The season has been an interesting one so far.
We’ve some incredible goals – Enner Valencia’s screamer for West Ham United and Graziano Pelle’s brilliant scissor kick for Southampton among others – and also some brilliant games.
There’s been some great moments, but we’ve also seen some strange results happen across the Premier League.
There have already been a few surprising “upsets” this season and never so much so as during a weekend full of games which shocked, surprised, and possibly even horrified a nation of football lovers.
The weekend of the 20th and 21stof September delivered some truly surprising results, but were they flukes or were they indications of something we can expect for the rest of the season?
Since we’ve now had another exciting weekend of football to compare the results to, it’s time to decide whether some of the previous weekend’s “upsets” were flukes, really fortunate, or a glimpse at what we can expect more of this season from the teams involved.
Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 West Brom
West Brom went into this game having had no wins in the 2013/2014 season, whilst Spurs had not faired any better, having been without a win since August 24thh.
Stats like that make the match sound like a relegation battle, rather than a match containing a team pushing for a European place. Having said that, this was a terrible game for Tottenham Hotspur. They managed just one shot on target, and West Brom departed London with a vital three points.
So fluke, fortune, or will we see more of this in the future?
Fluke – Hate to say it, but this will be an abnormality in both teams’ season.
Since then, West Brom went on to destroy Burnley 4-0, but most teams can and will beat Burnley, and Spurs have the potential to do a lot better in the future – something they already demonstrated in a strong draw with Arsenal.
West Ham United 3-1 Liverpool
Liverpool haven’t quite clicked together yet since the departure of star striker and possible cannibal Luis Suarez, and this result meant they have lost three of their first five games – surprising figures from a club that so nearly won the league just a few months ago.
West Ham, on the other hand, bought well over the summer and their new-look squad seemed to click into place during their draw with Hull. West Ham failed to beat a ten-man Manchester United in their next league match, but my gosh are they playing some football this year.
So fluke, fortune, or will we see more of this in the future?
Future – West Ham are a different side this year. They deserved the win, and they will play like this again. This is the future for them. Liverpool may continue to underachieve for a while, but a team with Raheem Sterling in it has big things ahead; they’ll be back to good soon.
Leicester 5-3 Manchester United
What do Richard III and Manchester United have in common? They both got buried in Leicester! Sorry, but seriously. They both got buried in Leicester.
Leicester went into half time 3-1 down, and managed to pull off the comeback of the century by slamming four goals past a hapless United ‘defence’ in the second half.
Since then Leicester have gone on to lose to Crystal Palace whilst Manchester United went on to beat West Ham – whilst having only ten men.
So fluke, fortune, or will we see more of this in the future?
Fortune/Future – As mentioned above, Manchester United did manage to beat West Ham with but ten men, and although I think Leicester are in no danger of going down, I don’t see Leicester finishing above United in the table.
But will we see Manchester United get out-played by smaller teams again? Yes. Unfortunately for United, this is a glimpse at the future we can expect from them this season – as for Leicester, while they did well to draw with Everton and Arsenal, they’ve got a mid-table position to sit squarely in.
Everton 2-3 Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace are a team who depend on their manager to ensure their results.
They were rubbish before Ian Holloway arrived, and brilliant with him at the helm. Similarly, they seemed lost after his departure but are (still) unbeaten since Neil Warnock took over.
Everton seem to be suffering from the same affliction as Liverpool; they just have yet to move into gear and this game was Palace’s for the taking.
So fluke, fortune, or will we see more of this in the future?
Fortune – Palace were certainly the better team on the day, but they were having a good day while Everton were having a bad one.
Palace have moved out of the bottom three, and will do well against teams in the bottom half of the table – as their result against Leicester the following weekend which took them up to 9th will confirm— but Everton will undoubtedly come out higher up on the table at the end of the season.
So what do you make of the topsy-turvey season so far? Do you disagree with any of my fluke or future verdicts? Do let us know below or tweet us @LaFootyettes.