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

The Ugly

Callum Wilson’s knee injury

Wilson was having a great season for Bournemouth and featured on the good, the bad and the ugly earlier during the season. Wilson has embarked on an unlikely journey from the Conference to the Premier League in a matter of a few years and was adapting well.

Wilson was the second leading scorer among English players in the league. He was ahead of big name players such as Kane, Rooney and Saido Berahino.

His hard work this season was undone in a moment when he went down with a knee injury during Bournemouth’s 2-1 loss to Stoke. After the training staff checked him out, he came back onto the pitch.

He must not have done much cutting from side to side while off the pitch because he was allowed back on, but went down as he attempted his first plant and cut. At this point it was obvious he had a major injury to a knee ligament.

Wilson tore his ACL and will miss at least six months. It is such a shame to see a good young player hit with such a serious injury just as he was hitting his stride.

Bournemouth have now lost three players to ACL tears; Wilson joins big money signings Max Gradel and Tyrone Mings on the sidelines.

The game of the illegal goal

Manchester City endured a bad day at the office when they lost 4-1 away to Tottenham, but it was the officiating crew which had the worst day.

Only two of the five goals scored on the day should have counted.

Goals change games whenever they are scored – and offside goals which are wrongly given especially so – but if you want to only look at the goals which should have counted, then Tottenham still would have won the game 2-0.

De Bruyne opened the goal scoring for Manchester City 25 minutes into the game, but you guessed it, the goal should not have counted.

Eric Dier leveled for Spurs on 45 minutes, but this goal should have been pulled back quite a ways before it was scored for offsides.

Then, Toby Alderweireld headed home for Spurs on 50 minutes. His goal should have, and did, count.

Harry Kane scored the next goal when he pounced on a shot off the bar on 61 minutes. The problem being that Kane was standing in an offside position and the goal should not have counted.

Finally, Eric Lamela scored the second legal goal of the game eleven minutes from full-time.

Not a good day for the officials and not a good day for Manchester City. At the same time, though, goals are wrongly ruled out and wrongly given on a fairly frequent basis. These things happen in soccer and it will likely benefit Manchester City at some point during the season.

A final note from this most interesting of occurrences: Tottenham and Manchester City were ruled offside five and three times respectively during the match. Both sides certainly lived on the shoulders of the defensive lines in this one.