600 appearances for Gareth Barry
Gareth Barry notched up his 600th appearance in the Premier League today with his side 3-1 win over Middlesbrough. He is now nine behind Frank Lampard and 32 appearances behind Ryan Giggs, and seems likely he will inevitably grace the No.2 position by the end of the season, barring injury.
Everton went down early to a goal which appeared to be a foul on Steklenberg but which was bizarrely given by the ref, after Negrado had clashed into the keeper nudging the ball from his hands into the net.
Koeman said later "“We needed the mistake of the referee because after that we were more aggressive”. “The start was not good, but after that we saw the Everton we expect.”
Gareth Barry marked his 600th appearance with a goal 3 minutes later. Coleman got the second after a neat one two, and Lukaku deftly brushed the ball with his laces into the net for the third, after a Yannick Bolasie cross.
Islam Slimani got a dream debut at the King Power Stadium with a brace on the 46th and 48th minute as Leicester beat Burnley 3-0. The £29m signing known as the 'Dragon Slayer' for scoring goals againsts rivals Porto. Riyad Mahrez was also excellent as a cross from him forced Ben Mee to turn it into his own net.
Kevin De Bruyne was brilliant today as Man City took Bournemouth apart in a 4-0 win at The Etihad. Goals from De Bruyne, Iheanacho, Sterling, and Gündogan sealed the visitors fate as the City side looked polished. Guardiola said later regarding City's new found vigour and that they started last season in similar fashion
“We will not think it is easy because I am here. I have heard for a long time that the Premier League is the toughest so we know that it is September and we have won nothing.”
It remains to be seen how they will cope through winter as the fixtures start stacking up.
West Ham seem to be having opposing problems as the rails seem to have well and truly come off their premier league hopes. Down 4-0 at half time and with a consolation recovery in the second half with goals from Lanzini and Antonio again, which bizarrely puts Antonio the head of the goal scoring table tonight. West Brom had only managed six goals in 13 Premier League matches and not scored four in a Premier League match for two years. In another bizarre stat they only had 25% possession yet Chadli, bought for 13m from Spurs, on his home debut managed a brace, with Rondon and McClean grabbing the others in some of the worst defending experienced. Tony Pulis was not available for comment afterwards which is only furthering recent speculation of his departure.
Arsenal carried on their run with a 4-1 win away to Hull City. Hull’s game plan has worked well under Mike Phelan, who remains caretaker manager despite the offer of a permanent contract last week, with 9 men behind the ball soaking up the pressure, but Arsenal are a dangerous side to relentlessly soak up this kind of pressure. Particularly as Hull went down to 10 men with Livermore sent off. Arsenal with over 60% possession soon took control with a shot from Iwobi glancing off Sanchez. Arsenal should have gone 2 up but Sanchez's penalty was saved. A discussion needed on who takes penalty's as this is not Sanchez's first miss. A one two with Iwobi had Walcott chipping the keeper to make it two. A shot blocked from Walcott had Sanchez tapping in the rebound which should by all rights have been his hat-trick. Dieumerci Mbokani was brought down by Cech which resulted in a Hull penalty which enabled Snodgrass to provide a lesson in taking penalties to Sanchez. A 30 yard strike from Granit Xhaka sealed their doom deep into injury time.
On Friday night Chelsea lost to Liverpool who were at their Klopp best for their meeting at the Bridge. Chelsea were a demure side in the first half and gave themselves too much to do in the second. The first goal was typical of Liverpool's eagerness to win. Coutinho took a short free kick to Milner. He then passed back to Coutinho on the left wing who then crossed the ball to the back post. With the Chelsea defenders all running to the near post leaving 4 Liverpool shirts at the back post and Dejan Lovren to head in past Courtois. Willian and Hazard were isolated, Costa barely got more than one touch each time he had the ball. Chelsea's signing from Leicester Kante, seemed the only one in midfield in grabbing hold of the game but thats no good when his fellow players seem devoid of ideas. The second goal sealed their fate with a weak clearance from Cahill that fell to Henderson 25 yards out whose strike beat Courtois mainly because of his poor position after the previous attack. Chelsea got their consolation through some excellent work by Matic who received a previously played ball from Hazard, skipped past Matip and Lallana on the byline and crossed to Costa who belted it in from close range. They never looked liked they would get a second. Conte will rue some of his decisions and in particular his substitutions which he didn't make until 70 minutes and brought all three on at once in Fabregas, Pedro and Moses. He left his second striker on the bench in Michy Batshuayi. Abromovich will be thinking!