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As you were at the top, as the three probable title challengers all won 2-1 in different ways: Arsenal with a two-goal lead and then conceding, Manchester City by being pegged back before winning it late and Aston Villa coming from behind at Chelsea.
The same is true at the foot of the Premier League, bar Burnley’s not-wildly-helpful point at home to Everton. That’s because Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Wolves all lost, although Leeds’s point and performance at Sunderland takes them a little further clear.
The only other shifts were Fulham and Brentford bouncing into the top half, the latter against a Bournemouth side that are suddenly in danger of getting dragged into trouble. If Burnley and West Ham can actually start winning, that is…
Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…
This weekend’s results
- Man Utd 1-0 Newcastle
- Nott’m Forest 1-2 Man City
- Arsenal 2-1 Brighton
- Brentford 4-1 Bournemouth
- Burnley 0-0 Everton
- Liverpool 2-1 Wolves
- West Ham 0-1 Fulham
- Chelsea 1-2 Aston Villa
- Sunderland 1-1 Leeds
- Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham
Will Edwards survive the season at Wolves?
I think we can all agree that Rob Edwards made a terrible decision to join a ship sinking so quickly that his feet were wet as soon as he walked through the door. But what’s more interesting, given that Wolves have lost every match since, is whether Edwards survives this season.
Presumably, the new manager was appointed in part to oversee a promotion campaign next season. Which is fine, apart from the fact that it rarely ever works that way. A rot has set in at Molineux that will take an extraordinary deep clean over the course of next summer.
If Edwards picks up, say, 14 points from 27 matches this season (and even that now appears optimistic) will he not be thoroughly tainted by the experience and thus unable to shift the mood?
Burnley set new records for all the wrong reasons
I think Scott Parker has got plenty wrong this season, but sometimes as a manager you shake your head and wonder exactly which karmic imbalance you are paying the price for.
Over their nine-game winless run in the league, Burnley have scored seven goals from a total xG of 9.6. They don’t create enough chances for their defensive record and, unlike earlier in the season, they aren’t finishing the chances that they do create.
That came to a head on Saturday, when Burnley had 16 shots without getting one on target. They cannot afford to be this profligate and keep their heads above water.
Why are West Ham playing without a striker?
We mentioned this last week, but the notion that West Ham, after poor results against fine opposition, would immediately switch and pick off lesser sides seemed deeply flawed. They huffed and puffed against Fulham but lost at home again. The next three fixtures – Brighton (h), Wolves (a), Nottingham Forest (h) – now require seven points or West Ham are in big trouble.
I can’t quite work out the attacking plan. Nuno Espirito Santo got Forest firing by using Chris Wood as a target man striker who feasted upon the service of wingers and held up the ball effectively. Nuno inherited Callum Wilson and Niclas Fullkrug, but Fullkrug is seemingly off in January and Wilson has been on the bench for each of their last four games, used as a substitute each time.
West Ham are likely to sign a striker in January and the success of that deal may determine whether they stay up or not. But I don’t understand why Wilson isn’t being used as a starter with Jarrod Bowen right and Crysencio Summerville left in the meantime.
Forest’s goalkeeper change is an interesting move
Nottingham Forest were unfortunate to lose to Manchester City on Saturday and, combined with West Ham’s home defeat against Fulham, that made it a “step forward” weekend even in defeat. Beating Everton on 30 December is now a priority to keep their heads above water.
But one very interesting thing has happened at the City Ground: Matz Sels, the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season, has been dropped to the bench and Brazilian John Victor brought into the team.
This may only be a temporary measure. Sels picked up and injury, John did nothing wrong and so has kept his place until he does something wrong (and he hasn’t yet), but it’s still a bold change from a typically safety-first manager to leave out one of the best shot stoppers in the country at a crucial time. All eyes will be on the Brazilian while he stays in the team.
Leeds’ second-half intensity was genuinely astonishing
Leeds may not have won at Sunderland, but then nobody wins at Sunderland anymore. If Daniel Farke’s team continues playing like this, they will finish far enough above the bottom three that you won’t know what everybody was worried about. It is a remarkable transformation.
Leeds’ performance between minutes 45 and 75 was one of the best periods I’ve seen in the Premier League this season from any team. They were relentlessly intense without possession, constantly hoovering up the ball. And then they were precise and smart when they got it, the much-maligned Brenden Aaronson the pick of the bunch.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is UNSTOPPABLE!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 28, 2025pic.twitter.com/xk6MQhOAs5
This was the most touches in the penalty area that Leeds have recorded in a Premier League match since December 2020, when they beat Newcastle United 5-2. Given the difference between Marcelo Bielsa and Farke’s assumed styles, that is a remarkable statistic.
There is trouble brewing at Bournemouth
Bournemouth are now officially in trouble while this hideous run continues. Antoine Semenyo might be leaving, Andoni Iraola’s contract is up at the end of the season and there are clear signs that the uncertainty over the manager’s future has seeped into the minds of the players.
Nor is this merely a short-term issue. Since mid-February, Bournemouth have taken 35 points from their last 31 Premier League games; only Tottenham, West Ham and Wolves have fewer points of the ever-present Premier League teams over that period.
Worse still is Bournemouth’s away record – again, the Brentford result was hardly an aberration. Over that same period, no ever-present Premier League team has taken fewer points on the road than Bournemouth (12 from 15 matches). This season, they are conceding away goals at a rate of three per game, comfortably more than any other team in the division.
Howe will go if Newcastle’s away record doesn’t improve
Eddie Howe retains the support of most local journalists, and I fully understand why: when you end a trophy drought it buys you time. But in the same month that David Hopkinson, Newcastle’s new chief executive, spoke about being the “biggest club in the world” by 2030, we have to ask how long the patience will last with the repeated inability to produce intense performances away from St James’ Park.
Manchester United, with all their absentees and a change of formation, seemed ripe for the taking. But Newcastle failed to produce enough of note in the first half and then couldn’t convert possession and territory into clear chances when tasked with chasing the game. They do lack a high-class goalkeeper and a No 10, but it still be true that Howe should be getting more out of this squad, given the summer spend.
Burnley, Leeds and Wolves are the only three teams with fewer away points than Newcastle this season. Wolves are the only team with fewer away wins. Newcastle have scored seven away goals and four of those came in 57 minutes against Everton. None of this is good enough.
Brighton’s inconsistency is bad news for Hurzeler
Brighton’s biggest issue last season was lurching between extended runs of good and poor form. They went seven games unbeaten, eight games without a win, won six in a row, went six without a win and went five unbeaten all in the space of one campaign.
Now, Fabian Hurzeler can’t find any consistency at all. Only in November (when they beat Brentford and Forest) have Brighton had two identical results in succession. Outside of that November double, their league results read: DLWLDWDWLWDLDLDL. The end result, unsurprisingly, is a definitively mid-table team but it is intensely infuriating for supporters.
And it must be annoying the club’s hierarchy, too. After taking 61 points and finishing in the top eighth (thus being the highest-ranked team without European workload), Brighton looked set to push on again in 2025-26, particularly given the retention of the manager. Instead there’s a danger of everything drifting a little. That would be bad news for Hurzeler.
Please Everton, give Moyes some attacking full-backs
Everton’s make-do full-back solutions in 2025-26 were easy to overlook when first Jack Grealish, then Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and always Iliman Ndiaye were creating chances. But with none of them in the team at Turf Moor, the lack of attacking impetus from full-back was painfully obvious.
Vitaliy Mykolenko and Jake O’Brien, the two starters this season, have created eight chances each in 31 combined matches, making them joint-134th by all Premier League players.
Moyes has done well to keep Everton largely solid with this pairing, but he would surely like a more attacking option (particularly on the right) to give his team a little more impetus on the flanks.
Tottenham’s sad clown of the division
Poor Richarlison, forever destined to get the rough end of every deal. I don’t know the statistics for goals ruled out for offside and goals celebrated in vain, but I’d be very surprised if anyone in Premier League history matches up. You can picture it now, that desperately forlorn face when VAR signals that his latest moment of jubilation has been wrenched away from him.
Richarlison has the ball in the back of the net again, but it's ruled out for offside AGAIN!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 28, 2025pic.twitter.com/e7QqwjHiND
At Palace, two perfect examples of the art. I don’t think anyone has ever had three goals ruled out for VAR interventions, but even Richarlison knows that he will be the first eventually. Fair play to him for continuing to celebrate rather than shaking a couple of hands and then screaming in righteous glory when the game actually kicks off, but it must eat away.
As one wag on social media said on Sunday, if I were Richarlison I’d wait until I’d watched the goal on Match of the Day before going wild.
Read more: Even Tottenham’s triumphs are now excruciating
Fulham’s weird run comes to an end
Very simple one, this. After the victory at West Ham on Saturday, every post-match interview with players and manager mentioned the satisfaction at winning three league games in a row. Fulham had three straight festive fixtures against teams below them in the table; sink or swim time. Fulham swam all the way to the top half.
But it’s more than that, because now ends one of the weirder runs in the Premier League. Before Saturday, the last time that Fulham won three consecutive top-flight matches was January 2023.
In the three years since, Fulham had won two in a row on 11 separate occasions but never converted. Now they are safe again and laughing.
You can see why Glasner is fed up at Palace
In the space of 10 days, Palace drew in the Conference League to give them two extra games, lost 4-1 at Elland Road, went out of the Carabao Cup on penalties and then lost 1-0 at home to Tottenham.
It has been a festive period to hammer home what we already knew: this squad isn’t big or deep enough to be all its manager wants it to be. Perhaps there will be unexpected January action or promises made to the manager about summer ambition, but both seem unlikely.
Oliver Glasner is in one of those Football Manager saves where you do all you can, take a club beyond its wildest dreams and, rather than open up a new world of spending, squad-building opportunity, realise that life at the club will pretty much carry on exactly as it did before. If he leaves in May, I don’t blame him for a second and nor will most supporters.
Goal-sharing proof of Brentford’s growth
It says everything about this ludicrous Premier League season so far that everybody can fret about Brentford being dragged into the relegation fight and, two games later, they can end the day in the division’s top eight, three points off a potential Champions League finishing position. Keith Andrews, to his credit, had always urged for calm and faith and that promise has been fully validated.
What is most pleasing for Brentford is how their other forwards are now getting – and taking – chances in the final third. It’s an underappreciated aspect of an in-form striker: Igor Thiago has been so dangerous that inevitably he draws the attention of central defenders, who stay narrow as a result. That creates one vs one situations for the wingers.
Against Wolves, it was Keane Lewis-Potter who benefitted with two goals. Against Bournemouth, Kevin Schade scored his first Brentford hat-trick. Thiago scored in neither game and it matters not a jot.
Adingra gets his instant shot at redemption for Sunderland
On commentary, there was a lovely line from the excellent Seb Hutchinson: “Football always gives you a second chance soon.” He’s absolutely correct.
Simon Adingra was bitterly disappointed to be omitted from Ivory Coast’s squad for AFCON, but it also created an immediate opportunity. With other players missing, Adingra started only his sixth league game of the season.
The pass. The finish.
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 28, 2025
Simon Adingra scores his FIRST goal for Sunderland! pic.twitter.com/XcjMxNWLfN
The joy in his goal celebration was infectious. It was a beautiful run, control and curled finish from a young winger who has lost his way a little but clearly has the talent to dash in behind defences and pick out forwards with either foot.
Has Amorim finally accepted a compromise at Man Utd?
All it took was months of tepid – at best – results, selling his left wingers and Bruno Fernandes getting injured. Ruben Amorim, who for so long was told by pundits, writers, ex-players and supporters that he should shift from his three-man defence, has finally done so.
Manchester United were hardly perfect against Newcastle, albeit with a host of absentees. But the three central defender system didn’t work because the wing-backs seemed out of position, the defenders got stretched and the midfield seemed imbalanced.
Amorim’s explanation post-game was that he felt more able to adapt from a position of strength with United in the top seven; fair enough. But if this does indeed prove to be the more logical tactical option, surely it was worth exploring it at least once during the manager’s first 13 months in charge?
Read more: Man Utd’s little giant can make or break Ruben Amorim
Why are Chelsea losing leads at home?
Over the last three months, Chelsea have led at home against Brighton and lost, led at home against Sunderland and lost, led at home against Arsenal and drawn and led at home against Aston Villa and lost. Those 11 squandered points represent the difference between sixth (where they are currently) and joint-second and in the title race.
There are two theories (and both probably carry some weight). The first is that Chelsea have invested so much in young players that they lack experience and/or leaders off the bench. Villa’s used substitutes on Saturday were Watkins, Onana, Digne, Sancho and Bogarde. Chelsea’s were Gusto, Estevao, Gittens and Delap. The oldest of those is 22.
But there is also an accusation against Enzo Maresca that he is too slow to react – and too prescriptive when he does react – to opposition managers changing the game. Unai Emery shifted the course of the match with his changes. Did Maresca not also do the same by leaving too much space in front of the defence?
Liverpool’s quasi-Salah replacement
Calling a right-footed right-back the replacement for a left-footed right-sided forward may seem faintly ludicrous, but hear me out. On Saturday, Jeremie Frimpong played behind Federico Chiesa, overlapped effectively and produced a fine pull-back for his first Premier League assist. In the second half, he played as a right-sided forward with Conor Bradley introduced.
But what about a mix of the two? If Arne Slot picked Dominik Szoboszlai on the right (as he has recently), the Hungarian could tuck in when appropriate and allow Frimpong to overlap from right-back.
But he has also played right-back himself, so could offer cover in-game when it made more sense for Frimpong to stay high. Stretching the game wide will only create more space for Florian Wirtz, as evidenced by Saturday.
Why Aston Villa are the comeback kings
Villa were rotten for most of the first half at Stamford Bridge, unable to escape the press and merely inviting more pressure. They were fortunate to be 1-0 down at the break.
Cut to Ollie Watkins for the insight: “He changed our system because Chelsea were playing man-to-man, but they had an extra centre-back when we went long. So when I came on in the second half, he brought Jadon Sancho and Morgan Rogers out wide and moved Youri Tielemans into the No 10 role. That gave us an extra player in that area.”
These are the secrets to Villa taking 15 points from their last five away games when they have trailed. Emery has the answers to change games at half-time and during the second half. And Villa’s players are so invested in this that their comebacks have become self-fulfilling.
Cherki steps up for Man City
Thirty-six players in this Premier League season have contributed more than 40 shot-creating actions or more. Thirty-five of those players have between 10.4 and 18.0 complete matches in terms of minutes played.
The exception is Rayan Cherki, who has played 7.1 complete matches and has created 48 chances. Only one regular starter has more chances created per 90 minutes. That’s Jeremy Doku.
A huge moment!
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 27, 2025
Rayan Cherki is left with space in the box and restores Man City’s lead. @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/s4FchxHFvy
And that’s why Manchester City are at it again. Doku – alongside Phil Foden – started this new surge of creativity and in Doku’s absence Cherki has continued it. Pep Guardiola has made City deliberately narrower without Doku, playing Foden and Cherki behind Haaland. It’s working because they are two of the best players in the world at finding passes in tight spaces.
Rice’s new role for Arsenal
Arsenal’s defensive injury crisis may be eased by Gabriel Magalhaes coming off the bench to end his own absence, but the lack of right-backs and Riccardo Calafiori hurting himself in the warm-up forced Declan Rice into another new role: emergency right-back.
What was interesting is how Arsenal used Rice in the role. I wondered whether Mikel Arteta might ask Rice to invert, stepping into his usual midfield position when Arsenal had possession. In fact, Rice’s heat map showed him staying very wide but not being afraid to get forward and make runs beyond Bukayo Saka.
One of those runs created Arsenal’s opening goal. Rice underlapped when Saka had the ball wide left, taking a defender with him. That created more space for Martin Odegaard on the edge of the box. Should we really be surprised that Rice is tactically disciplined and talented enough to play this role too?
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