THE PREMIER LEAGUE today reaffirmed their commitment to finishing the 19/20 season at some point, albeit only when it is completely safe to do so. Thus it looks as if we will remain in limbo for some time to come.
We’ve spent the week looking back and picked out our player, signing, and flop of the season so far, so let’s round it out with a look at the most memorable moment of the season thus far.
The Contenders
Aaron Connolly scores a second goal on his full debut for Brighton
It has been a mercifully good season for Irish youngsters in England’s top flight, with Will Smallbone, Michael Obafemi, Troy Parrott, and Adam Idah all making an impact. None made their introduction in quite such dazzling style as teenager Connolly, however, who scored twice against Spurs on his full debut for Brighton.
If the first goal owed to some penalty-box predatory instincts, the second was reminiscent of Thierry Henry.
Connolly captured the country’s attention -okay we were eager for it to be caught – and was soon a senior international, making his debut away to Georgia. Connolly has only scored once since and has seen his momentum slowed by injury, but there was enough promise on that day against Spurs to nourish us for a while.
Granit Xhaka is booed by his own fans
Arsenal has for years been a deeply unhappy, frustrated place, and much of this latent anger rushed to the surface and boiled over on poor Granit Xhaka in the autumn. The captain was substituted in a 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium with Crystal Palace, and courted long-accumulating scorn by strolling leisurely from the pitch. He then exacerbated the situation by cupping his hand to his ear and then tossing his shirt away as he came off.
He was stood down for a few weeks and stripped of the captaincy in the aftermath, but explained his position on social media by highlighting the poisonous social media criticism that has been sluiced his way.
It was a memorable moment for all the wrong reasons, as it is a definitive statement that players, in spite of their wealth and their occasional fecklessness, do not deserve such pressure and such wretched abuse.
David Martin makes his West Ham United debut
David Martin grew up listening to tales of his father Alvin, who spent 20 years at West Ham, playing almost 600 games. David joined the club as a youth, but didn’t stay, instead bouncing around clubs for the guts of two decades, only really settling at MK Dons.
At the age of 33, he still dreamed of playing for West Ham just once, and was signed last summer as a third-choice goalkeeper. Then Fabianksi got injured and Roberto made a few disastrous errors too many, and he was given the chance to play for his father’s club in a league game at Stamford Bridge.
West Ham won 1-0 with Martin keeping a clean sheet, and he sank to his knees in tears at full-time. His Dad was in the stand doing commentary for TalkSPORT, but he broke away from the mic to tearfully embrace his son in front of the press box.
Great things come to those who wait.
Liverpool are finally beaten
Liverpool had gone more than a calendar year unbeaten in the Premier League by the time they rolled into Vicarage Road on the final day of February, where they were run over by a rampant Watford.
Troy Deeney and Ismaila Sarr were the stars of a remarkable 3-0 win that was as celebrated by Arsenal fans as it was by Watford’s.
Leicester hammer Southampton
9 (NINE)- 0.
Who is forgetting that?
The winner
Trent Alexander-Arnold goes all Carlos Alberto at Leicester
In the spirit of celebrating the best, we may look back at this as the game Klopp’s Liverpool were at their very, very best.
They arrived into this game on St Stephen’s Day in a commanding position at the top of the league, albeit travelling to the King Power more or less off a plane back from the Club World Cup in Qatar. Leicester were Liverpool’s closest challengers at the time..and were thoroughly blown away.
Alexander-Arnold was particularly brilliant, popping up on the inside-right channel to thwack home in a manner redolent of Carlos Alberto at the 1970 World Cup. He scored this and set up the other three goals in a blistering 4-0 win.
The right-back summed up all that is good about Klopp’s Liverpool here: fast, committed, ambitious, innovative and just very, very good.
Who knows when Liverpool will get a chance to lift their title – or even if they will – but this was the moment when they announced themselves as the pre-eminent, untouchable force in English football.
