Our Football Insider Graeme Bailey looks back on the weekend’s footballing action and brings you his ‘Bullet points’….
- HATS OFF TO EMERY
Ten wins in succession, nothing but admiration can and should be coming for Unai Emery – Arsenal are not the finished product by any stretch of the imagination but they are clearly back in top-four contention, maybe before many thought they would be.
- JAVI GRACIA DOING AMAZING THINGS
Watford’s performance at Wolves was nothing short of brilliant. Going up against one of the form sides of the division and missing players, somehow Gracia managed to get an exceptional performance out of his side.
- BENITEZ IN TROUBLE
Without a win in nine games, that really isn’t acceptable for Newcastle United. Yes, they did not invest as much as they should have – but the performances being served up by The Magpies are simply not good enough.
- DEFENSIVE FLAWS FOR FULHAM
Fulham’s defence is woeful, it really isn’t good enough and Slavisa Jokanovic really needs to come up with a solution otherwise they could be in real trouble. The performance at Cardiff was truly awful.
- GOAL OF THE WEEKEND
A number of candidates but it has to go to Andre Schurrle for his spectacular long-range curling effort at Cardiff.
- PLAYERS OF THE WEEKEND
A lot of candidates but my players of the weekend would be….
GOALKEEPER – HUGO LLORIS – The Tottenham captain has been under pressure in recent months, but he produced a top display at West Ham – denying them at every turn
DEFENDER – JOE GOMEZ – Switched to full-back, but the England international just oozes class. Going forward and in defence he was brilliant for Liverpool at Huddersfield.
MIDFIELDER – MESUT OZIL – Great effort from the German – has been under-fire, but he showed against Leicester just how good he can be.
FORWARD – ROBERTO PEREYRA – Wonderful performance from the Argentine – he helped create the first at Wolves, before a clinical finish with the outside of his left foot for the second. Top-class.
