It’s been another week of drama in the Premier League.
Liverpool’s shambolic defensive display at Wembley against Tottenham, Man Utd’s shock defeat at Huddersfield and Mesut Ozil’s perfect response to his critics were widely discussed over the weekend.
Sportlens takes a look at five top talking points from the latest round of games.
No defence for Liverpool’s performance
Jurgen Klopp argued during September that signing “one player” wouldn’t solve Liverpool’s defensive problems.
He wasn’t wrong – he needs at least four. And a goalkeeper.
Week after week Liverpool make the same mistakes at the back and Klopp has been unable to improve the situation.
Dejan Lovren’s pitiful attempts at defending saw him rightly substituted after 30 minutes, but things didn’t improve much afterwards.
Simon Mignolet’s flap for the fourth goal was embarrassing and Klopp has a big job on his hands to sort things out. The problem for Liverpool is that he’s not the right man for that job.
Don’t believe your own hype
Manchester United received plenty of praise for their start to the season, but they’ve come unstuck over the last couple of games.
Last week’s 0-0 draw at Liverpool saw manager Jose Mourinho criticised for being too cautious, while Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town was United’s worst display of the season.
The home side made the most of the difficult conditions to produce an ‘in-your-face’ performance that United never looked like dealing with.
With games against Tottenham and Chelsea to come we’ll soon find out whether United have what it takes to keep pace with Manchester City in the title race.
Will Dyche ever stop moaning?
Rarely a week goes by without Burnley boss Sean Dyche bleating about something or other.
From whining about English managers not getting jobs at top clubs to his almost weekly gripes about diving, Dyche would win gold at the Olympics if moaning was a sport.
He was at it again on Saturday, blasting Bernardo Silva for diving for the penalty for Man City’s opening goal.
Referee Roger East was spot on with his decision and Dyche’s ‘cheating bloody foreigners’ act is beginning to wear a little thin.
Doucoure set for bigger things
Watford could face a difficult job hanging on to Abdoulaye Doucoure next summer.
The former France U21 international dominated the midfield against Chelsea on Saturday and was unlucky to finish on the losing side.
Doucoure scored Watford’s equaliser just before half-time to make it four goals this season and the 24-year-old will attract plenty of attention if he continues his excellent form.
Ozil shows his class
Mesut Ozil answered his critics in style with his best performance of the season at Everton on Sunday.
The German was handed his first start since early September by Arsene Wenger and made the most of it, scoring Arsenal’s third, setting up eight chances for his teammates including Alexandre Lacazette’s goal and collecting the man of the match award.
In this sort of form it’s easy to see why Wenger rates Ozil so highly. Playing like this on a consistent basis is the playmaker’s next big challenge.
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