Premier League Round 34 review
The battle for the title and survival is nearing its boiling point in the Premier League. This weekend it was time for round 34 and for some Nigerian players or those of Nigerian descent to show their best.
Friday night was reserved for the match between Leicester and Newcastle at the King Power Stadium. The Foxes were looking to extend their four-game winning streak while Newcastle needed to snap their three-game winless run. Wilfred Ndidi was in the middle of the field for Leicester from the kick-off.
The game was settled by a single goal in the end. And it was the Magpies who secured an important win with a goal from Ayoze Perez in the 32nd minute. Kelechi Iheanacho came off the bench in the 72nd minute but didn’t show much.
Already relegated Fulham welcomed Everton at the Craven Cottage. Without the pressure, the Cottagers played a good match winning with a clean sheet. Tom Cairney scored a minute into the second half to give Fulham the lead. Later, Ryan Babel confirmed the victory with a goal in the 69th minute. Ademola Lookman made an appearance for the Toffees in the 74th minute.
Ademola Lookman (Vlad1988 / Shutterstock.com)
Brighton suffered another blow to their survival chances with a heavy loss at home against Bournemouth. The Cherries scored their first goal in the 33rd minute after a good strike from Dan Gosling. The score was 0:1 at halftime.
Ryan Fraser doubled the lead for the visitors in the 55th minute before Seagulls Anthony Knockaert was sent off in the 68th minute. A man down, Brighton couldn’t prevent David Brooks making the score 0:3 in the 74th minute.
Callum Wilson got himself on the score sheet in the 82nd minute. He was then substituted by Junior Stanislas who himself scored two minutes into the stoppage time to make the final score 5:0 to Bournemouth. Jordon Ibe watched the whole match from the Cherries bench while Dominic Solanke played the last fifteen minutes of the match.
On Monday night, Watford and Arsenal contested the last game of this round at Vicarage Road. In the end it was one goal which decided this North London derby. After a spate of games where he started on the bench, this time Alex Iwobi was in the line-up straight from kick-off and he played the full 90 minutes.
Once again it was Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang who scored for Arsenal what turned out to be the winning goal. His tenth minute strike was his 18th goal this season keeping him in the contention for the title of Top scorer in the Premiership for the 2018/19 season. Isaac Success Ajayi came into the game in the 59th minute but couldn’t help his team, who played most of the match with ten men, save a point.