The Premier League once again delivered in November with
some excellent football, quality goals and the first managerial departure of
the season. Manchester City continue to lead at the top with Liverpool hunting
them down. While the bottom 3 is made up by Fulham, Southampton and Burnley. Manchester
City and Liverpool are still unbeaten after the opening three months of the
season while Chelsea lost theirs at Tottenham, so they’ve dropped of the pace
at the top. The bottom of the table is extremely tight with just 4 points separating
7 teams.
Another excellent month for Manchester City who collected maximum points from their 3 games and
have opened a two-point lead on Liverpool at the top. Guardiola’s men are beginning
to find the form that saw them dominant last season and players are slowly finding
consistency. However, Guardiola remains unhappy with some performances and
despite winning 4-0 at West Ham, Guardiola was largely unhappy with their display.
He wants perfection and will be disappointed at dropping 4 points this season overall,
but his side are firmly in the groove and are looking imperious right now. Jurgen
Klopp’s Liverpool continue to tap
City lightly on the shoulder but a draw at Arsenal saw the lose ground on City,
but they have bounced back with wins over Fulham and Watford. While they aren’t
necessarily playing the exciting rock and roll football, Liverpool have become efficient
taking their chances and comfortably seeing off their opponents. Virgil Van
Dijk has been a terrific addition to their side and was just the solidity and
leadership needed in their defence. They continue to hunt Manchester City and
they do face City during the festive period. Tottenham lie in 3rd place after collecting maximum
points in November and they are slowly building momentum as they look to secure
Champions League football once again. Their ambitions for the season were realised
during their excellent display against Chelsea. Harry Kane, Dele Alli and
Heung-Min Son were on terrific form and Pochettino will hope Spurs have now set
their stall out for the season in terms of performances. A crucial December
sees them face Arsenal and travel to Barcelona in the Champions League hoping
to secure a place in the knockout stages. Chelsea
meanwhile have endured a difficult month with Maurizio Sarri’s side winning
just 1 league game during November and they ended the month with a miserable
defeat at Tottenham. Sarri heavily criticised his team after that display which
saw Sarri lose for the first time as Chelsea manager since the community shield
defeat to Manchester City. Sarri will demand a response in their crucial west London
derby against bitter rivals Fulham which starts a very busy December for
Chelsea with Manchester City visiting Stamford Bridge as well as the Carabao Cup
quarter finals and the conclusion of the Europa League group stages. Sarri said
after 3 months we would see his stamp on Chelsea and if the performance at
Spurs is anything to go by, I doubt Sarri will want to be associated with that
performance. Despite that, they look a much-improved side on last season.
Sides who enjoyed November included Everton, Huddersfield and Newcastle. Marco Silva is slowly getting
his ideas across at Everton and they
are looking like a very good side. The introduction of Barcelona signings Andre
Gomes and Yerry Mina have taken Everton to another level after months of
working them to full fitness. Gomes has slotted into midfield effortlessly alongside
Idrissa Gueye and these two are forming a strong partnership at the heart of
the Toffees midfield. Meanwhile Colombian Yerry Mina was thrown into his debut
at Stamford Bridge and excelled shutting Chelsea out and has kept a clean sheet
on home debut against Cardiff. Everton are confident and kick off December with
the first Merseyside derby of the season and they will be confident of potentially
getting a result. It has been a terrific month for David Wagner and Huddersfield with Terriers collecting 7
points from their 3 matches. Prior to November, Huddersfield had collected just
3 points from their 10 matches. However, terrific wins over Fulham and Wolves and
a draw against West Ham has ignited their season and they will believe they can
survive relegation. Aaron Mooy has found some form in the heart of midfield
with two excellent goals which sank Wolves at Molineux and he is the integral
cog in the Huddersfield midfield that makes them tick. Wagner knows
Huddersfield are heading in the right direction but need to keep their good run
going as they are still severely short on goals. The magpies are absolutely
buzzing right now after Newcastle
notched a perfect 3 wins from 3 as Newcastle stormed off the bottom and into 14th
place. Crucial wins over Watford, Bournemouth and Burnley have finally ignited
Newcastle’s season after a woeful start to the season collecting just 3 points
from 10 games. Rafa Benitez continues to do an excellent job in difficult circumstances
with hostilities between fans and Mike Ashley expected to continue in their opening
match of December against West Ham. Benitez knows survival is Newcastle’s aim
this season and he will hope their positive momentum continues going into a
hectic December.
In contrast, times are proving extremely tough for the
bottom 3. Fulham, Southampton and Burnley
just cannot find momentum, confidence or wins. Fulham are desperately struggling and consequently have made the
first managerial change of the season sacking Slavisa Jokanovic after a run of
5 straight defeats and 1 win in their opening 12 games. The loveable Italian
Claudio Ranieri is back in English football nearly two years after leaving Leicester.
Ranieri is tasked with keeping Fulham in the league and more importantly sorting
out the leakiest defence in the league. His reign kicked off at the end of the
month in a crucial six-pointer against Southampton at Craven Cottage which they
edged a 3-2 win. Ranieri has already confessed his love for Serbian striker Aleksandar
Mitrovic and his brace sealed the win. He will be vital to Fulham’s chances of
staying up. He is their most likely goalscorer and to his credit he has 7 goals
in a poor side. December brings plenty of games and Ranieri will aim to collect
as many points as possible and assess his squad throughout to see what he needs
in the January transfer window. Meanwhile, things are no better down on the
south coast with Southampton
struggling for goals and wins. Mark Hughes’ team have won just once this season
and their home form is dreadful with the Saints yet to win at St Marys and overall,
they’ve won just once since December 2017. Mark Hughes spent plenty of money in
summer signing the likes of Jannik Vestegaard and Mohammed Elyounoussi but
neither have found form or at times a place in the team. Southampton are
winless in 9 games and Mark Hughes is under pressure from the fans and board to
get results and fast. Southampton are also severely short on goals notching
just 10 league goals in their 13 league games so far. The axe could fall on Hughes
in December if things don’t improve and fast. A year is a very long time in
football and Burnley fans know that
well. This time last year Burnley sat comfortably in 7th place after
a wonderful start to the season. Fast forward 12 months and the Clarets sit in
18th place with just 2 victories this season and are on a run of 5 defeats
in 6. The Clarets are usually water tight at the back, but they are proving
very easy to score against this season conceding 25 league goals in 13 games comfortably
the 2nd worse defence after Fulham. Dyche has admitted his team are not
on the levels they were last season but still has faith in his side to turn
their side round and they begin December with a crucial six-pointer against
Crystal Palace.
Other sides enduring disappointing Novembers included Bournemouth,
Brighton and Wolves. Eddie Howe and Bournemouth were the only side to lose all
three of their games. In their defence they did face Manchester United and
Arsenal, but Howe will be disappointed by their defeat at Newcastle. Despite
their disappointing month, Bournemouth lie 8th in the table and are
having an excellent season overall. They are still playing good football and
did outplay Manchester United in the first half but just couldn’t take their
chances and ultimately got punished. They also deserved something out of the Arsenal
game but ended up losing after a defence splitting move from the Gunners. Eddie
Howe knows Bournemouth are in a tricky set of fixtures but will be confident of
improving results in December. Brighton also endured a tough month after a perfect
October. Chris Hughton’s team collected just 1 point from their 3 games and they
find themselves stuck in 12th. Hughton will be disappointed with
their results especially not beating 10-man Leicester at home but he will be
pleased with their application and survival is looking good for the Seagulls.
Wolves are seemingly stuck in a rut after a terrific opening two months of the
season. Nuno’s team have lost 5 of their last 6 games and goals are proving hard
to come by. There is some pressure building on Nuno Espirito Santo after a
terrific start but 1 win in their last 7 has seen the bubble burst somewhat.
Nuno will aim for as many points in December to kick start their season again because
they are only 6 points off the Europa League places, so all isn’t lost.
The festive period is always an exciting but crucial time in the
Premier League calendar and there is plenty of exciting and crucial games in
December including Southampton vs Man Utd,
Chelsea vs Fulham, Liverpool vs Everton, Arsenal vs Tottenham, Man Utd vs Arsenal,
Brighton vs Crystal Palace, Bournemouth vs Liverpool, Chelsea vs Man City,
Fulham vs West Ham, Liverpool vs Man Utd, Bournemouth vs Brighton, Everton vs Tottenham,
Leicester vs Man City, Watford vs Chelsea, Fulham vs Huddersfield, Crystal
Palace vs Chelsea and Liverpool vs Arsenal. Plenty of festive fun and
excitement to come and December sees us reach the halfway stage of the league season.
Every manager knows this is a crucial part of the season with games coming
thick and fast and plenty of points available. Festive cheer could be in short
supply for some, but many will be hoping for good tidings this Christmas.
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