Matchday 20 Awards

In terms of the title race, it was a weekend that only benefitted Nottingham Forest, which is a phrase that we never thought we would type when the season started.

Wood & Co. beat Wolves yesterday evening in a pragmatic display of counter-attacking football that was much more enjoyable than we are used to from a Monday night fixture. Liverpool were surprisingly held by Manchester United, while Arsenal failed to overcome Brighton.

Manchester City made it back-to-back Prem wins for the first time in what feels like forever, Southampton are doing everything they can to take Derby’s record of ‘worst-ever EPL team’ and Fulham stumbled in the race for the European spots at home against Ipswich.

As usual, you can also click here to check out all our reports from this matchday’s action.

So who earned our Premier League matchday awards this time? Read on to find out.

Best Player

We’re giving this one to Bryan Mbeumo. He was at the heart of everything that Brentford did right in their demolition job at St. Mary’s, scoring two and assisting one. He could have easily had another two or three goal contributions as he tore the Saints’ defence apart time and time again.

As he only turns 26 just before the next season starts, it will be a big surprise if he’s still a Brentford player by the end of the summer transfer window. His quality and versatility would be put to great use on bigger stages by clubs participating in the UCL.

If you haven’t been keeping a close eye on him, you might as well start now.

Best XI

GK – Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest)

RB – Daniel Munoz (Crystal Palace)

CB – Murillo (Nottingham Forest)

CB – Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United)

LB – Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth)

CM – Ross Barkley (Aston Villa)

CM – Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)

CM – Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)

RW – Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford)

ST – Erling Haaland (Manchester City)

LW – Savinho (Manchester City)

Best Goal

Ross Barkley’s opener in the Aston Villa vs Leicester was a sublime volley from 20 yards out that could not have been struck any sweeter into the corner of the Foxes’ goal.

Ross Barkley drilling home the opener against Leicester City 😇 – YouTube

Best Game

Nottingham Forest’s visit to the Molineux was the most entertaining contest of the weekend. Sure, Liverpool vs Manchester United was not a bad game, but the first half fell flat for us.

By contrast, Wolves were a constant threat for Matz Sels’ goal, who ended up with five saves and keeping out an xG total of 1.57 for an impressive clean sheet. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest scored three goals from three shots on target, once more demonstrating their pragmatism and efficiency.

SIX WINS IN A ROW! 🔥 Wolves 0-3 Forest | Premier League Highlights

Best Stats

Arsenal teenager Ethan Nwaneri is now the Gunners’ only player to score more than one Premier League goal before his 18th birthday.

Only 21 seconds of football were played between the restart after Raul Jimenez’s first penalty and Ipswich getting a penalty of their own.

Since last winning at Anfield back in 2016, United had not scored in seven of their eight Premier League games at the ground of their fierce rivals. Lisandro Martinez has now finally broken that unwanted streak.

Ipswich’s Liam Delap is the first Premier League player aged 21 or under to reach 10 goal contributions this season, with no one else in this age bracket having more than seven.

Mohamed Salah has now broken Luis Suarez’s record of 30 goal contributions after only 19 Prem games. The Uruguayan scored 23 goals and assisted a further seven in his first 19 appearances of the 2013-14 season. Anfield’s “Egyptian King” has scored 18 and assisted 13 so far this campaign.

And one more involving Salah: he is now level with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry on 175 EPL goals.

Best/Worst VAR Decision

A fair bit to unpack here.

Firstly, we felt like this was a stonewall penalty even before watching the replays, as Orel Mangala’s careless swing of a boot definitely made enough contact with Dango Ouattara for a spot kick to be awarded.

Were the VAR lads on a break?

Secondly, we have to whine about the Liverpool vs United game. We’ll be fair and say that VAR did well to step in here and give the penalty, but how exactly does a top level referee like Michael Oliver miss such a blatant handball?

It’s probably the most “clear and obvious error” we’ll see this season and it’s shocking that it comes from such a highly regarded official in a big game like this one.

Best Substitution

Once more this goes to a Bournemouth player, as Andoni Iraola seems to know a cheat code for motivating players on the bench. This time it was David Brooks who came on in the 71st minute of their home game against Everton and scored in the 77th.

It was a well-taken volley for the goal that sealed the win for the Cherries, which leaves them just one point behind the European places.

Funniest Moment

It’s safe to say that Roy Keane was less than impressed with Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defending against Manchester United and tied it in with Real Madrid’s interest in the Scouser: “We talk about him going to Real Madrid. The way he’s defending, he’s going to Tranmere Rovers after this.”

Adding insult to injury, the social media admin of the League Two outfit replied on X: “Trent to Tranmere, Roy? Nah, we’re alright thanks.”