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Major takeaways from Week 4 of the English Premier League

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Roar Guru
5th October, 2020
7

The league continues to be as unpredictable as it gets.

The conclusion of Gameweek 4 sees just two remaining unbeaten teams. While Everton continues to be on fire, the second unbeaten team may shock you. Here are my takeaways of the games just passed.

Chelsea 4-0 Crystal Palace
Frank Lampard’s men have got themselves back on track with an emphatic 4-0 victory. In an uneventful first half, it saw Chelsea dominate until the Eagles worked themselves into the game.

The second half was a completely different story. Chelsea broke the deadlock off a volley with Ben Chilwell and the floodgates opened the rest of the way. They were dominant overall with 71 per cent possession and had 17 shots compared to 4 for Palace.

This was the result that they needed to build some momentum.

Everton 4-2 Brighton
The Toffees have now made it four wins from four games as they put on another clinic led by James Rodriguez. Dominic Calvert-Lewin continues his goal-scoring form as Everton are gelling as a cohesive unit. They now will have a true measure of where they’re at in a Merseyside derby when they take on Liverpool for their next league game.

Again, Brighton had an encouraging performance. They battled hard and was able to equalise before halftime. However, some costly turnovers in their own half allowed Everton to counterattack and punished Brighton for it.

Brighton have had difficult fixtures early on, but they can’t be too dissatisfied with their play.

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Leeds 1-1 Man City
Leeds continues to impress as they pushed Man City to the brink to earn themselves a point. Rodrigo finally scored his first goal and had multiple chances to convert but Ederson was outstanding making six saves overall.

Manchester City had many shots at goal but only managed to get two on target. Meanwhile, Leeds had more possession than City and again were fearless in their play.

The impressive aspect for Leeds is that they have been able to compete in high scoring affairs as well as low scoring affairs. They have been consistent regardless of the opposition and they look prime to breakout in the EPL.

Manchester City have not looked good so far. Outside of their 3-1 win against Wolves, they have been ordinary. They’ll need to bounce back as they face Arsenal next.

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa (Photo by Alex Dodd – CameraSport/Getty Images)

Newcastle 3-1 Burnley
Burnley are now reeling having suffered their third straight loss and they haven’t looked threatening on goal or defended well either. Meanwhile, Newcastle have climbed into the top half of the table after Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson scored goals between them.

When you look at the numbers, they are quite even however the Magpies were more clinical and converted their chances when they came.

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Newcastle have done well to bounce back from their 3-0 loss to Brighton whereas Sean Dyche will be hoping Burnley can grab some points heading into next game.

Leicester 0-3 West Ham
During a weekend full of curveballs, this was one of them as West Ham thoroughly outplayed Leicester to win 3-0.

The most notable statistic was that Leicester had almost 70 per cent possession yet managed only four shots at goal. Incredible.

West Ham were clinical and precise on their counter attacks as they ripped the Foxes apart. Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen continue to play well for the Hammers as they have placed themselves out of a disastrous situation.

This shouldn’t be too big of a concern for Leicester as its been a week of peculiar results but for West Ham, their transformation in two weeks taking down Wolves and the Foxes have come seemingly out of nowhere. They next face Spurs which should be a red-hot London derby.

Southampton 2-0 West Brom
Southampton have been able to capitalise against the worst defensive team in the league in West Brom. West Brom have conceded 13 goals in just four games which is the most out of all teams.

The Saints were testing Sam Johnstone early on with Danny Ings having a few chances early on. Southampton eventually broke the opposition as Moussa Djenepo who has been electric opened the scoring.

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Then a spectacular volley Oriol Romeu sealed the victory as the Saints have bounced back to win two straight games.

West Brom will need to sort their defence put if they’re going to have a chance to claim some points.

Arsenal 2-1 Sheffield Utd
The Gunners took care of business at home as two goals in three minutes put an offensively inept Sheffield Utd away to secure three points. Sheffield finally managed to score their first goal of the season through David McGoldrick.

There was some early drama as David Luiz had lost the ball to Oliver Burke and possibly infringed him from going to the ball. However, he was not sent off and Arsenal managed to recover from the incident.

Arsenal so far have been able to win against weaker teams but their next game against Man City will be another test of where the team is at. Meanwhile, Sheffield are struggling and with a lack of a goalscoring threat, it is hampering their chances to be in contention for points.

Wolves 1-0 Fulham
Wolves were able to get their season back on track as they escaped with a 1-0 win against Fulham. Pedro Neto got the goal in the second half as the team with more talent won out in the end.

Fulham had a chance or two late in the second half but couldn’t capitalise. Most notably, Aboubakar Kamara had the best chance but hit the ball straight at Rui Patricio.

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Fulham now joins Sheffield Utd and Burnley without a point and things are looking dire for the newly promoted side.

Man Utd 1-6 Tottenham
Things just go from bad to worse for Manchester Utd. After barely escaping with a win against Brighton, the Red Devils could not capitalise on their first minute penalty.

Spurs conceded a penalty only for them to hit back quickly with two straight goals. The duo of Heung-min Son and Harry Kane was active again as they both scored two goals and had one assist each.

A debatable red card was given to Anthony Martial after an incident with Erik Lamela. It honestly was a tough red card, but Spurs were relentless and took advantage of United being one man down.

Manchester Utd need to sort out issues defensively as its evident what they have currently isn’t going to be up to standard. With the transfer market looking dry regarding acquiring defenders, it could be a rough period for Ole Solsjkaer coming up.

Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool
The final game proved to be the biggest curveball of them all. Liverpool were missing Alisson, Sadio Mane and Thiago Alcantara but they ultimately should have defeated Aston Villa as Jurgen Klopp still fielded a strong team.

But the game for Liverpool was terrible from the beginning as an Adrian error allowed Ollie Watkins to open the scoring. While Watkins had a perfect free kick, Jack Grealish and John McGinn starred to rout the defending champions.

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Mohammed Salah carried Liverpool’s burdens scoring two goals but for this game, it was nowhere near enough.

Mohamed Salah

Mo Salah. (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Villa had three wicked deflections which beat Adrian but overall, they were the better team and earned their victory comfortably. They counterattacked brilliantly and while they only had 30 per cent possession, they had 11 shots on target!

Liverpool will have to move on from this game and they now have the Merseyside derby against Everton who sit at the top. Meanwhile, Aston Villa are still unbeaten and will be hoping to continue their magical run against Leicester who suffered a shock defeat also.

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