Review of Premier League GameWeek 16

An exciting mid-week display of English Premier League GameWeek 16 was brought to our screens. This saw the last round of fixtures for the year 2020.

Fans have cause for excitement as the league is wide open courtesy of recent results. We could be heading for an old fashioned title battle between bitter rivals Manchester United and Liverpool this new year.

Oladipupo Mojeed looks at all the action in the just-concluded Premier League GameWeek 16.

Read Also: Review of Premier League GameWeek 15

Crystal Palace 1-1 Leicester City

The Foxes suffered another setback in their title race as they came out with just a point in their encounter against Crystal Palace.

Harvey Barnes scored for the second match in a row helping his side draw level. The Eagles took the lead just before the hour mark through Wilfred Zaha’s volley.

Kelechi Iheanacho missed a penalty early in the game which could have given the visitors an early lead.

Crystal Palace now sit 15th place with 19 points while Leicester City remain 3rd place.

Chelsea 1-1 Aston Villa

Anwar El-Ghazi continues his goal-scoring form as he earned Dean Smith’s men a draw at Chelsea.

The hosts started well with Christian Pulisic coming close to scoring on several occasions. Olivier Giroud broke the deadlock with 11 minutes to go in the first half, meeting Ben Chilwell’s cross with a diving header. This stretched his run of scoring record against the Villains to 7 consecutive league games.

El-Ghazi drew the visitors level as he met Matty Cash’s cross from close range to score his 5th goal in 5 games.

Both teams pushed for a winner but without success and settled for a point each.

West Brom 0-5 Leeds United

Marcelo Bielsa’s men ran riot against the Baggies as they hit 5 against them with no reply. The Peacocks equalled their biggest ever away win in their victory at the Hawthorns.

Romaine Sawyers broke the deadlock in an unfortunate manner as he scored in his own net 9 minutes into the game.

Ezgjan Allioski doubled the advantage with his powerful strike just after the hour mark. Patrick Bamford set up Jack Harrison for the 3rd after an exchange of passes between the duo.

Rodrigo’s effort from the edge of the penalty area was deflected in as Leeds United made it 4-0 before half time.

Raphina made it 5-0 in the second half with his effort finding the top left corner from outside the box.

The win moved Leeds up to 11th place with 23 points while West Brom continue to struggle in the relegation zone.

Southampton 1-1 West Ham

Southampton and West Ham battled to a goalless draw at the Saint Mary’s Stadium to make it back to back stalemates for both sides.

Danny Ings who featured for the Saints after returning from injury had a 6th-minute goal disallowed after Che Adams was found to be offside in the build-up leading to the goal.

Alex McCarthy made some fine saves as he kept a clean sheet for the hosts. Southampton ended their woeful run of defeats against the Hammers and sit 9th place with 26 points while West Ham remains 3 points behind.

Burnley 1-0 Sheffield United

Ben Mee dashed Sheffield United’s hope of getting their first win of the season as his first-half header earned Burnley all three points.

Ashley Barnes was denied the chance to open the score sheet by Aaron Ramsdale when he saved Barnes’ effort at point-blank range. Rhian Brewster’s header on the other end was also cleared off the line.

Ben Mee scored the only goal of the encounter on 32 minutes when he headed home Robbie Brady’s swinging corner.

The Blades were unable to find the equalizer despite efforts from David McGoldrick and John Egan in the second half. They sit 20th place with 2 points so far while Burnley moved to 16th place with 16 points.

Brighton & Hove Albion 0-1 Arsenal

Alexandre Lacazette found the back of the net 29 seconds after coming on. The Frenchman’s solitary strike helped the Gunners to their 2nd Premier League victory for the month.

Young sensation Bukayo Saka set up the Frenchman for the goal in the 66th minute. Gabriel Martinelli who paved the way for the goal scorer had an effort earlier which went just over the crossbar.

Arsenal moved up to 13th place while Brighton dropped to 17th with 13 points.

Manchester United 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Marcus Rashford’s stoppage-time effort earned the hosts victory over Wolves.

Romain Saiss came close to giving the visitors the lead twice as his first effort hit the crossbar and the second getting palmed away by Manchester United’s goalkeeper.

Bruno Fernades almost gave the hosts the lead when he found Mason Greenwood’s cross from close range, but was denied by Rui Patricio.

Rashford won the match in the final moments when his effort found the back of the net aided by a deflection.

Wolves dropped 12th after the defeat while United moves up to 2nd position with a game in hand.

Newcastle United 0-0 Liverpool

Karl Darlow was the hero of the night as he helped the Magpies hold Liverpool to a goalless draw at St James’ Park.

The hosts started well and forced a good save from Alisson Becker when Callum Wilson’s shot was on target. Mohammed Salah’s left-footed shot was brilliantly saved by Karl Darlow. Sadio Mane’s effort later could only find the side netting.

Darlow made another fine save when Roberto Firmino’s head was on target. Despite Liverpool’s tireless efforts, they were unable to break the deadlock.

Liverpool remains top of the league with United while Newcastle is 14th on 19 points.

The Premier League GameWeek 16 ended with just 14 goals – one of the lowest scoring weeks of the season so far.

Happy New Year to all our followers.