We’ll be honest, this wasn’t a set of Saturday 3pm games from which we expected a great deal. But Southampton getting halfway to an all-time Barclays madness and a wildly late winner for Brighton did make things interesting.
Brighton 2-1 Fulham: Seagulls dreaming of Champions League after late, late winner
If you’d told Brighton fans at the start of the season that by mid-March they would sit just a single point behind Man City, they might be slightly miffed to learn that by that time this would be an achievement good enough only for sixth place in the table.
Still, though. This was a significant win over a direct rival that lays down a challenge to which Chelsea, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Villa must now respond.
Coupled with Nottingham Forest’s latest pants-pulling exploits against Man City, it is a result that means the upper reaches of the Premier League retain a distinctly unlikely look and a still disorientatingly real possibility of only two of the Big Six making it into this season’s Top Six. It’s already probably safe to say it won’t be more than four.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Ipswich: Palace set to smash their ceiling as Ipswich come up just short yet again
For those of us of a neutral persuasion looking for some kind of excitement up and down the Premier League table beyond feigning an interest in who happens to be in what European competition next year, this was a disastrous result.
No offence, Palace, but you’ve probably ruined two things with your undeniably deserved late Ismaila Sarr winner here. First and most obviously, another faint glimmer of hope for an Actual Relegation Fight is extinguished ahead of Wolves’ chance to ease further clear later tonight.
Perhaps most importantly, though, it’s a result that makes it look increasingly certain Palace are going to reach 50 points in a Premier League season and most likely a few more besides.
We’re very happy to see Palace do it, but we wanted a bit of nip and tuck along the way. Their nightmare start to the season has kept things interesting for far longer than we could reasonably have expected, so we should be grateful there, but it now looks like the longest run of 40-something seasons in Premier League history is going to end with a whimper.
The target is now down to 11 points from 10 games for a team whose last 10 games have delivered 22 points. That gives us some hope, because if Palace aren’t going to get 40-something points then the only acceptably entertaining alternative is to instead get 60-something points and skip the 50s altogether.
We remain aware nobody else cares about this.
Liverpool 3-1 Southampton: Saints scare champions elect again in unexpected quirk
There’s certainly a decent case to make that there lies a paradox at the heart of Liverpool’s increasingly certain title win this season. Results and the table tell you this has been an absolute all-conquering and largely uncontested cruise for Arne Slot and his men, yet only relatively few of their actual games have felt as straightforward as that league table would suggest.
Sure, there’s been the odd paddling of the very stupidest sides like for instance Spurs but Liverpool are likely to end the season with a win that looks on paper as dominant as any City have managed – or even their own in 2020 – without it really feeling quite like that on grass.
And really, all of this is a very roundabout and backhanded compliment. Liverpool have already shown this week just what teak-tough competitors they are, and it is that quality allied to the obvious brilliance of Mo Salah that will define this title win.
But despite that general backdrop to their efforts this season, it’s nevertheless a particularly entertaining quirk that two of their toughest games of all have come against a Southampton side that may yet prove themselves the worst in Premier League history.
Liverpool needed a Mo Salah penalty to complete a come-from-behind win at St Mary’s earlier in the season, and today they got two of the blighters as one of the least likely half-time scorelines in Premier League history gave way to one of the most likely full-time ones.
Had Southampton managed to hold the 1-0 lead they secured late in the first half and win here, we would be extremely confident in declaring it the single biggest upset in Premier League history, given everything. Even in defeat we expect to receive some VAR chuntering given there were penalties and a narrative-laden equaliser scored by Darwin Nunez after he survived a nervy red-card review in the very closing moments of that wild end to the first half.
It’s unlikely any Liverpool points-dropping would have had any real effect on anything beyond being funny, but the fact their next league game isn’t until April 2 – against Everton – would have at least added some frisson. It might not actually have become much of a tighter title race with any shenanigans today, but it may very well have felt like it during a three-week hiatus for Liverpool in which Arsenal will play three games.
Now instead we will all have to do our very best to convince ourselves something is happening when Arsenal are only seven points behind having played a game more. Nobody’s falling for that, are they?