Matchday 10 Awards
We are now 10 games into the 2024/25 season and the table is starting to take shape. While it’s hard to expect Forest to keep up the pace and actually qualify for the Champions League, there are certainly trends that we can see already. Chelsea are looking to get back in the big time and seem to mean business, West Ham are not too different from the David Moyes days, while Liverpool and Manchester City still set the standards.
But what about this weekend? Well, Southampton finally have their first win of the season after beating Everton, City were well beaten by Bournemouth, Arsenal’s mini-crisis deepens as they lost to Newcastle on Saturday’s early kick-off and Wolves vs Palace had the second half that we didn’t know we needed in our lives.
As usual, you can also click here to check out all our reports from this weekend’s action.
So who gets our Premier League awards this week? Let’s have a look.
Best Player
We are going with Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo for this one. He played a crucial part in Bournemouth’s first-ever Prem win against Manchester City, scoring a goal and running the Cityzens’ defence ragged all afternoon.
He won 11 duels (most in the match) in an unfamiliar left wing position and you can be sure that the rumours linking him to bigger clubs are only going to get louder now.
Best XI
GK – Aaron Ramsdale (Southampton)
RB – Ola Aina (Nottingham Forest)
CB – Joe Gomez (Liverpool)
CB – Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton)
LB – Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth)
CM – Moises Caicedo (Chelsea)
CM – Harry Wilson (Fulham)
CM – Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle)
RW – Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)
ST – Dominic Solanke (Tottenham)
LW – Antoine Semenyo (Bournemouth)
Best Goal
While Ola Aina’s thunderbolt vs West Ham was great to watch, our award for this matchday’s best goal goes to Leif Davis’ volley from an acute angle against Leicester to put Ipswich ahead.
It was perfectly struck, with a great balance of power and precision. We are certain that, had this happened in a bigger game, it would be in the Premier League intro videos for seasons to come.
You can check out the goal and this game’s highlights here:
Ayew scores 94th min equaliser! ⏰ | Ipswich 1-1 Leicester | Premier League highlights
Best Game
Wolves vs Palace, hands down. While the first half left somewhat to be desired, both teams really went for it after the interval. 10 shots on goal, 3.15 combined xG, 4 goals, late VAR drama…
It was great to see a game not involving a Big Six team scheduled for the Saturday late kick-off, without other matches competing for viewership. Hopefully this will show the broadcasters that there is more than enough entertainment value in games between other teams.
Here are the extended highlights. Do yourself a favour and watch this.
Strand Larsen and Gomes on scoresheet | Wolves 2-2 Crystal Palace | Extended Highlights
Best Stats
With only 12 points after 10 games, this is Manchester United’s worst start to a top division season since 1986/87, when they had 8 points after 10 matches.
Since the start of 2023/24, Spurs have managed to win 10 Premier League games in which they had conceded the opening goal, including three of the last four.
Best/Worst VAR Decision
We really won’t be saying much in this segment this week, except…
Guess what happened.
Best Substitution
This is probably the most obvious award this week.
Harry Wilson came off the bench for Fulham in the 82nd minute of their game against Brentford last night, trailing 0-1. He then proceeded to score not once, but twice (including a wonderful flicked finish from Adama Traore’s cross, to give the Cottagers all three points and send their fans home ecstatic.
HIGHLIGHTS | Fulham 2-1 Brentford | Late Derby Day Drama 🔥
Take a bow, son.
Funniest Moment
Maybe Aina should be very tired more often, if that’s what he can do when he’s had it.