Our chief football writer reviews the main talking points from the weekend's action
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One of the weirdest weekends in Premier League history: none of the top six at the start of the weekend won and none of the bottom six lost. That means Arsenal – and their draw at Nottingham Forest – end it a point further clear and thus closer to the title.
The biggest stories were Michael Carrick and Liam Rosenior both winning 2-0 at home in their first league games in new jobs, although Carrick’s Manchester United produced the performance of the weekend and took his new team into the likely Champions League positions.
Elsewhere, West Ham breathed some life into the relegation battle with victory at Tottenham. Thomas Frank must be sacked this week; Oliver Glasner at Crystal Palace has seemingly avoided that fate for his post-game mutiny.
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
Man Utd 2-0 Man City
Chelsea 2-0 Brentford
Leeds 1-0 Fulham
Liverpool 1-1 Burnley
Tottenham 1-2 West Ham
Sunderland 2-1 Crystal Palace
Nott’m Forest 0-0 Arsenal
Wolves 0-0 Newcastle
Aston Villa 0-1 Everton
Wolves have set the tone for next season
Having lost his first seven games in charge and with it any hopes of survival, Rob Edwards will now be looking for evidence of who he would like to keep around next season (should they avoid being sold to raise funds). Over the last few weeks, there has been much to admire about Wolves.
Matheus Mane is the standout performer; he would delight in the second tier.
But Jackson Tchatchoua looked good on the right, Tolu Arokodore made himself a nuisance as the lone striker and Yerson Mosquera is an all-action central defender that they must try to keep. Molineux is ready to support these players again.
Burnley take a step forward but at what cost?
And so it carries on again. Ordinarily, a point at Anfield would be a cause of much celebration and Burnley have certainly responded to Scott Parker’s claims after the defeat at Brighton that his players had effectively shown no fight or desire.
But it’s still 13 games without a league win. The four draws in Burnley’s last six matches have stopped the bleeding, but they’re further away from safety than they were.
The longer Parker picks up points but never actually sparks a survival bid, the more we suspect that Burnley are merely acquiescing to relegation. It’s hardly a situation with easy solutions, but it would be a waste if Parker stays only to leave in the summer.
Wilson makes a firm point to West Ham
No West Ham supporter is going to inspect a gift horse’s teeth too much, but there was a definite irony to the source of the winning goal at Tottenham on Saturday.
A fortnight ago we were led to believe that Nuno Espirito Santo’s fate would be decided by fixtures against Wolves and Nottingham Forest. Then West Ham lost both of those and bought Nuno two strikers costing £50m.
Callum Wilson, it appeared, had been told that he could leave the club and there was talk of his contract being mutually ended to facilitate that move. Also relevant: Wilson has five league goals this season despite only starting eight games and those goals have been worth seven points. If Wilson leaves West Ham, their relegation rivals will be happy – that tells you all you need to know.
Nottingham Forest’s most important player?
This was far better from Forest, who needed a dreadful Gabriel Martinelli miss and fantastic Matz Sels save to avoid defeat but who competed more gainfully and with more intensity than in any of their recent league games.
I think it comes down to Ibrahim Sangare, back from AFCON and straight back into the groove. His presence alongside Elliot Anderson allowed Sean Dyche to play something like a 4-3-2-1 with Morgan Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi off Igor Jesus. It’s no surprise that Anderson and Nicolas Dominguez looked better with Sangare there.
Forest have played nine matches with Sangare in the starting XI during Sean Dyche’s tenure. Their record: won five, drawn two, lost two. He might just be Forest’s most important player right now.
Don’t sleep on Leeds’ defensive stats
The praise for Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s revelatory impact at Leeds, it’s worth pointing out that the changes Daniel Farke have made to his side’s shape and style have hugely improved their defence too.
If you take out the madcap 4-3 recent defeat to Newcastle, Leeds have conceded goal or fewer in each of their last seven matches. Before that, they had conceded two or more in seven of their previous eight.
Against Brentford, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Fulham since the beginning of December, Leeds haven’t once allowed their opponents to take more than eight shots. This is a team that allowed Wolves to take 16 shots in September.
Bournemouth
Play Brighton on Monday evening.
Tottenham aren’t safe from relegation yet
What is the point in this carrying on any longer? This column has asked that question at least twice already this season and things only keep getting worse.
Losing at home to a London rival in the bottom three is enough to confirm that Thomas Frank must be sacked immediately. Find me a Tottenham supporter who believes he can turn this around and I’ll show you an Arsenal fan pretending.
Tottenham don’t create chances – they haven’t regularly enough under Frank all season. Their home form has been pathetic from September onwards, a sea of new nadirs. And now they’re starting to concede goals at a rate quicker than they were: two or more in 10 of their last 16 games. With a daunting next five matches to come, Spurs are not safe from relegation yet.
Read more: Thomas Frank has been a complete disaster for Tottenham
Glasner’s PR strategy contains many flaws at Palace
Can I understand why Oliver Glasner is annoyed at selling key players? Yes. But that’s where my sympathy stops for a head coach who has achieved much but is deliberately ignoring reality to suit his own PR and narrative.
Crystal Palace have a 25,000-capacity stadium and no vast wealth on tap; they have to sell players. They got good fees for Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze and they refused a good fee for Marc Guehi at the manager’s request. That manager then says he decided to leave in October and so Palace are making some money on Guehi now.
None of this is pleasant – it lays bare the financial inequalities within the Premier League. But Glasner must have known all of this and it’s not as if Palace haven’t spent money on players during his tenure. This public mutiny helps nobody and only makes it more likely that other players will want to leave.
Brighton
Play Bournemouth on Monday evening.
Fulham’s attacking bluntness
Fulham can’t count themselves slightly unfortunate to concede so late at Elland Road, but they certainly did not do enough to win the game. It reflected a pattern established in the reverse fixture: Fulham did win that game 1-0 but they had only 10 touches of the ball in Leeds’ penalty area.
On Saturday, Fulham managed just seven touches of the ball in the opposition box. The only other times in the last two and a half seasons when they have had fewer than 10 penalty box touches were against Arsenal in 2024-25 and Manchester City in 2023-24.
Ryan Sessegnon’s delivery was way off, Antonee Robinson was the same, Sander Berge offered no drive from central midfield and so Raul Jimenez was left starved of service. When the wing-backs don’t create, Fulham can look very blunt, asking for a moment of magic from Harry Wilson as their best chance of scoring.
Congratulations due to Everton’s Barry
Thierno Barry had an inauspicious start to life as a £40m striker. He’s still not quite justified that fee, but in his first 14 Premier League appearances Barry failed to score a goal and only had 15 shots.
And this is why you give imports from other leagues time to settle. Barry is still raw and you wouldn’t put a considerable sum of money on him scoring a one-on-one chance, but he’s scored four goals in his last eight games.
His winner against Aston Villa on Sunday was sumptuous, hitting down under the ball to scoop it up over an onrushing Emiliano Martinez.
Brobbey has been a revelation for Sunderland
Brian Brobbey was the final Sunderland signing of the summer transfer window and felt like a roll of the dice by a club that was lacking a likely candidate for regular Premier League goals.
The fee was relatively low (£17m), but reflected an uncertainty about the Eredivisie as a barometer for a striker’s prolificacy. That all looks silly now, given Brobbey had scored 68 league goals in three seasons for Ajax and certainly appears to be Sunderland’s best striker.
He has scored four Premier League goals but all have been important: equaliser, winner, equaliser, winner. That’s the difference between Sunderland being eighth and 14th.
Howe has to try 4-2-3-1 at Newcastle
I can see why Eddie Howe prefers to stick with his 4-3-3 formation at home, where Newcastle have been successful, but his refusal to move away from his beloved shape away from St James’ Park is now becoming an act of negligence.
It took until the 86th minute for Newcastle to even have a shot on target at Molineux. The wingers collect the ball deep and the three midfielders all stay around halfway, meaning it takes way too much just for the striker (in this case Nick Woltemade) to get the ball.
Dropping one of those midfielders to play with a more creative central midfielder (or Woltemade behind Yoane Wissa) would surely help and now has to be worth a go. Otherwise, Newcastle can kiss Champions League qualification goodbye.
Brentford miss the chance to change a pattern
Brentford were better than Chelsea for long periods of the game. They made individual errors for both of the goals and in between them missed a series of chances. Before the weekend only Aston Villa had scored from a higher percentage of their shots than Brentford this season. They reverted to the mean in a particularly frustrating way.
As such, Brentford missed the chance to end a pretty wretched run. Since winning 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in October 2023, Brentford have played 13 away games against Big Six teams in the Premier League. Add in Newcastle and Aston Villa to make 16 matches. Brentford’s record in those 16 games: two points from a possible 48.
And their next two away games? Aston Villa and Newcastle. It’s a shot at removing the only fly in the ointment of an otherwise excellent campaign.
Chelsea desperately need Palmer back to his best
No trademark goal celebration this time, merely half a smile and the look of a player who isn’t exactly loving life right now. Cole Palmer’s season has been deeply affected by a groin problem, and Chelsea’s fixture schedule doesn’t allow much relaxation, but there is something not right about the Blues’ best player.
This becomes a self-fulfilling issue. Palmer is a player at his best when he feels confident, is able to repeatedly get on the ball and dash forward seemingly without a care in the world. When he does so it makes him more likely to continue doing so. When he doesn’t feel able to do any of that, it makes it harder for him to get back to that pomp.
What looked likely to be a guaranteed starting place at the World Cup has now drifted. Liam Rosenior’s first task as Chelsea manager is to get Palmer smiling and “ice-cold” celebrating again.
The biggest winner of Amorim’s Man Utd exit
A perfect day to blow away the cobwebs of Ruben Amorim’s gaslighting, insisting that the limitations within this squad meant that nobody could expect anything better than lowest-end mediocrity. A home Manchester derby was probably the perfect fixture for Michael Carrick – no team talk needed – but the rush of intensity was invigorating for the entire club.
At the (literal) centre of that was Kobbie Mainoo, who we were told by Amorim did not have the discipline to play as the deepest-lying central midfielder in a two and was therefore competing for a place in midfield with Bruno Fernandes. At which point we all screamed “Yeah but you could just not play with a back three and have another central midfielder”.
Saturday’s evidence isn’t proof that Amorim got it all wrong and that those screams were right. But it was a) pretty persuasive and b) clear that Amorim’s miserablism brought the team and its expectations down.
Read more: Man Utd flatten Man City as Carrick exposes Amorim’s greatest mistake
Is Slot destined for the sack at Liverpool?
The news that Real Madrid had sacked Xabi Alonso was immediately interpreted as bad news for Arne Slot, and with good reason. Alonso has history at Liverpool, succeeded against a super club in Germany and his reputation should not be tarnished by Madrid’s own hypermania.
Slot could have no complaints if he were sacked this week, honestly. Liverpool have played well in perhaps three matches this season.
There are still no obvious patterns of attacking play that get the best out of premium options in each position and the inability to kill off matches is disturbing. Winning the league buys you lots of goodwill, but it’s rightly dissipating fast.
Villa suffer another one of those Martinez moments
Emiliano Martinez wasn’t the only reason that Aston Villa conceded against Everton and certainly wasn’t the only reason they lost: Pau Torres’ slip, John McGinn’s injury, Morgan Rogers’ wayward finishing.
But Martinez is quickly entering Hugo Lloris territory, where every few weeks you would hear a commentator say “A rare mistake from…” Either you catch Dwight McNeil’s shot or you push it out properly; Martinez did neither.
It has been that sort of season for (apparently) one of the best goalkeepers in the world. The most frustrating thing about these regular mistakes is that so many seem to stem from his demonstrable desire to act the showman. Unai Emery should be livid.
Man City’s high wire defensive line
Pep Guardiola has defensive injuries; this much we know. At Manchester City, the philosophy is the whole of the law and has been hugely successful; this much we also know.
But those inexperienced – and in the case of Rico Lewis just not good enough – defenders were let down by City’s plan on Saturday. We all predicted that Manchester United would play with more energy and intensity, look to get Bruno Fernandes on the ball and get Amad Diallo, Patrick Dorgu and Bryan Mbeumo in behind.
City’s high defensive line signposted that strategy with bizarre generosity, particularly unfathomable given that Guardiola’s team rarely broke at speed after the first 20 minutes anyway. Time and time again, United either broke that line with runs or came fractionally close to doing so only to be thwarted by marginal offsides. It really could have been 5-0.
Odegaard epitomises Arsenal’s lack of urgency
Nobody needs to lose their minds after a weekend during which Arsenal actually took a step closer to the title rather than the opposite. But for the second time in a row, Arsenal responded to a Manchester City setback by failing to play with enough urgency.
I wonder if Martin Odegaard is sometimes part of the problem. He is clearly a very fine footballer, but there are times when Odegaard slows down the game more than quickens the pace. With Viktor Gyokeres struggling to find space, Arsenal are left shuttling the ball out wide and attempting crosses. Those crosses are usually dangerous and accurate (and have produced goals this season), but when it doesn’t work it leaves you wanting more.
Against Wolves and Forest in recent weeks, Arsenal have attempted 55 crosses from which no Arsenal player has scored (Wolves scored two own goals). They’re still surely going to win the league, but Mikel Arteta must guard against one-dimensionality.
Read more: Boring, boring Arsenal are a danger to themselves
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