Apologies for the delay in getting this back on track – you know how it is with Christmas the new year and things begin to stack up when you convince yourself that you’re unable to draw the Sheffield United third kit or do the world champions patch on the Liverpool shirt.
Gameweek 18
- A pleasing clash of two green-clad goalkeepers at Goodison Park
- A first PL outing for that recycled Sheffield United third
We’ll publish the up-to-date Away Kits Table at the bottom, but here are Matt Smith‘s scores for that round:
Arsenal 3
Southampton 3
Burnley 3
Sheffield United 1
Crystal Palace 3
Wolverhampton 3
Leicester 3
Manchester United 3
Chelsea 3
Arsenal getting maximum points for changing may be a bit controversial amongst some but there’s some tradition attached. They’d always change to yellow and blue to avoid shorts clashes in days of old, so there’s some nostalgia to the decision.
Sheffield United’s change to their fluorescent third strip, whilst possibly understandable, wasn’t entirely necessary. They’d have been fine in their own stripes versus those of Brighton.
Gameweek 19
Matt’s scores, with comments below Gameweek 20:
Brighton 3
Norwich 3
Arsenal 3
Southampton 0
West Ham 3
Burnley 1
Watford 3
Newcastle 3
Liverpool 3
Manchester City 3
Gameweek 20
- Leicester wore alternative white socks at West Ham
- Manchester United black change socks with their second kit at Burnley – the third different style of black socks for them to wear this season
- Liverpool wore their world champions patch against Wolves – and the white-footed socks were back, for some reason
Matt’s ratings, with an evaluation of the rounds immediately after Christmas:
Bournemouth 3
Everton 3
Crystal Palace 1
Aston Villa 0
Tottenham 0
Leicester 3
Manchester United 3
Chelsea 3
Wolverhampton 3
Sheffield United 3
The Nice List:
Really liked Leicester’s decision to offer a greater contrast at West Ham by wearing white socks – a look they’re not unfamiliar with as first choice if you think back to the Lineker and Smith era.
Sheffield United should be congratulated for avoiding an unnecessary change at the Etihad. You can bet they were really tempted to go white-black-black though.
The Naughty List:
Southampton haven’t been too ridiculous this season, but changing at Chelsea catapults them into that realm.
Tottenham are starting to make a nasty habit of pointlessly leaving their home strip at, er, home. Quite unlike them, yet such activities can quickly gather unpleasant momentum.
Villa suffered a bad defeat at Watford wearing their away kit. It was completely deserved as they were wearing their away kit.
Gameweek 21
- Wolves’ Adama Traoré wore a sponsorless shirt at Watford – apparently due to an error
- Everton wore their third kit for the first time – this game also saw a ‘goalkeeper clash’ – more of this please
- Manchester United wore their third kit in its default format for the first time in the league
Chelsea
Aston Villa 3
Leicester 3
Tottenham 3
Wolves 3
Everton 1
Crystal Palace 0
Bournemouth 3
Manchester United 3
Sheffield United 3
Thinking Palace might view the white strip as their preferred option on the road now. But we can’t award points because it looks good.
Everton changing from blue at City was unusual, they’ve normally ignored the ‘same colour’ issue as their darker version was a significant contrast. Would be interesting to know why they decided not to follow that route this time.
The table after gameweek 21:
