Premier League Round Three: The good, the bad and the ugly
Round three of the Premier League is in the books and Manchester City are now all alone at the top of the Premier League with nine points out of nine. Leicester City, Liverpool and Manchester United all drew, which halted their perfect starts to the season. Seven Premier League sides remain winless through three fixtures: Watford, Tottenham, Stoke City, Newcastle United, Southampton, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion.
Here is the link to last week’s edition of the good, the bad and the ugly in case you missed it.
Let’s get straight to it then!
The Good
Callum Wilson
The young Bournemouth striker fired his club to its first ever top flight victory with a superb performance away to West Ham United. Three shots. Three shots on target. Three goals. Not too bad for a player who spent a little more than one season playing outside of the league system.
#AFCB recorded their first PL win with a little help from hat-trick hero Callum Wilson.http://t.co/qitJi0pcvH pic.twitter.com/A1VCVJnvNM
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 23, 2015
Wilson spent one season on loan at Kettering Town in 2010-11, during which he contributed just one goal in 17 appearances. He spent part of the next season on loan at Tamworth, again scoring just one goal in three appearances for the club. Not exactly a prolific goal scoring record, but in just five years Wilson has gone from non-league loanee to scoring a Premier League hat trick. You can read more about Wilson’s improbable rise to the top flight here.
The importance of this victory cannot be overstated. Eddie Howe’s side needed a result in the worst way after two good performances netted them zero points against Aston Villa and Liverpool.
Pedro’s debut
More from The Top Flight
- Barcelona identify Newcastle star as Robert Lewandowski replacement
- Arsenal injury news: Mikel Arteta confirms “rapid” attacker suffered injury
- “600 days” Fans make SHOCK Chelsea revelation – They really are poor
- Arsenal transfer news: Mikel Arteta rivals Manchester United for wonderkid
- Manchester United: Erik ten Hag pinpoints 4 players amid Brighton loss
If not for Pedro, the defending champions might just have slumped to an unlikely defeat away to Premier League strugglers West Bromwich Albion. The former Barcelona winger put in quite a performance to spark Chelsea’s 3-2 victory considering this was his first match for the club.
Pedro scored the opening goal, notched an assist and created three chances for his team. Although not quite as active defensively as he typically was for Barcelona, Pedro still contributed four recoveries and won three fouls.
Maybe Manchester United and Manchester City could have used him after all, but the table would indicate Chelsea probably need him more.
Jack Butland
The Stoke City keeper let in a goal that he should have saved during the first match of the season at home to Liverpool, but has since responded with two good performances.
First, he made five saves away to Tottenham during the second match of the season. This week he made six saves and earned his side a point they otherwise did not deserve based on the run-of-play. Norwich City outplayed Stoke for the most part as they outshot The Potters 20-6 in total and 7-1 in shots on target.
Here are your #SCFCMOTM match stats of goalkeeper @JackButland_One from Saturday's game #SCFC pic.twitter.com/7S3aQOFhzA
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) August 24, 2015
The best save of the bunch was a robbery of a Nathan Redmond strike late on during the match. The Potters appear justified in believing in Butland and refusing to make Asmir Begovic their highest earner this summer, instead choosing to sell him to Chelsea.
Next: The Bad