Matchday 34 - Quick Round Up

Match Day 34 Round Up

Tuesday 21st April

Brighton 3-0 Chelsea

It was no surprise that this was the end of Liam Rosenior, a ridiculous appointment from the first who was making himself a laughing stock with his idiotic interviews. A carefully cultivated look, to try and look intelligent, added to ridiculous pronouncements, also intended to make him seem intelligent, failed miserably to actually work because he was unable to get performances out of the players and had little to no tactical acumen. Brighton overran them for pretty much the whole match and it was clear Rosenior just could not figure out how to stop them.

Starmen:
Kadioglu - got forward at will and scored a goal.
van Hecke - was having such an easy day in defence that he was charging forward at will.
Gross - ran the midfield.

Flops:
Delap - got no service to be fair, but he does not look suited to Chelsea at all.
Lavia - pairing him with Caicedo did not work at all.
Garnacho - a disastrous choice to bring on at half-time, he was abysmal.

Wednesday 22nd April

Burnley 0-1 Manchester City

Not a straightforward win, despite Citeh taking an early lead. Nerves were definitely jangling in the final minutes, despite the Clarets offering very little threat, there was just enough there for the crowd to be on edge. At this point of the season, all that matters is they keep picking up the wins and applying pressure to Arsenal, so Guardiola will not be too worried that it was more difficult then it needed to be.

Starmen:
Dubravka - while he did nothing extraordinary, he still kept Burnley in it with a fair few saves.
Haaland - hard to believe he only got one.
Doku - always a threat with his pace and skill, but does need to improve his end product.
Khusanov - has come on in leaps and bounds over the course of the season and is looking a much better player.

Flops:
Tchaouna - lacks quality.
Flemming - got little service and kept dropping too deep to help out the defence leaving no options to play out.
Semenyo - had an off day.

Bournemouth 2-2 Leeds United

Leeds struggled at first, as their back three, which has been so successful for them since they changed to it, was unable to handle the way the Cherries play. Some better quality with their final ball would have seen Bournemouth get a number of chances. Farke switched back to a four instead and it made the game a much more even contest. Though it was only really once they equalised via a Hill own goal that Leeds really stepped up and took the game to Bournemouth. It was a small step towards European football for Bournemouth and saw Leeds hit the 40 point mark, which usually assures a team of safety in the Premier League.

Starmen:
Truffert - has had a very good season with the Cherries.
Senesi - got an assist and hit the woodwork himself.
Scott - was pulling the strings in midfield.
Struijk - did a very good job for Leeds at the back.

Flops:
Christie - a very weak performance, his flop to the ground in the attempt to win a free kick on the first Leeds goal was embarrassing.
Brooks - off the pace.
Evanilson - needs to offer more of a goal threat.
Tanaka - uncharacteristically poor.

Friday 24th April

Sunderland 0-5 Nottingham Forest

A flurry of goals after half an hour killed this game as a contest dead. With Forest already leading 1-0 thanks to a Hume own goal, they added three more before half time in a 6 minute spell. While Sunderland kept going, they lost all belief and were hit by a late 5th to rub salt in their wounds. It was a much needed result for Forest, moving the Tricky Trees within touching distance of safety.

Starmen:
Jesus - he does not seem to have convinced all the Forest faithful yet, but he picked up and assist and a goal here.
Wood - his return from injury is a massive boost for Forest, especially as he is already scoring.
Anderson - is back in form and scoring goals now too.
Gibbs-White - also got a goal and an assist.

Flops:
Roefs - since returning from injury, he has not looked entirely comfortable and had a nightmare in this game.
The rest of the Sunderland team - they let their fans down badly with a limp performance, they seem to have checked out this season with safety certain and European football beyond their reach.

Saturday 25th April

Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa

Is this a case of Villa choking, like they were accused of doing last season? They were certainly extremely poor, after looking like they were back on track following the return to fitness of Tielemans and McGinn, aided by Watkins finding his shooting boots. A UCL spot is still in Villa's grasp, but they have to avoid more slip ups, which would give the chasing pack any kind of hope of catching them. Fulham are part of the pack, though it seems unlikely they will even get European football, this result has given them a big boost.

Starmen:
Andersen - always capable of a good searching pass as well as being a decent defender. If he had pace, there is no chance he would be at Fulham.
Lukic - always a combative presence in midfield.

Flops:
Robinson - looks miles off his form of last season.
Rogers - a very poor performance.
Torres - struggled badly.
Digne - looked like what he is, an average full-back who can hit a cross with good shape on it. Because it is just good shape on it, similar to Trippier, he is very reliant on the attackers to get on the end of it as he is just aiming for an area, never picking out any player.

Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace

Liverpool were awful, but Palace were clearly saving themselves for their European game and so never threatened to cause any issues at all. If Liverpool's play had not been so ponderous most of the time, they could have racked up as many goals as they wanted against the Eagles, who had failed to turn up at all. It will not matter to Liverpool, who just need to keep picking up results to ensure they qualify for next season's UCL competition.

Starmen:
Woodman - on his full debut for Liverpool, the 3rd choice keeper made a few good saves and showed up well.

Flops:
Liverpool's back four - just stood around watching when Woodman went down injured, allowing Munoz to simply lift the ball into an empty net under no challenge and with no one trying to cover the line.
Palace - played with so little intensity they cheated their away fans.

West Ham United 2-1 Everton

West Ham were the more positive team from the off, which was something I did wonder about with two such negative managers in charge! They probably deserved the result on overall play but, and it is a huge but, they did get incredibly lucky that VAR did not give a penalty against them for handball. Especially as it could have been a red card as well for deliberate handball, that would ahve changed the whole complexion of the match. You would also have to say that Pickford, once again, was lucky to escape a red for yet another wild lunge, much earlier in the game. His mindless, and incredibly reckless, lunges have already resulted in injuries, it is hard to see how they can not be considered as serious foul play, considering the damage he has done with them already.

Starmen:
Summerville and Diouf - the pair's driving runs caused Everton so many problems down their right side.
Soucek - he may not be the most mobile, but he had a good performance with a goal and a goal-line clearance.
Bowen - two assists for the winger.
Dewsbury-Hall - he was key for the Toffees.

Flops:
Pablo - runs around a lot but achieves very little.
Nuno - tried to play out time at 1-0, inviting Everton on and it nearly cost them the points they desperately need.
Barry - another poor game from the Everton striker.
Gueye - struggled in this game, unusually as he is normally a solid performer.
Pickford - his wild lunge aside, a poor game from the England keeper, who had one of those games where he seems to be unfocused.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

Wolves once again disappoint badly. There just seems to be nothing in that squad, in terms of quality, desire and fight, to even give hope to the fans about a quick return. It is a very worrying time in Wolverhampton. As for Spurs, they were also terrible, but marginally less terrible than Wolves. The main difference was really that Spurs wanted it so much more.

Starmen:
No one - while Spurs have at least improved, they are still not really performing at a level that suggests they are good enough to stay up in terms of quality. Certainly not enough to be considered a starman.

Flops:
Andre - miles off what he is capable of.
Armstrong - out of his depth at this level.
Muani - lots of pace but not a lot else.
Simons - ridiculously overrated player.

Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle United

Newcastle were there for the taking and Arsenal did not really take advantage of their plight currently. Whether it was the Gunners bottle going, the tension from the stands or simply Arteta being cautious (or more likely a mix of the three) is difficult to say, but it made for a match that lacked free flowing, exciting football. I doubt anyone at Arsenal cares one whit about that right now, all they will care about is that they continue to pick up the wins, whether it is ground out or they go out and blitz the opposition. With City showing signs of pressure, all that matters is the three points keep cranking that pressure up. Newcastle are in dreadful form right now, four losses in a row and it is still not completely out of the question that those below them keep racking up points enough to put them into a relegation battle. Unlikely, with them having 42 points, but the way they are ending the season they can only blame themselves.

Starmen:
Hincapie - at least he tries to get forward constantly.
Eze - scored the goal.

Flops:
White - you know things have got bad when Arsenal have to turn to White.
Madueke - a strange buy.
Osula - still looks a way off the Premier League.
Murphy - is a way off Premier League level.

Monday 27th April

Manchester United 2-1 Brentford

To finish off this game week was the best game of them. A very good appetiser ahead of the truly great game between PSG and Bayern Munich in the UCL the following night. Once Man Utd took the lead, they seemed to drop off in performance level and allowed Brentford to attack in waves. In the end, they can count themselves extremely fortunate that the Bees finishing was so terrible, as they created, and wasted, chance after chance. United were still creating chances on the break as well, which meant it was a good game full of attacking football, arguably the best of the season in the Premier League. It was quickly overshadowed though, as it was nowhere near the quality of what followed!

Starmen:
Casemiro - an excellent performance from the Brazilian.
Mainoo - he is making Amorim's decision to freeze him out look stupid.
Fernandes - the Portugese plays some magnificent passes at times. He looks so much better as a 10, rather than in the deeper role he was shoehorned into previously.
Jensen/Damsgaard - the pair of them were excellent in Brentford's midfield, providing chances galore. In the end Jensen had to score himself to get Brentford a goal.

Flops:
Diallo - struggled on the left.
Thiago - spent so long waiting each time he got the ball in dangerous positions that he would waste a number of golden chances.
Schade - failed to really impact the game.