Manchester City’s shock 2-0 defeat to Stoke allowed Leicester the chance to return to the Premier League summit, and while Jamie Vardy’s record goalscoring run came to an end, Riyad Mahrez was on hand to blast the Foxes to a 3-0 victory over struggling Swansea.
Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United also had the chance to leapfrog their city rivals, but they failed to take advantage as they slipped to their fifth 0-0 draw in their last nine competitive matches at home to West Ham, leaving the Dutchman with more questions to answer about his team’s lamentable style.
The same cannot be said of Arsenal, however, who overcame their latest injury crisis to beat a resilient Sunderland 3-1 and while Spurs extended their unbeaten run in the league to 14 matches, they will have been disappointed to have left the midlands with just a point against West Brom.
At the other end of the table, Aston Villa are still waiting for their first league win since the opening weekend after surrendering a 1-0 league to draw with Southampton, but the same wasn’t true of Newcastle, who brought Jurgen Klopp’s high-flying Liverpool back down to earth with a shock 2-0 win at St. James’ Park in front of the Sky cameras.
Goodison Park played host to the conclusion of Gameweek 15 in the Premier League, where a chance-fest ended with Everton having to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Alan Pardew’s confident Crystal Palace side. The fixture was particularly significant for Romelu Lukaku, who not only scored for the third consecutive league game, but his equaliser also brought up the 50-goal mark in 100 games for Everton.
The Belgium international is in the form of his life, but still has a long way to go before equalling Vardy’s consecutive scoring record (11 straight games). Vardy was unable to keep that run going at the weekend, but he did become the first place to lose 100 aerial duels this season (104), at least 18 more than any other player.
Vardy wasn’t the only player to bring up an unwanted milestone this weekend. Sadio Mane failed to take advantage of Villa’s porous defence at the weekend and the United target has now become the first player in the Premier League to surpass 50 unsuccessful touches (53) for the season.
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