Matchday 18 Awards

Boxing Day has come and gone, bringing us more Premier League football to enjoy.

Chelsea have lost spectacularly at home to Fulham, while Liverpool managed another comeback win, this time against Leicester. Arsenal took second place from the Blues when they beat Ipswich 1-0.

There was plenty of excitement around Wolverhampton as Joao Pereira’s team beat Manchester United at home to register back-to-back victories and come out of the relegation zone. In another relegation related result, West Ham pulled further clear of the drop with a 1-0 win over Southampton, who now look pretty much condemned to playing Championship football next season.

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest have done very well for themselves once again by beating Tottenham 1-0 and showing everyone that they mean business when it comes to possibly playing European football next season.

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

Matheus Cunha was the architect of Wolves’ impressive victory against Manchester United, scoring directly from a corner and then teeing up Hwang Hee-chan to finish off the Red Devils deep into injury time.

The corner kick made for a special goal from a very special player who is worth his weight in gold for Wolves in their bid to stave off relegation this season.

Regardless of their Premier League status, it will be interesting to see if he’ll still be playing for the Molineux outfit come August.

Best XI

GK – Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest)

RB – Aaron Wan-Bissaka (West Ham)

CB – Murillo (Nottingham Forest)

CB – Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth)

LB – Pervis Estupinan (Brighton)

CM – Curtis Jones (Liverpool)

CM – Joelinton (Newcastle)

CM – Cody Gakpo (Liverpool)

RW – Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)

ST – Alexander Isak (Newcastle)

LW – Matheus Cunha (Wolves)

Best Goal

Anthony Gordon’s curling shot from just inside the box in the second minute of the game against Aston Villa was a glorious goal that left us impressed this Boxing Day.

Newcastle United 3 Aston Villa 0 | Premier League Highlights

Best Game

Chelsea vs Fulham provided some outstanding late drama, with two goals for the Cottagers (one in the fifth minute of injury time) sealing an improbable win against a team who were looking to get closer to Liverpool at the top of the table.

It feels like a huge opportunity missed for Chelsea, but we loved the game itself: 15 total shots on target, a combined xG of 1.63 only in the second half and a tempo to match the numbers.

HIGHLIGHTS | Chelsea 1-2 Fulham | Boxing Day Delight ⚫️⚪️

Best Stats

Before the start of this campaign, Bruno Fernandes had never been sent off since his move to Manchester United. He now has seen a red card on three separate occasions in 2024/25, also becoming the first United player in 10 years to be sent off three times in one season.

Cole Palmer’s first 50 Premier League starts have yielded 52 goal involvements (34G, 18A),  meaning that only Erling Haaland (64) and Andy Cole (57) have contributed to more goals in their first 50 starts.

In the opening 20 minutes of the game at the Emirates, Ipswich have only enjoyed 9% ball possession.

Best/Worst VAR Decision

And again, the time taken to clear a goal makes for an excruciating wait. Liverpool vs Leicester had a total of 11 minutes of added time (which ended up being closer to 13), mainly due to offside VAR checks.

While we understand that it is a complicated job, we also can’t wait for the implementation of the semi-automated offside check.

Best Substitution

Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz came on at Stamford Bridge in the 74th minute and scored the winning goal about 20 minutes later. Can’t argue with that sort of contribution.

Funniest Moment

Once again we go with a goalkeeper for this award. Pickford making faces at Erling Haaland had us in stitches, especially when it ended up working, with the Norwegian missing his penalty kick.

Naturally, a big part of him keeping out that spot kick was the summary of stats on his water bottle, but good effort from silly Jordan nevertheless.