5 Things We Learned: Swansea goal celebration is a welcome addition, Tottenham striker can’t score and the full moon did funny things to the Premier League’s bad boys

Jen Offord takes a look at what we learned over the course of a crazy bank holiday weekend of Premier League action.

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Go wild over goal celebration

I have been thinking a bit about goal celebrations recently. In particular, how do players never fall over when another one jumps on them in a goal celebration? And why don’t players have burns all over their knees from dramatic post-goal sliding sessions?

The other thing that’s been necessary to think about is Bafetimbi Gomis’ big cat-inspired goal celebration, which he’s had cause to dust off again this week.

Gomis showed off his trademark prowl after putting a goal past Manchester United’s Sergio Romero on Sunday, which put the Swans a goal up against the Red Devils. There’s no denying that it’s a bold move . . . And we can only hope to see it many, many more times this season.

Harry strain

Harry Kane’s goal drought continued against Everton at White Hart Lane on Saturday. In fairness, he had a good chance, but couldn’t quite manage to see it through. It must be frustrating for Spurs, who have yet to win a match this season.

The match ended in an uninspiring 0-0 draw, with Everton’s John Stones continuing to play in the starting line-up, despite the continued furore around the young defender’s requests to move to Chelsea. Club chairman, Bill Kenwright, is apparently not having a bar of it – and who can blame him.

Palace and Hammers end hoodoo

Crystal Palace won their first league match at Stanford Bridge in 23 years on Saturday, with a convincing 2-1 victory over Jose Mourinho’s Blues. And blue I’m sure he will be, having won only one of his first four games. More so because the victory means Palace boss – Alan Pardew of ‘failing club managerial roulette’ fame – is now inexplicably the only manager to have beaten Mourinho on three occasions. And even more so because his team “did enough not to lose”, according to The Special One. The scoreline begged to differ.

Over at Anfield, West Ham delivered a 3-0 trouncing to end Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the season. It’s the first time they’d won at Anfield in 52 years.

Dark side of full moon

It was a super moon yesterday, and someone at Notting Hill Carnival tried to convince me such things had the power to drastically change our behaviour. I wasn’t sure I believed them until I watched this weekend’s football highlights, where true to the moon-inspired term “lunatic”, it was all kicking off in the Premier League.

Though West Ham will have been happy with their win at Anfield, they also took home their third red card in three matches. Over at Dean Court, there was all sorts of skulduggery going on, including a late penalty to Jamie Vardy which secured a 1-1 draw between Leicester and AFC Bournemouth.

Though perhaps the most surprising decision of the match was not to send off Leicester’s Robert Huth, for punting the ball into the face of Man of the Match Callum Wilson as he lay on the pitch.

Over at the Brittania Stadium, Stoke managed to lose 1-0 at home to West Bromwich Albion, after getting not one, but two men sent off before half-time. The first was handed to Ibrahim Afellay for a full-on slap around the chops of Craig Gardner, who in fairness had given Afellay’s own mush a little tickle first. Charlie Adam took the Potters’ second red card for stamping on the leg of Craig Dawson, who admittedly went in with a pretty daft looking tackle first.

History repeats

There was even more history to be had, in Bournemouth’s 1-1 draw with Leicester with Wilson scoring the Cherries’ first ever top-flight goal in their own stadium.

In some ways it must be nice to be Bournemouth, with almost all actions being heralded as “historic”. In other, much more fundamental ways, it must be rubbish being them. But I like AFC Bournemouth, and think I’d like them to make EVEN MORE HISTORY by winning the league. The fact that this will never happen is one of those fundamentally rubbish things.

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