Matchday 29 Awards
The EFL Cup final (congratulations, Newcastle!) has left us with a shorter-than-usual matchday as Liverpool, Newcastle and their dance partners were not involved in Premier League action.
In the biggest EPL game of the weekend Arsenal narrowly beat Chelsea to trim down the gap at the top of the table to 12 points as we head into this year’s first international break.
In the other London derby on Sunday Fulham prevailed over Spurs to keep their European hopes alive, while the teams in the relegation zone – Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton – all lost once again.
Elsewhere, Everton drew against West Ham, Brentford beat Bournemouth again and Manchester City could only muster a draw against Brighton.
As usual, you can click here to check out all our reports from this round’s action.
And you can visit our YouTube channel for previews of each matchday, as well as predictions and hot takes on current EPL topics.
But back to the task at hand: who earned our Premier League awards this time? Read on to find out.
Best Player
Jorgen Strand Larsen scored a brace for Wolves against Southampton to ensure that Matheus Cunha’s absence is not felt too badly. Thanks to the Norwegian’s performance, Vitor Pereira’s men put further distance between themselves and the drop zone, as they now sit nine points above Ipswich with nine games left to play.
We were especially impressed with the quality of his finishing, showing great finesse to score his first with a header and the second with a low and controlled right-footed shot from the edge of the penalty box.
Best XI
GK – Bernd Leno (Fulham)
RB – Jurrien Timber (Arsenal)
CB – Nikola Milenkovic (Nottingham Forest)
CB – Joachim Andersen (Fulham)
LB – Pervis Estupinan (Brighton)
CM – Christian Norgaard (Brentford)
CM – Tomas Soucek (West Ham)
CM – Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
RW – Omar Marmoush (Manchester City)
ST – Jorgen Strand Larsen (Wolves)
LW – Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest)
Best Goal
Pervis Estupinan hit an amazingly satisfying free-kick against Manchester City on Saturday to level the scoring after Erling Haaland’s penalty 10 minutes earlier. The smooth curve of the ball, the clip off the post, the keeper’s realisation that nothing can be done…
Estupinan’s STUNNING Free Kick At City!! 😱 #brightonandhovealbion #manchestercity – YouTube
Outstanding!
Best Game
If we’re being honest, it wasn’t the most gripping weekend of Premier League action, but we were entertained by City’s home draw against the Seagulls.
A game with four goals, a total xG of 3.88, 26 shots, plenty of misplaced passes to add to the excitement and a result that not many foresaw. But we will give ourselves a pat on the back for predicting over 2.5 goals here in our weekly show.
HIGHLIGHTS | Man City v Brighton | Premier League
Best Stats
Erling Haaland is the first-ever Premier League player to reach 100 goal involvements in under 100 matches in the competition, doing so in his 94th appearance.
However, City have now conceded 40 EPL goals in a single season for the first time under Pep Guardiola. And it’s only March.
Forest centre-back Nikola Milenkovic has six goal involvements this season, the highest number for a Premier League defender at the moment.
And a short one from the EFL Cup final. It was the first time in Mo Salah’s Liverpool career where he played an entire game but did not register a single shot or chance created.
Best/Worst VAR Decision
Apart from a few instances where some of the VAR checks could have been quicker, we don’t really have anything substantial to gripe about.
Best Substitution
This one goes to Ryan Sessegnon, who came off the bench in the closing stages of Fulham’s home game against Spurs only to score the nerve-settling goal about a minute later against his former employers.
Funniest Moment
Mikel Arteta called Chelsea the best attacking team in the league “by a mile”, at least from open play.
It got a good chuckle out of us simply because there are so many teams with a more fluid attacking football than Enzo Maresca’s men.