Tottenham Losing Series and Ericksen's 50th goal
The central match of the fourth round of the Premier League took place at the Emirates Stadium, where Tottenham hosted Arsenal. Despite the status of the Champions League finalist, the Spurs approached this duel in the underdog status, because they only managed to beat the Gunners in the last 26 away matches of the national championship. They lost 15 times, tied ten times, and their only success dates back to November 2010.
For the first half, the wards of Mauricio Pochettino did everything possible to break the resistance of the archenemy. Already in the tenth minute, Christian Eriksen scored a goal and became the first Dane to score 50 goals in the Premier League, and half an hour later the advantage of the guests was strengthened by Harry Kane. Forward for the tenth time hit the gate “gunners”, catching up with Emmanuel Adebayor and Bobby Smith in the number of goals in the derby.
But already in the second minute offset by the first half, Alexander Lazakett took advantage of Nicolas Pepe's pass and narrowed the gap, and Pierre-Emerick Obameyang scored 19 minutes before the end. A native of Gabon scored in the seventh consecutive match at the Emirates, approaching the result of the legendary Thierry Henry. In 2000, the Frenchman distinguished himself in nine consecutive home meetings.
It is noteworthy that under Pochettino, the Tottenham Hotspur met 27 times with representatives of the Big Six nuclear submarines, but only triumphantly came out in three cases. Nine games ended in a draw, and another 15 - the defeat of Londoners.
Atletico comeback and the appearance of Cheryshev
Like Arsenal, Atletico found itself in a difficult situation during the confrontation with Eibar. For the first 19 minutes, the hosts allowed the outsider Examples to hit the gates of Jan Cloud twice, which was a unique event. Earlier in the championship of Spain, "mattresses" have never missed twice in such a period of time under the leadership of Diego Simeone.
As usual, Madrid showed their character, but unlike the gunners, they were able to finish the job and achieved victory. Comeback started by João Felix, who became the youngest Portuguese goal author (19 years 296 days) in La Liga in the XXI century. At the beginning of the second half, Vitolo restored the status quo, and four seconds before the end of regular time, Thomas Partei set the final score.
Unlike the Madrid team, Valencia performed much more confidently and did not experience serious problems in the match against Mallorca. “Bats” twice upset Manolo Reina, both times from the penalty spot. Dani Parejo for the first time in his career realized two 11-meter in one meeting and took the lead in the number of goals from the “point” among Spaniards over the past 10 years. He has 23 goals, which is two more than Arits Aduris.
Another significant moment was the appearance on the field of Denis Cheryshev. This season, the Russian spent only five minutes on the field in a game with Real Sociedad, but this time he received much more time. The midfielder left for 17 minutes, but could not be noted for productive actions.
The unsuccessful series of Courtois and Bale extravaganza
Real Madrid extended their unbeaten run in Example and shared points with Villarreal. In the course of the meeting, Madrid twice lost in the long run, but both times managed to equalize. The double was marked by Gareth Bale, who a month ago was a candidate for leaving the royal club. First, the Welshman closed the transfer of Dani Karvahal, and in the compensated time he completed a blow with his own raid into the penalty area.
A little blurred impression of the game Bale only its removal. In the period from the 92nd to the 94th minute, the striker earned two “mustard plasters” and was expelled from the field. He became the second football player of Real Madrid in the 21st century, who managed to score a double and earn a deletion in Example. Until now, Cristiano Ronaldo has remained the only one.
Thibault Courtois became one of the main losers of the meeting. The Belgian can not yet establish mutual understanding with the defenders, which translates into a huge number of goals conceded. So, the goalkeeper could not keep his goal intact in the record 11th match in a row.
Six shots on goal and two goals
One of the main events of the gaming day was the Roman derby, in which “Roma” and “Lazio” came together. The teams gave another bright match and gave the fans a real sight. However, the principal rivals failed to identify the winner.
Nevertheless, opponents in the first minutes exchanged hits in the goal post. For Lazio, Lucas Leiva hit the post, while for Roma Nicolo Zagnolo. By the way, the goalposts rang regularly over the Olimpiko stadium. Four times the frame played for Roma and twice for Lazio.
The wolf managed to open an account. At the end of the third half, Sergey Milinkovich-Savich tried to intercept the ball in his own penalty box, but did it with his hand. The judge confidently pointed to the "point", and Aleksandar Kolarov brought the punishment.
Having missed, “Lazio” brought down a flurry of attacks on the opponent’s goal, but for the time being, luck was clearly not on the side of the wards of Simone Inzaghi. Only after the break, Luis Alberto, using the lumbago Immobile from the front, restored the status quo on the scoreboard. More teams failed to excel, despite the abundance of moments. The match ended in a draw, and this result was unlikely to suit Lazio, who had the advantage.
Lost victory “Monaco” and three hits Golovin
But Alexander Golovin and Monaco still have a hard time. On Sunday, the team was again close to gaining three points, but in the end missed the victory over Strasbourg.
Moreover, the meeting began is simply wonderful for the Monegasques. Already in the tenth minute, a rookie from the team, Islam Slimani, opened an account. The penalty was not ruined by the guests rivals, as the hosts immediately gave the ball to Slimani out of the blue, and he gladly scored a double.
In the second half, “Monaco” could well have increased the lead, but instead missed shortly before the final whistle after a corner. And just a couple of minutes before that, Slimani missed one hundred percent moment to arrange a hat-trick. First, he hit the crossbar, and then the opponent's goalkeeper incredibly reacted to finishing.
As for Golovin, he was very active, took part in the first scoring episode, and even delivered three blows at once on the opponent’s goal. Unfortunately, not one of them hit the target. “Monaco” with two points continues to be in the penultimate place of the league 1 standings.
"Vitesse" in the lead and a happy ending for Slutsky
Where are things going better for Leonid Slutsky and Vyacheslav Karavaev, whose “Vitess” before the break for the matches of the national teams broke into first place in the standings of the championship of the Netherlands, leaving even “Ajax” behind.
The Arnemians drew conclusions from a draw with the modest outsider Heracles in the previous round and managed to snatch victory over the stout AZ Alkmar. Moreover, it was the former team of Guus Til who managed to open an account, but Tim Matavazh just before the break helped the hosts recoup.
The denouement came at the time added by the arbitrator, when Vitesse managed to earn a penalty. The eleven-meter wards of Slutsky had to be executed twice, because after the first strike the judge considered that one of the players ran into the penalty box ahead of time. But on the second attempt, Matush Bero was accurate and brought victory to the Arnemians.