Weekend awards: Best nearly goal, boldest move and more!

Adrian Kajumba looks at the standout players and moments from Matchweek 4.

Best nearly goal: Liam Delap 

Already the scorer of one outstanding solo goal this season against Fulham, Liam Delap was inches away from repeating the trick at Brighton.

The powerful Ipswich Town striker picked up the ball deep in his own half, left two chasing Brighton players trailing in his wake as he charged goalward and unluckily saw his effort at the end of a lung-bursting run clip against the far post.

Delap's shot v Brighton

And Delap’s near-miss provoked a humorous response from his head coach Kieran McKenna, which confirmed even busy Premier League managers are up to date with the latest social media trends.

He said: “It was an incredible run and if you put it with his goal against Fulham, if he scores that and has those two goals in his first four Premier League matches at 21 years old, it would have been pretty iconic. He is probably a Barclaysman or whatever has been trending this week.”  

Best goal: Jhon Duran 

“I saw it from behind and that ball moved all over the place,” said Aston Villa’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who was left in the same open-mouthed disbelief by Jhon Duran's matchwinning wonder strike against Everton as the millions of people that have watched it.

“Surely it should be goal of the month.”

Martinez's reaction to Duran's goal

While that is yet to be decided, Duran’s shot from 29.3 yards out, the goal scored from the furthest distance this season, was certainly the best from the latest round of matches.

Duran's spectacular strike v Everton 

Ironically, it came after a weekend which suggested the demise of the long-range goal might have been greatly exaggerated. 

Six of the 23 Matchweek 4 goals - by Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Duran, Everton’s Dwight McNeil, plus Newcastle United’s Fabian Schar and Barnes - were from outside the box.

The 2024/25 count is now up to 18 out of 103 goals (17.5 per cent), an increase on last season’s total of 12.4 per cent. The figure for a season was last higher in 2013/14, standing at 19 per cent.

Following a fortnight of fans reminiscing about previous Premier League eras on social media, the return of one of the features that made them so memorable, eye-catching goals from distance, was timely.  

Boldest move: Eddie Howe’s triple change 

Eddie Howe's happy knack of making match-defining substitutions was evident again as Newcastle fought back to win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It was a lesser seen TRIPLE half-time substitution that made the difference at Molineux.

With Howe “not totally satisfied, especially with the last 25 minutes of the first half”, Joe Willock, Sandro Tonali and Harvey Barnes replaced Joelinton, Sean Longstaff and the injured Alexander Isak to turn the match around.

Winger Barnes made the biggest impact, with his stunning winner from fellow sub Willock's pass, and all three contributed beyond that to a much improved second-half Newcastle performance, which was reflected in almost every attacking and defensive metric, after they trailed 1-0 at half-time.

Barnes' winner v Wolves

Howe had previously seen Barnes come off the bench to set up Anthony Gordon’s equaliser at AFC Bournemouth and Jacob Murphy enter the fray to create Isak’s winner against Spurs before the international break.

And if Howe is not happy with what he is seeing, expect the mid-game changes to keep coming.

He said: “I’ve got quality players on the bench and the lads know that if they don’t perform to the correct levels then we have the ability to make those changes.”

Best assist: Ederson 

Ederson was occasionally deployed as an emergency midfielder by Benfica’s youth team and believes he would be “up to the task” of doing it for Manchester City, too. 

The Brazilian goalkeeper’s confidence is understandable given his incredible ability with his feet, which he displayed once again against Brentford. 

With Man City searching for a solution to Brentford's man-for-man pressing approach, Ederson provided the match-winning answer with a pinpoint raking pass that cleared the Bees' backline and released Erling Haaland into space to score.

The goal left Ederson, who got a deserved thumbs-up from Haaland for the assist, on the brink of equalling a Premier League record which underlines his reputation as the world’s best ball-playing goalkeeper.

He now has four Premier League assists, just one short of Paul Robinson’s record of five.

Premier League goalkeepers with most assists

Faced with the problems Brentford were posing, manager Pep Guardiola described Ederson’s long-passing ability as “an incredible weapon we have to exploit”. 

His short passing stood out against Brentford too, and Match of The Day pundit Danny Murphy said: “They [Man City] have got the best footballing goalkeeper in the world. His decision-making on when to play short and long was perfect.”

Ederson's Premier League assists

Result of the weekend: Nottingham Forest 

Liverpool had not dropped a Premier League point or even conceded a goal before the weekend in what had been a dream start for new head coach Arne Slot.

That was until Nottingham Forest turned up at Anfield and produced a historic and shock 1-0 win to remain one of just five teams yet to suffer a league defeat this season.

Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said after masterminding Forest’s first win at Liverpool since 1969: “Many of our fans in the stadium, they were not even born [the last time] so that says how hard it is to play in Anfield.”

While the fiercely focused Nuno admitted he and his coaching staff would not spend too much time celebrating, he would have been forgiven for basking in the glory of Forest’s triumph, especially one the club had waited so long for.

He devised the plan to frustrate Liverpool with Forest’s organised and compact set-up, and his second-half introductions of wingers Anthony Elanga and Hudson-Odoi then paid off spectacularly when they increased Forest's attacking threat on the counter and combined for the latter’s winner.

Hudson-Odoi's winner v Liverpool

Deja vu moment: Arsenal’s derby winner

Gabriel Magalhaes’ winner in the north London derby came via a familiar route, and Tottenham Hotspur had been warned.

The Brazilian centre-back’s thumping second-half header meant three of Arsenal's last four goals against Spurs have now come from corners, following two in the previous meeting in April. 

Manager Mikel Arteta revealed that Arsenal felt they could “hurt” Spurs from set-pieces, and the Gunners took their time lining up each meticulously planned one.

Given the panic they caused with their earlier attempts, there was then almost an air of inevitably about Gabriel’s goal.

Gabriel's winner v Spurs

Arsenal’s set-piece joy against Spurs is in stark contrast to their neighbours' well-documented issues in the same area and a microcosm of the Gunners’ wider success.

They have scored a Premier League-high 24 goals from set-pieces, excluding penalties, since the start of last season. 

Last campaign almost a quarter of their goals excluding penalties came from set-plays, with 24.2 per cent, the fourth-highest percentage in the league, further underlining one of their favoured sources of scoring.

No wonder set-piece coach Nicolas Jover was first in line for an Arteta celebratory hug when Gabriel’s header hit the net.