By Sam Noel | The Duquesne Duke
Week 7 of the Barclays Premier League saw quite a lot of goals and some surprising results. The great thing about the BPL is that there’s always a marquee game on the cards every weekend, and this time around it was ninth-place Tottenham Hotspur who hosted league leading Manchester City at White Hart Lane.
A big storyline in this match was the battle between two highly talented strikers; Harry Kane for Tottenham and Sergio Aguero for Manchester City. Kane, with zero goals so far, hasn’t been able to replicate his amazing scoring form that he was able to reach last season, when he scored 21 goals, the second most that season. Similarly, Aguero, the scoring champ last year, has only tallied one goal for City, but there was hope for the Argentine, as he has scored nine goals in his career against Tottenham.
Manchester City took the lead in the 25th minute through new signee, Kevin De Bruyne and considering the past four times these teams met, where Manchester City won 6-0, 5-1, 4-1 and 1-0, it looked as though the match was already over at this point. However, Tottenham’s Eric Dier equalized just before halftime in the 45th minute. Three second-half goals from Toby Alderweireld, Erik Lamela and, most significantly Kane, led Tottenham to a shocking 4-1 win. An important goal for the Englishman, it looks like Kane could be on his way to a repeat of his incredible scoring form just a year ago. The loss for City dropped them to second, and Tottenham jumped to fifth.
While that match was the big game of the weekend, fourth-placed and high-flying Leicester City, a team most expected to be battling against relegation, played host to title-contenders Arsenal. Leicester has been in incredible form, with their striker Jamie Vardy leading the league in goals. And who scored the opening goal? Vardy. Leicester took a 1-0 lead and had Arsenal on their heels in the opening 15 minutes. However, Arsenal center forward Theo Walcott equalized off of a great assist from Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla. A hat-trick from star player, Alexis Sanchez, led Arsenal to an important 5-2 win, as they leaped over Leicester to fourth place.
Champions Chelsea visited Newcastle United, where the storyline in this match was that manager José Mourinho has never won at St. James’ Park. And it looked like that losing streak was going to continue as Newcastle jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Chelsea, however, was able to equalize and finish the game at 2-2. While their comeback was certainly commendable, this draw marks another stutter for the champions as their rough start continued. The champions remain in 15th place.
Liverpool finally got a well-deserved win, as the return of clinical striker Daniel Sturridge and his two goals earned them a 3-2 win against a pesky Aston Villa squad. Sturridge has certainly had his fair share of injury issues in recent years, but he finally returned on Saturday. His comeback eased the pressure off of manager Brendan Rodgers, who was certainly in the hot seat as his side also began with a rough start this season. If Sturridge is able to stay healthy, I think you could easily see Liverpool finish in the top four.
