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Premier League Round 15: The good, the bad and the ugly

By Michael Peters

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Another set of fixtures gone by in the Premier League and it ends with Leicester City on top of the table for a second consecutive week. Manchester United drew, Manchester City lost, Tottenham drew, Arsenal won, Liverpool and Chelsea both lost.

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Oh, by the way, Claudio Ranieri and Jamie Vardy won manager and player of the month in the Barclay’s Premier League?

What a time it is to be a Leicester City supporter, eh?

Now, let’s get straight into the good, the bad and the ugly from Round 15 of the Premier League season.

The Good

Upsets Galore

Stoke City, Bournemouth and Newcastle, you have earned a round of applause for pulling off the upsets you did during Round 15 of the Premier League.

Stoke City stunned Manchester City 2-0 at home, while Bournemouth dragged Chelsea further into the relegation battle by handing them a 1-0 loss at Stamford Bridge. Newcastle pulled off what I believe is the upset of the weekend when they shocked Liverpool 2-0.

Who saw any of those results coming?

The Britannia Stadium is a tough ground for visitors, so that results is surprising only because Manchester City is better than Stoke. Plus, Stoke have been pulling this sort of thing off for a few years now. They keep signing players of higher and higher profiles, so it is quite a bit different from the other two upsets, but an upset nonetheless.

The other two upsets — Bournemouth and Newcastle — pulled some big shocks.

Since losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace, Liverpool have beaten Manchester City 4-1, Bordeaux 2-1, Swansea City 1-0 and Southampton 6-1 (all competitions, not just Premier League).

Then they traveled to Newcastle and lost 2-0. That is a TERRIBLE loss for a team that would have been just three points behind Manchester United in fourth place if they had found a way to beat Newcastle.

In a recent interview Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he could not get over that loss to Crystal Palace. Well, then, good luck sleeping at night knowing you dropped three points your competitors are not at all likely to drop.

Consider that Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel’s own goal in the 69th minute opened the scoring for Newcastle and it becomes all the more frustrating for the Reds.

Georginio Wijnaldum scored in the 93rd minute to finish the game off. The Reds will rue this one at season’s end.

While Liverpool are not where they want to be in the table right now, Chelsea are certainly furious with their league position.

The Premier League holders lost at home to Bournemouth, who are dealing with a massive amount of injuries to key players but continue to fight hard for every point they can get. You did not even have to watch the game to know that this was not a fluke result.

Bournemouth earned this victory. Chelsea dominated possession, but did not manage to create too many more chances than Bournemouth. The Blues registered four more shots and just one more shot on target than Bournemouth.

None of that matters, though, as Glenn Murray’s headed winner — two minutes after he entered the match as a substitute — earned Bournemouth a much-needed victory.

Think about how important this match was for Howe’s squad; if they lost to Chelsea then they would have been sitting 19th in the table on 10 points and three points behind Newcastle for 17th.

Instead, Bournemouth are 17th on 13 points and find themselves just two points behind 14th place Chelsea.

Keep in mind, also, that Bournemouth now get Chelsea at home during the second half of the season if that proves to be an important determiner in the relegation battle.

It seems a bit strange that I’m saying Chelsea traveling to Bournemouth in the second half of the season could play a huge role in determining which teams are relegated, but if you think about it more in depth, is it really so far-fetched?

Next: The Bad?

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