Premier League Matchweek 33 Awards
What a Premier League weekend this has been! We watched Liverpool and Arsenal drop points, seemingly handing City the title on a silver platter. Though that is still up for debate, as the three title contenders are separated by only 2 points.
Villa’s win at the Emirates also spells trouble for Tottenham and their ambitions regarding fourth place, especially after the dismantling they suffered away to Newcastle.
Liverpool conspired to lose at home in consecutive matches, with the Anfield faithful witnessing a 0-1 defeat to Crystal Palace (remember 2014?) only three days after Atalanta paraded to a 3-0 win at the same venue.
Business as usual at the Etihad, where the hosts sent Luton packing with a 5-1 win, all the way back to their mounting relegation concerns.
Away from the dizzying heights of the title and Champions League race, Brentford have done their hopes of staying up a world of good by beating Sheffield United 2-0, virtually ensuring that they will be playing Championship football come August.
What else? Oh, right. Manchester United still cannot decide if they would like to play in Europe next season or not after another draw, Chelsea absolutely humbled Everton, and a draw that suits neither side was played between Forest and Wolves.
Having gotten all that out of the way, on with the awards!
Best Player
Tough one.
Isak put on a proper show as Newcastle repeated a recent feat of battering Spurs. Two goals and a sense that nothing can faze him will certainly get him one of our nominations.
Wolves’ Matheus Cunha also scored two goals for his side, and the quality of his first probably ensures he wins this award almost any other week.
But we simply can not ignore Cole Palmer. Four (4!) goals against Everton – oddly enough only one of them from the penalty spot – and a perfect hat-trick helped Chelsea to SOMEHOW end up as serious contenders for a European spot. They are 3 points behind Manchester United, with a game in hand.
Take a bow, son!
Best XI
Fans of balanced, defensive-oriented teams, look away now.
GK – Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace)
CB – Diego Carlos (Aston Villa)
CB – Fabian Schär (Newcastle)
CB – Joachim Andersen (Crystal Palace)
CM – Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace)
CM – Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa)
CM – Andreas Pereira (Fulham)
RW – Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
LW – Jeremy Doku (Manchester City)
ST – Matheus Cunha (Wolves)
ST – Alexander Isak (Newcastle)
Best Goal
One of the best individual goals of the season wins our award for this week. Cunha toyed with Omobamidele, refused to acknowledge that Yates was within a country mile of him, and then smashed a beauty into the top corner of the Nottingham goal.
Don’t believe us? Here, see for yourselves.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1779253230473793896
Best Game
Very hard to pick one this week again. Might have something to do with the quality of the league, right?
This weekend we had a lot of fun, saw plenty of (beautiful) goals, and embraced the drama. That last bit makes us pick Liverpool vs Crystal Palace for the best game of matchday 33.
Though it only had one goal in it, the tempo was great, Crystal Palace players left it all on the field, Liverpool missed some MASSIVE chances (Curtis Jones is probably still with his head in his shirt) and, overall, the game showed us why we love the Prem: drama, shocks, and outstanding performances.
Best Stats
Cole Palmer’s hat-trick last night set some interesting records:
- He became the first Chelsea player in EPL history to score in 7 consecutive home games in the competition.
- It was the quickest hat-trick ever for Chelsea in the Premier League (29 minutes).
- This was also Chelsea’s first perfect hat-trick (left foot, header, right foot) in the EPL since Christian Pulisic’s against Burnley in 2019.
- Palmer became the second player to score back-to-back home hat-tricks for the Blues, after Didier Drogba did so in 2010. However, the Ivorian’s feat was a bit different, as the two games took place in different seasons (end of 2009-10 vs Wigan and beginning of 2010-11 vs West Bromwich).
Also, here’s another interesting one:
https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/1779956831722381318
But let’s not forget that Palmer did not stop at 3 goals last night. He got 4, and thus emulated one of the Chelsea greats. Not since Frank Lampard in March 2010 has a Blues player scored four goals in one EPL game.
Best/Worst VAR Decision
We are starting to think that VAR might actually come good.
Nothing really untoward happened this weekend, and we are certainly hoping it stays this way at least for the rest of the season, considering how much is at stake in almost all areas of the league table.
Best Substitution
Frank Onyeka, ladies and gentlemen!
Roughly two minutes after his introduction for Brentford in their home game, he wriggled his way through the Sheffield United defence and coolly slotted past Grbic.
Well subbed, Mr. Thomas Frank!
Funniest Moments
Another category that makes it hard for us to pick only one winner. But here we can be a bit more lenient and tell you what made us laugh, even if we end up with a couple of winners – or losers, as the case may be.
Chelsea players were all trying to get in on the act, with Madueke and Jackson attempting to hijack the rights to take a penalty. Naturally, Blues’ boss Mauricio Pochettino was not best pleased.
Pochettino: Argument over penalty was unacceptable
How about Morgan Gibbs-White scoring against Wolves and taunting the away support?
Morgan Gibbs-White vs Wolves #shorts #football #fyp #viral #trending – YouTube
But probably the best meme to come out of a blunder this season is…
https://twitter.com/ArtButSports/status/1779169523356115237?t=vgfngDEaheldDPZ0SgQ6xw&s=19