Bi-Weekly Football Updates: Premier league and La Liga edition

In this week’s segment of weekly football updates, we look back at some of the weekend’s top performances and heavyweight clashes in the Premier League and La Liga. We kick off this week’s segment at Villa Park where Chelsea took on Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa and came away with a statement win. The Blues defeated Villa 2-0 with goalkeeper Kepa Arizabalaga showing a performance for the ages; A whopping total of 9 saves and a spectacular triple save sequence. Homegrown Chelsea talent Mason Mount also seems to be picking up form after a poor start to the season. He racked up 5 goal involvements in his last 3 games and scored both goals against Villa, one being a beautiful dipping free kick. 

What some have classified as the game of the season so far, Manchester City vs Liverpool never disappoints, always creating a 10/10 atmosphere and setting forth some really high-level football. This weekend at Anfield was no different. Liverpool went into the game as underdogs due to their poor form this season and Manchester City, led by star striker Erling Haaland, seemed invincible. Liverpool, however, showed us once again why they are one the best teams in the League by putting on a clinic in an exciting 1-0 win and becoming the first team this season to keep Haaland from driving the ball into the back of the net. The Liverpool goal came courtesy of none other than Mohammed Salah. Although the Egyptian struggled to find his natural level of scoring this season, he turned up when goalkeeper Alisson played a wonderful long ball into his path, which he muscled off City defender Joao Cancelo before calmly slotting it in the back of the net. This win gives Liverpool good momentum to build upon, but means City’s slip up in the table opened a little bit of breathing space for League leaders Arsenal, who muscled away the 3 points from Jesse March’s men at Elland Road, to keep their title charge strong.  

In the Spanish capital of Madrid, we saw Real de Madrid host eternal rivals FC Barcelona at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu during ‘El Classico’. In a dominant fashion, Real Madrid has won the majority of the past games against their competitors over the last 3 years and the trend persisted throughout the weekend. Karim Benzema opened the scoring in the 12th minute of the match after a shot from Vinicius Junior rolled into his path by Barca goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen. Federico Valverde then drilled a shot from a distance in the 34th minute, giving Real a good foothold on the game. Barca did manage to pull one back in the 83rd minute through Ferran Torres’ attempt to fathom a comeback, but their hopes were shot down after conceding a penalty in the 91st minute, converted by Rodrygo. This win puts Real Madrid back on top of the La Liga table and 3 points above their 2nd place arch rivals Barcelona. 

Join us next week to find out who qualifies for the Champions League. Until next time, and as always, stay balling.