Your Weekly Football Round-Up
After an exciting week which saw the return of European Football, here is your weekly football round-up.
Premier League
Manchester United edged ever closer to a place in the top four on Monday night win a 2-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Anthony Martial gave United the lead just on the stroke of half time after putting away a cross from the Red Devils right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, whilst newly promoted captain Harry Maguire scored his first ever goal for United after a powerful header from a corner in the 66th minute.
Chelsea felt hard done by VAR during the game and rightly so after multiple decisions went against them, with Maguire very luckily escaping a red card after kicking the Blues striker Michy Batshuayi in the groin during the first half.
Chelsea thought that they had successfully come back into the game after both Kurt Zouma and Olivier Giroud put the ball into the back of the net on two different occasions, however these two goals were later ruled out by VAR for a push on a United player and also a slight offside.
Manchester United have now closed the gap to within just three points of Chelsea who are currently sitting in fourth place.
Newly appointed United Captain Harry Maguire scored his first goal for the club, in a game that Chelsea felt hard done by.
NeVAR Ending: Aston Villa vs Spurs
There was even more VAR controversy during the game between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, after Spurs were awarded a penalty in the 94th minute - securing them a 3-2 victory at Villa Park.
Goals from defender Alderweireld and a double brace from Korean forward Son secured the win for Spurs, giving them all three points to take back to London.
Villa manager Dean Smith was far from happy with the decision to give the penalty and thinks that the altercation was ‘’not clear and obvious’’ which is what the VAR criteria states.
Jose Mourinho’s side have now gone up to fifth in the table with Aston Villa still very much in the middle of a relegation battle, sitting just one point above the bottom three in 17th place
Super Spurs Forward Son sustained an arm injury that may see him ruled out for the rest of the season.
Champions League
In the Champions League this week, there were 1-0 losses for both English teams Tottenham and Liverpool, who were narrowly defeated by RB Leipzig and Atletico Madrid.
Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund were victors against PSG, beating them 2-1 at home with the Norwegian striker Erling Haaland taking the headlines after scoring a brace for his team.
Elsewhere, Atalanta have taken a very comfortable lead going into the second leg, after a 4-1 home win against Spanish side Valencia.
The second legs of these matches will be played during the weeknights of Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th March.
Serie A’s Top Scorers Atalanta sustained a dream first leg against Valencia, amassing a total of four goals to one, against Los Ches.
Manchester City UEFA Investigation
UEFA have recently announced this week that current Premier League Champions Manchester City have been banned for breaking certain Financial Fair Play regulations.
The ban means that The Citizens will not be allowed to compete in the Champions League for two seasons and they have also been fined £30m.
In an official statement, the club said that they were ‘’disappointed but not surprised’’ by the decision and have confirmed that they will now commence proceedings with the court of sport as quickly as possible.
Despite City’s Champions League ban, both Raheem Sterling and Pep Guardiola have pledged to remain at the club - amid links to Juventus (Guardiola) and Real Madrid (Sterling).
Article by: Chloe Chadwick
Edited by: Samuel Slaney
Thumbnail by: Arseny Togulev/Unsplash
Images from: Getty Images