Flops of the weekend: Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez struggle before inter
There were a few players who looked like they might already be thinking about their national teams during the final Premier League weekend before the international break.
Tottenham struggled to a draw with Liverpool, Burnley were completely outplayed by Chelsea, and Hull City will be disappointed by their last minute defeat to Manchester United – and that was just on the Saturday.
On Sunday, Manchester City’s dismantling of West Ham will have their title rivals worried, while the less said about West Brom and Middlesbrough’s dirge-fest the better.
Here are a few of the players who really under-performed during all the action.
Jordan Pickford
Pickford can probably count himself unlucky to be here, but his mistake against Southampton was pretty dire.
With David Moyes edging towards a first victory in charge of the Black Cats, the 22-year-old dived over a very tame shot from Jay Rodriguez to cost his side two points.
Every point is vital for the relegation battlers, and they will have to hope these dropped points don’t cost them when it comes to the end of the season.
Ahmed Elmohamady
Flops of the weekend: From Kane to Ward... Prem stars who failed to impress
It was a case of so near yet so far for Elmohamady on the weekend.
Having been a part of a brilliant defensive display from the Hull City, he was at fault for Manchester United’s last minute winner.
The full-back allowed Wayne Rooney to ghost past him and cross the ball for Marcus Rashford to tap in to the back of the nest in the dying seconds of injury time.
Stephen Ward
Flops of the weekend: From Kane to Ward... Prem stars who failed to impress
Stephen Ward was a part of the Burnley side that worked incredibly hard but still wasn’t good enough to stay up in the 2014-15 season.
He will hope that Saturday’s performance wasn’t a sign that this could happen again, as the superior class of Chelsea saw them run out 3-0 winners.
Ward was especially poor, with Willian giving him a torrid time throughout the afternoon.
Jordi Amat
Amat is not a fast man.
So, when he came up against Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy on Saturday, it was a recipe for disaster.
Sure enough, the England international sped past the glacially slow centre-back to score as the Foxes beat Swansea City 2-1.
Younes Kaboul
Flops of the weekend: From Kane to Ward... Prem stars who failed to impress
More of an old-style centre-back, Kaboul endured a tough debut for Watford.
The pace and trickery of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez was too much for the 30-year-old to deal with, and he will hope for better days against more physical opposition.
Steven Defour
Also making his debut, Defour got a harsh welcome to the Premier League.
He was unable to make much of an impact on the game at Stamford Bridge, with little to no chances to get on the ball for any length of time.
Sean Dyche decided to end this torture when he hauled the Belgian off after 55 minutes.
Adlene Guedioura
Flops of the weekend: From Kane to Ward... Prem stars who failed to impress
Dragged off after 45 minutes, Guedioura won’t want to be playing Arsenal again any time soon.
Granit Xhaka took control of the midfield from the off, and the Algerian was left chasing shadows for the whole of the first half.
Luckily for him, new signing Roberto Pereyra came on to allow the midfielder to hide away for the second half.
Gokhan Tore
Flops of the weekend: From Kane to Ward... Prem stars who failed to impress
Gokhan Tore might take some time to get used to the Premier League (Picture: Getty)
West Ham were going to have to make full use of their set pieces if they were going to have a chance of getting any points against Manchester City.
However, Tore had other ideas, and proceeded to scuff corners and free kicks throughout the 3-1 defeat.
New to the Premier League, it may take him some time to get up to speed with the division after arriving from Turkey.
Riyad Mahrez
Although his team won, Mahrez did his best to cause them trouble.
The winger missed from the spot, and looked uninspired when going forward.
Luckily for the Foxes, this didn’t have an effect on the result this time, but Claudio Ranieri will need him back to his best if they are going to even get close to the heroics of last season.
Fernando Llorente
Flops of the weekend: From Kane to Ward... Prem stars who failed to impress
Llorente barely got a chance to touch the ball for much of Swansea’s loss to Leicester, but the Spaniard’s inability to hold it up did no favours to the rest of his team.
Yet to score for his new club, the 31-year-old will want to change that soon.
However, if he continues like this it could be a long wait for the forward.
Harry Kane
Tottenham looked blunt in the final third during their 1-1 draw with Liverpool, in no small part due to Kane’s struggles.
The striker looked off the pace, and continued his unwanted record of never having scored a Premier League goal in the month of August.
He will hop to rediscover his best form with the England squad before Spurs head in to fixtures against Stoke City, AS Monaco, and Sunderland.
