West Brom are seventh from bottom but the only one of that group to be surely safe of any relegation fears. They lost at Man City in the lunchtime kick off and both Aston Villa and Leicester were losing at the same time as we were going down at Southampton.
There were goals galore at White Hart Lane with Harry Kane hitting a hat trick to go top of the goalscoring chart, although just over 24 hours later he was sharing it that honour.
Over the last 18 months or so we've seen Leicester win penalty after penalty. Last season they, along with Bournemouth, scored more Championship penalties than any other club and Leicester managed to miss a few too.
Strangely, even with the most ridiculous of awards, and that includes the one they got against Man United at home earlier this season, Nigel Pearson has had very little to say, he just got on with entertaining us with his mouth movements.
But the minute a dubious penalty goes against his side then we get him in full flow again. Poor Nigel, who is capable of losing the plot even quicker than the Portuguese manager at Chelsea, has already this season insulted our club, hurled abuse at a fan, got a bit physical on the touchline with James McArthur but maybe he just surpassed himself on Saturday when he declared: "I'm not one to moan."
This, of course, was when he was commenting on referee Mike Dean. Asked if it was worth speaking to him, he said: "No. I find his arrogance ........ I've got to choose my words carefully. I find it distasteful, let's put it like that and I think our players deserve a little more respect."
Personally, I find Nigel distasteful and certainly disrespectful and do you know his team are as good as any in the Premier League, he says so after virtually every game. They remain in 20th place.
We left Southampton at least knowing they and Villa had lost, Villa going down to a late goal against Swansea so it hadn't been so bad.
I have to comment on the City v West Brom game because of the latest refereeing gaffe, this time by Neil Swarbrick. Recently Roger East couldn't tell John O'Shea and Wes Brown apart when he wrongly sent Brown off at Man United.
Had he owned up to a mistake the red card would have transferred to O'Shea but he wouldn't and tried to claim Brown had also committed a foul. He hadn't and Sunderland won their appeal.
This time it was Gareth McAuley and Craig Dawson involved. Dawson was the guilty party; McAuley saw red. It is hard to believe just how Swarbrick got it wrong but at least he was honourable enough to admit his mistake with the one match ban now going to Dawson.
Back to the bottom of the league. We listened to the West Ham v Sunderland game on the car radio as we made our way home. It sounded as if it was a dreadful game and looked to be heading to its likely conclusion of a 0-0 draw.
Then, you'd have thought Burnley had scored a goal given the reaction in the car as we celebrated West Ham's late winner from Diafra Sakho.
Then to Sunday and two big games featuring Hull and QPR but before that we saw the Akinbiyi moment at Anfield as Steven Gerrard smashed Ade's short stay debut, getting himself sent off less than 40 seconds after coming on.
It was back to the roller coaster then. Chelsea 2-0 up at Hull was a cracking start and then it got even better when Seamus Coleman gave Everton the lead at QPR.
Nothing's ever that simple. Hull scored two in two minutes to draw level and twenty minutes into the second half it was also all square at Loftus Road. So I'd like to offer my personal thanks to Loic Remy and Aaron Lennon for their goals that condemned Hull and QPR to defeat, leaving everything just where it was on Saturday morning.
I would think only Hull, Villa and Sunderland, other than the bottom three, now have any relegation concerns.
We've got a week off now for the last international break of the season and then it is one game per week until the end of the season.
All the results and stats from the weekend are below along with the leading goalscorers, the red and yellow card count for each club and the next fixtures.
The Results | |
Saturday 21st March | |
ASTON VILLA 0 SWANSEA 1 | STOKE 1 CRYSTAL PALACE 2 |
MANCHESTER CITY 3 WEST BROM 0 | TOTTENHAM 4 LEICESTER 3 |
NEWCASTLE 1 ARSENAL 2 | WEST HAM 1 SUNDERLAND 0 |
SOUTHAMPTON 2 BURNLEY 0 | |
Sunday 22nd March | |
HULL 2 CHELSEA 3 | QPR 1 EVERTON 2 |
LIVERPOOL 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 2 |
The Stats | |
Biggest Win | MANCHESTER CITY 3-0 v WEST BROM (home) |
Total Goals Scored | 31 (16 home - 15 away) |
Player Scoring Most Goals | 3 - HARRY KANE, TOTTENHAM (v LEICESTER) |
Highest Attendance | 50,544 - NEWCASTLE v ARSENAL |
Lowest Attendance | 17,706 - QPR v EVERTON |
Total Yellow Cards | 20 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most Cards in a Game | STOKE v CRYSTAL PALACE (7Y) Ref: ANDRE MARRINER |
Leading Goalscorers (League Only) | |
19 | DIEGO COSTA (CHELSEA) HARRY KANE (TOTTENHAM) - includes 2 penalties |
17 | SERGIO AGUERO (MANCHESTER CITY) - includes 4 penalties |
15 | CHARLIE AUSTIN (QPR) - includes 3 penalties |
13 | OLIVIER GIROUD (ARSENAL) ALEXIS SANCHEZ (ARSENAL) |
12 | SAIDO BERAHINO (WEST BROM) - includes 3 penalties |
11 | PAPISS CISSE (NEWCASTLE) - includes 1 penalty EDEN HAZARD (CHELSEA) - includes 2 penalties WAYNE ROONEY (MANCHESTER UNITED) - includes 1 penalty DAVID SILVA (MANCHESTER CITY) |
10 | WILFRIED BONY (MANCHESTER CITY) - includes 1 penalty - (9 for SWANSEA) ROBIN VAN PERSIE (MANCHESTER UNITED) |
9 | CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN (TOTTENHAM) DANNY INGS (BURNLEY) - includes 1 penalty DIAFRA SAKHO (WEST HAM) |
8 | NACAR CHADLI (TOTTENHAM) MAME BIRAM DIOUF (STOKE) NIKICA JELAVIC (HULL) ROMELU LUKAKU (EVERTON) includes 1 penalty GRAZIANO PELLE (SOUTHAMPTON) |
Hat Tricks | |
Date | Player & Game |
13/09/14 | 3: DIEGO COSTA - CHELSEA v SWANSEA (home) |
18/10/14 | 4: SERGIO AGUERO - MANCHESTER CITY v TOTTENHAM (home) |
20/12/14 | 3: CHARLIE AUSTIN - QPR v WEST BROM (home) |
31/01/15 | 3: JONATHAN WALTERS - STOKE v QPR (home) |
21/03/15 | 3: HARRY KANE - TOTTENHAM v LEICESTER (home) |
Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) | |||||||||
Club | Y | R | Y | R | Club | Y | R | Y | R |
League | Total | League | Total | ||||||
ARSENAL | 64 | 2 | 71 | 2 | MANCHESTER UNITED | 57 | 4 | 69 | 5 |
ASTON VILLA | 60 | 7 | 70 | 8 | NEWCASTLE | 57 | 4 | 64 | 5 |
BURNLEY | 49 | 0 | 51 | 0 | QPR | 60 | 2 | 63 | 2 |
CHELSEA | 56 | 3 | 64 | 3 | SOUTHAMPTON | 46 | 2 | 64 | 3 |
CRYSTAL PALACE | 52 | 4 | 54 | 4 | STOKE | 65 | 0 | 77 | 1 |
EVERTON | 56 | 2 | 63 | 3 | SUNDERLAND | 75 | 1 | 86 | 2 |
HULL | 60 | 5 | 63 | 5 | SWANSEA | 41 | 5 | 49 | 7 |
LEICESTER | 44 | 4 | 53 | 4 | TOTTENHAM | 61 | 3 | 68 | 3 |
LIVERPOOL | 56 | 2 | 67 | 2 | WEST BROM | 50 | 2 | 52 | 3 |
MANCHESTER CITY | 62 | 2 | 65 | 2 | WEST HAM | 51 | 2 | 57 | 3 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Saturday 4th April | |
ARSENAL v LIVERPOOL (12:45) | MANCHESTER UNITED v ASTON VILLA |
CHELSEA v STOKE (17:30) | SWANSEA v HULL |
EVERTON v SOUTHAMPTON | WEST BROM v QPR |
LEICESTER v WEST HAM | |
Sunday 5th April | |
BURNLEY v TOTTENHAM (13:30) | SUNDERLAND v NEWCASTLE (16:00) |
Monday 6th April | |
CRYSTAL PALACE v MANCHESTER CITY (20:00) | |
Tuesday 7th April | |
ASTON VILLA v QPR |