Sunday Review Gameweek 21 – FPL Fantasy Premier League

Newcastle 0-2 Man City

In the early Sunday game sponsored by “Specsavers” Newcastle will feel rightly aggrieved after losing this engrossing encounter that saw City move to the top of the Premier League. Edin Dzeko gave the away side the lead in the 8th minute when the brilliant Aleksander Kolarov broke down the left and sent in a fine cross that was met by the Bosnian striker who tucked the ball into the net beyond Tim Krul. But the main talking point, and yet another diabolical refereeing decision, occurred in the 33rd minute when Cheick Tiote scored what should have been a thumping 30 yard goal, Yoan Gouffran was contentiously ruled to be off-side when the ball was struck but clearly he did not touch the ball. The officials deemed him to have been in Joe Harts’s line of sight but, as Alan Pardew argued at length later, the keeper would have had no chance anyway such was the ferocity of the strike. The resulting melee saw Cabaye and Sissoko booked for dissent and it was clear that the Newcastle players were affected by the decision. Having had 80% of the possession after City’s first goal the home side were right to be annoyed. The half time whistle couldn’t come soon enough for both managers as yellow cards were issued to players from both  sides for needless misdemeanours. The second half could have gone either way, Cabaye threatening from distance for Newcastle and Negredo and Nasri coming close for City. Loic Remy was the villain this time for the Toon as he wasted the hosts’ best chance, firing straight into Hart’s legs as the City defence were caught napping. The match had eight minutes of injury time mainly due to a cynical foul by Yanga-Mbiwa who brought down Samir Nasri and he was forced to leave the game on a stretcher close to tears. Initial reports are that it could be a serious knee injury. City now started to push forward in an attempt to kill the game off and after Fernandinho had hit the bar with a header and Steven Taylor had cleared off the line, Negredo finished the game off by rolling the ball in after a rebound from Tim Krul in the final seconds. The City juggernaut keeps rolling on and if they can win ugly away from home consistently they will be very difficult to stop in the march towards another Premier Title.

Bonus Points: Kolarov (3), Dzeko (2), Demichelis & Silva (1)

Stoke 3-5 Liverpool

Sundays other match was a torrid and boring affair and not worthy of a mention!! Good grief, we were treated to a fantastic spectacle that had everything you could want on a Sunday afternoon. Liverpool emerged the winners after a quite remarkable game and looked to be walking it having raced into a two goal lead within 32 minutes following a Ryan Shawcross own goal and a Luis Suarez strike. But the Britannia Stadium is a difficult place to get a result and having only lost one of their last ten at home Stoke were not going to roll over and lie down. Mark Hughes has instilled some fight in this team and two ex-Liverpool players did their damndest to get Stoke back into the game, first Peter Crouch’s header pulled one back before Charlie Adam thumped in the second from the edge of the area to pull Stoke level.
Steven Gerrard on his 650th Liverpool appearance, restored Liverpool’s lead on 51 minutes with a penalty after Raheem Sterling drew Marc Wilson into a foul and then Suarez fired in an angled shot to make it 4-2 to the visitors, following some wonderful play from Daniel Sturridge who cut inside from the left to set him up. Jonathan Walters looked to have set up a tense finish by reducing the deficit in the 85th minute, but Sturridge celebrated his return from an ankle injury by scoring Liverpool’s fifth, having seen his initial effort saved by Jack Butland he was able to find the net on the second attempt. A great game to watch and more interestingly for us FPL Managers, “S & S” could be back!

Bonus Points: Suarez (3), Gerrard (2), Sturridge (1)

This article was written by Eddy