Bukayo Saka’s brilliance helps Arsenal expand their lead at the top of the table as West Ham languish at the bottom of the table – Premier League hits and misses | Premier League Soccer News

Saka’s return: Arsenal ace delivers expressive performance

The measure of Bukayo Saka’s performance is that, despite being sent off at half-time, he finished the game with twice as many chances as any other player on the pitch.

The captain was active on this day, making his first starting appearance since the cup final. The twists and turns that put Raul Jimenez on the back foot summed it up. He was an asset to this Fulham team.

His cross for Victor Gokeres’ opener was spot-on. His finish on goal oozed confidence and quality.

Any concerns about Arsenal’s open play threat were negated by their talisman’s return to fitness.

The failure to add to the scoring after his sending off highlighted that point. Although he was encouraged by the opening goal, Gokeres and Riccardo Calafioli could have easily added more goals.

At one point in the second half, Arsenal fans re-enacted the song ‘Saka and Emile Smith Rowe’ from a few years ago to show their appreciation for the current Fulham attacker, who was sidelined with injury.

Two talents from Hale End. However, Star Boy Saka became the leader of this team.

Rejuvenated and reinvigorated, he looks ready to score and assist his team to glory.
peter smith

West Ham need results over performance as time runs out

West Ham are no longer in a position where performance matters. With three games left, all that matters now is the result and defeat at Brentford will be a wake-up call. If you can lose when you play well, what happens when you play bad?

Brentford manager Keith Andrews said: “The important thing today was to find a way to win.” They have moved up to sixth place in the race for European qualification, with the exception of West Ham who are far more in need of points at this stage of the season.

Ironically, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have been in good form for some time now, taking 22 points from their last 14 Premier League games and moving two points clear of the relegation zone. At the start of this race, they were seven points behind safety.

Until the defeat to Brentford, only five clubs had won more points than West Ham. They looked worthy enough to get something out of West London too, hitting the woodwork four times, having an equalizer ruled out by VAR, and taking 13 shots.

Even Brentford’s opening goal was controversial, with a potential foul on Konstantinos Mavropanos overlooked.

West Ham’s performance suggests the team can survive, but results are needed for the standings. There is no longer any room for bad luck stories.
david richardson

Statch’s star quality means Leeds are almost safe.

Jamie Redknapp named Anton Stuch as one of his signings this season on Friday Night Football’s Sky Sports studio. In fact, the midfielder’s modest £18m transfer fee is looking more and more valuable by the week.

In the win against Burnley, Stasch created the most chances (3), took the most touches in the opposition box (5) and took the most shots (5), despite playing just 72 minutes since returning from injury.

What sets him apart is his ability with both feet, from open play to set pieces. As of Friday, only Bruno Fernandes has created more chances in the Premier League this season than the German international (61). His command of the middle third is perfectly balanced with captain Ethan Ampadu’s combativeness, and Ao Tanaka also plays his role smartly.

It’s a midfield structure that can compete and stay at the top level. It is often the division that most desperately disappoints teams on the brink of relegation. Burnley’s disastrous central midfielder perfectly exemplified that fact at Elland Road.

Another outstanding performance and goal from Stutch almost made Leeds safe. Their quest for survival is tantalizingly close. They certainly can’t fluff it from here.
laura hunter

‘Massive’ win comes at just the right time for Howe under pressure

Saturday’s hard-earned victory against in-form Brighton felt huge for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United.

Newcastle’s head coach had what he described as a “challenging conversation” with the club’s Saudi owner on Thursday, but his future has been the subject of intense debate in recent weeks following a worrying run of nine defeats in 12 Premier League games. As a result, the Magpies were languishing in 14th place in the table ahead of kick-off against the in-form Seagulls.

But in front of Newcastle’s owners, chairman Yassir Al Rumayyan and co-owner Jamie Reuben, in attendance at St James’ Park, the home side had 2.14 expected goals without penalties in the first half, their eighth highest of the season, and led 2-0 at half-time.

The Magpies were forced to work hard in the second half to pick up the three points, but under Howe they ended their longest losing streak in the Premier League and moved up to 13th place, now just three points behind Fulham in 10th place.

Howe later admitted he had “slept well” after this “huge win”, but there were still three games left to give Newcastle a chance to qualify for Europe next season.
rich morgan

If you pull your hair, you will get another red card.

Even Wolves manager Rob Edwards didn’t think it meant that Dan Ballard had pulled the hair of Tolu Arokodea, who sent off a Sunderland defender against Molineux. Coach Edwards later confirmed that the players were okay with each other. “It’s just the text of the law.”

Black Cats boss Regis Le Bris may conclude that the law is shit. “We understand the rules. Paul Tierney is a great referee, but it’s difficult to enforce the rules,” coach Le Bris said in the post-match press conference.

He added, “It’s really hard to understand because I don’t think it was an intentional or violent act. It was an aerial duel with a tall striker who is 198-199 meters tall and weighs around 100 kilograms. Ballard is also a huge man. He will fight in the air 20 times during the match.”

As Le Bris pointed out, “a lot can happen” in these situations, and recent evidence suggests that is true. Michael Keane and Lisandro Martinez are among the players who have already been sent off for such offences, with the former also playing against Arrocodea.

What could Le Bris do to prevent something like this from happening again? That was a natural question. “First of all, we will look at who is the striker. If he has long hair, okay, now we have a problem. If they play for a long time, be careful.”But the fear is that this will continue.

“If you face a long-haired striker, you’ll have trouble defending.” Grappling is also part of the game, something Fabian Haseler seemed to acknowledge when he revealed that Brighton had turned to a mixed martial artist for help. Just don’t touch your hair.
Adam Bate

Edwards under pressure at Wolves

Rob Edwards admitted over the weekend that he understood the question when asked if Wolves could probably make it past the end of the season. No wonder he feels that way more than ever after the abuse he received from fans on Saturday.

The crowd settled for gallows humor for much of the match, but substitute Hugo Bueno was booed and chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” broke out before things got even uglier when he went down the tunnel without facing fans at full time.

Edwards had previously claimed he would applaud all four corners “win, lose or draw” but now he has second thoughts. “I was frustrated, but I thought I wasn’t going to provoke it any further. I didn’t want to anger the ground any further,” he later explained.

Maybe he’s right and it might help for supporters to know that Bueno hasn’t practiced enough this past week and has been guarded. But all of this must be a concern at a club that clearly needs some cohesiveness as Wolves look to change their trajectory.

When Edwards was appointed, there was an expectation that even if he was unable to get his season back, he would be able to utilize his preparation time to put Wolves in the best position to challenge for the championship. Internally, there remains optimism about it.

But things get even more difficult when relationships with fans break down. Edwards believes that if he makes a good hire, the atmosphere will change and he will be able to hit the ground running in August. But he knows the score. “We have to get off to a good start, that’s going to be important.”
Adam Bate