STATS OF THE WEEK
KIT OF THE WEEK
Look, you might get relegated, the football is gruesome and the manager is much maligned, but hey, you’ll look great throughout it all!
BET OF THE WEEK
In the MW4 Preview, readers were given SOUMUN UNDER 2.5 as the week’s Best Best. Sadly, this position succumbed to the clock as the match went OVER at 90’+6’. If you play long enough, anything can happen. FWIW, I had four minutes as the stoppage time…don’t where 6 came from. Nevertheless we go again in MW5, hopefully, with a winner.
FINAL TAKE
Well that was a full MW4 wasn’t it? We saw ARS win in the NLD, a massive upset win for NFO at Anfield and we saw great goals and massive saves. We saw MCI and ARS reinforce themselves as the top two sides in the competition. We saw clubs like CHE, NEW and MUN all score impactful results. All in all it was just another weekend in The Best League There Is and we’ll do it all over again next weekend. Until then!
REFERENCES
- Premier League dot com
- FB Ref dot com
- X
- Premier League on X
- Premier League clubs on X
- NBC Sports Soccer on X
- Opta Joe on X
- Opta Analyst on X
- The xG Philosophy on X
- CBS Sports App
- Darkseid Sports Intellectual Properties
- NBC Sports
- Peacock
- Premier League Media
- USA Network
Creator’s Note: The purveyor of Darkseid Sports has no affiliation, whatsoever, with any of the above clubs, athletes, social media accounts and/or corporate entities, either in written form or depicted in corresponding images. The author of this writing is a passionate and very serious Manchester United and Premier League fan.
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