Liverpool keep up the pace after tough encounter..
After Manchester City won their game away to Crystal Palace – while also bearing in mind that Crystal Palace remains the only team to take points off them at the Etihad- Liverpool knew that they had to dig deep to get all three points against a Chelsea side that is also vying for a top four position. Ultimately, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, the two most consistent Liverpool forwards saved the day. It was not all easy sailing as there were chances for Chelsea to bring the game level save for poor finishing by Eden Hazard. The fight for the Premiership continues.
For Chelsea, Maurizio Sarri obviously got his set-up a bit wrong. Eden Hazard is having (arguably) his best season in his career playing on the left hand side (16 goals and 12 assists are very good numbers after 33 games) but for reasons known only to Sarri, he gets taken out of his best position and deployed up front in a very crucial encounter. Sarri only realized his error after Chelsea went two goals down. Hazard had some great chances, squandered them all and Chelsea went home with nothing. Chelsea, with one extra game played, currently sits in 5th position.
Paris St. Germain get trounced..
It seems that either PSG has not recovered by their shock loss to Manchester United or they do not care too much about the rest of their league results because they will still be crowned champions eventually. Regardless, getting trounced 5-1 by your closest rivals is not a good look for the team and definitely not a good look for Thomas Tuchel.
Barcelona and Real Madrid held..
For Barcelona, it seems that they are not taking the return leg of the Champions League lightly as they fielded most of their second string against Huesca and managed to keep a clean sheet, albeit not also getting a goal. You just get the feeling that nobody in the Barcelona team would be losing sleep over this result.
Real Madrid seems to have very little to play for at this time of the season. They have a good lead over 4th-placed Sevilla and are four points behind Atletico Madrid who is in second position. Against Leganes, Real Madrid was out of sorts and there seemed to be no urgency to win the game as they could only play out a 1-1 draw. Real Madrid remain where they were.
Down the wire in the Bundesliga..
Bayern Munich-who obviously has not had a stellar season- are top of the Bundesliga, one point ahead of Borussia Dortmund, who started with a high, tailed-off a bit and now are coming back to their best. Whether this is enough to topple Bayern Munich come the end of the season is yet to be seen. Over the weekend, both teams gained extra three points with Bayern Munich scoring goals for fun, scoring at least four goals in 4 of their last 5 games. Credit has to go to Lucien Favre and Borussia Dortmund as they have overachieved so far this season. Only Borussia Dortmund has made this Bundesliga season more than a one-horse race. This says more about the state of the Bundesliga than anything else. Ultimately, this title race has not been decided with 5 games remaining. We still wait.
