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Arsenal and Liverpool will not give up without squeezing the pressure on Manchester City. Both won away from home this weekend to leapfrog City while they were on FA Cup duty.
A smaller programme also allowed Aston Villa to move six points clear of Tottenham Hotspur (who have two games in hand), with fourth place now necessary for the Champions League.
At the bottom, Luton Town were thrashed by Brentford, but are still only a point behind Nottingham Forest after they lost at Everton. It’s now two from three, with Burnley still alive after thumping Sheffield United 4-1.
Scroll down for my verdict on every team (listed in table order).
Gameweek 33 results
Saturday 20 April
- Luton 1-5 Brentford
- Sheff Utd 1-4 Burnley
- Wolves 0-2 Arsenal
Sunday 21 April
- Everton 2-0 Nottm Forest
- Aston Villa 3-1 Bournemouth
- Palace 5-2 West Ham
- Fulham 1-3 Liverpool
Arsenal
All Arsenal can do is put the last week behind them. They cannot change their own reality on their own, now out of the Champions League and second favourites in the Premier League – they need a slip up from the most ruthlessly efficient table-toppers in the history of the league. The only option is to rediscover their rhythm, slowly if necessary.
This was not quite the controlled Arsenal of January, February and March. Their attacking efficiency had fallen off a small cliff and we saw signs of the same at Molineux. Before Leandro Trossard’s sliced opening goal, Arsenal had gone 33 shots over almost two and a half matches without scoring. They have scored with 12 per cent of their shots in the league this season – only Newcastle and Aston Villa can beat that for efficiency.
For much of the first half, a new familiar problem. Against Bayern Munich and Aston Villa, Arsenal had enjoyed possession without hurting their opponents enough. They had scored one open-play goal in Gabriel Jesus’ previous three starts with him on the pitch. With Kai Havertz and Jesus as the most attacking players, there’s a too-many-cooks danger with their creativity and not enough players to finish the chances.
Trossard is the potential antidote to this. Of Arsenal’s attackers, Trossard – sometimes the forgotten member of the group – boasts the most efficient finishing and the best minutes-to-goal ratio. For much of this season he’s been the super sub, but Trossard has scored some seriously important goals: equalisers vs Bayern, Chelsea, winner vs Everton, opening goal vs Wolves and clinching goal vs Liverpool.
It reflects a sea change in his role at Arsenal and offers proof of his tactical flexibility. Last season, after joining from Brighton in January, Trossard assisted 10 league goals and scored just one, usually used as a left winger. This season, with Mikel Arteta asking him to get into the box more, Trossard has eight league goals and one assist. He averaged 4.2 touches in the penalty area per 90 minutes played last season. In 2023-24, that has leapt up to 6.7.
Finally, Molineux saw a return to the defensive parsimony that has fuelled Arsenal’s title challenge. Jakub Kiwior remains prone to concentration lapses (and it was his mistake that allowed Wolves’ only real chance on Saturday, expertly saved by David Raya), but Arsenal only allowed Wolves to take five shots. In the nine games directly before the trip to Manchester City, Arsenal hadn’t allowed any opponent more than 10 shots in a game. That had happened in four of their last six before Saturday.
Liverpool
A fine win given Jurgen Klopp’s rotation in giving Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, Joe Gomez and Alexis Mac Allister a rest. Liverpool then brought on all five during the second half, which felt like a warning to Fulham not to try and get back in the match after the third goal.
I know it’s a little pedantic, but I wanted to talk about Darwin Nunez’s offsides because they jumped out. Nunez came on and did what he always does, look dangerous until the point at which you expect to be most dangerous. But he was also caught offside twice. And that’s significant.
Nunez has become the first player this season in the Premier League to reach 30 offsides, four ahead of his nearest rival (who is Nicolas Jackson, which also makes complete sense). That gets even worse when you consider that Nunez has only been on the pitch for 63 per cent of Liverpool’s league minutes this season.
There’s nothing wrong with edging close to that line, trying to steal a march on a defender. But in the age of VAR and the assistant referees hearing the offside calls in their ears, you have to be a little more savvy and bide your time. You could add together the number of offside offences by Ollie Watkins, Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez and Mohamed Salah and still not reach Nunez’s total.
The big question is how this season’s proper title tussle will end. Darwin Nunez offsides – 30; Manchester City offsides – 33. I’m backing him to win it.
Read more: Liverpool have found the man who can reignite their title challenge
Manchester City
Beat Chelsea to reach the FA Cup final.
Aston Villa
Brilliant displays of energy after Thursday’s 120 minutes in Lille. A goal down against a high-energy team and without much rotation given the necessities of pursuing a Champions League place, Villa fought back marvellously. Unai Emery made only two changes to the team – both forced – and didn’t make a substitution until the 87th minute. The players will surely get a couple of days off now. This has been the best week of a memorable season.
But I wanted to talk about Ezri Konsa, who was Villa’s best player against Bournemouth and who is quietly having a magnificent season. He’s had to start at right-back in 15 matches due to the absence of Matty Cash. He’s seen his most favoured central defensive partner ruled out for the season with a senior injury. And yet nothing has forced his form to suffer. His tackle on Dominic Solanke at 1-0 provided the platform for the comeback.
Konsa is a quiet authority. He’s not a ranter and raver and prefers to be in the right position rather than make a tackle. He’s played second fiddle to the majestic Pau Torres after his arrival, but made life easy for Torres when they have started next to each other.
Konsa is in the England squad on merit and deserves to go to the Euros this summer, even though he only has two caps. He might even be the next cab off the rank to start if either Harry Maguire or John Stones are unavailable. At 26, he has become a better central defender than anyone thought possible.
Tottenham Hotspur
No game this weekend.
Newcastle United
No game this weekend.
Manchester United
Beat Coventry City to reach the FA Cup final.
Read more: The 20 minutes that showed Man Utd why Erik ten Hag has to go
West Ham
Until the last fortnight, West Ham had been largely able to avoid the crippling hangovers that Thursday night football can cause. Before the Bayer Leverkusen tie, David Moyes’ side had played eight Sunday matches after European games. They had won two, drawn four and lost twice. One of those defeats was against Liverpool.
But over their last two league games, proof that this squad is absolutely goosed after two seasons of constant football. West Ham have already played 49 matches this season; they played 56 last season. This is not a large squad and Moyes is a manager who prefers not to rotate or make early substitutions unless he has to.
Against Fulham, West Ham were lethargic in losing 2-0 at home. At Palace on Sunday, they were calamitous. The home team scored four times in the first 31 minutes and the only saving grace is that Oliver Glasner’s team took their foot off the gas and eventually allowed West Ham to make the scoreline slightly more respectable. Their season is now over. The final four league games will be a slog.
Which may well bring the Moyes era to a sad close. There were to be no European exploits this time, or at least none that would push the bar higher than Prague. There will be no European qualification via league position either, thanks to England’s poor coefficient and Newcastle, Manchester United and Chelsea having multiple games in hand. Moyes will leave and a new age will begin. And everyone will try to forget that they ever went to see their team lose 5-2 at Palace.
Chelsea
Lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final.
Brighton
No game this weekend.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
“It was an incredible performance and one of my favourites, considering how tough I thought it was going to be for us,” was Gary O’Neil’s post-match take. “For the lads to show the togetherness, the commitment and the workrate to push Arsenal as hard as we did, I thought it was an incredible effort from everyone.”
Ordinarily, that might sound a little defeatist after a home loss, but O’Neil is absolutely right. Lots of clubs have injury crises, but Wolves’ is like nothing else in the Premier League. O’Neil had 10 fully fit senior outfield players to choose from for Saturday night’s game. He left Mario Lemina, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Pablo Sarabia on the bench, presumably with one eye on his old club Bournemouth this midweek.
Nothing sums up Wolves’ current lack of forward options like Lemina playing as an emergency striker for the final 20 minutes, with academy forward Tawanda Chirewa tired and Hwang Hee-chan only able to give him a half due to his own fitness issues.
Take a group of Wolves starters: Chirewa, Boubacar Traore, Hugo Bueno and Tommy Doyle – almost half of Wolves outfielders to face Arsenal. Traore has 28 career top-flight starts. Doyle now has 10, Hugo Bueno 22.
This was Chirewa’s first senior start. Add in a half-fit Hwang, a back-up central defender in Santi Bueno and Matt Doherty, who last started more than 13 games in a league season in 2020-21.
That is why O’Neil was proud. Yes, Wolves failed to break Arsenal down. Yes, they conceded late on to seal the game, something the manager was irked by because he felt that a young team didn’t deserve it. Yes, Wolves have now gone six games without a win for the first time in 18 months. But they have three home games against Bournemouth, Luton and Crystal Palace to finish a brilliant season strongly.
Fulham
In the post-match aftermath, it was interesting to see Tosin Adarabioyo getting some flak from Fulham supporters. Fulham’s central defender didn’t have a great game: his fluffed clearance gave Harvey Elliott a chance to score and then he chose to step out and engage to leave space for Diogo Jota to run into and score the third goal. There are signs that he’s been off his game a little.
The complication is that Adarabioyo is out of contract in the summer and is expected to leave Fulham on a free transfer. Without the club being able to command a fee for him, that inevitably reduces the patience of supporters in your performances. Fail to hit previous heights and the unfair accusation is that you have one foot out of the door. And it sticks.
Some Fulham supporters on Sunday evening were demanding that Adarabioyo be dropped. It’s clearly harsh, but Tim Ream has signed a contract for next season and he remained on the bench against Liverpool. With the season losing its competition and Fulham in glorious midtable, might this be the time to let one central defender have a break and another get some minutes after four starts in as many months?
Read more: I went inside Fulham’s new Riverside Stand – it even has its own swimming pool
Bournemouth
We’ll ignore the disappointment of the defeat, because it doesn’t change the general picture of Bournemouth’s season. So a shoutout to Illia Zabarnyi, the Bournemouth central defender who only joined the club last January. At that time, Zabarnyi had played only 50 league games in Ukraine and he only appeared in five Premier League matches last season.
The reason I mention him is that, at the age of just 21, Zabarnyi has so far played every single minute of Bournemouth’s Premier League season, one of only three outfield players to do so. He already has 34 caps for Ukraine, he can play out from the back with ease and he’s been one of the key reasons for the progress under Andoni Iraola. The boy is going to be a star.
Crystal Palace
Oh how seasons can change impossibly quickly. After the 1-0 away defeat to Bournemouth, Crystal Palace supporters were desperate for this campaign to end and Oliver Glasner likely had similar thoughts. Palace weren’t going down – everyone else’s form saw to that. Glasner needed a pre-season to move them on from the Roy Hodgson era.
Now nobody wants June to come. Palace were exceptional defensively at Anfield, Adam Wharton coming of age and Joachim Andersen furthering his reputation as the best central defender in the Premier League’s bottom half. Against West Ham, a tired opponent who invited them to have a little fun, Palace’s attackers ran riot.
Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise were exceptional, providing two goals and two assists between them. That pair had 11 shots in total, more than Palace as a whole team have had in 15 of their league matches this season. Eze completed five dribbles, leading West Ham on a merry dance that created precious space for those around him by dragging two – and sometimes three – opponents with him.
We have spoken often about the dual threat of Eze and Olise, and how much Palace have missed them when absent this season, this just their sixth league start together of the season. But over the last two matches, we’ve seen how they create space for a centre-forward and allow Jean-Philippe Mateta, a magnificent penalty-box presence, to stay high up the pitch.
When Mateta gets the ball to feet with his back to goal, he is better than most in the Premier League at bringing others into play. Then it’s Eze and Olise who get to be the strikers, running beyond Mateta and into the penalty area. That is the perfect combination: Mateta had four touches in the box but scored with two of them, Eze and Olise got closer and closer to take his touches and passes and create for each other.
Brentford
Let’s avoid the conspiracy theory. Ivan Toney is nursing a hip injury, he didn’t play competitive football for eight months and thus Thomas Frank is managing his comeback. Toney needs to play a few games if he’s going to go to the Euros, and that will be nagging away in his mind, but better to rest than exacerbate a problem.
Still, it’s all worked out pretty well for Frank and Brentford. Toney has not been shy in discussing his intention to leave Brentford this summer. If Frank is acutely aware of that reality, what could be better than securing your Premier League safety without your highest-profile forward? It’s not as if Toney was helping much anyway – Brentford had taken six points from their last 33 available with him starting.
They have now taken more points than that in the three games without him. Luton are not scared of physical entre forwards. They are scared by movement around the penalty area and nippy wide forwards who combine with one another to create space and danger.
On Saturday, Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and Keane Lewis-Potter gave Luton twisted blood, and then Kevin Schade came on to do exactly the same. Mbeumo got two assists; the other three shared four goals. Brentford recorded an xG of 3.7, their joint highest in a league game since beating Wycombe 7-2 in the Championship in January 2021.
For all the noise around Toney, there is persuasive evidence that it’s the combination of Mbeumo and Wissa that Brentford rely upon most. In the last nine league games they have started together, Brentford have scored 21 goals, taken 19 points and lost only to Arsenal and Liverpool.
Brentford have long had a policy of selling high-profile forwards and backing themselves to kick on without them thanks to savvy recruitment and an established Plan B that Frank proactively prepares – Ollie Watkins, Said Benrahma, Neal Maupay. Who is to say that he won’t do the same after Toney?
Everton
Everton did not play well against Nottingham Forest; not that they really needed to. The crowd was nervous at 0-0 and scoring only seemed to exacerbate the fear that something would fall apart. The wave of relief after Dwight McNeil’s goal could power the lights in the new stadium for a month.
But I wanted to talk about Jordan Pickford, who made a rotten mistake against Chelsea on Monday and was immediately lobbed by Cole Palmer. Pickford has not had a perfect season. He does not escape censure for Everton’s malaise under Sean Dyche. He ranks outside the top 10 for save efficiency vs chances faced, although above every other regular goalkeeper in the bottom six.
But Pickford has always had the ability to make match-changing saves. His sprawling dive to thwart Chris Wood during the first half was classic Pickford, refusing to give up on what looked a lost cause and in doing so changing the mood at Goodison. In that moment, Everton’s season turned.
And then the celebration. Pickford makes no secret of – or apology for – being emotionally expressive, and why not? Goalscorers celebrate wildly so why shouldn’t a goalkeeper do exactly the same when he knows the magnitude of the occasion. This was everything, a lurching fist pump towards his own supporters that was met with exactly the same reaction in return. That’s why, even if he makes mistakes, Evertonians love him dearly.
Nottingham Forest
The bad news is that you all wasted your time watching Forest between August and April 21. To see the entirety of Forest’s 2023-24 season in excelsis, simply watch the 17 minutes against Everton that consigned them to another away defeat.
Firstly, the defending. You can point out that Everton didn’t create many chances and scored twice from outside the box, but defending is a team exercise and it involves central midfielders closing down space on the edge of the penalty area. Premier League players are pretty good. Give them time and they will pick a spot if you let them.
Forest should have been in the game before Dwight McNeil’s clinching goal, but they are routinely incapable of making their spells of pressure pay. Chris Wood has missed presentable opportunities in each of the last two matches, but it’s those around him who squander half-chances that add up. That is how Forest accumulate xG without making opponents pay. And we know what happens next, the counterpunch.
Yes, I’m burying the lede here. Forest were incredibly unfortunate not to get at least one penalty and had a legitimate case on all three incidents. Giovanni Reyna has his leg kicked, Ashley Young’s arm is outstretched and Callum Hudson-Odoi got the wrong side of his man before being bundled over. This is not the first time that Forest feel aggrieved and their anger is entirely understandable.
But the post-match tweet from the official X account is embarrassing and understandable. At worst it accuses an official of cheating and at best it insinuates exactly the same thing. Clubs have a responsibility to let anger settle and to make complaints through the right channels. This is fan mentality from those who have to know and do better.
Who knows what happens now – this is basically unprecedented in English football. But a serious charge will now be forthcoming towards Forest and it’s hardly beyond the realms of possibility that it ends with another points deduction that only makes everybody’s job harder. Forest are already left desperately hoping that Luton and Burnley don’t pick up more points. This season is becoming a bin fire and this – when you add in the season ticket farce – has been a terrible week.
Read more: Forest will pay the price for making fans feel taunted over 24% ticket hikes
Luton Town
For the first time this season, Rob Edwards sounded more than a little weary. Luton’s manager had rejected questions about the home game against Brentford being must-win (and he’s right, looking at the fixtures) but this was likely Luton’s second gentlest assignment before the end of the season. They produced their worst performance.
“I’m apologising and rightly so, it’s not good enough and it’s not been often I’ve had to say that, if at all really this year, but today, I shoulder it,” Edwards said. “I’m the manager and I’ve got to hold my hand up. For the first time really this season just looked like we lacked a bit of belief in that second half.
“That’s something that we’ve got to make sure that we snap out of very, very quickly. I don’t know why it has happened as we know the importance of the game and to lose it in that manner is desperately disappointing right now, and a tough day for us.”
Luton have avoided these heavy defeats at home until now. Before Brentford they hadn’t lost by more than a two-goal margin at Kenilworth Road. But the movement of Brentford’s forwards made Luton look distinctly Championship. The defending for the second goal was appalling, the conceded from a simple set piece for the third and left space at the back post for the fourth and fifth goals.
The injury crisis doesn’t help. Issa Kabore was forced off with an ankle issue (he’s been Luton’s best defender this season) and was followed at half-time by Reece Burke. For Luton’s first league win of the season (at Everton in September), Edwards started a back five of Burke, Lockyer, Bell, Kabore and Doughty. Lockyer and Bell are out for the season. Kabore and Burke went off on Saturday. Doughty, the left wing-back, is the only one left.
The points deductions of others are what give Luton a chance of staying up – that still holds after Saturday. But they’re going to have to improve their home form against the league’s weakest teams, with Everton to come. Luton have drawn with Forest and lost to Brentford, Sheffield United and Burnley. That is what will take them down, if they go.
Burnley
Burnley are officially giving it a go. Over their last seven league matches, Vincent Kompany’s team have earned 43 per cent of their league points for the season and scored a third of their total league goals. On Saturday, they scored four away from home in a Premier League game for the second time since 2010.
For once (and yes, against the worst team in the league), everything clicked. Arijanet Muric made a string of saves to recover from recent errors. Lorenz Assignon looked like the inventive attacking full-back that Burnley believe he can be. Sander Berge was assured and commanding in central midfield – that hasn’t happened often enough. Lyle Foster scored the third goal at the perfect time to relieve pressure and Kompany will hope that his knock doesn’t force him to miss any time.
There were also caveats that it would be remiss not to mention. Although Burnley’s win at Bramall Lane looks comfortable on the scoreline, Sheffield United actually had more shots, more shots and targets and had 11 corners to Burnley’s two. The xG scoreline was 2.92 – 1.94 in Sheffield United’s favour. That is the second highest xG figure recorded by a losing team in the Premier League over the last five years.
That matters because of who Burnley must still face this season. With Nottingham Forest coming to Turf Moor on the final day (and Burnley’s goal difference being a problem), they’re going to need to get within two points of Forest before then. Burnkey’s next three games are against Manchester United (a), Newcastle United (h) and Tottenham (a). This would still be a miraculous escape.
Sheffield United
“When we were under, there were a few players that wanted to get out of the place,” said Chris Wilder after the defeat to Burnley, choosing to ignore that his team actually played pretty well. “That can’t be the case. I won’t name names, but I think there were a few players out there that wanted to get out of there pretty quickly after the fourth went in, which you can’t have, you just can’t have.”
The boos that met the final whistle, the final display of mutiny as the last flickers of hope died, suggests that supporters are on the same page as Wilder, but that’s not really the point. Firstly, Wilder sells himself as a motivator, one of those “100 per cent is the least I expect” managers who depend upon the buy-in of every member of the squad. If he is suggesting that certain players aren’t fighting for him, it paints him in a poor light as well as them.
But this is also Wilder’s audition for next season. His last two Championship assignments have been a disaster, sacked by Middlesbrough after 45 games and by Watford after just three wins in 11. Given a full half-season to turn around the mood at Bramall Lane (even if keeping Sheffield United up was a fantasy), Wilder had to offer evidence to those above him that he is the right man to spearhead a promotion campaign.
The players of which Wilder speaks may not be at the club next season. But every player who heard those words (and was tarnished by Wilder leaving the identity of those he was displeased with private) may harbour some resentment. They felt like the final screams of a managerial tenure that may come to an end in late May.
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