This weekend saw Round 8 of this year’s Premier League season. Ten matches were played over three days. In the first match of the weekend, Brighton played host to West Ham on Friday at the Amex Stadium. The home side took all three points thanks to a 25th minute Glenn Murray goal. Leon Balogun, Brighton and Nigeria defender, set the game out on the bench.
On Saturday afternoon, Huddersfield Town travelled to Burnley. Philip Billing was in the starting line-up for the Terriers and had a good game. The match finished all square 1:1, with Sam Vokes scoring for Burnley and Christopher Schindler for Huddersfield.
Both Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho were starters for Leicester City at the King Power Stadium where they played Everton. Richarlison scored to give Everton the lead before Ricardo Pereira equalized in the 40th minute, assisted by the Super Eagles striker Iheanacho. The Foxes were a man down the last half an hour when Wes Morgan got a red card, and couldn’t stop Gylfi Sigurdsson from scoring a little later to give the Toffees the lead and eventually the win.
Kelechi Iheanacho (www.lcfc.com)
Luke Amos, the promising Tottenham youngster is out for the season, so he wasn’t in the squad for the Spurs narrow win over Cardiff City.
Watford suffered a hard defeat to Bournemouth at home, losing 4:0. The Cherries were 1:0 up early through a David Brooks goal before Watford had Christian Kabasele sent off allowing Joshua King and Bournemouth to score a second goal from the penalty spot. A man down, Watford conceded another goal from King before the break and a fourth early in the second half, scored by Callum Wilson. Isaac Success came on for Will Hughes in the 55th minute but couldn’t make much of an impact. Stefano Okaka is back from injury, but he didn’t make the Hornets squad for this game. Jordon Ibe watched the match from the bench for Bournemouth.
On Sunday, Alex Iwobi was in the starting eleven for Arsenal who thrashed Fulham 5:1 at the Craven Cottage. He had an excellent game up until he was subbed by Aaron Ramsey in the 67th minute. Arsenal took the lead through Alexandre Lacazette, but André Schürrle managed to level it for the Cottagers before the break. Lacazette managed to give the Gunners the lead again early in the second half. Fulham responded but couldn’t score. Ramsay scored a great goal as soon as he came onto the pitch and another Arsenal sub; Pierre_Emerick Aubameyang got the 4th and the 5th goal sealing the comfortable win.
Victor Moses didn’t make the squad for Chelsea’s away win to Southampton, and Dominic Solanke watched from the stands as his Liverpool played a goalless draw with Manchester City.
At the end of Round 8, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool sit at the top of the standings, with six wins, two draws and 20 points each.