Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 19 including:
- Newcastle put Amorim's 3-4-3 under the spotlight
- Leicester's performance a sign of things to come?
- Villa's inability to kill the match proves costly
- Maresca's changes backfire against Ipswich
- Salah exploits Wan-Bissaka's unfamiliar role
- Spurs' home form must improve in 2025
- Goal-shy Everton creeping closer to relegation zone
- Crystal Palace eye top-half finish
- Draws hurting Fulham's European hopes
Newcastle put Amorim’s 3-4-3 under the spotlight
"Our club needs a shock and we have to understand that. It is also why I speak of relegation. [The possibility] is really clear and we have to fight."
Ruben Amorim’s words after Manchester United fell to their sixth loss in all competitions in December, their most defeats in a single month since 1930, were indeed shocking.
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They were also historic - a Man Utd manager has admitted his team are in a Premier League relegation battle.
Whatever happens next, those words won’t be forgotten. They are part of the Amorim story now.
The match itself won’t live long in the memory for Man Utd fans, although Amorim and his staff will pore over the best evidence yet of the tactical deficiencies of his 3-4-3 in its current guise.
So far under Amorim, the problem has been defending space on the outside of the two-man midfield and defending crosses. Both Newcastle United goals were a combination of these two flaws.
In each case, the attack began with Newcastle’s two No 8s, Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes, easily finding space by hovering either side of Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, who were overworked as an isolated pair in Amorim’s 5-2-3.
Once the Man Utd midfield was carved open, there was space on the left for a Newcastle cross and a simple headed goal.
We know Amorim will be thinking long and hard about how to patch up those midfield gaps because we saw him make an emergency change in the 33rd minute.
The hosts were more secure with Kobbie Mainoo in the middle, which was hardly a surprise; an explosive and in-form Newcastle, led by Sandro Tonali and Guimaraes, were always likely to outmanoeuvre Eriksen and Casemiro.
Since Amorim’s first match in charge on 24 November, only Southampton (seven) have lost more matches in all competitions than Man Utd (six).
The relegation talk is hyperbole, designed to jolt the players into action.
But three defeats in a row, and three points from six league fixtures? Right now, that’s relegation form.
Leicester’s performance a sign of things to come?
Manchester City’s second win in 14 matches in all competitions comes as a huge relief to Pep Guardiola, but he will know Leicester City could have got something out of Sunday's clash.
It was the best performance of the Ruud van Nistelrooy era so far, and hopefully a sign of things to come.
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More Enzo Maresca than Steve Cooper, Leicester’s progressive football – their bravery in possession and neat passing through midfield – tore through Man City in the first half in particular, and while it would be easy to again point the finger at the champions’ lacklustre performance, Leicester deserve credit.
Van Nistelrooy set up a box midfield when Leicester had possession, with Harry Winks and Boubakary Soumare excelling at the base as they fed Bilal El Khannouss and Facundo Buonanotte through the lines.
Leicester completed 561 passes and had a passing accuracy of 90.8 per cent, on both counts their highest figures of the season to date.
They also miscontrolled the ball just eight times, their second-lowest number this season, and were dispossessed only four times, their joint-fewest.
At long last, Van Nistelrooy has something to build on.
Villa’s inability to kill the match proves costly
Unai Emery said he was left "frustrated" by the dropped points at Villa Park after the "big mistake" of Brighton & Hove Albion’s opener and his side’s failure to put the match to bed when they were in the lead.
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Aston Villa were the better side for long periods and ought to have grabbed the third goal, taking 19 shots (their joint most in a match this season) and missing several good chances, most notably Ollie Watkins’ opportunity in the final moments.
Villa, below their best form through much of 2024, should be encouraged by the chances they created in this match, as well as Morgan Rogers’ form, Leon Bailey’s sharpness after a difficult few months, and Jacob Ramsey’s return from injury.
Nevertheless, what jumped out on Monday night was the way Villa went into a nervous retreat after Brighton’s triple substitution on the hour mark brought Kaoru Mitoma, Georginio Rutter and Yankuba Minteh into the match.
"When we scored, we dropped back and I'm not sure why that was," Watkins said after the match. "We weren't clinical in the end. We had a lot of attacks on the transition and we weren't clinical."
His analysis is correct. For Brighton’s equaliser, Villa’s back line dropped unexpectedly while the forwards, as instructed, pressed high, opening up space between the lines.
Maresca's changes backfire against Ipswich
Ipswich Town supporters finally witnessed a Premier League victory at Portman Road, ending a 22-year wait in the best way possible: claiming a major scalp under the floodlights.
The result was richly deserved, the performance typical of their season: a hard-pressing midfield, complemented by the talented duo Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson.
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Delap was a battering ram throughout, consistently putting the Chelsea defence under pressure, and he deserved his goal and assist.
But the standout moment was Hutchinson’s strike that sealed the points; a moment of delirium for the Ipswich supporters, who will treasure this memory for years to come.
Hutchinson's goal v Chelsea
Power and pace from Liam then composure and precision from Omari. 👌#IPSCHE pic.twitter.com/anUmMHhE4F
— IPSWICH TOWN (@IpswichTown) December 31, 2024
From a neutral’s perspective, however, Chelsea somewhat shot themselves in the foot.
Maresca made five changes for this match, including all three of his forwards, which explains why Chelsea continually misfired in the final third.
There was a whiff of UEFA Europa Conference League about the line-up, with Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Noni Madueke struggling to connect – and certainly struggling to create clear-cut chances.
With hindsight, this was not the match to rest key players.
Salah exploits Wan-Bissaka's unfamiliar role
There is no shame in losing to this Liverpool team and this version of Mohamed Salah, whose three goal involvements at the London Stadium took him to 30 in just 18 Premier League matches (17 goals, 13 assists). It's the fewest appearances any player has needed to reach that milestone.
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But Julen Lopetegui’s surprise decision to field right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the left – when Emerson and Aaron Cresswell were available – clearly backfired.
Wan-Bissaka once again looked uncomfortable on that side (West Ham haven’t won any of the four Premier League matches he has started at left-back this season), allowing Salah to run riot.
Salah had three good chances even before Liverpool got the opener, and on another day he would have ended with four or five goals.
Instead it was just the one which, along with two assists, took Salah to 52 goal involvements in all competitions in 2024 (29 goals, 23 assists), more than any other player in Europe’s big five leagues.
Spurs' home form must improve in 2025
Tottenham Hotspur have failed to win any of their last five Premier League home games, their longest run in the competition since October 2008, which ended with Juande Ramos losing his job.
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Spurs' home form is at its worst, but the problem is hardly new.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have picked up just 14 points from their 10 home matches this season, and have won 10 of their 19 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium across the whole of 2024.
For a team so hell-bent on attacking football, winning just over half of their home games isn’t good enough to achieve their targets. It’s vital that teams fear coming to Tottenham and are pushed back, psychologically and physically, by Postecoglou’s all-out attacks.
Instead, opponents (like Wolves) turn up confident of success – and are helped by the hosts’ slow starts.
Spurs have conceded the opening goal in 15 of their 19 home Premier League games in 2024.
It’s a record they simply have to improve in 2025.
Goal-shy Everton creeping closer to relegation zone
It was widely believed that Everton will be fine, as the punditry cliche goes. Nobody was worried for them, not for a team so capable of keeping clean sheets under the wily Sean Dyche.
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But Everton are now on a run of one win in 10 matches. Defeat at home to Nottingham Forest, coupled with wins for Crystal Palace and Ipswich, leaves the Toffees 16th in the table and just two points above relegation.
They are in serious danger of sleepwalking into the Championship.
The problem has crept up on them a little, though not on supporters, who have got used to this in 2024.
Everton registered just 132 shots on target and scored 31 goals in the Premier League in 2024, the fewest of any club that has been ever-present in the competition.
Yet the problem has worsened recently, with Everton drawing a blank in a remarkable seven of their last nine league matches, scoring just once in the four matches since Dwight McNeil’s injury.
Fortunately for Everton, McNeil is likely to be passed fit to play at AFC Bournemouth this weekend.
They desperately need his creativity to avoid the drop.
Crystal Palace eye top-half finish
Going in the opposite direction are Crystal Palace, who although by no means out of the woods are beginning to look up, not down, after victory against Southampton made it just two defeats in their last 11 Premier League matches.
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Palace failed to win any of their first eight matches of the season, but since then have won 17 points from 11 matches, the eighth-best form in that period.
That’s great news for Palace fans, who can start to breathe easy, but even better was a winning goal on Monday night for Eberechi Eze, who hadn't scored in his previous 11 league matches, a run stretching back to 1 September.
Ismaila Sarr had been picking up the slack, but if Oliver Glasner can get Eze and Sarr scoring goals together then Palace will have nothing to worry about.
They are only five points above the relegation zone – but also only four points behind Spurs in 11th place. Last year’s club-record finish of 10th is still in their sights.
Draws hurting Fulham's European hopes
Marco Silva’s side are unbeaten in seven Premier League matches, a run that has included meetings with Arsenal, Liverpool, and Spurs, and yet Bournemouth’s late equaliser at Craven Cottage was their fifth draw in this sequence.
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Fulham should have beaten Southampton instead of being held to a 0-0 draw, and were in the lead against Bournemouth, Liverpool (who were down to 10 men), and Arsenal.
And so, despite their side sitting just three points behind Newcastle in fifth, Fulham supporters will feel frustrated by the missed opportunities this month.
They will need to be more ruthless in their winnable upcoming matches against Ipswich (H), West Ham (A), and Leicester (A).
If there are any more draws among those matches, European football will slip away.
