HOTW: Chelsea and United improve, strangeness in Slovakia
Goal of the weekend
As fate would have it, we pick from the Czech league for the second time. Last week, it was a curious goal. This time, it's a thunderbolt that fits the phrase: 'It couldn't have been hit any better'.
In the eighth minute of the match between Bohemians and Hradec Kralove, the ball bounced to the edge of the penalty area to Jan Kovarik from a corner kick.
The experienced player used his piledriver of a left foot to send an unsavable shot into the top corner. Kovarik was quite possibly the man of the match, too, adding a second goal to lead the Kangaroos to victory.
Underdog of the weekend
Slovak second league team FK Humenne managed a great one-touch combination. It had only one problem - it was between a defender and the goalkeeper, and it led to an own goal.
Adrian Knurovsky tried to stop Lukas Horvath's misdirected pass from going out for a corner. He succeeded, but Horvath somehow directed the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
Myjava took the lead in the sixth minute of the match without any of their players even touching the ball in the opponent's half of the field. They eventually won the match 2-1.
Social media highlight
Footballers are used to getting stick from opposition fans. Some of them are bothered by it, others couldn't care less, while a few enjoy it. This includes, for example, English midfielder James Maddison, who plays for Tottenham. He shared on Instagram a celebration of his winning goal against Bournemouth, including a fan aiming a vulgar gesture towards him.
"Have a nice Saturday from me and the old man in row E!"
Stat of the weekend
We're going to put two interesting stats together, as they both relate to Manchester United. The Red Devils had a nightmarish start to their game against Nottingham Forest, conceding two goals in just three minutes and 47 seconds. It was the quickest they had ever gone two goals down in Premier League history.
But never write United off. When captain Bruno Fernandes scored the winning goal from the penalty spot, it confirmed that Manchester United are masters of the comeback. Since the Premier League was founded in the summer of 1992, this is the 13th time that they have won a match from 2-0 down.
Story of the weekend
Enough has been written about Chelsea's incredible squad overhaul and how they have been buying one player after another since the arrival of new owner Todd Boehly. The league game against Luton showed this to the fullest.
Not a single Chelsea player in the squad last Friday was in the one that took on Luton 17 months ago in the cup. Funnily enough, only one player on the pitch was actually in that Blues squad - Ross Barkley, who was donning the Luton kit. Now that's what you call a real change.
Photo of the weekend
Mateo Retegui's 'Italianisation' is complete. The twenty-four-year-old forward represented his native Argentina in the youth teams, but when Roberto Mancini called him up for the EURO qualifiers and told him that he could welcome him into the Azzurri squad due to his Italian ancestry, he didn't hesitate.
In three games with the Italian national team, he has scored two goals, one of them against England.
In the summer, he even transferred to Genoa from Mexican Tigres (or rather from Argentine Boca Juniors, the team he belonged to). He failed to score in the first round of games but, on the weekend, he downed Lazio with the only goal of the game. And he duly celebrated with the fans!
