Premier League Matchweek 34 Awards

This weekend we only had 7 games in the Premier League due to the involvement of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. You can find reports for all English games here.

Despite being 3 games short, this matchweek still provided plenty of entertainment, especially because the bottom 6 teams all faced each other, while Arsenal (away to Wolves) and Liverpool (away vs Fulham) took advantage of City’s EPL absence to climb above the reigning champions in the table.

While Everton’s big 2-0 win over Forest was a proper shot in the arm for their hopes of staying up, the other 4 teams in the relegation mire decided that goals are the essence of football, so they scored and conceded plenty: Sheffield lost 1-4 at home against Burnley, while Brentford won 5-1 at Kenilworth Road

So who and what wins our awards for this weekend?

Best Player

Eberechi Eze once again showed what he’s made of by scoring one and assisting one in Palace’s home game against West Ham.

Sure, this award could have gone to his teammate Jean-Philippe Mateta for scoring two goals, but we could not be more impressed by how easy one the eye Eze is, pun intended.

Best XI

GK – Arijanet Muric (Burnley)

RB –  Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

CB – Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa)

CB – Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton)

LB – Sergio Reguilon (Brentford)

CM – Declan Rice (Arsenal)

CM – Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace)

RW – Michael Olise (Crystal Palace)

LW – Cody Gakpo (Liverpool)

ST – Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)

ST – Yoanne Wissa (Brentford)

Best Goal

Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold now has 6 Premier League goals scored for his club directly from free-kicks. Only Jamie Redknapp and Steven Gerrard have more for the Reds.

Every Angle of Trent Alexander Arnold’s Free-Kick at Fulham

Best Game

We NEED to bend the rules here a bit. While we know that the title says ‘Premier League Matchweek Awards’, it is the FA Cup semi-final between Coventry and Manchester United that gets the nod this time.

It had everything: a huge underdogs’ comeback from 3 goals down, VAR drama (more on that in a bit), penalties, and plenty of edge-of-the-seat action.

Here are the highlights: Coventry City v Manchester United | Key Moments | Semi-Final | Emirates FA Cup 2023-24 

Best Stats

Since the beginning of February 2024, among EPL players, only Kevin De Bruyne has registered more assists in all competitions (9) than Harvey Elliott’s 7. Not bad company to be in for the Liverpool starlet.

Michael Reid (https://twitter.com/michael_reid11) pointed out that Klopp’s Liverpool, over the last 51 games (in all competitions) have named a new combination of starting XI players that have never taken to the field together before. We wonder how long it took him to figure that one out.

Eberechi Eze has completed 5 dribbles in Palace’s game on Sunday, more than the entire West Ham team put together.

Best/Worst VAR Decision

Ok, it wasn’t the ‘best’ and it wasn’t the ‘worst’. It was technically the correct call, but since we have never been big fans of the millimetre-pinching when it comes to offsides, we’ll mention it.

It was heartbreaking for Coventry City fans and players to see that their late, late goal (120+1’) by Victor Torp was disallowed for a marginal offside.

We are not saying it should have stood, but the VAR  does seem to favour drama.

Best Substitution

Johann Berg Gudmundsson scoring about one minute after being subbed on for Burnley wins our applause this week.

Funniest Moment

While we do understand that they feel aggrieved by having not one, not two, but THREE penalty appeals waved away against Everton, Nottingham Forest’s reaction (very shortly after the final whistle) makes us think that they didn’t care who said what.

https://twitter.com/NFFC/status/1782056187652960764

It even made Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville agree on how bad the idea was. That does not happen often.