Nottingham Forest gave Thomas Tuchel their opinion of his England snubs, Manchester City slipped again and prize money talk has properly arrived.
Everton 1 West Ham 1 – The Moyes derby ends all even as prize money eyed
Jarrod Bowen assisting a Tomas Soucek winner against David Moyes would have felt horribly wrong, so Jake O’Brien should be applauded for averting that cataclysmic outcome and, slightly less importantly, maintaining a nine-game unbeaten run which has taken Everton from 16th in the Premier League table to 14th.
It was a delightfully meaningless game in the grand scheme of things, neither side having worried themselves with quaint ideas such as relegation or European qualification for a fair while. But as they shared the spoils to both draw level on points with Spurs and Manchester United on 34, eight clear of Wolves and four behind Brentford, a crucial aspect of the run-in came into full view.
In terms of Premier League prize money, the difference between finishing at the top and bottom of that deadlocked four-team group alone is £8.5m, which any of those sides could conceivably waste on a ruinous transfer which sets them back years.
Sod everything else, the race to finish 13th is on.
Ipswich 2 Nottingham Forest 4 – A Tuch of class from Nuno’s Champions League-bound “high-flyers”It was an England squad most remarkable for those included than omitted, but few had more compelling cases overlooked by Thomas Tuchel than the three players headed inexorably towards their first Champions League sojourn.
“Morgan, Elliot and Callum play at such a high level every week, and they are the high-flyers of the league,” Tuchel said of Gibbs-White, Anderson and Hudson-Odoi, who all played their part in a consummate dismantling of Ipswich which put Forest a single point behind Arsenal and more pertinently five ahead of Chelsea on a weekend when both meet.
None of those three England hopefuls had their best game but it speaks volumes of their seasons both individually and as a collective that they were still excellent. Gibbs-White made three tackles and created as many chances, including setting up Jota Silva’s clincher; Anderson made the most interceptions and assisted the first of Anthony Elanga’s two goals; Hudson-Odoi was relatively quiet but carried out his role diligently and did not misplace a single pass.
It is difficult to share the same indignant fury as the Forest fans who cast judgement on Tuchel’s onanistic tendencies, but you understood their point.
All three can feel some of that justified frustration at not having their efforts fully rewarded at international level – Anderson will at least be with the U21s – but the fruits of their labour will be savoured next season, plus Forest won’t mind some of their key players being given a rest in the next week.
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Manchester City 2 Brighton 2 – Champions falter again as defence falters
Never before have Manchester City conceded so many goals in a season under Pep Guardiola, and it should concern the Spaniard that Champions League qualification remains an uncertainty due to such defensive incontinence.
Only Liverpool have scored more goals in the Premier League but it turns out that shipping as many as a historically poor Manchester United is not a reliable foundation from which to build. Manchester City led Brighton twice at home but could not see it out and might well have lost.
The development of Omar Marmoush as a support act who can be trusted to thrive alongside or even without Erling Haaland has been a welcome positive but fellow January recruit Abdukodir Khusanov’s own goal equaliser summed up a difficult afternoon and while another winter addition in Nico Gonzalez was better, it was his foul Pervis Estupinan punished with a sublime free-kick in the first half.
They have the easiest run-in of any Premier League side based on the current position of opponents, but Manchester City are inspiring little confidence they can actually see it through.
Southampton 1 Wolves 2 – Visitors win the clash of the caretakers“I think that after this game, they will be a little less safe in the Premier League,” was admittedly a phenomenal attempt to match the quotability of one of his many similarly abysmally ill-fitting Southampton predecessors. But Ivan Juric is running out of time to establish any sort of Premier League legacy in what will forever remain his only experience with the competition.
Through a combination of this rancid, Jorgen Strand Larsen-inspired defeat and Ipswich’s surrender Nottingham Forest, the bottom three are now nine points adrift. While the race was run a while ago in any meaningful sense, Wolves will rarely have felt safer than on this weekend.
The self-inflicted absence of Matheus Cunha meant this was an opportunity for Southampton to inject some intrigue into that battle, to finally raise the Derby 2007/08 points tally bar, to give their supporters any vague sense of joy or happiness.
A late strike from the popular Paul Onuachu teased an uncharacteristically spirited comeback to stave off a 24th defeat of the league season, but ultimately Southampton were outplayed at home by a substandard Wolves side and deserved little more from their afternoon.
It would be a surprise if Juric even reaches the end of the season, such was the reaction at St Mary’s to what was ultimately a fine half-time substitution of Mateus Fernandes for goalscorer Onuachu. There has been little attempt to keep secret Southampton’s pursuit of alternatives in the summer for their next hopeful rebrand and while the Croatian has been dreadful, his forgettability is arguably more damning.
Vitor Pereira has been a little less explosive than his past might suggest but he has earned ample opportunity to continue at Molineux after achieving his interim objective in good time. It carries nowhere near the same heft in this season as it would any other campaign but Wolves have earned more points than Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs since his appointment, which has to count for something.