Matchday 22 Awards

Another Premier League weekend has passed and it seems like once again it’s Liverpool’s title to lose. They saved the best for last in their away game against Brentford, as Darwin Nunez contributed off the bench with a brace, while Arsenal let a two-goal lead slip at home vs Aston Villa.

Elsewhere in the top four, Nottingham Forest held on to beat Southampton before Chelsea and Manchester City won their games to jostle for position in the UCL race.

As for the relegation battle, it was very much same old, same old, as all of the table’s last eight teams (yes, we include Manchester United in there) lost their games, with the exception of Everton, who beat fellow strugglers Tottenham at home.

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

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

Best Player

This one goes to Justin Kluivert for the way he inspired his Bournemouth to beat one of the most in-form teams in the division, Newcastle United. His devastating performance was a crucial part in how Iraola’s team solidified their European credentials.

Kluivert scored a hat-trick (his second of the season) and assisted his team’s other goal to go on and become the first Cherries player to be involved in four goals in a single EPL game.

His performance is made even better by the fact that it came at a stadium where his dad played for a little while (more on that later).

Andoni must absolutely love him.

Best XI

GK – Alisson (Liverpool)

RB – Matty Cash (Aston Villa)

CB – Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool)

CB – Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea)

LB – Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth)

CM – Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa)

CM – Mateo Kovacic (Manchester City)

CM – Justin Kluivert (Bournemouth)

RW – Phil Foden (Manchester City)

ST – Darwin Nunez (Liverpool)

LW – Jeremy Doku (Manchester City)

Best Goal

Hudson Odoi’s clean strike to make it 2-0 for Forest against Southampton was a sight to behold. The way he controlled the ball past the tackle, the wide turn and the purpose with which he drove towards goal to unleash that sweet, crisp strike are all a testament of his form and his confidence. He is, after all, one of the key cogs in the best Premier League story of the season so far.

Now imagine if they go on and pull off a Leicester…

Wood & Anderson On Target! 🔥 | Forest 3-2 Southampton | Premier League Highlights

Best Game

Arsenal vs Villa had a bit of everything: goal line drama, the favourites cruising to a win only to be pegged back, the late push, the goalkeeper saves… We could go on and on.

It was a great game, played at a high tempo by two teams that understood exactly just how important a win would be here. Ultimately a draw helps Villa more than Arsenal, who are now six points behind leaders Liverpool, having played a game more.

Have a look at the highlights for this match below.

ARSENAL 2-2 VILLA | MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Best Stats

Justin Kluivert has now scored more goals (three) at St. James’ Park than his father Patrick Kluivert (one), who played for Newcastle in the 2004/05 season.

With his equalising goal against Arsenal, Ollie Watkins is officially the scourge of the ‘Big Six’ clubs. This was his 18th strike against Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, City, United and Spurs, overtaking Romelu Lukaku and Olivier Giroud (17 each), who both played for one or more of these sides.

A couple about Manchester United. With Ruben Amorim in charge, the Red Devils have only won 11 points from 11 league games. What’s worse, they have suffered six defeats in 12 home EPL games this season, the highest number since 1893/94 (seven). And still with United, it is worth pointing out that they have conceded the opening goal in the first half of a home game five times in a row now, with three of those goals coming in the first five minutes.

Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez keeps making an impact. No other Premier League player has as many as his 11 goal contributions as a substitute since he joined the Merseysiders in 2022.

And we end it with the Moyesiah. As Everton have finally managed to beat Tottenham at home in the league for the first time since 2012, we remember who the Toffees’ manager was on that occasion.

Best/Worst VAR Decision

Nothing all that dramatic took place this weekend, VAR-wise. We certainly hope this sets a precedent.

Best Substitution

This one goes to a Liverpool player again. Darwin Nunez came off the bench and scored twice just when his team needed it most, with Arsenal breathing down their necks in the league standings.

The confidence with which both finishes were taken makes you think he’s a regular starter who was just rested for this game, but that is hardly the case. Arne Slot tends to leave him out of his starting XI more often than not, but if he keeps performing like this off the bench, it might just become impossible for his coach to deny him a starting berth.

In any case, Slot seems to know what he’s doing when it comes to substitutions.

Funniest Moment

Not every United fan at Old Trafford was busy admonishing Andre Onana after his clanger against Brighton.

Since this was already the 76th minute, it is understandable that some felt like Brighton going 3-1 up was the end of their team’s chances to snatch a result here.

So some of them were just tired (or sick and tired?) and wanted the nightmare to end. We really can’t blame the bloke, but we did have a laugh.