Our chief football writer reviews the main talking points from the weekend's action
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It has been a heck of a week for Arsenal, who have seen Manchester City twice slip up while they scored seven goals to take a six-point lead at the top of the Premier League. They are now clear and deserved favourites for the title.
At the bottom, Wolves finally got their first league win of the season and now find themselves, bizarrely, in a better frame of mind than West Ham, who face Nottingham Forest in midweek in a match that increasingly feels instructive as to who will finish 18th in May.
Elsewhere, Ruben Amorim and Thomas Frank are under more pressure thanks to 1-1 draws, while Brentford continue their mad march up the table thanks to Igor Thiago’s first hat-trick in England. Fun weekend…
Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…
This weekend’s results
Aston Villa 3-1 Nott’m Forest
Brighton 2-0 Burnley
Wolves 3-0 West Ham
Bournemouth 2-3 Arsenal
Leeds 1-1 Man Utd
Tottenham 1-1 Sunderland
Newcastle 2-0 Crystal Palace
Everton 2-4 Brentford
Fulham 2-2 Liverpool
Man City 1-1 Chelsea
Wolves enjoy the freedom of playing for pride
I didn’t have Molineux down as the happiest Premier League home support this weekend, but witnessing a first league win of the season was a joyous experience. It helped that West Ham were rotten, but Rob Edwards has created a meritocracy in the final third that has finally given fans something to be proud of.
The main beneficiary – and main source of joy – is Mateus Mane, an 18-year-old signed from Rochdale at the age of 16 who is suddenly the greatest reason for cheer at Molineux. There is a directness and naivety (in a positive way) to his play that brings you nearer the front of your seat. The finish for Wolves’ third goal was stupendous.
This is how Wolves can begin to heal. Nobody here would have wished it so, but there is a liberty that stems from knowing that your position in the league table is forlorn. You have only one remit: go out onto the pitch and give people a reason to want to come and watch you for reasons beyond grim habit. Wolves found that on Saturday.
Why should Burnley keep Parker now?
Burnley took 10 points from their first nine Premier League games this season. At the end of October, they were five points outside the bottom three and as close to the top seven in points terms. Since then, Burnley have taken two points from a possible 33. Wolves’ own dreadful run took away scrutiny that should now land at Scott Parker’s feet.
Until now, Parker has remained complimentary about the attitude and intensity of Burnley’s players. Now he’s throwing them under the bus: “We lacked belief and I didn’t feel for one second that it was a team or group that ever believed they could come here and get a result really… I just felt we looked powder puff. We didn’t deserve anything just from our general approach and body language.”
If Parker has lost the ability to motivate the players, there is little hope of fortunes changing under his management. As such, he no longer merits being kept in a job.
Nuno might be done at West Ham
Which half was worse? Your instant response is going to be “the one in which West Ham conceded three goals to a team with three points, dummy”, but I’d like to present a different case.
In the second half, with Wolves clearly – and understandably – sitting on a lead, West Ham had 75 per cent of possession and were challenged to break down a team that should be desperately low on confidence. If they had scored between minutes 46 and 60, panic may well have set in. And during the entire half, West Ham generated 0.23 xG (lower than Wolves) and generated no pressure.
Nuno Espirito Santo may well get the home game against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, at least partly because it comes so soon. But if they fail to win that, he will surely lose his job because none of the reasons for his initial appointment have been realised.
Dyche can’t keep this up at Forest
Steve Cooper was sacked by Forest after losing four league games in a row. Sean Dyche has now lost five league games in a row and things seem to be getting worse.
There were reasons to appoint Dyche, but all of them surrounded his ability to organise a defence and grind out wins. The football was always likely to be perfunctory and risk-averse, but Forest’s new inability to pass through midfield is actually very risky because they lack the defensive structure to keep clean sheets. And that’s without touching upon swapping goalkeepers for a Brazilian who made a ludicrous mistake at 2-1.
Evangelos Marinakis has made no secret of his desire for his team to play with a front-footed style, so if Dyche isn’t going to do that and isn’t getting results to keep Forest away from trouble, it’s hard to work out what the point is. We’re looking at a four manager season, baby.
Leeds are going to be fine, trust me
I can understand why Leeds United supporters will struggle to make the conclusion yet, because there is half a season left and the entire fabric of their club’s modern identity is collapsing at the first sign of things actually going well, but Leeds are going to be fine.
They are going to be fine because they are in every game they play. They are going to be fine because they have found an on-pitch strategy that works and it isn’t unsustainable.
They are going to be fine because they unnerve opposition teams of every type and they are going to be fine because they are on their longest unbeaten run in the top flight since November 2001. They are going to be fine.
Bournemouth learn entertaining isn’t always entertaining
You might get your money’s worth watching Bournemouth, but that’s not going to make supporters feel much better after a winless run (albeit one with great fun included) was extended to 11 games.
Sixty per cent of Bournemouth’s league games this season have contained four goals or more; no other team has a percentage higher than 43. Their last five league games have an aggregate score of 9-14. Bournemouth’s press isn’t working well enough often enough, so they are left exposed and committing more to their attack because they need to score twice just to get a point.
And now Bournemouth are about to lose their best player at carrying the ball and running directly at defenders, the key ingredient to their counter attack. Andoni Iraola may have to shift strategy to make his team more defensive in a bid to shift his team out of their rut.
Read more: Life after Semenyo: Bournemouth’s stance on key trio and Iraola’s future
What has happened to Crystal Palace’s finishing?
Crystal Palace are currently on their longest winless run since the earliest days of Oliver Glasner’s tenure last season, and we’ve said plenty about his potential disillusionment about the direction of the club and the thin squad.
But it’s also true that Palace are basically being punished for not finishing their chances. Over their last five league matches, Palace have scored two goals.
In that time they have had 141 touches in their opponents’ penalty area and attempted 61 shots with a combined xG of 7.6. And this team can’t afford for its chance conversion to drop off a cliff.
Tottenham simply must show more courage
For the first 55 minutes on Sunday, Tottenham played as well as they have in some time. They got Richarlison in behind. They got over the early loss of Mohammed Kudus by giving Wilson Odobert the freedom to roam and create two vs one situations. They largely controlled midfield and guarded against counter-attacks.
And then, on 72 minutes, Thomas Frank brought on Joao Palhinha and Lucas Bergvall, Spurs noticeably dropped deeper and invited pressure that Tottenham quickly succumbed to (and they could easily have lost the game).
If Frank were to pick one way to annoy his doubters more, it is a lack of courage to control the game and protect a lead in the opposition’s half rather than doing so 30 yards from their own goal. Another step backwards for the manager and his team.
Everton are the epitome of this weird season
We’ve said it a few times, but we are currently living through an absolutely bonkers Premier League season and Everton might just be its epitome. At full-time at the Hill Dickinson on Sunday afternoon, angry boos rang out and they would have been louder if two-thirds of the stadium had not left early to beat the significant post-match traffic problem.
Their point is this: Everton have won only three of their last nine home league games, failing to beat Brentford, West Ham and a ropey Tottenham in that run. In their last six matches they have only beaten Forest, and yet the momentum of those two wins have been immediately lost. They got thrashed by Brentford on Sunday.
Also relevant: Everton are three points off the top six. This league season is weird and it is frying everybody’s brains and so nobody knows how to react to everybody above 17th and below fourth beating everybody else in the same boat.
All hail the Robinson effect at Fulham
Fulham have taken 11 points in five matches since Antonee Robinson returned from injury and I don’t think that is a coincidence.
His ability to stretch the game wide creates space for attacking midfielders and his crossing from deep is a useful weapon for Raul Jimenez.
Before Sunday, only three Fulham players (Iwobi, Wilson, Berge) had contributed more shot-creating actions than Robinson this season, a remarkable statistic when you consider that his first league start didn’t come until 13 December. He’s a mighty useful player to have back for the second half of the season.
Brighton’s positional logic might work
We must insert the “only Burnley” caveat, but on Saturday Brighton started Georginio Rutter as a No 10, picked Charalampos Kostoulas for his first start as a striker, picked two full-backs as full-backs and two natural central midfielders in central midfield. Which all sounds very obvious.
But here’s the thing: Brighton supporters have been screaming at Fabian Hurzeler for his overcomplication of player roles. Over the last few games, Brighton have started Mats Wieffer at right-back, Rutter as a lone striker, Maxim De Cuyper as a left winger and Ferdi Kadioglu as a right wing-back.
Sometimes you can confuse players simply by asking them to carry out roles that are a) not their natural position and b) are different from the last game. Simplicity can be king, especially to end a winless streak. So can playing Burnley at home.
Guimaraes offers Newcastle some assistance in attack
I’m not sure if Newcastle are playing particularly well at the moment, but they are getting it done mostly when Bruno Guimaraes is given licence to roam further forward and make late runs into the penalty area. That removes the slight predictability of Newcastle’s midfield shape that might have been holding them back.
Guimaraes has four goals in his last seven league games. He has significantly increased his shot totals after attempting only 15 in the first 12 league games of the season.
He’s also had 11 touches of the ball in the box in his last three games, having recorded only three across his previous five league appearances. That line-breaking gives Newcastle a different edge; they need it.
Sunderland are kings of the late goals
There are tropes of promoted clubs, and typically defending in the last 10 minutes is one of them.
The clubs towards the top of the league score more late goals because they have deeper squads and, if a game is level, are more likely to be pushing for the winner rather than clinging onto a point.
Which makes the following only more impressive: only one Premier League team has a better goal difference during the period from the 80th minute onwards than Sunderland. They are the kings of late goals and Brian Brobbey’s was my favourite goal of this weekend (sorry, Harrison Reed).
Another Brentford masterclass
Fun fact: Brentford players have scored half of all the Premier League hat-tricks this season. Another fun fact: Igor Thiago needs two more to become the highest-scoring Brazilian in a Premier League season. If he does so, he merits going to the World Cup in June.
This was a masterclass in getting involved as a lone striker. Thiago dropped deep to link play (he had 41 touches, not far off the numbers of his midfielders and defenders).
He had six shots and he scored three times because his finishing is ludicrously composed and his movement to break into space is as good as any striker in the division not called Erling Haaland.
Man Utd are going nowhere fast
That the reaction to a 1-1 draw against the team 16th in the Premier League was so broadly non-negative, and that my reaction to that non-negativity was “Yeah, probably fair enough” says everything about the lowered expectations.
A club with such massive budgets and no European commitments has won eight of their 20 league matches this season. Yes the league position offers some respite, but even that is largely a result of an intensely clustered middle pack.
December and early January were supposed to be moving weeks. Manchester United had six league fixtures against teams in the bottom six, affording hope of a surge into the top four that we should expect. They have dropped eight points in four of those matches with only Burnley to come in midweek. Villa have dropped zero points against the bottom six this season; that is the difference.
Read more: Civil war is brewing at Man Utd
Chelsea’s Mr Big
I can understand why opposing supporters don’t warm to Enzo Fernandez. His reaction time to get involved in any off-the-ball snafu is akin to a world-class sprinter. He arrives with a snarl that only a mother or his teammates could love.
But you cannot deny Fernandez’s ability to be involved in Chelsea’s biggest moments.
After Pedro Neto repeatedly slowed down counters, it was left to Fernandez to play as a hybrid central midfielder/left winger/surging attacking threat and of course he was at the back post to – eventually – score the equaliser. Fernandez is a man of big moments.
Liverpool get what they deserve
Of course there is an element of misfortune when a midfielder who hasn’t scored in three years laces one into the top corner from 30 yards with a swipe that bends away from your goalkeeper along the way, but it was also very Liverpool.
They had so many players deep in their penalty area that Reed had seconds to set himself and shoot. Only Liverpool this season could win a game and then still draw it.
We wondered whether the absence of Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak might actually simplify things for Arne Slot and allow Liverpool to work on one attacking plan rather than being confused by three or four. But they are still too passive, still too slow in possession (needing Wirtz to play faster) and still too uncertain defensively. And so it’s still a mess.
Aston Villa love a long-range strike
After Aston Villa scored another two goals from outside the penalty area (albeit one from a very atypical situation), it’s worth reflecting upon them as the statistical exception of this Premier League season.
Villa have now scored 12 goals from outside the box, double the number (at the end of Saturday’s action) of any other club in the Premier League’s top half. Crucially, they are just very good at shooting from range: Villa only rank ninth for shots taken from outside of the box per 90 minutes. They wait for their chance and are successful more than anyone else when they do.
The theory: the movement of the attacking players. Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers move so freely between the lines, dropping deep and pushing high, that defences tend to sit deep (and there are a fair number of managers who look to sit deep and soak up pressure beyond their initial pressing). That creates space outside the box for technically excellent footballers to shoot from distance.
Man City’s bizarre game management
Given that Manchester City are seasoned champions, the least that we might expect is for them to see out games when holding a lead at home against a side managed by a novice. Instead, they let Chelsea back into the game and suffered the consequences.
The last 15 minutes were bizarre, Chelsea repeatedly able to pass through an open midfield and create counter attacks. Rather than hold onto possession, Rayan Cherki repeatedly tried to do stepovers and skills and lost the ball.
Why was he still on the pitch and the more disciplined Tijjani Reijnders withdrawn instead? Get that so badly wrong and you deserve to be second favourites in the title race.
Arsenal are righting the wrongs of last season
Arsenal have now won five straight league games for the second time this season, but this run is far more significant for two reasons:
It came after that sticky patch of seven points in five games that ended with defeat at Aston Villa on 6 December.
This run includes wins against Bournemouth (a), Aston Villa (h), Everton (a) and Brighton (h).
Why is that important? Because last season Arsenal lost at Bournemouth, drew at home to Villa, drew at Everton and drew at home to Brighton. They are exorcising any psychological hangover from 2024-25.
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