Matchday 30 Awards
The international break has come and gone, just like the FA Cup quarter-finals, and this midweek brought us matchday 30 of our beloved Premier League. Not too much has changed, in fairness, after this round of games, but we did witness some surprising results.
Bournemouth lost at home to almost-relegated Ipswich, making it more difficult for themselves to jostle for a more favourable position in the race for European football.
Even more shockingly, Crystal Palace, with their amazing away record, failed to beat Southampton at St. Mary’s, having to rely on an injury time goal to salvage a 1-1 draw.
Nottingham Forest beat Manchester United, Villa took Brighton apart at the Amex and Chelsea prevailed over Tottenham in the latest London derby.
It’s business as usual in the title race too, where both Arsenal and Liverpool recorded wins.
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
Getting the only goal of the game against your former employers to reinforce your team’s shocking table standing and Champions League chase?
Take a bow, Anthony Elanga!
A fantastic run from about 35 metres of his own goal, showing great balance and composure to poke through United’s centre-backs and past Andre Onana. It was overall a great showing by the Swedish winger, who was a handful all game and deservingly picks up our Best Player award.
Best XI
GK – Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest)
RB – Curtis Jones (Liverpool)
CB – Murillo (Nottingham Forest)
CB – Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
LB – Tino Livramento (Newcastle)
CM – Sandro Tonali (Newcastle)
CM – Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)
CM – Ryan Yates (Nottingham Forest)
RW – Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest)
ST – Omar Marmoush (Manchester City)
LW – Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
Best Goal
This one also goes to Elanga. Just have a look at that run: the speed, the poise, the drive and the finish!
Elanga runs 85 metres in 9 SECONDS! 🤯⚡️ – YouTube
Best Game
There was a lot to love about Newcastle vs Brentford, as we expected in our Matchday Preview show on YouTube as well. We were treated to a game that left us wondering how it featured only three goals, but we appreciated the tempo and the willingness of both teams to attack and win.
In terms of xG, despite Newcastle’s 2-1 win, it was actually Thomas Frank’s team who accumulated more (1.63 vs 1.43), we had 33 shots in total, plenty of fiery tackles and overall a game that left us wanting more. A great advert for the league.
Newcastle United 2 Brentford 1 | Premier League Highlights
Best Stats
After losing to Nottingham Forest, Manchester United have given us the most surprising stat: after 30 matchdays, they have failed to register back-to-back wins this season in the Premier League.
Staying with United, this was their 114th Premier League defeat since Alex Ferguson’s retirement, which is the same number of games that the Scot lost during his entire tenure in charge of the Red Devils.
After somehow avoiding a sending off against Liverpool, Everton captain James Tarkowski now has the joint-most yellow cards in EPL history (63) without ever seeing a red one.
Alexander Isak scored his 20th goal of the season, split perfectly between home and away games. He is only the third Newcastle player to score 10 or more goals in both home and away games after Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.
Best/Worst VAR Decision
How exactly did James Tarkowski not see a red card for his challenge on Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby?!
Sure, he got the ball, but his studs-up follow-through on the leg of the Argentinian looked sickening even at playing speed, let alone on the replays.
Best Substitution
Look, we loved Asesio’s cameo for Villa, where he notched a goal and an assist, but we’re a little sentimental around here at EPLNews.
The Best Sub award goes to Bukayo Saka. After being out for so long, to come into the game against Fulham and score deserves some recognition and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing him play at the Emirates again.
Funniest Moment
Not necessarily funny, but enjoyable for its fierceness were the scenes at Stamford Bridge last night, where we could see how much a London derby win means for any team, regardless of their standing in the league table.
