It didn't look like Saturday would be a thrilling day in the Premier League. There wasn't a heavyweight match on the fixture list and nothing especially compelling. And yet, the league put on a show and left us plenty to talk about.
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Can Manchester City handle multiple competitions?
Manchester City picked up a massive and impressive win over Barcelona midweek in the Champions League. It looked like they had found their groove, but on Saturday they conceded late and slumped to a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at the Etihad. Now, City were better on the day so it's not like they need to panic, but they weren't dominant or clinical. This is still a team adjusting to Pep Guardiola and in need of some reinforcements. It may be tough for them to handle multiple competitions, and we may have seen that in Saturday's draw.
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Welcome to the team, Victor Anichebe
Anichebe hadn't started a single Premier League match this season until Saturday. Part of that was due to injury, but more than anything, David Moyes preferred to play with one striker and Jermain Defoe was his man. But Anichebe got the chance to play alongside Defoe against Bournemouth and, not coincidentally, the Black Cats got their first win of the season. Anichebe made a great play to score Sunderland's first goal and drew the penalty for their second as the Black Cats won, 2-1, despite playing the last half-hour down a man. Anichebe made the difference and he may have even saved Moyes' job.
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An ugly day at the Olympic Stadium
West Ham were bad. Stoke were bad. The kits were bad. The stadium was dead. Nothing about this match was worth tuning in for.
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Chelsea look like the best in the league right now
The key words are “right now.” We've said this about several teams so far this season so this can (and probably will) change as we search for the actual top team in the Premier League, but there's no doubting that the Blues are on a roll. Chelsea absolutely thrashed Everton, 5-0, on Saturday and have now won five straight. They've kept clean sheets in all five of those matches and have scored 16, making them undoubtedly the most in-form team around right now. Antonio Conte has his team rolling.
Oh, and they're top of the table too.
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Things got wild at Turf Moor
Rarely does the scoresheet tell you much about a match, but when Burnley hosted Crystal Palace on Saturday, it communicated every bit for bonkers things were.
- BURNLEY: Sam Vokes (2')
- BURNLEY: Johann Gudmundsson (14')
- PALACE: Connor Wickham (60')
- PALACE: Christian Benteke (81')
- BURNLEY: Ashley Barnes (90'+4')
Yeah, it was wild.
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