Premier League Round 23 Saturday review
The second half of the Premiership season is well under way and eight matches were played on Saturday. As usual, there were a few Nigerian players and those of Nigerian descent who played for their respective teams.
In the early kick-off game, Leicester City travelled to Wolverhampton to play the Wanderers at the Molineux. Wilfred Ndidi was in the starting line-up for the Foxes from the get-go in what turned up to a very exciting encounter.
Diogo Jota opened the scoring for the Wanderers quickly with a goal in the 4th minute. Before Leicester could re-group, they were two goals down. Ryan Bennet was the scorer for the home team. It stayed 2:0 at the break.
but Leicester came back into the game two minutes from the restart with a goal from Demarai Gray. And only four minutes later the Foxes were level when the Wanderers captain Conor Coady scored an own goal. Ndidi was booked in the 58th minute.
The Wanderers then took the lead again through a second Jota goal. But it wasn’t over. Foxes made a couple of subs with Kelechi Iheanacho coming in from the bench as well in the 83rd minute. And in the 87th minute Wes Morgan, the Foxes’ captain levelled the score again. Leicester thought they were good for a point but then Jota scored again to complete his hat-trick and give the Wanderers an important win.
Kelechi Iheanacho (Vlad1988 / Shutterstock.com)
The Old Trafford was the venue where Manchester United were hoping to get their seventh win in a row under the new coach, playing the visitors from the south, Brighton. Paul Pogba scored from the penalty to give the Red Devils the lead in the 27th minute. Marcus Rashford added to the score line in the 42nd minute.
Pascal Groß scored a consolation goal for the Seagulls in the 72nd minute but Manchester United held on for a win. Leon Balogun was on the bench for Brighton for the entirety of the match.
Ademola Lookman started for Everton and played the full game against Southampton away from home. James Ward-Prowse scored first for the Saints in the 50th minute. Lucas Digne then scored an own goal giving Southampton a 2:0 lead. Gylfi Sigurdsson did get a consolation goal for the Toffees in stoppage time but they still had to travel north empty handed.
Watford played out a goalless draw with Burnley at Vicarage Road. Isaac Success Ajayi came in of the bench for the Hornets in the 56th minute.
In the big London derby, Arsenal welcomed Chelsea at the Emirates. And playing at home helped them as they beat the Blues with two great goals. Alexandre Lacazette scored in the 14th minute and Laurent Koscielny added the second in the 39th. Alex Iwobi came in for Lacazette in the 68th minute. With this win, the Gunners are now just three points away from 4th place.