The Score is Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up here to receive the free newsletter every Monday morning
Manchester City had nothing left to do but go through the motions against Chelsea, the title already wrapped up courtesy of another Arsenal defeat.
That feels like a fitting way for this title race to be decided, as Mikel Arteta’s young side eventually caved to the immense pressure of expectation.
There is at once everything, and very little, to play for at the other end of the table, where Leeds are all but doomed after their defeat at a West Ham side with one eye on the Conference League final.
Here’s i‘s verdict on every team’s penultimate weekend of the Premier League season.
This weekend’s results
- Tottenham 1-3 Brentford
- Bournemouth 0-1 Man Utd
- Fulham 2-2 Crystal Palace
- Liverpool 1-1 Aston Villa
- Wolves 1-1 Everton
- Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal
- West Ham 3-1 Leeds
- Brighton 3-1 Southampton
- Man City 1-0 Chelsea
Arsenal
If there was a determination internally, decreed by Mikel Arteta, that Arsenal would end a tremendous, over-achieving season on a high, it evaporated entirely in Nottingham on Saturday evening. It is true that one team had significantly more motivation than the other, but that’s only half an excuse. This was a full-strength Arsenal team (of the players available) and they barely created a clear chance of note.
I think we can rule out physical fatigue, given that Arsenal had no European football after March (although injuries in that Sporting tie may have cost them dear), but the impact of mental fatigue is vastly under-appreciated. This is a young group of players who, over the course of six months, were taught to have complete faith that they could win the league because, if they hadn’t, they would have capitulated earlier.
And then, when that belief was proven to be unfounded because of mistakes they made (Arteta has repeatedly stressed that individual errors have cost Arsenal this title), it is understandable that everything falls apart a little. I don’t know if that meets the definition of “bottling” – to me, being young and comparatively inexperienced pushed the “bottling” bar higher and higher – but it does explain the performance at Forest.
And we do have to recognise that Arsenal simply don’t have the options of their erstwhile title rivals. Arteta’s bench at the City Ground contained Kieran Tierney and Emile Smith Rowe, a back-up left-back and a fringe midfielder.
Fabio Vieira was a misstep. After that, it’s Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Matt Turner, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Reuell Walters and Mauro Bandeira. This is a squad at its limit. You can see why Arteta is pushing hard for summer investment.
Aston Villa
A fitting end to Aston Villa’s away season, with an excellent point at Anfield that keeps them firmly in the hunt for European football next season. Their goalscorer was Jacob Ramsey, who is perhaps the young English footballer most inexplicably drifting under the radar.
Ramsey doesn’t turn 22 until this coming week and Saturday was his 100th Aston Villa appearance; that’s a fine effort given the upheaval and the competition for places thanks to significant transfer activity. He’s also scored six goals and assisted five. That total of 11 goal contributions puts him joint second with Douglas Luiz at Villa, despite playing significantly fewer minutes.
But it’s Ramsey’s completeness that is most exciting. He is ostensibly an attack-minded central midfielder, but has the energy and attitude to chase lost causes, harry opponents and generally firmly move himself from luxury midfielder to dependable, consistent performer. With England potentially having some dead rubber qualifiers and Nations League games over the next 12 months, it would be no surprise if Gareth Southgate had a look at him.
Bournemouth
It had crept up on me a little that Jefferson Lerma is out of contract this summer and seems intent on leaving Bournemouth for somewhere a little higher up the Premier League. He can hardly be blamed for ambition, but it does leave Bournemouth with a potential headache this summer.
Lerma has been one of Bournemouth’s most consistent performers this season. He has five goals and ranks second for tackles (evidence of his use offensively and defensively), but the most instructive statistic demonstrates just how dominant he is to their build-up with the ball. This season, Lerma has had 986 touches in the middle third of the pitch, 355 more than any other Bournemouth player.
Lewis Cook and Joe Rothwell can be useful supporting actors, but neither come close to replicating what Lerma does best. One option might be to bring Philip Billing back deeper, but Billing has excelled when given more room to push forward under Gary O’Neil and that might simply end up solving one problem by causing another. Replacing Lerma will not be easy.
Brentford
We now know that there will be no Ivan Toney for Brentford until January. The good news spin is that it virtually ensures that he will stay at the club for another season at least. The bad news is that Brentford’s top goalscorer and line leader will miss at least 20 league games.
Thomas Frank has two obvious options. The first is to get a new striker, either on a short-term deal or as genuine competition for Toney (who could still be a transfer target for wealthier clubs next summer). Yussuf Poulsen has been mentioned for the former option, Viktor Gyokeres for the latter.
But there’s an alternative here, and it’s one that Frank might well be warming to. With Kevin Schade likely to sign on a permanent deal this summer, Brentford could create a more expansive, flexible attacking unit that is the deliberate antithesis of the XI with Toney in it. It’s worth considering because Brentford’s record has been superb in Toney’s absence this season.
It’s a small sample size, but Toney has missed four Premier League matches in 2022-23. Brentford have won three and drawn one of those, scoring 10 goals. What’s most exciting is that Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa scored nine of those goals. In every game that Toney missed, both of those two players have scored. Mbeumo and Wissa have one of the most effective partnerships in the division.
Brighton
It wasn’t particularly pretty (although Brighton had 24 shots to Southampton’s five), but they did all they needed to do. The vastly superior goal difference to Aston Villa means that Brighton are certain to finish in sixth place and thus automatically qualify for the Europa League group stage. That is an astonishing feat for a club of Brighton’s size, but not their endeavour. They deserve all of this.
It was also wonderful to see Evan Ferguson back in the goals, because he really might be a big deal if they can keep hold of him for another two years. Ferguson is still only 18, has scored six goals in 847 league minutes this season and has a ridiculous record in terms of how well the team performs when he plays. In 14 starts in all competitions this season, Ferguson has won 11, drawn one and lost one.
He shoots on sight. He has the upper body strength to hold off defenders. He is excellent in the air. The decision-making is still a work in progress (and that’s fine – he’s 18!), but Ferguson might just be the answer for a big club in summer 2025. Brighton will make him absolutely brilliant first, because that’s how it works.
Chelsea
Chelsea were present at the Etihad in the same way that Chelsea have been present in every game under Frank Lampard: technically on the pitch, occasionally producing moments of individual quality when an opponent gets tricked into thinking that they aren’t trying at all, more often conceding goals and losing games because this is not a team.
Every now and then, a Chelsea player does something truly excellent and it catches you off guard. And then you think “Oh yes, they have spent £600m in 12 months on an already expensive squad – they probably should be competent”.
After all that: Manchester City domination, Chelsea acquiesce, a crowded pitch and oodles of self-congratulation, a Premier League trophy adorned with light blue and white ribbons was walked onto the Etihad pitch – do they bother taking them off from one year to the next anymore? Another 50 yards behind it, Scott Carson is drinking a bottle of lager and chatting to Guardiola and you wish you could go back to 2009 and tell yourself that this would one day be normal.
As Manchester City’s players filed by the long list of employees, all doing high fives bar Phillips, who hugged every person, the crowd broke into their enduring chant: “We’re not really here”.
It’s not true, of course. They’re here, they’re everywhere and they’re not going anywhere.
Every one of them has been brilliant, from John Stones the new leader to Nathan Ake the most-improved to Erling Haaland the readymade superstar. They are deserving champions again.
And you know what thought entered my brain at that moment: Chelsea won this title six years ago. I’m not sure how far they are from breaking back into the top four, because Mauricio Pochettino might be able to address that. But it is unfathomable how much Chelsea must improve to challenge this City team again. And they just spent more money than any club in history has ever spent in a single season. Cripes.
Crystal Palace
Thoughts now inevitably turn to the summer, and for Crystal Palace that means a decision to make over the manager. Roy Hodgson has never formally retired and clearly loves it at Selhurst. If he were asked to take on the job again on a longer contract, you imagine that he would jump at the chance.
And it sounds like Palace are considering that move. Having been a little dragged down by Patrick Vieira not working out, and seeing how Hodgson lifted the mood (and got the best out of Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze), they are reportedly fearful of rocking the boat with things going well. Hodgson would likely keep them up and maybe that’s enough.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. It’s very clear that Hodgson has done a fine job in putting out the fires, but that is different to starting again on a more permanent deal. The psychology then changes – there was a reason why Roy left last time. Presumably it would, at best, be a two-year contract (and maybe one) – does that not just kick the can down the road and avoid making the long-term decision?
Everton
It sums up Sean Dyche’s tenure perfectly that Everton just about staggered to a semi-positive result on Saturday, only for that to become a wonderful point given the incompetence of a club below them. Nottingham Forest’s win meant that we were down to two from three in the relegation battle. Leeds’ pathetic loss at West Ham means that we’re pretty close to two from two.
It could and should have been much worse. Everton went a goal down, lost Dominic Calvert-Lewin to yet another injury and could easily have fallen further behind. Then a goalmouth scramble ends with Yerry Mina grabbing a point and Everton, somehow moving further from trouble. Missing Dominic Calvert-Lewin against Bournemouth is a problem, but Everton now only need to draw that game (barring a large goal difference swing). They are emphatic favourites to survive.
Has Dyche had the desired effect? After winning his first game against Arsenal, when Everton really did look different from their Frank Lampard-inspired funk, Everton have taken 15 points from 16 league games despite playing Leeds, Forest, Wolves, Crystal Palace and Leicester. That’s relegation form.
And yet, despite that gloom, when Everton needed a lift most they have taken five points from a four-game run than included Manchester City on their march to the title. For those who surmise that Dyche has not offered much uplift, Everton have scored three equalisers in the 89th minute or later since the beginning of April. That might just keep them up.
Fulham
Aleksandar Mitrovic is back. Since his return from the eight-game ban, first as a substitute against Southampton and then when starting against Palace, Mitrovic has scored three goals in 115 minutes.
There is a reasonable argument that Fulham become a little too reliant upon Mitrovic when he plays, because he is such a talismanic presence. Or, to spin it more generously, Fulham learnt to cope without him. They took 19 points from the 15 league games he missed, which would equate to 48 points over an entire campaign.
But look at the teams that Fulham beat over that suspension and you see the point: Leeds, Leicester, Everton, Southampton. Fulham’s room for improvement is in their one point from a possible 27 against the top five, but Mitrovic missed four of those matches. Keep him out of mischief next year and they will avoid second season syndrome.
Leeds
A pathetic attempt to dissuade those who believed that Leeds were sinking without trace. On 4 April, Leeds beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 at a bouncing Elland Road to put their destiny firmly in their own hands. Since then, they have taken two points from a possible 24 that includes 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1 and 6-1 defeats. The only variety is the manner of their abysmal defeats.
Leeds were given everything they could have asked for, a 1-0 lead against a team with nothing to play for. And still they collapsed at the first signs of adversity and strife. They defended slackly to cede their lead and then showed precisely nothing to suggest that they deserved anything other than meek surrender.
I understand that Leeds’ players will get grief from supporters, but nobody tries to get relegated and no players stops giving their all.
If the environment in which they operate becomes toxic, either because the club’s hierarchy are guilty of letting things drift or because managers arrive and leave without making a positive difference, everything breaks. Every player could have done more. Every player has been let down by those above them.
We also need to talk about Sam Allardyce, if Leeds are indeed relegated next weekend (and they will need to win and hope Everton lose at home to Bournemouth). There are very few Leeds supporters criticising Big Sam, who was only given several weeks to make a difference.
But Allardyce walked into this position with a reputation as a man-manager and defensive organiser. His first words were to claim that he was as good as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp and he has then taken one point from three matches. If the loss to Manchester City and draw with Newcastle at least came with silver linings, the display against West Ham overshadowed them. Was this any better than Jesse Marsch or Javi Gracia?
Leicester
Play against Newcastle on Monday evening.
Liverpool
It would be inaccurate to describe it as the perfect send-off for Roberto Firmino. If we learnt anything from his time in England, it is that Firmino is the ultimate team player. If you’d have offered him a 3-0 win at Anfield in his final appearance there or a 1-1 draw in which he scored, he’d have given you an odd look for even having to ask the question. The late run to the Champions League was probably ended by Newcastle beating Brighton, but it’s definitely over now.
We will miss Firmino, and not just because he is the smiliest footballer you could ever wish to meet. His selflessness was not just appreciated at Liverpool, it helped to mastermind their success. As Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah became more and more prolific, Firmino understood that his role was to create space for his colleagues and make runs that provided an option for them. He dropped deep, he did their running, he knitted together play and he still scored goals.
Eventually, those goal returns decreased as Firmino drifted from the first-team picture. He scored 24 goals in 94 league games across the last three completed seasons. This year, the occasional crucial goal has been added to by adding icing to emphatic wins: five goals came in 9-0, 7-1 and 7-0 victories. Liverpool will not miss Firmino as a player anymore because they have signed Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo and kept Salah.
But they will miss him as a person. You could argue that nobody better personified Liverpool’s rise to the top under Jurgen Klopp than Firmino; mocked by a tabloid journalist when he signed because the club used data to scout him; transformed from a hard-working but un-prolific forward into someone that could do anything; a personality to which it was easy to warm to as well as an exceptional footballer. There’s something that the Kop wants you to know: the best in the world his name is Bobby Firmino.
Man City
Frederic Chopin composed 24 preludes and most of them lasted between five and seven minutes. At the Etihad on Sunday afternoon, we had a prelude 15 times as long and just as gently tinkling. Those who arrived expecting a football match got something that matched the dictionary definition, but not the spirit.
One team was coasting because they can, the other because coasting is seemingly all they can now do. You kick a ball around for 90 minutes but only because everybody is waiting for a trophy presentation.
Julian Alvarez scored a goal; that we must recognise. Wesley Fofana played a terrible pass into a terrible area and Cole Palmer found a nippy young attacker in 15 yards of space; you know what happens next. Manchester City won; that we barely need to mention anymore. They have now won 12 straight league games and the only thing that will stop them in their final two is the decision that there are other priorities to focus on.
Kalvin Phillips started, which is fun because it was both his first and possibly last league start for City in this stadium. Phillips was tidy enough and played a part in the goal, but he is also so emphatically a fringe player that a summer move (possibly to replace Declan Rice at West Ham) makes sense. You have to adapt to Guardiola’s demands; Phillips might just not be his type of player.
And Phil Foden shone in patches, which is frankly lovely. There is a lot to wince at within this Manchester City project, from state ownership to vast wealth and power and to the charges that hang over the club.
But the progression of a young kid from Stockport into a hometown hero and England international is virtually pure and Foden falling down the queue has been hard to watch.
Foden has a tic where, when he does something that doesn’t quite come off, he immediately looks to the bench towards his manager. I don’t know whether Foden is asking “Was that at least the right thing to do?” or simply looking for a clap and a smile, but it’s in those moments that you realise Foden is still only 22. We must cherish him. City must cherish him.
Man Utd
Every now and then, a player comes into the Premier League that you just can’t nail down. Antony is mine. Firstly, £85m was obviously a nonsense price based on what Antony had produced and the league he had produced it in. He’s also 23, which means we aren’t just looking for obscene potential but proven output too.
There are certainly moments when Antony is exciting and others when you can foresee what type of player Antony may become consistently. He occasionally produces that whipped shot with his left foot, like a less consistent Arjen Robben. His crossing with that left foot, bending towards the back post, can be decent. He is clearly extremely skilful.
But Antony is chiefly in the team to be a creator and he ranks 70th in the Premier League for chances created this season for a team in the top four. Not only is that fewer chances than Ryan Christie at Bournemouth (having played more minutes), it’s also less than six other Brazilians: Andreas Pereira, Bruno Guimaraes, Gabriel Martinelli, Willian, Douglas Luiz and Gabriel Jesus.
He’s also clearly not a dribbler because he lacks extreme pace. By way of example, Kamaldeen Sulemana at Southampton has completed six more dribbles this season despite being signed in January and playing completely fewer than half Antony’s minutes.
Which does sometimes make you wonder what he is very good (as in, worthy of starting for Manchester United every week) at. Maybe he clicks after a full preseason and we see a more polished winger in 2023-24. But right now, Antony and Jadon Sancho are in the same camp. Which is a real shame.
Newcastle
Play against Leicester on Monday evening.
Nottingham Forest
The greatest day. Nottingham Forest’s play-off final victory was a vindication, proof that a club could finally escape the glorious of their past and the demons of their present, more than it was about Premier League promotion. But the Premier League gets under your skin. Suddenly you’re desperate. Desperate to escape from where you came, desperate for those nerves not to be in vain, desperate for those who said your club was rubbish to be wrong.
When it mattered, everything came together. Forest learnt that they needed to sacrifice possession, ignoring those who were snotty about that strategy. It worked because they were solid at the back and solid in midfield. Look at the average positions of the players against Arsenal, a first clean sheet in 15 games: it is a mass of eight red shirts in one line as if defending their own honour as well as their goal.
It worked because Joe Worrall and Ryan Yates, two young men of Nottingham, stepped up to the fore when it mattered and proved why academy graduates, when coached and developed properly, can add something nobody else can. And it worked because they established a counter-attacking threat via the majestic Morgan Gibbs-White and a “confidence” striker who found his confidence.
It is too simplistic to say that this is all Steve Cooper. He was given some fine players (and a fair number of non-fine players too). Gary Brazil deserves an enormous amount of credit for his work with the academy. It is barely hyperbolic to say that Brazil kept the hope alive at this club. Evangelos Marinakis deserves thanks, because it is his investment that funded the spending.
And what of the supporters? A theme of this season has been away supporters coming to the City Ground and then posting on social media about the impressive noise.
But over the last few weeks, against Brighton, Southampton and Arsenal, the atmosphere has gone to a level higher than many supporters have simply never seen in their lifetimes.
When they should have been paralysed by nerves and fear, they sang louder and for longer. It doesn’t really matter if this makes a difference or not; that the players and manager believe it does is enough. Forest have taken 30 of their 37 points at home.
But Cooper has earned this. It was never an easy job: a team bottom of the Championship and a club crying out for someone to love them; the noise behind the scenes; the vast turnover of players; the regular changing of sporting director. So manic had this campaign got that Cooper’s reputation would have remained intact if they had been relegated. As it was, he kept Forest up with a game to spare at the expensive of established Premier League clubs. Cooper is magic and Forest are lucky to have him.
Southampton
There is something deeply ironic about Southampton, who have basically paid the price for lacking an obvious consistent identity in their team or style or managerial appointments, appointing Russell Martin as soon as their time in the Premier League has come to an end.
For those who aren’t aware, at MK Dons and Swansea Martin has forged a reputation as a coach who adores possession. If the one criticism is that his Swansea team were occasionally guilty of lacking penetration to accompany the control, he was also working on a tight budget under the club’s owners.
So why didn’t Southampton go for Martin over Nathan Jones? Instead they appointed a coach whose Luton Town were successful playing direct football with a target man striker and spent the January transfer window buying players suited to counter-attacking football and a giant centre forward. Is Martin going to have to work with those, or are the owners tearing everything up and starting again?
Tottenham
Well the idea of Ryan Mason stepping up to try and improve the mood after Antonio Conte and Cristian Stellini has gone about as well as we suspected that it might. These are not problems that a smile and the best intentions of someone who knows the club can solve. Tottenham are broken and only a summer overhaul can sort it.
Against Brentford, Tottenham actually started fairly promisingly. That it itself is a problem.
It isn’t just that Spurs’ players are incapable of reacting to something going wrong. It’s that even when things are going well they are fully capable of turning sunshine into rain in an instant.
Since mid-March, they have led 3-1 at Southampton, led by a goal and a man against Everton, led 1-0 against Bournemouth at home, equalised in the last minute against Liverpool and led 1-0 against Brentford. They took three points from those five matches.
Tottenham had a decent shot at a Europa League place before this weekend. Now they are reliant upon other results and them fumbling in the dark for their own competence just to qualify for the Conference League. I’ve seen Tottenham fans turning up their noses at Uefa’s least prodigious competition this week, to which I’d say: West Ham might win a trophy on June 7 and will play in the Europa League next season if they do. Isn’t that what you wanted for your club?
West Ham
And, if you’d momentarily like to skip to and back from the Liverpool section, this was the perfect send-off. Declan Rice has come a long way since coming on as a substitute for Edimilson Fernandes at Turf Moor exactly six years ago on Sunday. West Ham have come a long way too, largely thanks to Rice.
If there was any suspicion that Rice might coast through his final Premier League assignments before departing West Ham this summer, perhaps saving himself for the European final, think again. He simply did what he always does: made the most passes, demanded the ball, urged those around him to be better and stormed forward whenever the opportunity allowed. And yes, he scored and thus got received the moment he will remember forever.
Over the course of the last two years, Rice has gone from a pure holding midfielder to a defensive player who can pass to a marauding, exploring central midfielder who never forgot his duties. He is a leader by example off the pitch as well as on it, and however much West Ham persuade a Premier League behemoth to pay for him this summer cannot adequately account for the difference he makes. There are few 24-year-olds who have done so much for the same club.
Wolves
The score might not matter, but you wonder if Wolves supporters might look back on May 20, 2023 as the end of an era at Molineux. Ruben Neves swaggered around central midfield for surely the last time at this stadium before he moves to Barcelona. Neves was the first glamour signing of the Fosun era and none have been more influential.
Neves is not the only one going. Raul Jimenez, Daniel Podence and Rayan Ait-Nouri are all seemingly surplus to requirements and may not attract significant transfer fees. Diego Costa’s contract expiring is not a huge problem, but Joao Moutinho and Adama Traore are in the same situation and they will need replacing.
This week, Julen Lopetegui insinuated that he had received promises about Wolves’ potential which may now be broken.
“I have had that meeting and I know now there are some Financial Fair Play problems that I didn’t know before,” Lopetegui said. “Now I hope we will solve this issue because it’s very difficult to compete in the Premier League without investment.”
With their January investment likely to further hamstring them, including Matheus Cunha’s move becoming permanent for £48m, Wolves now face a summer of comparative austerity at a time when their squad could do with a refresh. There are interesting times ahead.
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