Chelsea’s finishing woes continued while Erling Haaland scored his first hat trick of the season for Manchester City in what has been an eventful Saturday of soccer. But Haaland wasn’t the only striker to net a hat trick. Heung-Min Son, starting as a striker for the first time this season, and teenager Evan Ferguson of Brighton would join him. It was a historic Saturday in the Premier League, marking only the second time in the league’s history that three hat tricks have been scored in a single day.
In United States men’s national team news, Matt Turner got his first clean sheet for Nottingham Forest in what could prove to be a massive result, defeating Chelsea. Everton scored their first goal of the season but the story of the day is strikers who shined on the day for both good and bad reasons. Let’s get to the Saturday rundown:
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Saturday’s results
Sheffield United 2, Everton 2
Manchester City 5, Fulham 1
Chelsea 0, Nottingham Forest 1
Burnley 2, Tottenham 5
Brentford 2, Bournemouth 2
Brighton 3, Newcastle United 1
Sunday’s results
Crystal Palace 3, Wolves 2
Liverpool 3, Aston Villa 0
Arsenal 3, Manchester United 1
Evan Ferguson dispatches Newcastle
Each day a young player shines for Brighton, and on Saturday, in Brighton’s 3-0 win over Newcastle, it was Ferguson’s chance. Replacing an injured Danny Welbeck in the lineup, the 18-year-old Ferguson made a strong case that he should be the starter from here on out after scoring a decisive hat trick against Newcastle United. Brighton continue to shine and they’ve also added Ansu Fati to the mix for their European tour.
Ferguson is only 18 and has become one of the youngest players to ever score a Premier League hat trick (Michael Owen holds the record at 18 years and 62 days old, just 256 days younger than Ferguson) and he did it with varied finishes as well. Brighton’s attack does provide space for strikers to succeed but they still have to finish the chances and Ferguson just did that. Scoring like this, he could be Brighton’s next record export but with this kind of scoring he could fire them to a trophy first. Ferguson did this to a Champions League caliber club as well while Brighton raises their profile by the day.
Tottenham has a striker
You have to be careful not to take too much from a match against a promoted side, but Tottenham are leading a charmed life under Ange Postecoglu, scoring multiple goals in each league game under their new manager. But, until Saturday’s 5-2 win over Burnley, none of those goals had come from the actual striker as the void of Harry Kane loomed over the side. Richarlison started the first two matches, was pressing too hard to make things happen and getting visibly frustrated in the process. So, in an away trip to Burnley, Postecoglu made a change to the side. Richarlison dropped to the bench with Heung-Min Son moving from the wing to leading the line and summer acquisition Manor Solomon coming into the side on the wing. They responded in a big way with a hat trick for Son and two assists for Solomon.
Scoring his first goals of the season, Son showed why he was usually the player who was at the nine when Kane didn’t play in previous years and Solomons assists mean he’s staking a claim to that role after his first league start for the club. While Brennan Johnson was added at the transfer deadline, his integration will go better if he can be eased into things which can happen with a contributing Solomon as Son and James Maddision shoulder the scoring load. Still unbeaten through four games, Postecoglu is pressing the right buttons for Spurs.
Chelsea still searches for a nine
The Blues being a top striker away from really competing has been the story since Diego Costa left after the 2016-17 season and the Blues are still searching. While Christopher Nkunku was supposed to be part of the solution, he’s out injured until January leaving things to Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson. The duo took seven shots, getting into good positions but none of them hit the target with a few missing in spectacular fashion.
As a whole, Chelsea took 21 shots accumulating an expected goal total of 2.12 in the match, but Turner only had to make two saves in Nottingham Forest’s net to keep a clean sheet in the match. Chance creation has always been a strong point for Chelsea but something needs to change for these chances to hit the back of the net. Given that Chelsea’s solution for everything has been to buy better players, it gives Mauricio Pochettino quite a task to sort this team out.
Haaland finds his form
After a down (by his standards) start to the season, Haaland the goal-scoring robot has returned for Manchester City. Despite City allowing Tim Ream to find the back of the net, they were still able to score five goals in the match so it wouldn’t matter. While Fulham were missing Joao Palhinha due to his dramatic transfer breakdown from almost joining Bayern Munich, in the second half it was all City all the time. Haaland had a vintage performance of 16 touches leading to four shots, three goals, and an assist during the match as City scored five from only an xG of 2.18. Good teams are expected to outperform their xG and that’s just what City can do with Haaland.
They’re the team to beat both in the Premier League and in Champions League until proven otherwise.