Matchday 14 Awards
We are in December, so that means a very quick turnover of games for EPL teams. While we’re barely over the events of last weekend, a whole matchday took place in the last three days, so we’re here to analyse that.
Liverpool slipped up and dropped two points in the 90th minute of their thrilling game against Newcastle, Arsenal took advantage of that with a routine 2-0 win over United, while Manchester City finally got a win again, beating Forest 3-0.
Elsewhere, Palace got a huge three points against Ipswich and van Nistelrooy provided the ‘new manager bounce’ to his team as Leicester overcame West Ham.
As usual, you can also click here to check out all our reports from this weekend’s action.
So who earned our Premier League matchday awards this time? Read on to find out.
Best Player
Alex Iwobi was at the heart of everything Fulham did right in their game against Brighton, one that they weren’t exactly expected to win.
He scored two goals, won five duels and recovered possession five times, covering a lot of ground as he played as an inverted left winger in possession and a right wing back when defending.
Take a bow, son!
Best XI
GK – Mads Hermansen (Leicester)
RB – Ashley Young (Everton)
CB – Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth)
CB – William Saliba (Arsenal)
LB – Lucas Digne (Aston Villa)
CM – Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)
CM – Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
CM – Alex Iwobi (Fulham)
RW – Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
ST – Alexander Isak (Newcastle)
LW – Bilal El Khannouss (Leicester)
Best Goal
Morgan Rogers scored a goal that should be featured in Premier League intros. The way he caressed the ball, sending it into the far corner of the helpless Mark Flekken was just mesmerising.
Here, have a look.
https://x.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1864459673841086593
Best Game
Liverpool travelled to Newcastle with a healthy advantage at the top of the league and left St. James’ Park with only one point after a game in which they came back from behind twice and conceded a goal in the 90th minute.
Our guess is that if we recreate the scenario and give Fabian Schär 10 attempts to score again, it might not go in even once. However, hats off to all participants, they gave us a game we won’t forget in a hurry.
Newcastle United 3 Liverpool 3 | EXTENDED Premier League Highlights
Best Stats
Mohamed Salah now holds the record for number of Premier League games in which he has both scored and assisted, with 37. He has surpassed Wayne Rooney’s tally of 36 while also playing 214 games fewer than the English striker.
Enzo Fernandez plays for the benefit of his Chelsea mates. He has more assists (seven in all competitions) than any other Blues player, while six of those have come in the last five games.
Southampton now stand on nine errors leading to goals, which is the highest figure among all teams in Europe’s top five leagues this season. This is also four more than any other Prem club.
Anthony Gordon has faced Big Six opposition at home 10 times since the start of last season and has scored or assisted in nine of those games.
Ashley Young has scored his 50th Premier League goal and did so directly from a free kick. His age (39 years and 148 days) makes him the oldest player to achieve both feats in Prem history.
Best/Worst VAR Decision
Orel Mangala blocking the run of Mario Lemina while in an offside position is reminiscent of Liverpool’s woes when a goal was chalked off during last season’s EFL Cup final for a similar situation involving Wataru Endo.
It’s nice to see some VAR consistency. Now if only they could spot this when it happens at every other dead ball situation in the division.
Best Substitution
Trent Alexander-Arnold came off the bench in the 67th minute, when Liverpool were 2-1 down against Newcastle. He assisted Salah twice, with the first bit of service coming one minute after he entered the pitch. Proper gamechanger.
Funniest Moment
Saints’ captain Jack Stephens decided that the best way to stop Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella was to pull his hair.
Not something you see every day on a football pitch.