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We witnessed another enthralling weekend of Premier League football, as matchday 11 of this season was played across various stadia in England and Wales.
The top three teams continued their unbeaten start to the campaign, as the trio of Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool still remain without defeat this season, although their differing results meant that spots were changed atop the league table, as Liverpool’s stalemate with Arsenal saw The Reds drop into third place.
Other Premier League big teams such as Tottenham also posted victories albeit in difficult circumstances, while Newcastle finally got their first win of the campaign at the 11th time of asking as they defeated Wolves 1-0 at St James’ Park.
As usual, there was everything that could be expected from a typical Premier League weekend: splendid goals, shock results, and controversial decisions. We present the five biggest talking points from matchday 11 of the 2018/2019 Premier League season.
#5 Refereeing errors continue to make a case for VAR
After being test run in multiple low scale leagues around the world for the best part of the last three seasons, VAR got its major breakthrough when it was first adopted in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and later on reached a global audience at the 2018 World Cup hosted in Russia.
The Video Assistant Referee is a technological initiative designed to help out the referee in four crucial areas viz offside decisions, penalty incidents, red card incidents and cases of mistaken identity.
Despite still having its fair share of criticism, VAR has largely helped eliminate otherwise controversial decisions, and it is hard to argue that our beautiful game is not the better off for it.
After its use at the World Cup, more mainstream leagues have gone on to adopt it, and currently, of the five major leagues in Europe, only the Premier League is yet to adopt the use of VAR.
Referees are still human despite their best training, therefore it is impossible for them to spot all incidents that take place on the field, and as such, the decision by the Premier League not to adopt the use of VAR to aid their referees remains a shocking one, to say the least.
Refereeing controversies once again struck its ugly head in matchday 11, not least in the marquee match between Arsenal and Liverpool, when a legitimate goal by Mane was ridiculously ruled out for offside when replays showed that the Senegalese was onside in the sequence of play from which he scored the goal.
Earlier on Saturday, there was also another controversial decision in the Leicester Cardiff game, when a clear handball stopping a Vardy shot was overlooked by the referee. At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea pulled off an impressive 3-1 victory but had a legitimate goal disallowed for offside when replays showed that the ball was deflected off a Crystal Palace player before getting to Morata.
A major criticism of VAR is that it strips football off its excitement, but if that excitement comes at the expense of robbing teams off hard-earned points, then it is time for the EPL to consider its use in the way that La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A have done.
#4 Martial proving his value to Manchester United
Anthony Martial signed from AS Monaco in 2015 as one of the most in-demand teenagers in world football, and it was expected that he would be one of the players upon whom the future of Manchester United would be built.
However, things have not quite panned out like that, as the Frenchman found himself frozen out of Mourinho’s plans, with his manager taking every opportunity to castigate him.
His inaction for Manchester United cost him his place in the national team, and Martial was jarringly left off the French World Cup-winning squad.
His unrest at Old Trafford reached a head in the offseason, as he came under intense criticism by Mourinho for leaving the club’s training camp to attend the birth of his daughter in France, to which the 22-year-old replied that family would always come first.
The tension was so rife between the pair that there were lots of speculations linking him with a transfer away from Manchester United, with PSG touted as his prime destination.
As it happened, those speculations amounted to nil, and Martial found himself being slowly reintegrated back into the United team.
After struggling at the start of the season, Martial has grown into his own, and is currently on his best run of form, scoring five goals in his last four Premier League matches.
Against Newcastle, it was he who chipped in with the crucial equalizer, which sparked the famous comeback victory, while he also got a brace against Chelsea, and scored the equalizer on Saturday against Bournemouth when the Red Devils were largely on the backfoot against The Cherries.
Reports emanated that Martial has rejected a new contract extension offered him, and with just one year left on his contract, United would do well to keep him tied down at the club.
#3 Manchester City still remain the team to beat
Manchester City are defending Premier League champions, and their journey to league glory last season is well documented.
The Cityzens obliterated all and sundry before them last season, breaking and setting numerous records along the way, including for points tally, goals scored, goal difference, most victories and longest winning streak.
City under Guardiola laid a marker for the rest of the Premier League last season, and on evidence of events unfolding thus far, they still remain the benchmark for the remaining 19 Premier League clubs.
They are unbeaten in the league and have scored a whopping 33 goals in just 11 matches while conceding just four.
Against Southampton, they were utterly dominant, stamping their authority from early on, and were two goals up inside just 12 minutes in what was an eventual 6-1 victory to take them outright top of the Premier League.
It was the fifth time they had pulled off a victory by more than three goals this season, while their tally of just four goals conceded is the second best in history at this stage after Jose Mourinho's legendary side who had conceded just two after eleven matches in 2004/2005, and with all indications, they seem set to win the league in much the same fashion as they did last season.
#2 Everton may be the surprise team of the season
After spending heavily on player recruitment at the start of last season, The Toffees were expected to mount a serious challenge for the top places, but the season started off poorly, as they struggled for form in the league and were shockingly knocked out of a relatively straightforward group.
The result was that manager Ronald Koeman was relieved of his duties, and the club was rebuffed in their attempt to get Marco Silva as Watford held firm in their resolve to keep the Spaniard at the helm in the Vicarage Road.
Results deteriorated at Watford, which led to the termination of Silva’s appointment at the club, and reference was made to Everton’s unethical approach as a reason for the club’s decline.
Everton finally got their man this season, and thus far, he has proved to be worth, as the club has been on a steady improvement since then.
They posted a 3-1 victory over Brighton at Goodison Park over the weekend, which lifted them up to ninth place, just two points away from Bournemouth in sixth and was their fifth win of the campaign so far.
The sheer difference in finances and player quality between the big six at the top hierarchy of the Premier League and the rest of the league is so vast that breaking into the European spots might be virtually impossible, but with what we have seen so far, Everton could just end up being the best of the rest.
#1 Van Dijk emphatic once more
More than a few eyebrows were raised when Liverpool expended £75m to purchase Virgil Van Dijk from Southampton, as the 26-year-old Dutch defender was seen as lacking experience at the highest level, and it was believed that he could not be the single solution to Liverpool’s woes.
To say that those beliefs have been proven foolish would be an understatement, as not only has Liverpool’s defence improved significantly, but their organization and all-round stability at the back has been visibly shored up, and this is largely due to the input of Van Dijk.
Liverpool’s struggles at the back in recent seasons are well documented, and the club lost dearly for it, with titles and points dropped needlessly, as The Reds proved incapable of keeping a clean sheet even if their life depended on it.
Since Van Dijk’s arrival, Liverpool have been transformed into a defensively solid outfit, and have the second-best defence in the league, with five goals conceded in just 11 matches.
The club also went on an eight-month run without conceding a goal at Anfield, a run of nine consecutive matches which lasted over 800 minutes until Peterson of Cardiff City breached their backline last weekend.
Against Arsenal, Van Dijk was once more at his imperious best, putting his physicality to good use in both boxes, helping thwart most of the Arsenal attack, while also coming close to getting a goal for himself but for his header which rebounded off the post.
Liverpool may have spent a world record sum for a defender to get Van Dijk, but eight months on from his arrival, and it is proving to be a great deal.
