Burnley 0 Arsenal 1
Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1
Alexis Sanchez is still carrying Arsenal.
He lifted them to fourth place with a well-placed penalty that just beat keeper Nick Pope.
The score was 0-0 in the 92nd minute and then centreback James Tarkowski pushed Aaron Ramsey in the back. The cross was a ball Ramsey was never going to reach with his head and Tarkowski should have realised the midfielder was never going to be anywhere near it. The centreback allowed ref Lee Mason to give a penalty that looked harsh
At least once every two months I note that referees always favour big clubs because want to be given games at big clubs.
Burnley boss Sean Dyche was furious, as any manager of a smaller club would be.
Choosing his words carefully, Dyche said,” It’s highly unlikely that anything other than a penalty was gonna get given.”
Having said all that, when the score was 0-0 at half-time, I thought Arsenal would win.
On Saturday, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Chelsea and that result gave Arsenal an opportunity to go fourth at Turf Moor.
Mo Salah, once of Chelsea, was the game’s star player.
Small players have a more intimate relationship with the ball, and while Salah can dribble at high speed, he also loves passes and crosses placed in front of him. He’s as fast as a rabbit and as brave as a lion.
Hazard, rising to the challenge, was starting to remind me of the compact and super-creative Zico.
Surprisingly, the contest was 0-0 until the 65th minute.
That was when Salah sliced through Chelsea’s defence and scored.
Willian then replaced Zappacosta and scored the equaliser in 85 with a chip some said was a shot.
Is Willian good enough to score deliberately from that angle? Yes. But I changed my mind with every replay I saw because it was a driven cross that was very precisely weighted.
Salah has scored 15 goals so far this season – and it’s still November.
Yes, 15 goals. It’s four years since any Liverpool player did that. Stevie G got 13 in 2012/13 and Coutinho scored 14 in 2016/17.
When Jurgen Klopp saw the Egyptian sparkle day after day in training at Melwood, he asked, “What didn’t they like?”
This weekend Klopp said, “You need three players to stop Hazard.”