Match Week 11 Recap

City Back on Top, Blades on the Board, and The High Road

Author

nick lochner
November 08, 2023

EPL Match Week 11 - CleanSheet Recap

In Today’s CleanSheet:

  • Headlines 📌

  • Current Situation📈📉

  • Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- High Road

  • Off Island 🏝️ - Champions' League Group Match 4

  • Best Bets 💰

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Headlines 📌

  • Best Result of Match Week 11. 2-0 Forest v Villa. Was not the most exciting match of the weekend but might be the best result. Villa have been on a tear scoring at will and had a chance to climb into the top 4. Forest have been in most of their matches with 4 draws in their last 6 but just have not found a way to close. Many were concerned the Tricky Trees were on their way to the relegation battle but this signature win at home jumped them to 13th in the table providing much needed momentum.

  • City Back on Top. 4 of the top 5 teams dropped points and City took advantage trouncing Bournemouth 6-1 putting them back on top.

    • #4 Liverpool drew at Luton Town 1-1.

    • #5 Villa was shut out at Forest 0-2.

    • #6 Newcastle beat #3 Arsenal 1-0.

    • #1 Tottenham fell out of first losing a wild one to Chelsea 1-4

      (See Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥section for more on the Gunners and Spurs.)

  • Momentum only goes as far as your next starting pitcher. In the case of the PL, your next match. Wolves, Arsenal, Liverpool, Villa and Tottenham were all on a roll. They all lost points. Palace had not won in 3 matches. Sheffield had not won all year. Chelsea had just lost the West London Derby. No matter - they each won.

  • Best match week of the season? It’s possible, at least in terms of action and drama. Red cards, VAR checks, fights, comebacks, first time winners, disappointing draws and last-minute heroics - for results check out the Current Situation section below.

  • Drama, and VAR. See Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥 section for the Drama. But here’s a quick summary - in a 5 second goal sequence there were THREE VAR checks, for three different violations, which the “millions” of cameras didn't have enough evidence to be definitive AND there should've been a FOURTH VAR check in that same sequence that was missed.

  • Every Goal. There was so much action this weekend, if you are interested here is every goal condensed into 19 min on YT.

    • The first 30 seconds are a great watch for Man United’s winner over Fulham in extra time.

    • The winner for The Bees over West Ham at 230 is great.

    • Goal of the weekend? Check out min 715 for Sheffield United or maybe the 8min mark goal for Wolves.

    • Or, watch Jordan for Burnley give 2 goals for Palace. Although, Palace did do a lot to finish. 921 min.

    • How about Luton Town’s moment against Liverpool, or maybe Liverpool's answer at 5 min.

  • Biggest Disappointment. Burnley. There are much higher expectations for the Clarets than 9 losses in 11. The Clarets ran thru the Championship last year, but they continue to look out matched. This time to a middle of the pack Palace at home losing 0-2. That’s the 6th straight home loss, a PL record to start a season. How much leeway will ownership give Vincent Kompany.

  • Yet to Lose. Tottenham and Arsenal both lost. There are now 3 teams with 1 loss.

  • Still Winless. None. Sheffield United beat Wolves - 4 teams now have 1 win.

Current Situation 📈📉

Clean Sheets Counter

47 Season Clean Sheets

  • 4 teams have yet to get a Clean Sheet. BHA, Burnley, Luton Town, Sheffield United.

  • Arsenal and Newcastle lead the league in Clean Sheets at 5.

  • Burnley, Everton and Fulham have been shut out 5 times this season.

4 Match Week 11 Clean Sheets

  • Man United, Palace, Newcastle, Forest.

  • 3 teams have scored in every match this season. BHA, Liverpool, Tottenham.

  • Arsenal was shut out for the first time this season.

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

NOT The High Road. North London Derby. The High Road.

As mentioned above - it was another rough week for officials and VAR. However, it brought out one of the best post-match interviews ever and demonstrated great leadership. Just a little glance into what may be behind all the success of the Hotspurs Manager and why players love playing for him.

Scene 1…..Saturday, Newcastle on Tyne - NOT the High Road

Major drama with calls and VAR in Newcastle v Arsenal.

  • This sequence (2 min X) led to a goal by Anthony Gordon.

  • It took THREE VAR checks, and a missed VAR check all on the same play - and it seems no one pundit can agree on what the call should be.

  • Did the ball go out of bounds? VAR couldn’t get a good view. Nonconclusive. beIN says IN. (2m X)

  • Was there a foul on Gordon. (X) Lots of disagreement on the foul. VAR said no clear and obvious error.

  • Was Gordon Offside? (X) VAR couldn’t get a good view, again! Nonconclusive.

  • Hand ball? (X) VAR neglected to check it.

  • Mikel Arteta and Eddie Howe got into it on the sidelines (15s X)

  • Gary Neville @ says - Yes Goal

  • Tom Rennie @thomasjrennie says - No Goal

Mikel Arteta

  • Arteta did not hold back in his comments - he went full blast - “an absolute disgrace”. Here is a 3 min article from the Irish Independent with all the comments.

  • Then Arsenal sent out a statement criticizing the refs saying the PGMOL needs to “urgently” look at their standards. “AFC wholeheartedly supports Mikel Arteta…..”

  • Bottom Line - Arteta and Arsenal are upset and seem to have a case. Not only in the heat of the moment, but well after, they unleashed on the officials, VAR and PGMOL.

RESULT - NOT the High Road

Intermission - No one loves losses and drama for the Gunners more than Spurs fans…..The North London Derby.

  • 4 miles apart

  • Arsenal W86 L67 D54

  • Only 8 players have ever played for both teams in the Derby

  • Gunners finished ahead of Spurs 21 straight seasons ending in 2017

  • Since 2017, Spurs finished ahead of Gunners until the 23 season

Scene 2 - Monday, North London, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - The High Road

MORE Major drama with calls and VAR in Tottenham v Chelsea.


This Match was crazy, unbelievable. Big injuries, 2 red cards, 5 disallowed goals, VAR check after VAR check and goals. And then basically went completely sideways.

  • Spurs grab the lead at 5 min. (20s X). Fans loving it (15s X).

  • A Chealsea goal! Wait, nope offside and a VAR check says no goal. But wait, was there a penalty? Yes, actually a RED card. And Chelsea converts to make it 1-1 TWELVE MINUTES later. See the sequence. (2min X). Spurs now with 10 men.

  • James Maddison and Micky van de Ven went out with injuries for Tottenham.

  • Great insight at halftime on PL Mornings @nbcsortssoccer from @robbiemustoe and @timhowardgk.

  • A second yellow by Udogie, turned Red at the 55 min and Spurs are now at 9 men.

  • Even with 9 men, Tottenham played a high line (X) and went on attack mode.

  • And, in the final 15 min Nicolas Jackson scored a hat trick to make it 4-1 Chelsea.

Ange Postecoglou, when asked about his style.

  • A Leader Emerges - Ange Postecoglou, Spurs Manager - Watch this 1 min immediate post-match interview.

  • And then, later, Ange talks about what managers should do regarding officials. One might suspect that Ange had seen what Arsenal, their big rival did the day before. Watch this 1 min comment (X) that had everything except - “We will not stoop to Arsenal's level.”

RESULT - THE HIGH ROAD

Off Island 🏝️

Champions League. Europa League. Europa Conference. Check out the Off Island section of the match week 4 preview clean sheet fore on The Champions League.

3 of 6 Matches Complete in the Group Stage. For more detail, here is a link to EUFA Champions League coverage, Europa League, and Europa Conference.

Champions League Matches Mid-Week

  • Man United travel to Copenhagen two weeks after beating them at Old Trafford 1-0. Wednesday, 2pm cst Paramount+

  • Arsenal host Sevilla two weeks after beating them 2-1 in Spain. Wednesday, 2pm cst Paramount+

  • Man City host Young Boys two weeks after beating them 3-1 in Austria. Tuesday, 2pm cst Paramount+.

  • Newcastle travel to Germany to take on Dortmund two weeks after falling to them at home 0-1. Tuesday, 1145am cst Paramount+.

  • Also in Group F, AC Milan travel France to take on PSG after losing 0-3 two weeks ago in Italy.

Standings through 3 of 6 matches.

Europa League

  • West Ham host Olympiacos after falling in Greece 1-2. Thursday, 2pm cst Paramount+.

  • Liverpool travel to France to take on Toulouse after beating them 5-1 two weeks ago at Anfield. Thursday, 1145am cst Paramount+.

  • BHA travel to The Netherlands to take on Ajax after beating them two weeks ago 2-0. Thursday, 1145am cst Paramount+.

Europa Conference

  • Aston Villa host AZ Alkmaar after beating them 4-1 two weeks ago. Thursday, 2pm cst Paramount+.

Best Bets 💰

Close to break-even week. Big Cat can continue to provide good luck.

Let’s Keep It Rollin’

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And with that - we have a new leader - and the bar has been set. 3-0 on picks!

Overall GP Standings ($)

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