The Merseyside derby was today. It had everything you'd expect from such an occasion: tackles, fouls, more fouls, lots of fouls, all the fouls, every foul, grabbing, holding, kicking, Ross Barkley doing something extremely stupid, Jordan Henderson stomping around with his chest puffed like a guy who's had a few too many and thinks everyone is looking at his girlfriend, more fouls and exactly one goal.
But what a goal.
West Ham fans are devoted, rowdy and funny as hell. This isn’t based solely off of Green Street Hooligans, it’s a verifiable truth. For a club that’s never finished higher than third in England’s top tier and whose last major triumph came in the 1980 FA Cup, it’s remarkable that they still draw nearly 60,000 fans a game at the London Stadium.
Ilkay Gundogan. Gone but not forgotten.
The German midfielder's teammates paid a touching tribute to their fallen comrade before their match against Arsenal Sunday. Gundogan figured to be a big part of Manchester City's title challenge this season before he was stricken down.
Kevin De Bruyne registered his ninth assist in 16 Premier League matches by smashing a no-look, cross-field volley straight at Raheem Sterling, allowing the Englishman to beat Petr Cech at his near post for Manchester City’s go-ahead goal on Sunday.
Raheem Sterling comes up clutch! #PLonNBC pic.twitter.com/JmCcac2X57
Leicester City's Wes Morgan has apparently entered into some kind of agreement with Captain Morgan rum, which caused us to wonder why this wasn't a thing already. It also got us thinking about Toby Keith for some reason, which is why we made up this song (to the tune of "Rum is the Reason"), for which we are deeply sorry.
Also, feel free to sing along.
A meeting between two clubs sitting side-by-side in the Premier League table turned out to be a thoroughly one-sided affair, Manchester United traveling to the Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion and comfortably winning 2-0.
The gap between the top six sides in England and the rest of the division appears to be pretty large on the evidence of Saturday’s match between the Red Devils and the Baggies. United are now unbeaten in eight consecutive EPL matches, and they’ve drawn level, at least momentarily, with Tottenham, who have a game in hand.
On Wednesday, Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2-1. The first Manchester United goal was scored by Paul Pogba and assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The second goal was scored by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and assisted by Paul Pogba.
There can only be one Man of the Match, so who was it to go to?
Well, the people who decide such things said it should go to Pogba (likely because Zlatan's assist may or may not have hit his arm), but Zlatan overruled them and said it should go to Zlatan.
Here is a video of Roberto Firmino's highlights so far this season:
Whoops! We have just been informed that this is in fact not Roberto Firmino's 2016 Liverpool highlight video. We apologize.
That video should be about Roberto Firmino, though, because Roberto Firmino's teeth are incredible.