{"id":71124,"date":"2023-12-04T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T04:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=71124"},"modified":"2023-12-04T10:02:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T07:02:36","slug":"three-talking-points-from-the-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/three-talking-points-from-the-premier-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Three talking points from the Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

By AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arsenal opened up a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League after Manchester City stumbled once more in a thrilling 3-3 draw against Tottenham on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Liverpool looked as though they were also set for a rare slip-up at Anfield, until two late goals secured a 4-3 win against Fulham, which lifted Jurgen Klopp’s men into second place behind the Gunners, who were 2-1 winners over Wolves on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Manchester United’s recent Premier League revival came to a grinding halt at Newcastle, while Everton boosted their survival hopes despite a 10-point deduction.<\/p>\n

AFP Sport looks at three talking points from the Premier League weekend.<\/p>\n

Leaky Man City open door to challengers<\/p>\n

City have now won just three of their past eight Premier League games to give Arsenal and Liverpool hope their reign as English champions may finally come to an end.<\/p>\n

Defensive solidity was key to City’s run towards the treble in the second half of last season.<\/p>\n

But Pep Guardiola’s men have conceded eight times in their past three league matches.<\/p>\n

City were also guilty of missing a host of glorious chances in the first half against a depleted Tottenham, who started without a recognised centre-back.<\/p>\n

Worse could be to come for Guardiola, with Rodri suspended for a daunting trip to Aston Villa on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Villa have won 13 consecutive home Premier League games and City lost all three matches when the Spanish midfielder was banned earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

Man Utd no match for the best<\/p>\n

Manchester United had risen to sixth in the table ahead of the weekend on the back of five wins in six Premier League games.<\/p>\n

But all of their eight wins this season have come against sides in the bottom half and Erik ten Hag’s men were again found wanting against stronger opposition.<\/p>\n

An under-strength Newcastle, without 11 first team players due to injury or suspension, were dominant at St James’ Park and worthy of a more comprehensive victory than the 1-0 scoreline suggests.<\/p>\n

The visitors were toothless in attack, with Marcus Rashford’s performance attracting criticism for both a lack of quality and effort.<\/p>\n

Newcastle full-back Tino Livramento consistently ran off Rashford into dangerous positions before the England international was substituted by Ten Hag on the hour mark.<\/p>\n

After producing his best-ever scoring season in Ten Hag’s first campaign in charge, Rashford has netted just twice this season.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old’s only goal since September came after he was handed a penalty by Bruno Fernandes in last weekend’s win at Everton.<\/p>\n

“He works hard and he’s investing a lot,” said Ten Hag in defence of the forward. “He will get back, he will recover and he gets all our support.”<\/p>\n

Everton bite back<\/p>\n

A 10-point deduction would have been fatal for Everton’s Premier League status in either of the past two seasons as the Toffees escaped the drop by the finest of margins.<\/p>\n

An appeal against the harshest sporting sanction in Premier League history could yet give Everton back some or all of the 10 points deducted.<\/p>\n

But Sean Dyche’s men appear to have the strength to survive on their own merits, even if the club’s appeal fails.<\/p>\n

A 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Saturday was Everton’s third consecutive victory on the road, already one more than they managed in each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Without the points penalty, Everton would sit 12th, but as it stands they are just two points from safety.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people have been talking about that situation galvanising us but the mentality has been there all season. I think the performance levels have been as well,” said Dyche.<\/p>\n

“There’s a battle on our hands, we know that, but it’s a big step today to get that first win after the recent news and a very good away performance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By AFP Arsenal opened up a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League after Manchester City stumbled once more in a thrilling 3-3 draw against Tottenham on Sunday. Liverpool looked as though they were also set for a rare slip-up at Anfield, until two late goals secured a 4-3 win against Fulham, which lifted Jurgen Klopp’s men into second place behind the Gunners, who were 2-1 winners over Wolves on Saturday. Manchester United’s recent Premier League revival came to a grinding halt at Newcastle, while Everton boosted their survival hopes despite a 10-point deduction. AFP Sport looks at three talking points from the Premier League weekend. Leaky Man City open door to challengers City have now won just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":71125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1152,1323,1221,495,2074],"class_list":["post-71124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-liverpool","tag-man-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}