Matchday 15 Awards

The postponement of the Merseyside derby on Saturday means that we have nine games to analyse instead of the usual 10 this time around, but there was still more than enough drama and excitement to savour during the 15th matchday of the 2024/25 EPL season.

Tottenham and Chelsea treated us to a classic, Lopetegui came out on top in the “El Sackico” and Manchester City’s crisis continued after a draw against Crystal Palace.

Meanwhile, Brentford continued to be the Prem’s great entertainers at home against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest beat Amorim’s Manchester United.

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

Sure, Cole Palmer had a great evening against Spurs, scoring two penalties (one of them a Panenka), but we’re going a different route.

Crystal Palace midfielder Will Hughes was certainly not expected to perform heroics in the match against City, but here we are in a world where he assisted both goals in a 2-2 draw that deepens Guardiola’s woes.

It is the way he surprised everyone with his performance that secures him our player of the week award.

Best XI

GK – Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)

RB – Tariq Lamptey (Brighton)

CB – Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace)

CB – Ilya Zabarnyi (Bournemouth)

LB – Antonee Robinson (Fulham)

CM – Will Hughes (Crystal Palace)

CM – Cole Palmer (Chelsea)

CM – Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)

RW – Jarrod Bowen (West Ham)

ST – Jamie Vardy (Leicester)

LW – Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford)

Best Goal

A number of contenders this week, including Jadon Sancho and Bryan Mbeumo beautiful strikes, but the award goes to Brighton’s Tariq Lamptey for his stunning long range curler from just outside the box to open the scoring against Leicester.

It truly was a thing of beauty, leaving us all in awe and reminding us of the qualities of a player that burst onto the scene a couple of years ago, as well as just how great Brighton’s scouting department is.

https://x.com/OfficialBHAFC/status/1865879527752425536

Best Game

This isn’t even a contest. Tottenham vs Chelsea had seven goals, some great individual performances, Spurs at their spursiest and drama from beginning to end.

It’s one of those games that will definitely be in conversation for the match of the season come May.

Tottenham 3-4 Chelsea | 7-GOAL THRILLER OVER SPURS! | HIGHLIGHTS | Premier League 24/25

Best Stats

Plenty to sift through here, but the pick of the bunch is Tottenham’s 11th collapse from a lead of two or more goals in the Premier League. That has happened to Spurs now four more times than any other EPL team.

You can find more great stats from this weekend of action by clicking here.

Best/Worst VAR Decision

Don’t get us wrong, the chaos of the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was lovely, but how on earth did it end with 22 men on the pitch?

Both teams should have arguably had a red card, with Caicedo’s high boot on Sarr and Kulusevski elbowing Lavia in the head leaving us baffled and wondering what the VAR room was up to.

And for the latter, referee Anthony Taylor had a great view too.

We have definitely seen red cards brandished for less.

Best Substitution

This one goes to Bournemouth attacker Dango Ouattara, who came on in the 63rd minute of the Cherries’ away game against Ipswich, who were leading at the time.

The Burkinabe assisted teammate Enes Unal for the equaliser before scoring himself in the fifth minute of injury time and sealing all three points for his team.

Proper impact that.

Funniest Moment

After Marc Cucurella slipped in the build-up to BOTH Tottenham goals, he decided that a change of boots was in order.

The moment was marked by Sky Sports commentator and banter master Peter Drury’s line: “Like Cinderella, Cucurella is looking for a slipper that fits.”

Had us all in stitches.