English Premier League: Matchweek 22 Saturday Review

It was a busy matchday across the Premier League, with 7 fixtures taking place on Saturday.

After nearly 2 weeks of solely FA Cup and Carabao Cup fixtures, the Premier League returned to our screens and stadiums on Saturday, much to the delight of football fans everywhere. With all 7 fixtures showing some promise, it was an entertaining day filled with great goals, upsets, and tightly-knit affairs.

Liverpool travelled to Brighton to try and maintain their lead at the top of the table, whilst Arsenal and Chelsea faced difficult tests in their race for the top 4.

Lethargic Arsenal fall to the Hammers at the London Stadium :1-0

It was nothing short of an awful performance from Arsenal on Saturday, as they opened out the matchweek against West Ham in the early kickoff at the London Stadium. Despite being the favourites, Arsenal were thoroughly outplayed by the Hammers, who were led by former Gunner Samir Nasri of all people! Nasri picked up the assist on Declan Rice’s winning goal, which also doubled as the youngsters first tally for the club. Another former Gunner Lukasz Fabianski was in net for West Ham, but had an unexpectedly straight-forward and easy match, as he faced just 2 shots, 1 of them a simple pickup.

West Ham are growing and moving in the right direction under Manuel Pellegrini, who has created a fluid front 3 that took Arsenal’s defence apart on many occasions, with Felipe Anderson and Marko Arnautovic being the 2 key pieces of the puzzle.

Arsenal on the other hand, have struggled mightily since they beat Spurs at home over a month ago. Their fitness levels have fallen rapidly, and Mesut Ozil continues to be left out of the squad despite the first XI having major issues with creating chances. Unai Emery is coming under fire for some of the decisions he has made, which in truth, have been very questionable, and are negatively affecting Arsenal’s results.