Matchday 4 Awards
The fourth round of games of the 2024/25 season is behind us now, so naturally we are giving out our Premier League awards today!
We saw the first big shock result of the season, with Forest winning at Anfield for the first time in over half a century, while the north of London is red once more after Arsenal beat Tottenham away.
Everton continue on their unmerry way to another relegation battle after collapsing from 2-0 up yet again, this time against Villa, Haaland keeps doing Haaland things with another brace to help City win against Brentford, and West Ham sing Ings’ praises for a late equaliser against Fulham.
You can also click here to check out all our reports from this weekend’s action.
So who gets our awards? Read on to find out.
Best Player
After an underwhelming start to the season, Ollie Watkins has certainly grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck to score a brace against Everton and bring Villa level.
It was a great performance as he got on the end of chances time and time again and, if we were to nitpick, we could say that he should have actually scored more. However, he was the man responsible for lighting a fire under his teammates (and supporters) and contributed decisively to another dramatic Everton collapse.
Best XI
GK – Robert Sanchez (Chelsea)
CB – Gabriel (Arsenal)
CB – Nikola Milenkovic (Nottingham Forest)
CB – Matthijs de Ligt (Manchester United)
CM – Dwight McNeil (Everton)
CM – Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester)
CM – Moises Caicedo (Chelsea)
RW – Amad Diallo (Manchester United)
ST – Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
ST – Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
LW – Jadon Sancho (Chelsea)
Best Goal
Sure, we loved Barnes’ goal for Newcastle against Wolves, but there can only really be one winner this week: Jhon Duran’s absolutely world class long range strike to win it for Villa against Everton.
JHON DURAN SCREAMER 🔥 | Aston Villa 3-2 Everton
Once again Duran came off the bench to be decisive for his team and it took him only about seven minutes to give us this goal of the season contender. Emery’s striker selection headache is something most managers dream of.
Best Game
There was an air of inevitability as soon as Watkins pulled one back on Saturday and, sure enough, two more went in to ensure all three points stayed at Villa Park. The game was great and the goal from Duran was incredible.
Also worth a mention is the contest between Wolves and Newcastle, which saw a textbook counterattack finished by Lemina to give the hosts the lead, another outstanding goal from Harvey Barnes to win it for the Magpies and great playing tempo all around.
Best Stats
Ange Postecoglou has been in charge of Tottenham for 42 EPL games now. They picked up 26 points in the first 10, making it their best ever start to a Prem season last year. However, the following 32 matches only yielded 44 points. Over this period they have lost more games than they have won (14 vs 13), and their last 11 games brought seven defeats.
In the unusual late Saturday kick-off, Bournemouth vs Chelsea brought us a Premier League record: 14 yellow cards.
For more interesting stats from Saturday’s games, you can click here.
Best/Worst VAR Decision
It would have been interesting to see how Arsenal would have coped in the north London derby if they were reduced to 10 men. Jurrien Timber made a really reckless challenge on Pedro Porro and then proceeded to grab Vicario’s shirt in a heated exchange.
https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/1835312080028663861
VAR examined the foul and decided that a yellow was enough, allowing the on-pitch referee’s decision to stand, but we can’t help but feel that Timber got away with one there.
Best Substitution
Danny Ings came on for West Ham when they needed a goal against Fulham and boy, did he deliver!
Scoring with virtually the last kick of the game to break hearts around Craven Cottage, our sub of the week award goes to Ings. We know, we could have also given it to Aston Villa’s Duran, but the drama that Ings’ goal brought about was just great!
Funniest Moment
Once again we turn to everyone’s favourite supersub, Jhon Duran. Him scoring that screamer against the Toffees had us all in awe, but not more so than his own teammate Emi Martinez.
Just jaw-dropping.