After a disappointing first-half, Manchester United rode on Jesse Lingard’s stunner to register a 2-0 win over 10-man West Brom. Chelsea suffered their third consecutive Premier League defeat, this time at Stoke, as Mauro Arnautovic’s acrobatic effort ensured that the Blues will go into the international break at 16th place.
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Chants of “Attack! Attack! Attack!” echoed throughout Old Trafford, as Manchester United enjoyed more than 75% of ball possession but managed to create only two clear-cut chances in the first-half. French starlet Anthony Martial came closest to scoring, when he created some space at the edge of the box with some lovely footwork but sent his right-footed shot straight into Boaz Myhill’s hands. The second half started in similar vein but Louis Van Gaal’s troops finally broke the deadlock as a poor headed clearance by Chris Brunt fell kindly to the feet of Jesse Lingard at the edge of the 18-yard box and the academy product exquisitely curled the ball past Boaz Myhill to give his side the lead.
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Tony Pulis was forced to opt for plan B after his stubborn side conceded a goal and were looking for an equaliser by bringing on former-Liverpool striker Rickie Lambert and highly rated English youngster Saido Berahino. The introduction of the attacking duo added a bit of flair and injected pace in West Brom’s game and change almost paid dividends, when Saido Berahino squandered a golden opportunity to make matters level. A superb cross from Michael Dawson on the right-flank found the unmarked Berainho to head his effort past De Gea but the striker couldn’t nearly get it on target leaving his manager and fans alike in dismay.
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In the dying stages of the encounter, Daley Blind dispossessed Berahino and passed the ball to Ander Herrera, who came on for skipper Wayne Rooney, and the Spaniard had acres of space ahead of him and was quick to unleash Anthony Martial, who was blatantly brought down by Gareth McAuley in the penalty box and the West Brom man was subsequently shown a straight red. Juan Mata stepped up to take the spot-kick and sent the ball straight down the middle to seal all three points for Louis van Gaal’s men. David De Gea, kept his 4th consecutive Premier League clean sheet and it was a fine defensive display but up front it was nothing pretty, as United had clear-cut chances on goal few and far between. Nonetheless, it was job done for Louis van Gaal, as his side will go into the international break 4th in the standings, irrespective of the other weekend results.
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Having lost 6 games out of 11 in the Premier League, the defending champions Chelsea visited the Britannia Stadium hoping to end their dismal run of results but were without their manager Jose Mourinho, who received a stadium ban for his behavior towards match officials in the 2-1 defeat at West Ham. In addition to the poppies, the Chelsea players wore black armbands in today’s game in remembrance of their former manager Bobby Campbell who tragically passed away yesterday at the age of 78.
Chances were created at either end in the first half and the unlikely Glen Johnson almost opened the scoring, when he cleverly dropped his shoulder to take a shot with his weaker left-foot but his effort was brilliantly saved by former Stoke shotstopper Asmir Begovic. Diego Costa came closest to scoring for Chelsea as the Spaniard passed the ball forward to his countryman Pedro, who back-heeled it back to Diego Costa whose shot was well saved by 22 year old England goalkeeper, Jack Butland. Stoke City commenced the second half well and backed a goal to their credit when Xherdan Shaqiri spotted Glenn Johsnon’s overlapping run in-behind Chelsea left back Baba Rahman and the English fullback crossed it to John Walters but his mishit found its way to Arnautovic, who smashed home a scissor-kick to give his side the lead, 8 minutes after half-time.
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Chelsea had several attempts to get back into the game, the closest one being Pedro’s effort as he received the ball from Willian and controlled with his fist touch and took a shot with his weaker foot which agonizingly rattled the post, with Butland well beaten. Chelsea’s golden chance came in the 85th minute as Willian’s pass saw Loic Remy one-on-one with the goalkeeper and the French striker dribbled the ball past Butland and could have gone down to earn a penalty but chose to stay on his feet for as long as he could but eventually lost his footing, as he sent his shot way off target. Despite yet another loss, a 7th in 12 league games, the Chelsea fans raucously defended their manager by wearing Mourinho masks and although the Portuguese will be back in the dug-out against Norwich on 21st November, he’ll have to rescue his team from the unfamiliar territory of 16th place.
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Jamie Vardy was at it again, as the Leicester forward scored his 9th successive Premier League goal, the first Englishman to do so, although this time it was from the penalty spot, as Claudio Ranieri’s men beat Watford 2-1 to go level on points with Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table.
Newcastle recorded an undeserving 1-0 win at Bournemouth, while Norwich City defeated Swansea with a similar margin. A Dusan Tadic penalty was enough to seal all three points for Southampton against Sunderland, while Everton and West Ham battled it out in a 1-1 draw at Upton Park, as the Hammers saw their primary playmaker Dimitri Payet substituted due to injury.
In Ligue 1, Paris St Germain went 11 points clear at the top of the table, following a 5-0 thumping of Toulouse. Bayern Munich continued their rampaging form, after a 4-0 dismantling of Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.
(Written by Sahil Bhinde)
Tags: Jesse Lingard Louis Van Gaal Manchester United Mauro Arnautovic
