Who didn’t come out of this weekend smelling of roses?
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The Premier League weekend has now drawn to a close, with little recovery time available ahead of a full midweek schedule that sees all twenty sides play once again on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
It has been a good weekend for many, with notable victories for Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur despite mounting pressure on those respective clubs, but here are five people who didn’t come out of the action quite so well:
Eliaquim Mangala
Manchester City spent an eye-watering fee of £31.8 million of central defender Eliaquim Mangala from FC Porto this summer, but the French international hasn’t cut the mustard in the Premier League so far despite a promising display marshaling Diego Costa against Chelsea. He has put in some dreadful displays since and that continued against Southampton, with a stupid red card heaping the pressure on his side during the closing stages at St. Mary’s.
Hatem Ben Arfa
The deadline day loan signing of mercurial winger Hatem Ben Arfa was supposed to be a sign of how far Hull City have come as a club, but his performances for the Tigers so far have suggested that they may have been better off sticking with what they were doing before signing the enigmatic talents of Ben Arfa and Gaston Ramirez. The Uruguayan was the fall guy last week, getting sent off against Spurs, but Ben Arfa was dreadful at Old Trafford and was hauled off by Steve Bruce in the first half.
Steven Gerrard
The rumours of a bust up between Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and his manager Brendan Rodgers have somewhat clouded the fact that, after a dreadful run of form with him in the team, the Reds finally won after Gerrard was relegated to the bench. It would be churlish to suggest that this is a direct correlation, but is only more evidence for the idea that it is time for Liverpool to start moving on from their talisman.
Leicester City
It is worth lumping freefalling Leicester in as one here, after their 3-2 defeat after an entertaining game at QPR left them rooted to the bottom of the table after their fine start to the season dissolved. Having caught the big boys unaware with their pace and counter attacking, the Foxes are proving unable to adapt their game against the teams who they need to be beating and now look like relegation favourites.
Radamel Falcao
The Colombian may have returned to the Manchester United squad after his succession of niggling injuries, but seeing Wayne Rooney impress and Robin van Persie find the back of the net will not, privately at least, have pleased the AS Monaco loanee. He needs to find a way into the team if he is to justify his exorbitant wages – perhaps an injury to Angel di Maria will allow him a way in?