Matchday 2 Recap

Welcome to the Matchday 2 recap show of An American in the EPL. Some surprising results. Looking at you Man U and not so surprising ones Man city doing what they do. Let’s get to it.

There were not a lot of traditional big games this weekend. Most of the top teams were playing bottom sides. So some of the better games to watch were those teams battling for Europa league or Europa conference going head to head.

Aston Villa 2- Newcastle 0

Callum Wilson within 5 minutes should have put Newcastle up 1 nil after a 1 v 1 with the keeper. VAR would of decided if the goal stood with calls for a few fouls in the build up but Wilson put it wide so it didn’t matter. Surprising miss from him, and it would have made the game very different.

What a goal by Danny Ings in first half stoppage time. Off a Aston Villa throw Tyrone mings gets a head to it and Ings bicycle kicks it home. Nothing the goalie could do was a spectacular goal. If you watch the highlight one of the replays you see a fan in the stand start to put their hands on their head as they see Ings come off the ground. He sees it happening before it happens and is already losing his mind.

A VAR penalty for Aston Villa sealed the points for Villa. Unfortunate for Newcastle that their penalty was called off for offside. I think it was too close to call and should have stood unless there was a view not shown on the highlights, but still just not enough going forward for Newcastle.

Leeds 2- Everton 2

Leeds came back twice against Everton to get their first point of the year. Everton opened the scoring a deserved penalty after striker Dominic Calvert Lewin almost got his shirt ripped off. Calvert Lewin converted low and hard and even though Leeds keeper guessed the right way it was just hit too hard to even get a hand on it.

Leeds first goal was a 4 passes and in the net. Quick hit stuff. A Leeds defender sends it up field Raphina holds off his defender and gets it to striker Patrick Bamford after a miss read by an Everton defender. Bamford takes 3 touches and passes to Marius Kilch who sends it past Jordan Pickford to even the score. Took 10 seconds from the pass from the Leeds goal box to the back of the net.

Evertons second was a snap shot by Demarai Gray that just snuck in the far post. Don’t know much about Gray but he was all over the highlights for Everton.

A week after Luke Ayling’s screamer against Man U you have Raphina putting a beautifully hit ball past Pickford. Hit it first time, hard with some spin, to bend it into the far post. A really well taken chance to get Leeds a point at home in front of home fans for the first time since their return to the premier league.

Arsenal 0- Chelsea 2:

Kai Havertz replaced Christian Pulisic in the line up since he tested positive for Covid and Romelu Lukaku started his first game up top for Chelsea. It didn’t take Lukaku long to open his premier league account as he scored inside 15 minutes. This goal was vintage hold up play. Reminiscent of Dider Drogba in the Chelsea Blue. He took a long pass and fed Mateo Kovicic who sent it out wide. Lukaku lost his man and made a free run towards the goal and Reece James found him all alone for the easy tap in.

Chelsea made it two goals up in the 35th minute with right back Reece James burying a shot past Bernard Leno. This goal is very similar to Liverpool’s overload goal (I’ll explain that below), but where Burnley were done in by an excellent pass from Virgil to start that sequence, Chelsea’s goal was started by Kai Havertz getting a pass off while two Arsenal defenders were hounding him. As soon as that happened Chelsea pounced on the remaining three Arsenal defenders. Lukaku occupied the middle with Mason Mount filling in behind him and Reece James on the right. Once the Arsenal midfielder tracking back missed his tackle the Arsenal RB was caught between James filling the space he vacated and Mount dribbling toward him. James was all alone, one touched then roofed it.

The Gunners were denied a penalty when James took down Bukayo Saka in the box. Very similar to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s challenge against Burnley but he stayed shoulder to shoulder where James outstretched his arm. With the new rules I wasn’t surprised it wasn’t given. Guys will have to be mugged when it’s a close challenge like that.

Chelsea should have made it three but Leno denied Lukaku spectacularly pushing his hard header off the crossbar with easily the save of the week.

Arsenal looks like a shadow of their former selves. Their defending has been atrocious and I’m wondering how long Arteta has to turn this around. Are they now a mid table club? They’ve been jumped by Leicester and even Spurs in the top 6 clubs conversation. There’s no doubt about it now. They look miles away from the top teams

Southampton 1-Manchester United 1:

I'm not going to talk about this one much but Man U drawing at Southampton?! What? After their thrashing of Leeds I had Man U winning this one comfortably. They did score 2 goals today but one was into their own net.

Liverpool 2- Burnley 0:

Burnley has been a thorn in Liverpool’s side for a few years and this was no different. There were times where it was Allison to the rescue making some brilliant saves. Liverpool, while uncomfortable, still dominated possession and had the majority of the chances. The first goal for the reds was well worked down the left hand side with Kosta Tsimikas, Sadie Mane and Naby Keita getting touches in the build up and Coasta putting in a wonderful cross for Diogo Jota to put away. Burnley did two things poorly on this sequence. 1. Ben Mee lost track of Jota and never had a chance to recover. The replay of the goal you can see him frustrated with himself holding his face in his hands. 2. When Sadio plays the ball to Naby keita he just stays in his position and two Burnley players stay with him expecting a run in behind. When Naby plays it to Kosta one of those two guys should have left Sadio to close down the cross. I’m not taking anything away from Kosta because it was a beauty of a cross that Andy Robertson would be proud of.

Liverpool’s second came on a counter up the right hand side where they just overloaded the Burnley defense. I’ll explain what I mean with the overload. You had Mo salah on the right Sadio in the middle and Jota on the left against Burnleys back 4. The mid-fielders for Burnley were caught up field as they were pressing the Liverpool midfield to stop any build up play. They got caught as Virgil van Dijk played a wonderful pass to the 18 year old Harvey Elliot out wide on the right. As soon as this happens Trent Alexander Arnold filled space in the mid-field from his right back spot, and they were 5 on 4 instantly. You see The Burnley left back slide to take Harvey Elliot and the center back slide out of position to take Mo as he starts his run in behind as Elliot passes to Trent. This pass then pulls the other Burnley center back up to Trent leaving Mane all alone in the middle with the Burnley left back trying to cover both him and Jota who’s still out wide on the left. Trent sees this plays a first time ball to Mane who smashes it past the keeper on the half volley. It was a great finish for Mane but the build up was a thing of beauty.

Kosta deservedly was man of the match but wanted to shout out Harvey Elliot. He is only 18 and wasn’t in over his head. He took some heavy challenges and kept on going. You could see that he is going to be a special player going forward and will be fun to watch in his first full season with Liverpool.

Regulation Station game of the week.

Brighton 2 watford 0:

Brighton has 6 points from their first two games, and goal differential is keeping them from the top spot. I still think they are going to struggle this year but they have a favorable early schedule. I only see them dropping points in 3 of their next 8 games. I am probably very wrong. A headed goal off a corner gave Brighton the lead inside of 10 minutes. Brighton’s second came just before the break. Tom cleverly for watford didn’t feel the pressure and had the pass intended for him stolen and it went right to Neil Maupy who finished easily. Watford never really troubled Brighton and watford were lucky to not have lost by more.