England

Chelsea defeated Manchester City 2-0 on Saturday at Stamford Bridge, handing the Citizens their first Premier League Loss in seven months. But one idiot fan may have marred the entire victory with a vile display of racism.

N’Golo Kanté and David Luiz both scored for the Blues, who jumped back into third in the Premier League table with the win. Chelsea dulled the City attack like no other team has been able to do in England this year. Even late in the match when goalie Kepa Arrizabalaga gave the ball away, the Spaniard redeemed himself moments later with a save on Gabriel Jesus.

Arsenal put 14 shots on goal against Huddersfield Town on Saturday at the Emirates. The only two that actually hit the target came from the Gunners’ diminutive defensive midfielder. And it was an incredible Lucas Torreira goal vs Huddersfield that saved Arsenal from dropping points for the second time this week in a 1-0 victory. 

On Wednesday, Jose Mourinho said his team scored four goals and tied 2-2. On Saturday his team scored four goals and won 4-1.

It’s a common refrain to say Jose Mourinho loves boring, defensive football. It’s mostly true these days, especially as he seems to favor long balls to big men in the box over any sort of technical play. His best results of the season (the win over Juventus springs to mind) have come via Route 1 football. 

Manchester United and Arsenal’s 2-2 draw on Wednesday at Old Trafford was downright absurd at times. But given all the oddities in the Man U vs Arsenal highlights, one stands out as being a real missed opportunity for an inventive winner. And this match deserved a winner. 

Referee Andre Marriner had a complicated match to officiate and whether you’re an Arsenal fan, Manchester United fan or a neutral, you probably don’t think he had a very good performance. Goal-line technology was called into use but you feel VAR would’ve aided this game immensely. 

After 10 years of nothing but Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric has become the first player since Kaká back in 2007 to wrest football’s biggest individual accolade from the two behemoths of the modern game: The 2018 Ballon d'Or winner is Luka.

A closely contested Merseyside Derby was decided in the 96th minute after Divock Origi was on hand to head home the strangest of match-winners at Anfield. With Manchester City continuing to eviscerate the opposition, Origi’s dramatic miracle kept Liverpool within two points of the leaders, but what a truly miserable way to lose a match for Everton and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

Except for a four-minute spell of tilt which resulted in two Tottenham goals, Arsenal thoroughly enjoyed a 4-2 derby victory over Spurs on Sunday after a glorious second half fightback that included strikes from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (his 10th of the season), Alex Lacazette and the inspirational Lucas Torreira. 

The match quickly set about foreshadowing the madness to come in the ninth minute, when Jan Vertonghen inexplicably handled a corner to give Aubameyang his first goal of the match from the spot.