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Premier League Round Four: The good, the bad and the ugly

By Michael Peters

Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane (18)
Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane (18) /
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The Ugly

Player Discipline

There had been a few red cards during the opening three weeks of the season, but the Premier League sides decided to take it up a notch during round four.

Newcastle United saw Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic sent off after just 16 minutes during their 1-0 defeat home to Arsenal. No surprise here, though, as Mitrovic has shown his unique ability to rapidly accrue bookings during each of Newcastle’s fixtures this season, with the visit to Old Trafford being the lone exception.

The Liverpool v. West Ham fixture saw Coutinho sent off for the hosts and Mark Noble for the visitors. Coutinho’s might be the most crucial of the bunch as it means Liverpool’s most dynamic player of the season thus far will miss their showdown with arch-rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Stoke City had two players sent off during their match home to West Brom, with Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam as the culprits. Afellay’s was interesting since he decided to haul off and slap Albion’s Craig Gardner. What was he thinking?

Norwich City’s Steven Whittaker was issued his walking orders when match official Jon Moss issued a second yellow card just three minutes after Whittaker’s first. Whittaker could feel hard done by the first yellow card, which Moss did not need to issue. Here’s the thing though, because Moss issued the first yellow card he HAD to issue the second one because it was a bang on yellow card offense. In my opinion, the second offense should have been Whittaker’s first booking of the match.

Was there something in the water this week? Six red cards is absolutely absurd.

Liverpool

What on Earth happened to The Reds? They were absolutely decimated by West Ham in front of the Anfield support. Dejan Lovren made a calamitous error when he seemed to lose all ability to dribble a ball competently which led to West Ham’s second goal.

Coutinho earned a red card, which rules him out of their crunch tie at Old Trafford after the international break, and The Reds simply never got out of first gear.

Liverpool supporters should be concerned with their start to the season. They found a way to win against what has since looked like a putrid Stoke City side when Coutinho’s long range screamer got past Jack Butland. Liverpool were the beneficiary of a wrongly ruled out opening goal from visiting Bournemouth and a wrongly allowed goal by Christian Benteke. Then, Aaron Ramsey’s opening goal was ruled out for offside when he was clearly onside.

That’s one match where Liverpool were ordinary but found a way to win against a side that has been thoroughly unimpressive this season, and two matches during which they were the beneficiary of bad calls which gave them up to five extra points (depending on what you think would have happened if Bournemouth’s goal would have stood).

Brendan Rodgers has some work to do if he wants to finish the season as Liverpool’s manager, and he must turn things around starting with his side’s visit to Old Trafford.

Next: Premier League Deadline Day Live!

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