EPL Table: Updated 2015 Standings, Top Scorers After Saturday's Week 15 Results
The final game on Saturday's English Premier League schedule provided a stunning upset with defending-champions Chelsea's struggles continuing in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Bournemouth.
By far the biggest win of Bournemouth's short EPL run, Glenn Murray scored the game-winning goal in the 82nd minute following a corner.
A season that has been filled with questions for Chelsea managed to get worse in the blink of an eye. Injuries have certainly impacted the team, but the star power of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard doesn't explain their 15 points in 15 matches and just 17 goals scored.
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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said after the loss their erratic performance is due to "unlucky little details in games and due to inconsistency from individuals," per the club's official Twitter account.
Also from Chelsea's official Twitter account, Mourinho said he "has no right to ask for new players to be bought."
On the winning side, per AFC Bournemouth on Twitter, club manager Eddie Howe talked about what the victory meant for his players:
There's still a lot of work for Bournemouth to do in the club's first EPL season, but an upset win over the reigning league champions is an excellent way to make a statement.
Leicester City took over first-place in the English Premier League standings thanks to a 3-0 victory against Swansea City on Saturday.
Riyad Mahrez was the star of the day, scoring all three goals for Leicester in the victory. His dominant offensive day left no room for Jamie Vardy to continue his scoring streak, but it was a small price to pay for the star striker.
Mahrez was the story of the Foxes' victory, but their defense was just as impressive in preventing Swansea from even getting a single shot on target before the final 15 minutes of the game.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Manchester United picked a bad time to have a bad performance. West Ham United were able to take the Red Devils to a 0-0 draw and dropped them into fourth place in the standings.
Read on for a full look at the updated EPL standings, top scorers and storylines from Saturday's Week 15 results.
| Stoke City | 2-0 | Manchester City |
| Manchester United | 0-0 | West Ham |
| Watford | 2-0 | Norwich City |
| Southampton | 1-1 | Aston Villa |
| Arsenal | 3-1 | Sunderland |
| Swansea | 0-3 | Leicester City |
| West Bromwich Albion | 1-1 | Tottenham |
| Chelsea | 0-1 | Bournemouth |
| 1 | Leicester City | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 32 | 21 | 11 | 32 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 13 | 14 | 30 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 15 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 30 | 16 | 14 | 29 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 29 |
| 5 | Tottenham | 15 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 25 | 12 | 13 | 26 |
| 6 | West Ham | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 25 | 21 | 4 | 23 |
| 7 | Liverpool | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 23 |
| 8 | Crystal Palace | 14 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 22 |
| 9 | Watford | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 16 | 1 | 22 |
| 10 | Stoke City | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 14 | -1 | 22 |
| 11 | Everton | 14 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 27 | 19 | 8 | 21 |
| 12 | Southampton | 15 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 21 | 18 | 3 | 21 |
| 13 | West Bromwich Albion | 15 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 19 | -5 | 19 |
| 14 | Chelsea | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 24 | -7 | 15 |
| 15 | Swansea City | 15 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 22 | -8 | 14 |
| 16 | Norwich City | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 17 | 27 | -10 | 13 |
| 17 | Sunderland | 15 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 29 | -12 | 12 |
| 18 | Bournemouth | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 18 | 30 | -12 | 12 |
| 19 | Newcastle | 14 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 30 | -16 | 10 |
| 20 | Aston Villa | 15 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 28 | -15 | 6 |
| 1 | Jamie Vardy | Leicester City | 14 |
| T2 | Romelu Lukaku | Everton | 10 |
| T2 | Riyad Mahrez | Leicester City | 10 |
| 4 | Odion Ighalo | Watford | 9 |
| T5 | Olivier Giroud | Arsenal | 8 |
| T5 | Harry Kane | Tottenham | 8 |
| 7 | Sergio Aguero | Manchester City | 7 |
| T8 | Alexis Sanchez | Arsenal | 6 |
| T8 | Ross Barkley | Everton | 6 |
| T8 | Georginio Wijnaldum | Newcastle United | 6 |
| T8 | Graziano Pelle | Southampton | 6 |
| T8 | Andre Ayew | Swansea | 6 |
Mahrez's Explosion Leads Leicester
Jamie Vardy is the marquee attraction for Leicester after setting a Premier League-record by scoring in 11 straight matches, but Mahrez has a case for being Leicester's most valuable offensive weapon.
As noted by Simon Brundish of StrengthLab.co.uk, Mahrez's all-around attack has been crucial through 14 matches:
According to ESPN Stats and Info, he's just the third Leicester City player with a Premier League hat-trick. The duo of Mahrez and Vardy has been more potent than three teams so far this season, per Football Funnys:
"Premier League goals: Chelsea - 17 Liverpool - 18 Man United - 20 Vardy and Mahrez: 24 pic.twitter.com/Kmqx9uMdAx
— Football Funnys (@FootballFunnys) December 5, 2015"
Speaking after his historic day, per the Premier League's official Twitter account, Mahrez was quick to point out what his effort meant in the bigger picture.
"The perfect day," Mahrez said. "We won, we’re top & I scored a hat-trick... My first ever hat-trick in my little career."
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri said the reason for his club's success this season is a team-first mentality he has instilled in the players, per the Premier League's official Twitter account.
"Always I ask the players to play for the team; the team is the leader of us. Everyone made a contribution," Ranieri said.
Leicester's win over Swansea continued the team's strong run on defense, as well as showcasing their stellar offensive prowess. The Foxes have given up just two goals in their last four Premier League matches, a huge step forward from the 17 they allowed in their first 10 this season.
Granted, the competition during that stretch hasn't been great, with Swansea and Newcastle United featuring less-than-potent scoring offenses. But the 1-1 draw last week against Manchester United shows this could be sustainable moving forward.
Man United's Offensive Woes Continue
An ankle injury to Wayne Rooney opened the door for Manchester United to get budding stars Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard minutes against West Ham on Saturday.
The problem is, the Red Devils were unable to put anything together on the attack, being forced to settle for a 0-0 draw and falling into fourth place in the EPL standings.
BBC 5 Live Sports commentator Ian Dennis noted the crowd around Old Trafford wasn't too happy with the home team's performance:
Unfortunately, these kinds of results have become the pattern for United at home, per Squawka Football on Twitter:
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal told reporters after the match there isn't a magic formula to increasing the offensive output, per James Tuck of the club's official website:
"You can train every day on shooting at the goal and you have to know that we are doing that. We put players in the position to score but you need composure and luck to score. The most important thing is that we are creating and we are dominant. Today, we were dominant and attacking, we were creating chances – only we forgot to score.
"
One big problem for the Red Devils is there was a lack of urgency to what they were doing with the ball. They were content to sit back, waiting for passing opportunities to open instead of trying to dictate the pace.
The team had a total of 21 shots with just one on target, despite holding possession 63 percent of the time.
Van Gaal can talk all he wants about the need to train and the need for luck in order to find the net, but one goal in the last three matches is not going to get it done. They are fortunate to have slipped only to fourth place, thanks almost entirely to the strength of their defense.
A sense of urgency has to creep in for Van Gaal and Manchester United's players in a hurry, otherwise Leicester and Arsenal will be able to create a lot of separation in the coming weeks.
