Matchday 16 Awards
Remember the QWOP game craze from about 15 years ago? That’s what the title race feels like at the moment, with the weekend’s games seeing all of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City stumble once more.
The Reds were down to 10 men for the majority of their match against Fulham and still managed a draw, while Arsenal drew with Everton and Manchester City snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their derby against United.
Meanwhile, Chelsea got closer to the top of the table by beating Brentford in a tense encounter, Forest recorded a comeback win against fellow European chasers Villa and Palace beat Brighton in the El Gatwicko.
Oh, and both Wolves and Southampton have sacked their coaches.
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
Amad Diallo had a cracker of a Manchester derby, winning seven of his 10 ground duels, getting past opponents with five dribbles and, most importantly, having a hand in both United goals.
He was alert enough to get a hold of a slack Matheus Nunes pass, which led to the Portuguese clattering into him in the penalty area for a spot kick which Fernandes converted.
Diallo went one better two minutes later, getting a tough pass under control and finishing past Ederson from a tight angle.
He has really arrived.
Best XI
GK – Jordan Pickford (Everton)
RB – Djed Spence (Tottenham)
CB – Trevoh Chalobah (Crystal Palace)
CB – Nikola Milenkovic (Nottingham Forest)
LB – Marc Cucurella (Chelsea)
CM – James Maddison (Tottenham)
CM – Ismaila Sarr (Crystal Palace)
CM – Amad Diallo (Manchester United)
RW – Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
ST – Alexander Isak (Newcastle)
LW – Jacob Murphy (Newcastle)
Best Goal
This one comes to us from Monday night’s encounter between Bournemouth and West Ham, courtesy of substitute Enes Unal’s curling free kick.
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND WATCH ENES UNAL’S BELTER 🔥 – YouTube
There’s something just so satisfying about a free kick goal, isn’t there?
Best Game
Liverpool vs Fulham was a very interesting watch on Saturday, with a total of 28 shots resulting in 2.26 xG for the Reds and 1.08 for Fulham. To their credit, Liverpool didn’t really play like a team short of a man, after Robertson’s sending off in the 17th minute, and Slot only made a defensive-minded substitution in the 70th.
And Gakpo’s diving header goal was a nice sight too.
Extended Highlights: Liverpool 2-2 Fulham
Best Stats
Southampton have more Premier League points per game since the start of November than reigning champions Manchester City (0.67 vs 0.57). No prizes for guessing which team sacked their coach this weekend.
City’s loss against their local rivals also means that they have only one win from their last 11 matches in all competitions (D2, L8). This is uncharted territory for Guardiola and his team.
Against Aston Villa, Forest have scored only their second-ever 90th-minute goal in the Prem, almost 30 years after the first (Colin Cooper vs Bolton Wanderers in October 1995).
Best/Worst VAR Decision
It is very hard for us to understand exactly why Elliott Anderson’s pull on Morgan Rogers did not result in a penalty.
That’s a foul anywhere else on the pitch.
Best Substitution
This one’s a toss up between Arne Slot’s inspiration to bring on Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota (as the pair combined for the Portuguese’s equaliser) and Enes Ünal’s introduction 10 minutes before scoring a wonderful free kick to secure a point for the Cherries.
We’re going with the Turkish forward on this one.
Funniest Moment
In his post-match interview, Bernardo Silva decided to add insult to injury when talking about how Manchester City performed in the derby: “Today, the last minutes we played like Under 15s.”
He woke up and chose violence.