South American treats for Arsenal and Manchester City

Stoke got their second straight win as Marko Arnautovic scored the only goal of the game. The defeat leaves West Brom seeking their first home win of the season.

After a goal-less first half, Crystal Palace scored twice in the second half to clinch victory. Yannick Bolasie put this host ahead and Yohan Cabaye added the second with a late penalty.

Points were shared between the two newly promoted side. Glenn Murray puts the home side ahead but Odion Ighalo ensures the Watford went into the dressing room on level term. Murray had the opportunity to win the game for Bournemouth late on but missed his penalty.

Manchester City went into the game on the back of two consecutive defeats. The home supporters can be forgiven for feeling the worse when Aleksandar Mitrovic puts Newcastle ahead. But Sergio Aguero equalised just before half time. Two goals within 6 minutes of the restart from the Argentine hotshot puts Manchester City 3-1 ahead. Kevin de Bruyne added the fourth before Augero added two more to his tally.

Seeking a quick response to their first defeat last week, Leicester found themselves 2-0 up with goals from Jamie Vardy and Jeffrey Schlupp. Dieumerci Mbokani put a goal back for the home team.

Sunderland seems to be on their way to their first victory of the season when Steven Fletcher and Jeremain Lens put them 2-0 ahead. Carl Jenkinson put a goal back on the stroke of half-time and the comeback was completed when Dimitri Payet equalised for West Ham.

Willian put Chelsea ahead only for Steven Davis to equalise for Southampton. Further goals from Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle condemned Chelsea to their second home defeat.

Two late goals were the highlights of a rather dull Mersey derby. Danny Ings benefitted from some slack defending to put Liverpool ahead. But the lead lasted only 3 minutes when Romelu Lukaku took advantage of defensive mistake to level the score for Everton.

A fast start from Arsenal saw them went 3-0 ahead within 20 minutes. Alexis Sanchez put the home team ahead and Mesut Oezil added the second a minute later. Sanchez got his second of the day to ensure the Gunners leapfrogged Manchester United into second place.

Andre Ayew put Swansea ahead only for Christian Eriksen to equalised for Tottenham. A Harry Kane own goal restored the home team advantage only for Eriksen to spare his team-mate blushes with another equaliser.

Top five performing team *
Arsenal: 7.18
Manchester City: 7.1
Tottenham: 6.97
Leicester: 6.95
West Ham: 6.94

Top five performing players *
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester): 8.46
David Silva (Manchester City): 8.04
Jamie Vardy (Leicester): 7.87
Dimitri Payet (West Ham): 7.85
Santi Cazorla (Arsenal): 7.77

* all statistics provided by WhoScored.com

 

Messi, is the wait going to end soon

Going into Copa America Final, I was torn between rooting for the Chileans or to support the Albicelestes.

I always have a soft spot of Argentina because of players like Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Claudio Canniga and now Lionel Messi. Some of them might be controversial but they are all brilliant players.

On the other hand, the Chileans have in their ranks, players like Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Bravo, Gary Medal and Eduardo Vargas. A golden era for Chilean football.

Instead of choosing side, I decided to remain neutral and enjoy the final.

120 minutes could not separate the two teams and it was down to the penalty shoot out which Chile prevailed.

While the host nation celebrates, the camera panned in on Lionel Messi. Like a year ago in the World Cup final, the downcasted magician from Argentina ends up as a loser in a major tournament.

Will Messi follow the footsteps of Zico and Johan Cruyff as one of the best players of their generation to have never won any major international honours?

Here is the team of the tournament, made up of players with the highest rankings.

Wembley, here we come. Arsenal FC

After a nine years wait, Arsenal finally broke their run without a trophy when they won the English FA Cup in 2014. Many have predicted that this could be the start of a golden era but that was put in place after quite a disastrous start to their new season.

Out of the Champions League, Capital One Cup and out of the league title chase (thou they could still mathematically win it), FA Cup is their last hope of a silverware, if one exclude the “top 4 trophy” that manager Wenger so craved.




Like last year, they had a tough semi-final against supposingly lower quality opposition. But unlike last year, they settled the issue in extra-time without having to go through the lottery of a penalty shootout. They took the lead in the 40th minute only for Reading to equalise within nine minutes of the second half. Try as they might, Arsenal could not find a winning goal. It took a mistake by Reading’s goalkeeper, letting Sanchez shot slipped through his legs, to eventually settle the issue.



Aston Villa now stand in the way of Wenger of equaling the most FA Cup won by a manager. Many clubs would love to be in this situation of winning the oldest cup trophy, but for Arsenal fans, I suspect they would rather trade it for either the League title or the Champions League.



Without doubt, Arsenal will be favourites to retain the trophy, but this is Arsenal that we are talking about. A club that has the tendency to either screw things up at the big stage or make things difficult for themselves. Not to forget, the “strange” tactics of Wenger. In the semi final, he replaced both full backs, Debuchy and Gibbs coming in for Bellerin and Monreal. Both are able replacements, in fact, the first choices but they have not seen much actions lately. Also, he decided to start with Welbeck instead of the in-form Giroud. Puzzling indeed.

In any case, I am looking forward to a great final at the Wembley Stadium. While I am quietly confident, something tells me that the result might not be as what I have hoped for.