Premier League Picks Of The Week 13

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 13

The 13th week of the Premier League action saw:

22 goals - most by Southampton = 4
221 shots - most by Tottenham = 24
62 on target - most by Palace, Bournemouth, Tottenham, Man City & Everton = 5 each
92 corners - most by Tottenham & Chelsea = 8 each
199 fouls - most by Swansea = 18
27 yellow cards - Swansea & West Brom = 4 each
1 red card - van La Parra for Huddersfield
2 penalties - 2 scored (Sánchez for Arsenal, Agüero for Man City)

What a game! David Moyes claimed his first point as Hammers boss thanks to Cheikhou Kouyaté's headed equaliser off a corner after Marc Albrighton's early opener for the Foxes. Claude Puel has a win, two draws and one defeat in his four City games. The Friday night draw showed both sides' weaknesses, West Ham staying in the bottom three whilst Leicester remain in the bottom half. More below.
Jürgen Klopp surprised everyone with the Liverpool line-up against Chelsea in the late kick-off on Saturday. But it was less of a surprise seeing the full-time scoreboard, Mohamed Salah giving the Reds the lead with his 15th goal of the season and Willian grabbing a late equaliser that was definitely an intended cross that fluked its way in over Simon Mignolet and nicked a point for the Blues. Both sides created and gave away a lot of chances. Deja vue for the home side to throw away a lead, click here to read my full LFC match report. But with this draw, Liverpool have only lost two of their last 34 home games in the Premier League. Boom.

What a team! Huddersfield and Burnley were up for it on Sunday, unlucky to lose against Manchester City and Arsenal respectively. Sergio Agüero and Raheem Sterling completed the comeback for the league leaders after the Terriers were ahead thanks to a Nicolás Otamendi own goal to make it eleven consecutive wins for Pep Guardiola's men and take them eight points clear at the top. Clarets boss Sean Dyche was left fuming after Alexis Sánchez netted a very soft injury-time penalty at Turf Moor. It was the third consecutive time the Gunners had grabbed a stoppage time winner against Burnley, this one taking them back into the top four.
At the other end of the table, Everton continued their poor form after being taken apart 4-1 at Southampton. Caretaker manager David Unsworth took responsibility saying "things have to change quickly", the Toffees having won just once in seven under him, staying stuck in 16th, just two points clear of the relegation zone.

What a man! Former Derby midfielder Will Hughes has scored in back-to-back league games for the first time in his career giving Watford the lead at Newcastle with a lovely finish. B(l)oom! DeAndre Yedlin diverted the ball into his own net to add to the Magpies' misery before the break. And Andre Gray sealed the deal making it 0-3 with just under half an hour to go. It could have been 5 or 6 or 7 by then. Rafael Benítez's men were well and truly beaten, broken, too open at the back, suffering their fourth successive defeat. No discrediting Marco Silva's side, just wow! They have won more away league points in their seven matches this season (13) than they did in all 19 games on the road last season (12). Impressive.
A great double-save by Brighton keeper Mathew Ryan at Old Trafford denied Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku just before the break and kept his side in the game and United disappointed and frustrated. The Seagulls impressed at the back and front, fighting and surprising the Red Devils. It took an evil deflection off Lewis Dunk to see Ashley Young's powerful shot from just outside the box into the top right corner to break the stubborn deadlock. Lucky. Harsh on Brighton who did so well, even José Mourinho conceded that much in the post-match interview. But that's football. It takes United's unbeaten run at home to 39 games in all competitions, the last defeat being against Man City in September 2017, 441 days ago!!!

What a goal! Swansea's Wilfried Bony was not a happy man seeing his low curler into the bottom corner disallowed just before the break as referee Stuart Attwell felt Jordan Ayew fouled Bournemouth defender Nathan Aké in the build-up. Harsh. Softer than soft. It stayed goalless and luckless for the Swans. More to that match below.
West Brom's opener at Tottenham was an odd one, Salomón Rondón taking advantage rolling the ball into the far corner, beating a sleepy defence early on in the game (4'). The managerless side defended well, keeping Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen oh so quiet in the first half. A penny for Tony Pulis' thoughts at half time... Kane spoilt the upset equalising with a simple touch through Ben Foster's legs. With that leveller, the striker has scored 40 goals for Spurs in 2017 and been involved in 100 Premier League goals in his 128 league games - 87 goals, 13 assists. Wow. Still, a point is a point, not bad for the visitors at Wembley, Mauricio Pochettino going as far as saying the draw took his side out of the title race. Ouch.
And Crystal Palace were made to rue Christian Benteke's miss, Xherdan Shaqiri powering past three defenders before firing the ball in to give Stoke the lead at Selhurst Park. But not for long as 2:31 minutes later, Ruben Loftus-Cheek tapped in the equaliser at the far post as the Potters forgot how to defend. An action-packed couple of minutes in not the most entertaining nor top-quality game... Mamadou Sakho nicked a last-minute winner for Roy Hodgson's hard-working men, only their second win of the season, closing the gap from the bottom to safety. It's Palace's first 90th minute winner at home in the PL since Clinton Morrison against Sheffield Wednesday in May 1998. Rare. But deserved.

What the hell?! How did Ryan Shawcross miss that sitter to make it 1-2 for Stoke, a yard or two away from the goal-line?! His defending was just as miserable as his side ended up losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, as mentioned above.
Swan Ki Sung-yueng got a lucky to escape with just a yellow card after some daft pushing and fighting, including the referee!!! Manager Paul Clement was more than right to criticise the referee as mentioned above, but his side benefited from the bad refereeing in this incident, evening out the errors going for and against them.
And André Ayew's penalty appeal was an absolute waste for West Ham, if he would have stayed up he would have had a golden chance to get the Hammers ahead. But no, dive and whine instead. Waste. I hope the FA will have a look at it and punish him.

My Predictions - Actual Results
West Ham 1:2 Leicester - 1:1
Crystal Palace 1:1 Stoke City - 2:1
Man United 2:1 Brighton - 1:0
Newcastle 1:2 Watford - 0:3
Swansea 0:1 Bournemouth - 0:0
Tottenham 3:1 West Brom - 1:1
Liverpool 1:1 Chelsea - 1:1
Southampton 2:0 Everton - 4:1
Burnley 0:0 Arsenal - 0:1
Huddersfield 0:4 Man City - 1:2

Click here for last week's Premier League Picks.

All pictures, stats and facts were taken from the BBC match reports, Twitter and SFR match coverage.