Ranking the 5 best matches of the Premier League in 2020

The Premier League is sure to give some memorable matches that will be remembered by fans for years. Be it the Chelsea v Manchester City match where Christian Pulisic scored a second goal to hand Liverpool the Premier League title or the Mohamed Salah run which finished off an Alisson assist against Manchester United, the Premier League always turns up in regards to entertainment

5. Liverpool v Manchester United- 19^th January 2020

Liverpool hosted Manchester United at Anfield after a previous meeting ended in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. Liverpool were pretty much cruising towards the Premier League table having been unbeaten for 22 games straight. Of those 22 games only one ended in a draw as the rest were all wins for the Merseyside team and they were 14 points ahead of Manchester City.

Manchester United was 30 points behind Liverpool in 5^th place and had no realistic chance of catching up with Liverpool for a title challenge. It was Liverpool who dominated the early proceedings as they kept battering Manchester United from the start. They were relentless and got an early goal through Virgil van Dijk, who out-jumped €80 million signing Harry Maguire.

Goals from Roberto Firmino and Gini Wijnaldum were ruled out because of a foul in build-up and offside respectively. Sadio Mane missed a couple of chances and that allowed Manchester United to keep threatening Liverpool. It was all put to rest right at the end of the match when Alisson spotted Mohamed Salah high up the pitch. Most of Manchester United’s players had come forward for a corner which Alisson had collected. He punted the ball forward and Mohamed Salah found himself in a race with Daniel James.

The Egyptian King calmly kept Daniel James away with an arm and then put the ball past David De Gea. His jersey was off and Liverpool fans were shouting “We’re gonna win the league, we’re gonna win the league”. Liverpool ‘keeper Alisson sprinted up the pitch and celebrated his assist with Mohamed Salah, the first to have done since Pepe Reina for Liverpool.

4. Manchester City v Liverpool- 3^rd July 2020

This was Liverpool’s first match since being crowned as the Premier League champions after Chelsea’s win against Manchester City. Manchester City gave them a guard of honour to show their respect to them as champions and then went on to annihilate them. The blue half of Manchester outplayed Liverpool in almost every department and Liverpool simply couldn’t handle the rampant team.

Raheem Sterling finally scored against his former team and celebrated it too as Liverpool were embarrassed thoroughly. Kevin de Bruyne ran the show against yet again and showed why he was the best midfielder of the Premier League that season. Eventually his efforts were recognised and he was given the PFA Player of the Year award.

This match was a cold reminder to Liverpool then that the season wasn’t over and there were matches to play still. It was a wake-up call for the champions that Manchester City wasn’t going anywhere and were still title challengers next season.

3. Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur- 4^th October 2020

Just days after Manchester City were thrashed by Leicester City 5-2, Manchester United were crushed by Tottenham Hotspur 6-1. It was Jose Mourinho v his old club and it was the Special One who came up triumphant then. Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min continued their superb partnership as they scored two goals each. Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier got the remaining goals to complete the rout.

Bruno Fernandes put Manchester ahead with a 2^nd minute penalty and Tanguy Ndombele promptly equalised in the next two minutes. Then in the 7^th minute Harry Kane fed Son through a quickly taken free-kick and the latter put the ball past David De Gea. Anthony Martial was sent off with a straight card for hitting Erik Lamela and Harry Kane took advantage of that. Manchester United defender Eric Bailly played a terrible pass which was intercepted by Harry Kane. He passed the ball towards Son Heung-Min who returned it to him and Kane scored from that.

Tottenham finished the first half with another goal as Son Heung-Min as Serge Aurier sent a cross into the Manchester United penalty box. It deflected off Harry Maguire and Son Heung-Min scored from that deflection past David De Gea.  The second half wasn’t any different for Manchester United as Serge Aurier got a goal for his efforts and Harry Kane finished the match with a penalty.

The match showed the contrasting fortunes of both clubs but the current standings couldn’t be any different. Manchester United are currently sitting at second place in the table and are above 7^th placed Tottenham Hotspur. The former is challenging Liverpool for the Premier League title while the latter has been in bad form since their defeat to Liverpool.

2. Manchester United v Leeds United- 20^th December 2020

Manchester United welcomed back Leeds United to their rivalry in the Premier League after 16 years with an empathic thrashing. Leeds United travelled to Old Trafford and played one of the greatest matches of this season. Scott McTominay scored twice in three minutes to break the record of fastest two goal lead in the Premier League. Bruno Fernandes scored two more times while Victor Lindelof and Daniel James scored once each.

Leeds United formation of 4-1-4-1 meant that there was spaces to be exploited in the middle and Manchester United took advantage of that. Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay combined to good effect and created chances for goals. Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsea didn’t change his formation despite his team being overrun and stuck to it till the end. As a result Manchester United scored goals upon the goals.

A unique record was made when Liverpool and Manchester United scored 7 goals and 6 goals against Crystal Palace and Leeds United respectively. They became the first two teams to concede 7 and 6 goals and score the same number of goals. Liverpool conceded 7 goals away to Aston Villa and scored 7 past Crystal Palace away. Likewise Manchester United conceded 6 goals at home to Tottenham Hotspur and scored 6 goals at home against Leeds United.

1. Aston Villa v Liverpool- 4^th October 2020

Never in Liverpool’s current history could they have been expected to lose like this to Aston Villa. Liverpool had a near strength squad with Sadio Mane, Thiago Alcantara, Alisson Becker and Jordan Henderson absent. This was before Liverpool were inflicted with their injury crisis and so no one could have fathomed this scoreline at all. Aston Villa underlined to the league how dangerous they were and the league sat up and took notice.

Aston Villa were leading by two goals thanks to Ollie Watkins scoring two goals with one them being an Adrian error. Liverpool were considerably weakened with the absence of their leader and captain Jordan Henderson and main goalkeeper Alisson Becker. Liverpool always seemed to be nervous whenever Adrian was under the posts. Even Virgil van Dijk was made to look like a terrible defender whenever Adrian was in the nets.

Aston Villa scored four goals in the first half thanks to an Ollie Watkins hat-trick and John McGinn goal. Jack Grealish scored two more and Ross Barkely scored once to add the tally of 7 goals while Mohamed Salah scored in each half for Liverpool. This was Liverpool’s worst away defeat and also equalled Arsenal’s worst defeat as defending champions. Liverpool repeated this fete but were in the opposite side as they crushed Crystal Palace away on 19^th December 2020. They were wearing the same jersey and even kept a clean sheet as Liverpool were ruthless that day.

Also read: Ole Gunnar Solkskjaer’s Manchester United slowly starting to look like Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United