Liverpool played quite badly, conceded first, wobbled with a lead and yet still ended the Premier League weekend as close to the title as they started. Their pulsating 2-2 draw with Manchester United followed Arsenal drawing 1-1 at Brighton on Saturday. Advantage Nottingham Forest in the title race, naturally.
The pack is bunching in the race for the top four/five/six/seven, with Aston Villa, Newcastle, Manchester City and Bournemouth all winning, so it’s Chelsea that had the worst weekend there thanks to dropping more points, this time at Crystal Palace.
I think we can say that Southampton might be down, with Ivan Juric describing a 5-0 home defeat against Brentford as like being kicked in the head. Leicester City are favourites to join them after losing for a fifth time in a row. Ipswich Town got a point closer to Everton, but allowed yet another lead to slip.
Scroll down for our verdict on every team (listed in table order).
This weekend’s results
Saturday 4 January
- Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle
- Bournemouth 1-0 Everton
- Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester
- Crystal Palace 1-1 Chelsea
- Man City 4-1 West Ham
- Southampton 0-5 Brentford
- Brighton 1-1 Arsenal
Sunday 5 January
- Fulham 2-2 Ipswich
- Liverpool 2-2 Man Utd
Liverpool
Take a deep breath, Liverpool. Titles are won on days like this, when the pistons never quite get pumping and the man Real Madrid want no longer resembles the real deal.
Trent Alexander-Arnold will end up the unwelcome focus this week as Liverpool failed to win at Anfield for only the third time under Arne Slot. Out of sorts and too often out of position, he was a neat symbol for Liverpool’s levels dropping several notches – and their Dutch coach, rather surprisingly, getting out-thought.
Ruben Amorim put a target on Alexander-Arnold’s back and it worked perfectly. Balls over the top gave Liverpool problems and Alexander-Arnold looked isolated as Mo Salah prowled further up the pitch, barely giving him the defensive cover he craved. Combine those tactical tweaks with his own carelessness and it was a recipe for disaster for the most talked about player of the transfer window so far.
Madrid’s mischief-making bid at the start of last week, on reflection, did not do him any favours. While Virgil van Dijk (imperious again here) and Salah retain the sympathy of the Kop – who continue to unfurl banners urging Fenway Sports Group to cough up for their new contracts – the relationship with Alexander-Arnold is becoming more complicated. There is a sense his exit is simply a matter of time as Spanish confidence grows.
Did that impact him here? Slot said it didn’t but like the rest of his team he played as if he had other things on his mind.
Indeed after scoring 14 goals in their last three games – 11 in the dismantling of Tottenham and then West Ham over Christmas – Liverpool carried the look of a team who had bought into the idea that Manchester United were simply there for the taking at Anfield.
Before the game, as rumours swirled that the overnight snow might cause the match to be called off, it was Liverpool fans that were desperate to get it on while the visitors hoped to delay the supposedly inevitable. Turn up, turn them over? It didn’t take long for that theory to be exposed as Slot’s side looked decidedly ruffled.
But before anyone prods the red alert button, Liverpool’s misstep here might actually work in their favour. Previous dropped points – think a late lapse at Newcastle last month – have seen the team respond emphatically. Their response to losing to Nottingham Forest in September was to go on an eight-game winning run.
This was not a defeat, though, and there were a couple of spells when Liverpool returned fire on their bitter rivals. In the second of those – prompted by Cody Gakpo’s superb leveller – the Reds almost escaped from this tussle with the three points thanks to Salah’s coolly hit penalty. They even came close to snatching it after Amad Diallo’s second goal when Van Dijk eluded a sea of visiting defenders, only to steer his header into Andre Onana’s grateful grasp. A win would have been unwarranted, on reflection, but a draw should not be viewed as a disaster.
After Arsenal dropped points to Brighton on Saturday there was the chance to go eight points clear with a game in hand. That Liverpool ended it with status quo preserved – and a nagging sense of disappointment – is a testament to the understated magic Slot has conjured this season.
They have been so effortlessly excellent that when things don’t quite go to plan it jars. But this felt like further proof that the only team that can beat Liverpool to the title this season is themselves. By Mark Douglas
League table
Arsenal
Liverpool’s six-point lead is not insurmountable, but they have a game in hand on the Gunners and still have to welcome them to Anfield. Arne Slot’s boys have a big advantage on the chasing pack.
Perhaps being the hunters will suit Arsenal. They were 10 points better off at this stage of the 2022-23 season only to eventually be shot down by a relentless Manchester City.
They will have to act quickly, though, before the moving target gallops off into the distance.
A stalemate in Sussex was not the start to the New Year that Arteta wanted. Arsenal recorded impressive numbers in 2024 without lifting a trophy.
Along with Liverpool, they won the most Premier League games (26) and the most points (85). They had by far the best defensive record, conceding 25 goals (14 fewer than any other side) and were a close second in the attacking stats, scoring 89 goals (just three behind Liverpool). By Oliver Young-Myles
Nottingham Forest
Play Wolves on Monday night.
Chelsea
Another backwards step and another sign that Enzo Maresca’s squad management strategy is showing signs of strain. The idea was that Chelsea would broadly operate an “A” squad in the Premier League and a “B” squad in the Carabao Cup and Conference League, which did make sense and did bear fruit before December.
The issue comes when Maresca couldn’t pick the same players in the Premier League every week and was thus forced to consider shifting around the two squads and being more proactive with his substitutes. I think that the evidence suggests that his use of those subs has been poor.
Chelsea’s squad is deep; this much we know. That is one of the great advantages of being an elite club: your starters are supposed to be better than your opponent’s, but your bench should emphatically be better and thus allow you to rescue points in the final stage of games.
Which isn’t happening at Chelsea this season. Look at the goal difference in the final 10 minutes for those Big Six clubs around them: Liverpool +6, Arsenal +3, Manchester City +3. Chelsea’s goal difference over that period is -3. Other than at Ipswich, when Chelsea were 2-0 down and so Maresca made significant changes after half-time, he has typically waited until after the 70th minute to make an alteration.
That is not good enough, given the resources and however successful the period from August to early December was. Over the second half of the season, with the European fixtures getting slightly tougher and fatigue setting in (Cole Palmer, perhaps?), Maresca is going to have to start getting more from his fringe players and bench.
Newcastle
At what point would Eddie Howe like his players to tone it down a notch this January? Alexander Isak’s winner against Tottenham was his ninth goal in eight games as that £100m price tag looks ever more justified.
Strengthening Newcastle’s hand is the stark reality of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR), with few clubs actually boasting the headroom required to sign the Swedish international – however quickly he is reinforcing his side’s Champions League credentials.
Howe knows that restrictive feeling all too well, admitting after his side’s sixth victory in a row that it is more a question of “what we can do” rather than what he would like to do over the course of the January window.
Chief among his targets is another centre-back – a long-standing aim since the failed pursuit of Marc Guehi last summer – but the return of Sven Botman could not have been more timely.
This was his first appearance since March following his ACL rupture and after a shaky opening 20 minutes in which he allowed Dominic Solanke to peel away from him for Spurs’ opener, his numbers were impressive: eight duels won, five clearances, four tackles, two interceptions.
He later made a pivotal block to stop a separate Solanke effort before Martin Dubravka dealt with Pape Matar Sarr’s strike.
Had Fabian Schar not been suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season against Manchester United, it is unlikely Botman would have been given the nod from the start.
But Schar will also miss the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal with another ban, Emil Krafth is not yet ready after a broken collarbone and Jamaal Lascelles is not back from his own ligament injury suffered last April.
That means the Dutchman could be at the heart of the defence again in midweek despite having to go off towards the end of Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, it was nothing more serious than cramp. By Kat Lucas
Man City
Bernardo Silva was left dumbfounded. Hands on his head, he had not seen a cross of such delight in a long, long time at the Etihad.
Most had written Savinho off before he had even accepted it rains in Manchester more than it doesn’t. Signing a player who spent last season on loan at one City Football Group club, Girona, from another, Troyes, just seemed like shifting money from one bank account to another.
Yet, in the space of a week, as all else around him has remained disjointed – to put it mildly – the embryonic Brazilian has opened his City account and followed that with another goal to set Manchester City on their way to their joint-highest league win of the season over West Ham, while providing two assists.
One of which left his teammates in a state of awe and sent a message to the naysayers around east Manchester – there may well be a real talent in this move of convenience after all. By Pete Hall
Bournemouth
A narrow win over a desperately poor Everton, but this was a weekend after which Bournemouth supporters may well have reached peak happiness. It has slipped slightly under the radar, but Andoni Iraola’s team are now three points behind Chelsea in fourth. Their next league fixture is at Stamford Bridge; don’t bet against them getting at least a point.
This is a team in perfect balance. They have conceded more than one goal in only six league games this season, fewer than plenty of clubs around them and only one more than Arsenal and Liverpool. They have scored in 12 of their last 13 league games. They have supreme energy in midfield that makes them a pain for Big Six clubs.
Beating Everton took Bournemouth to 33 points, seven more than they have ever managed before at this stage of a Premier League season. They’re now unbeaten in eight Premier League matches, which is also a club record. And, over their last eight games, only Liverpool have taken more points. Europe is perfectly possible now.
Aston Villa
It will matter less if Jhon Duran stays and keeps scoring goals, but there is something not quite right about Ollie Watkins’ form this season. Ross Barkley and Leon Bailey scored on Saturday to ensure a tricky run ended with a home victory over Leicester, but Watkins missed a chance to kill off the game in the final 10 minutes. It is becoming a theme.
The good news is that Watkins is still getting excellent service and his movement inside the penalty area is exceptional. He is actually 10 per cent more shots this season than in 2023-24. He is also taking those shots 10 per cent closer to goal, on average. Unsurprisingly, that means his xG is up too.
Unfortunately, Watkins is slightly wasting the increase in opportunity. His shot conversion (number of shots to number of goals) is down by almost fifty per cent so far this season.
Again unsurprisingly, given the numbers above, Watkins is significantly below his xG figure (which he has routinely outperformed during his Premier League career). It is six non-penalty goals in the league in 2024-25.
There are obvious theories. Watkins has played a lot of football and didn’t have a summer off – add in Villa being in the Champions League and fatigue would be entirely understandable. So would a psychological impact of learning to share time with Duran.
But, for now, it’s a slight headache for Unai Emery. Watkins was the most dependable striker in the division not called Erling Haaland last season. That is no longer the case.
Fulham
Want an example of how the culture of officiating is broken in this country over the course of a two-minute spell? Of course you do.
Conclusion one: there were two penalties awarded, one to Fulham and one to Ipswich. Both were penalties. Sam Morsy tripped up Harry Wilson and Timothy Castagne tried to kick the ball but kicked Liam Delap. Neither defender argued when the penalties were awarded.
In the first case, the referee’s view was blocked by a player, he saw Wilson trip himself and assumed that that was the whole of the incident. In a VAR age, that official had a far better view, including replays, and so called over the referee. I don’t like VAR, but this is how it works perfectly. In the second incident, the referee had a clear view and gave the decision on the field.
Before the VAR interjection for the first penalty, Wilson ran towards the referee and, at best, screamed obscenities into his face. On the touchline, Marco Silva went apoplectic with anger and was booked. Wilson escaped and was very lucky.
When Ipswich’s penalty was rightly awarded, Fulham’s players again surrounded the referee and Silva was again incensed on the touchline, this time laughing as if he were the victim of some sick masterplan. If the same challenge as Castagne’s had been on one of his players, Silva would have been screaming for a penalty.
The point is this: even when two penalties are awarded correctly, one with VAR’s assistance and one without, there is wild anger and apparent controversy where none needs to exist. This is absolutely exhausting.
Brighton
Until Joao Pedro confidently placed his penalty into the side netting there wasn’t an awful lot for Brighton fans to get excited about during a bitty clash against Arsenal in brutal conditions.
But there was one moment within the first five minutes that would have had friends, family members and complete strangers turning to each other in the stands with a raised eyebrow or a nod of appreciation.
It started when William Saliba looped a header away to safety in the general direction of Carlos Baleba. With four Brighton players in Arsenal’s box, most players might have felt compelled to simply nod the ball back from where it came from in the hope it might drop to a blue-and-white striped shirt.
Instead, the Cameroonian controlled it on his chest, nudged it into the air from his left thigh onto the right one and then flicked it over his head before volleying a pass into Joel Veltman, all while being hassled by three opponents closing in on him from three different directions.
It was a piece of skill that led to nothing tangible – it actually took Brighton marginally backwards rather than forwards – but it was a snapshot of the midfielder’s emerging talent and burgeoning confidence.
Here he was mucking about against elite opponents in the toughest league of the world as though he were taking on a bunch of part-timers on the pitches back home in Douala.
It is unclear what Fabian Hurzeler made of Baleba’s showboating, but he will have been delighted by his overall performance in any case. He didn’t just hold his own against a midfield comprised of a £105m player, and two European champions, but bettered them.
That impromptu juggle was the highlight of an all-action display. Baleba completed 30 of his 32 attempted passes, attempted three tackles and made three blocks. Although he is a diamond in need of further buffing, he has athleticism and technical ability in spades and at just 21 will only get better. By Oliver Young-Myles
Brentford
We seem to talk endlessly about Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, and that pair did – as is standard – score more than half of Brentford’s five goals at Southampton on Saturday. But ask Brentford supporters and they will tell you that neither of those two have been the club’s best performer this season.
Mikkel Damsgaard took some time to settle in England. He arrived in summer 2022 and, before this season, had started only 16 Premier League matches in two years. But Thomas Frank wanted to alter Brentford’s attacking style slightly to make them more multifaceted in the final third and that required a creative attacking central midfielder. The others – Mbeumo, Wissa, Keane Lewis-Potter, Kevin Schade – all liked drifting wide.
Damsgaard has been brilliant in the role, finally showing the Premier League what watchers of Serie A already knew. He has seven assists in the league, has also scored a couple of goals and his demand for the ball outside the penalty area allows Brentford’s to stay high.
It has worked a lot better in home games – Damsgaard is not as good driving forward with the ball on a counter – than away, but there is now a platform for Frank to build around. It is also mad that Damsgaard is still only 24; it feels like he has been around for years.
Tottenham
Ange Postecoglou has become that rarest of breeds in Tottenham managers – the fall guy refusing to fall. With defeat to Newcastle, expect the relentless noise around his future to ramp up a notch but try to cut out the bluster.
The illness that ripped through the training ground this week – no lasagnas in sight – might have been a turning point, but not for the reasons you would expect. It is the essence of Postecoglou at his barnstorming best, all-guns-blazing, youngsters on the bench, backs against the wall and the world.
There is just one flaw to all this – Tottenham lost another Premier League football match, their 10th of the season, against the same outfit who inflicted the first. They have not claimed three points at home since the Aston Villa match on 3 November.
Bug-ridden, belligerent they may have been – they went down fighting. In that light, this was an admirable display of defiance and resilience which quite possibly deserved a point. But down they went, yet again. By Kat Lucas
Man Utd
What a day for Ruben Amorim. First Ipswich Town drop points in the relegation battle and then Manchester United – finally, belatedly – resemble a proper football team against Liverpool.
Apologies for being churlish but can we now ditch that talk of demotion? What always felt like a collective covering of backsides – a deliberate dampening of expectation – was exposed as just that by a performance of thrilling potential at Anfield.
Even with a squad ill-suited to Amorim’s ambitions, we now know that this is the level that United can reach. So before showering them with too much praise for (almost) reining in the freezing Merseyside rain, let’s also recognise that letting standards drop to the extent they have just recently has been nothing short of criminal.
Amorim gets a pass because he is new to this and because, as we saw at Anfield, he looks like he could be a quick learner. Give him a few days at Carrington to correct the wrongs of their recent defeats and what was produced here passed muster and then some.
The set-up looked right, the players looked motivated and the result was that United did not look like a bottom half side.
After the nadir of Newcastle United last week, Amorim had to show he had learned from his mistakes and the midfield was recalibrated to incorporate energy and invention in the shape of the recalled Kobbie Mainoo, who has struggled to recapture the breathless brilliance of his breakthrough season.
Out went Casemiro and Christian Eriksen as the Portuguese belatedly recognised that Premier League midfields are no country for old men, injecting his team with enough vibrancy to unsettle an out-of-sorts Liverpool. By Mark Douglas
West Ham
Signs of life, but it may not be enough to save Julen Lopetegui, who must be as sick of hearing “sacked in the morning” coming from opposition supporters as supermarket workers view Christmas songs in the run up to the big day.
To have double the amount of shots at goal to Manchester City – 17 – at the home of the most dominant Premier League force there has ever been is very West Ham.
Their interchangeable front four really had City on the back foot early on, with Niclas Fullkrug even looking lively up top. Some fine, flowing moves, however, were wasted by a lack of goal-scoring options when it mattered most.
And 2025’s most porous Premier League defence would always be there for the taking, no matter what iteration of the champions showed up.
In Fullkrug, Crysencio Summerville, Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus, Lopetegui has arguably one of the best front fours outside the top six. It is further back that will almost certainly be his undoing.
There was plenty of fortune about City’s opener, but the three that followed were more than preventable. The visitors responded well to falling behind in an attacking sense, but it always felt like a defensive mistake was not too far away. By Pete Hall
Crystal Palace
A team whose panic is definitively over and a club who are slowly being drawn back to their natural position of 14th in the Premier League. If that doesn’t quite make supporters feel all warm and fuzzy inside, taking a point off Chelsea will.
Since Palace lost at home to Fulham on 9 November, a result that kept them deep in trouble and a performance that came with a complete absence of silver lining, Oliver Glasner’s team have played nine Premier League matches and lost only (heavily, admittedly) to Arsenal.
In that time, Palace have come from behind to beat Southampton and come from behind to take a point against Chelsea and Newcastle. They are the only team to stop Bournemouth scoring in 13 league matches and they won away at their greatest rivals. Their manager has found a tactical solution in the final third, albeit one that leaves out their £30m summer signing.
With those results comes confidence. As Glasner explained after the Chelsea draw, it is still a work in progress because he is still watching a team that is occasionally afraid to take risks in possession against supposedly better opposition. But he is also seeing a fight that looked half-lost two months ago. Onto Leicester City and chance to really move away from trouble.
Everton
“I’ve never made excuses since I’ve been here,” said Sean Dyche after another shabby defeat, a comment that provokes a scream of “citation needed” from those listening.
“We’ve had so many draws and the run is still not really on paper. It’s not a bad run if you add wins in it, but we haven’t had wins.”
You have to say that that is magnificent. If Everton supporters were unsure whether the temporary jump in form – seven points from four games – had ended with goalless defeats to Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, the fragility of the explanation laid it all bare. This is why these supporters are not happy with Dyche’s work.
Everton’s attacking intent is virtually non-existent; they scored 27 per cent of their league goals this season in a 62-minute period against Wolves and two of those goals were scored for them by Wolves defender Craig Dawson. They have failed to score in 11 of their 19 league games, more even than sorry Southampton have in 20.
It is so obvious why. Everton rank 17th for shots on target and 19th for xG, but also rank 19th for converting their shots into goals. Translation: they don’t create enough good chances and they aren’t reliable with the ones that they do create.
If Dyche is to have any hope of keeping his job beyond this season, he needs to find a style of play (or new formation) that gets more of his players higher up the pitch more often. This season, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the only Everton player to rank in the Premier League’s top 50 for touches in the box.
Wolves
Play Nottingham Forest on Monday night.
Ipswich
Another step forward that should have been a giant leap towards safety. Ipswich are doing most things right. While Southampton put too much faith in Russell Martin’s possession working after promotion and Leicester appointed a manager, sacked him and then lurched in style with their next appointment, Ipswich are the only promoted club actually acting like one.
That is a compliment. Ipswich play direct to a physical striker. They look to maximise set pieces. They slow the game down when they have a lead. They are happy to sacrifice possession and sit deep. They try to force opponents to swing crosses in and then big defenders clear the ball. All of this makes more sense than the Southampton passing or the Leicester lurching.
But if you don’t make the most of your best moments in the Premier League as a promoted club, you will win lots of praise, make a few friends and then get relegated. Luton Town found that out last season and Ipswich are in danger of making that mistake this season. They are being hamstrung by individual mistakes when they hold a lead.
As a rough guide, a team in the bottom half that hopes to stay up should try to win at least half of the matches in which they take a lead. So far this season, Leicester are on three wins from six leads, the same ratio as Everton. Wolves are on four wins from nine leads, partly explaining their underperformance.
Ipswich have taken the lead in 10 league games this season, more often than anyone else around them (and only one time fewer than Bournemouth). Kieran McKenna’s team have won three of those matches, a success percentage that only Southampton can outdo for incompetence. That will have to change.
Leicester
It would be stupid to pretend that things haven’t changed at Leicester City between the Steve Cooper and Ruud van Nistelrooy eras. The style of play has been altered: Leicester are more expansive now and look more threatening, more often, in the final third. That comes with a but: they are also allowing more clear chances on their own goal.
The best way to describe it, I think, is this. Under Cooper, Leicester played like a team trying to finish 16th or 17th in the Premier League. In Cooper’s defence, his team were indeed 16th in the Premier League when he was sacked. The criticism is that the football wasn’t particularly entertaining and it’s not much fun to watch a team try to slog its way to 16th. Especially when he used to manage one of your biggest rivals.
Under Van Nistelrooy, Leicester are playing like a team that intends to finish 11th or 12th in the Premier League. That has earned the Dutchman plenty of goodwill from many supporters. The problem: Leicester do not possess the defenders of a team that will finish 11th or 12th. Cooper tried to protect them and Van Nistelrooy is trying to score enough goals to account for the mistakes.
The beauty of all this is that both sides can hold onto their own opinion without fear of being disproved; nobody knows what the “what ifs” would have led to. Nor do they matter. Rather than getting sucked into deliberations over whether this was the right thing to do, Leicester supporters will choose only to focus on the reality of the now.
Van Nistelrooy has now lost five league games in a row. For all that his team has looked progressive, they are allowing more shots and bigger chances and conceding more goals than Leicester were before. More surprisingly, they are also having fewer shots and recording less xG.
If this was the style Leicester wanted, why on earth didn’t they appoint this style of coach in the summer? And if these are merely teething problems before the worm turns, there is now an emergency timeframe to get it right or Leicester will be sucked into the trouble they sacked a manager to escape. It’s Crystal Palace and Fulham at home in their next two; Leicester need at least three points from them.
Southampton
The worst of the worst. Southampton hosted a team that hadn’t won an away league game all season and lost 5-0. After the game, Ivan Juric said that the match was like being kicked in the head, which might just be the quote of the Premier League season. At least Southampton have won something.
The confidence has left these players entirely. If there was a flawed system under Russell Martin, one that put Southampton in this desperate position, removing the system itself has left only madness. There is no fight, no idea of what to do to create chances and no backbone as soon as possession is lost.
The same already seems true of Juric, alarming given that he has been in charge for only a few weeks.
“After this game it’s normal that you have questions about your work,” the manager said with a look of a man who can see a desperate few months stretching ahead of him. “It will be big a motivation to change the situation but at this moment I can say I didn’t change the situation and I am very sorry for that. Maybe in my life I never played a game in which I felt like there was this big a difference between two teams.”
When the replacement for the manager who had you bottom of the table and flailing is talking like that after his second home league game, your season is done. The only lingering uncertainty now is whether Derby County’s low points record is in any danger. Southampton are behind where Derby were at the same stage.
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