Premier League scores, Week 15: Pep Guardiola hands Jamie Vardy a hat trick

Defending has been optional for most of this season in the Premier League. Defending was extremely optional on Sunday. There were only six games, but they produced an astonishing 29 goals. Three of them were scored by Jamie Vardy as part of a six-goal contest between Leicester City and Manchester City.

With regard to that game, Pep Guardiola has some explaining to do.

Saturday’s scores

It has been a terrible season for Vardy, who hadn’t scored in the Premier League until Saturday. Apparently, all Vardy needed to get going was to face a team playing a weird 3-4-3 with one real center back, no wingbacks, and no competent defensive midfielders.

Guardiola’s failure to adjust his team for his opponent and available personnel let Vardy score a hat trick, with the best of the bunch being his second.

Leicester’s had just as rough of a season as a whole as Vardy has as an individual, but Man City’s tactics were the perfect remedy to their ailments. With Man City trying to press high and play a possession game in front of a shaky defense, Leicester was set up perfectly for the defend-deep-and-counter style they rode to the title last season. Pep played directly into their hands.

It’s clear Guardiola is viewing this season as one in which to lay the foundation for what he wishes to achieve in the future, and for that reason he’s not changing his tactics to match up well against his opponent. But he’ll have to compromise at some point — missing Champions League gives him a shaky foundation to build on.

Manchester City had 78 percent possession, in case you were wondering.

Arsenal’s win over Stoke was pretty standard stuff. They went down early but came back to beat an inferior team 3-1 at home. The most notable thing about the game was why they went down a goal — because Xhaka elbowed Joe Allen in the face, giving away a penalty.

Xhaka has three other bookings in the Premier League this season: two yellow cards and a straight red against Swansea City. He also picked up a yellow in the Champions League and was sent off in September during Switzerland’s World Cup qualifier against Portugal.

His Bundesliga disciplinary record is worse: 11 yellows three seasons ago, 11 yellows two seasons ago, and seven yellows plus three sendings off last year.

Xhaka is a huge talent, and Arsenal need a central midfielder who’s willing to be physical. But if he can’t fix his disciplinary problems, he’ll never live up to his £30 million ($37.7 million) price tag.

It’s going to be a long relegation battle in the Premier League. Sunderland, despite their good form over the last month, was always going to suffer some more bad losses this season. But they performed poorly against Swansea — one of the tiny handful of teams that might potentially be worse than them — and their supporters are taking it poorly.

This is the perfect encapsulation of The Sunderland Experience, but Jermain Defoe and Victor Anichebe should get back on the goals column of the box score soon enough.

This goal is so good that Zaha can’t even believe that he scored it.

Zaha’s career has been a roller coaster, but he’s had some truly spectacular moments this season and might finally be realizing his potential.

As for the result, Alan Pardew is bailed out again. His team went behind against a poor Hull side on multiple occasions but fought back to get the road point. Once again, a week will pass without Pardew losing his job despite everyone questioning his competence. He always finds a way to avoid the axe.

The Toffees have gone five games without a win and are 1-5-4 over their last 10 matches. Their 3-2 defeat by Watford on Saturday featured some moments of brilliance from Romelu Lukaku, but also some shocking defending and midfield play. Everton blog Royal Blue Mersey is already questioning whether their season can be saved. They’re furious with the players’ effort.

“The Toffees are currently showing that they have no mental strength whatsoever, with the lack of confidence so desperately affecting the players’ form that manager Ronald Koeman might need to bring in a fleet of psychiatrists to spark these highly-paid, professional crybabies. ... Between the veterans in this squad and manager Ronald Koeman, it is very easy to see where the decline in Everton’s performance has come from. And the way things are going, even a successful January transfer window is not going to change anything at this once-proud club.”

Yikes.

Thought that Zaha goal was great? It’ll struggle to win goal of the week. The leader in the clubhouse for that is Burnley’s Jeff Hendrick.

Hendrick earned a reputation for scoring spectacular goals with Derby County in the championship, and he’s taken his talent for long-range goals to the Premier League.

The Premier League has a loaded slate of matches on Sunday. Chelsea vs. West Brom kicks of the slate at 7 a.m., followed by Manchester United vs. Tottenham Hotspur at 9:15 a.m. and Liverpool vs. West Ham at 11:30 a.m., with all those games on NBCSN. Southampton vs. Middlesbrough is also on at 9:15 a.m., but can only be seen online. All of those games are streaming at NBC Sports Live. For listings from other countries, check out Live Soccer TV.