Ronaldo finally breaks his Serie A duck..
Every week, since Ronaldo signed for Juventus, people had been saying that he was due a
goal. On Sunday, the wait was over. Ronaldo bagged a brace in a 2-1 victory against an
unbeaten Sassuolo side. He could easily have had four. That was meant to be the headline
but I guess Douglas Costa was a bit jealous. He elbowed, head-butted and then spat on
Federico Di Francesco’s face. To describe how silly his actions were, Serie A currently uses
VAR, so there was no way he would have gotten away with it. Absolutely shocking. And
stupid.
The Liverpool juggernaut continues…
In arguably the biggest game of the weekend, Liverpool played Tottenham at Wembley. To
say Liverpool deserved to win the game is an understatement. Tottenham looked so
lethargic and lost the ball in very sensitive areas and were extremely lucky to lose by one
goal, no thanks to Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah. Tottenham on the other hand have
not been very convincing so far in as much as they have been able to beat Manchester
United at Old Trafford. Liverpool currently has 5 wins in a row, their best ever start in a very
long time and after scaling their first hurdle in a list of consecutive difficult games, they have
greatly increased their chances of still being in the running of winning their first League Title
in 28 years.
Chelsea picking up steam…
Considering the fact that Chelsea is adjusting to life under new management, they are still
one of the teams to beat this season. Playing great football, getting the best out of their key
players is all that could be ask of. They seem to be the running for the Premier League as
well. Hazard looks like he is having the time of his life at the moment and looks like he will
have his biggest goal return this season.
Arsenal makes it 3-in-3….
Arsenal looked fairly solid against Newcastle but buckled a bit under some pressure towards
the end of the game. Ozil crowned his 200 th appearance with a goal (ultimately, the winning
goal). All in all, credit should go to Emery. To put in context, Unai Emery has won two away
games (consecutively if I may add), Wenger won one away game from January till May.
Right direction? I think so.
What is going on in Atletico Madrid?
After the signing of a number of attacking players, most especially Lemar and Gelson
Martins, many of us thought that this could be Atletico’s year considering the fact that they
have always been solid defensively. That has not been the case so far. Before the weekend,
they had played 3, won once, drawn once and lost once. What was most telling was the fact
that they had scored only two goals. Also, their most dependable part of the pitch (defense)
had been committing so many individual errors (see Diego Godin’s slip against Celta Vigo).
This past weekend, a misplaced pass in the middle of the pitch led to them conceding and
having to dig really deep to get a late (very late) equaliser at the Wanda Metropolitano.
It is still early days but things need to change or they will be looking up at the table in no
time.
Is the Anoeta curse broken.. Real Madrid held at the San Mames?
To put into context: before last season, the last time Barcelona won at the Anoeta was when
Frank Rijkaard was coach. Now, under Valverde, they have made it two in a row. Ousmane
Dembele is gradually becoming a key player in this Barcelona engine. Elsewhere, Real
Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao at the San Mames. It is still early days
but Real Madrid cannot afford too many slips before the El-Clasico.
OTHER NEWS..
Wonder goals over the weekend.
Elsewhere, Zlatan scored his 500 th career goal with a beautiful ‘taekwando goal’. Zlatan
being Zlatan I guess.
Dimitri Payet also scored a beautiful goal against Guingamp as they easily won 4-0.
Ultimately, it was a great weekend of footbalL.
Posted by: Abiodun Motunrayo
Twitter: @amesmaniac
Email: [email protected]
