Football writer Ben Bloom analyses an incredible weekend of Matchweek 23 action, including a big result for AFC Bournemouth at the top of the table plus a managerial milestone for Everton's David Moyes.
On a weekend of high Premier League drama, Leicester City and Everton triumphed to shake up the relegation fight as Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men heaped more misery on a Tottenham Hotspur side now wondering if they might be dragged into the mix.
At the other end of the table, Arsenal overcame a controversial red card to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers, while Manchester City returned to the top four with a comeback win at home to Chelsea.
Meanwhile, leaders Liverpool carried on serenely and form team AFC Bournemouth crushed Nottingham Forest to maintain their European hopes.
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Bournemouth ran riot in the battle between two unlikely top-four candidates to extend their unbeaten Premier League run to 11 matches.
Dango Ouattara became the first player from Burkina Faso to score a Premier League hat-trick, while Justin Kluivert continued his excellent goalscoring form and Antoine Semenyo rounded things off to stun a Forest team that had been eyeing up second place.
Andoni Iraola’s side have now beaten four of the six teams above them in the table, and their free-flowing football was fully deserving of their biggest top-flight victory for almost five years.
Kluivert’s opener took his tally of goal involvements to 12 (10 goals and two assists) across his last 12 league matches, before Ouattara struck three times after the break and Semenyo scored in stoppage time.
Ouattara's hat-trick v Forest
The first-ever player from Burkina Faso to net a @premierleague hat-trick 😍🇧🇫 pic.twitter.com/DbDiv1fNkx
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) January 25, 2025
Bournemouth have now scored three hat-tricks this season – as many as in their previous six top-flight campaigns combined.
For Forest, it brought a shuddering halt to their eight-game unbeaten league run. They have only lost five league matches this season, but conceded three or more goals in each of their last four defeats.
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David Moyes celebrated his 700th Premier League match as a manager by masterminding Everton’s first back-to-back Premier League triumphs of the season to ease their relegation fears and end Brighton & Hove Albion’s six-match unbeaten run.
Moyes became only the third manager to reach the landmark after Arsene Wenger (828) and Sir Alex Ferguson (810).
The historic occasion was settled by an Iliman Ndiaye penalty soon before half-time, which was only Everton’s second goal in seven top-flight games on their travels.
It also means Ndiaye has scored in successive Premier League matches for the first time, taking his tally to three goals in his last six games, after managing just two in his first 17.
Brighton went close a number of times in the second half, but were unable to find an equaliser, bringing an end to their longest unbeaten run in a single season since 2021/22.
The only negative for the visitors was injuries to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Orel Mangala, who were both forced off. “They don’t look great, either of them,” said Moyes.
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The Liverpool title-chasing juggernaut continued on its merry way with a worry-free victory to maintain their six-point advantage at the top of the table.
While he had not found the back of the net for three successive matches, all away from home, Cody Gakpo is relishing Anfield life at the moment, scoring two more to take his tally to eight goals in his last seven home matches.
The Dutchman struck in either half to cement a victory that was already on track when Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah put the home side ahead. Jacob Greaves’ 90th-minute header was scant consolation.
Gakpo's second goal v Ipswich
Incredible cross 🪄
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 25, 2025
Placed header 😮💨
Gakpo with his second of the afternoon during #LIVIPS 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ts0Dft2ZzY
Salah is the Premier League’s leading scorer this season with 19 goals, more than he managed in the whole of the previous campaign.
His goal 10 minutes before half-time was his 176th in the competition overall, surpassing Thierry Henry’s tally of 175.
After being on the wrong end of a 6-0 defeat against Man City last time out, Ipswich Town have now conceded 10 goals in their last two matches.
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For a few precious minutes, after Jan Bednarek’s opener, Southampton fans dared to dream of only a second Premier League win this season.
But natural order was soon restored as the bottom club suffered a sixth consecutive home league defeat for the first time in their history.
As he has been on so many occasions, Alexander Isak was Newcastle United’s star, scoring twice to become the club’s first player ever to score in five consecutive away league games.
He now has 18 goals in his last 18 matches in all competition, while his total Premier League tally is 48 – level with Freddie Ljungberg as the most of any Swedish player in the competition, and ahead of Callum Wilson (47) as the second-top Premier League goalscorer for Newcastle, behind Alan Shearer (148).
See: Premier League all time top-scorers
Southampton look doomed. They remain on just six points, having won just one of their last 36 Premier League encounters across this season and their previous top-flight campaign in 2022/23.
When converting to three points for a win, their total is the second-lowest after 23 top-flight matches, with only Bolton Wanderers in 1902/03 having fewer at this stage, with three points.
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A game of two red cards and no shortage of controversy ended in the unlikely Arsenal saviour of Riccardo Calafiori as Mikel Arteta’s side managed to maintain the gap to Liverpool at the top of the table.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men shortly before half-time when Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off for a foul on Matt Doherty deep inside the Wolves half to stop the defender breaking forward.
At 18 years and 121 days old, he became the third-youngest player to receive a Premier League red card after Wayne Rooney (17 years and 63 days) and Michael Owen (18 years and 117 days).
Numbers were then evened out with Joao Gomes’ dismissal for a second yellow card with 20 minutes remaining. Substitute Calafiori fired home an Arsenal winner soon after.
The Italian’s goal means Arsenal defenders have scored eight Premier League goals this season – the highest tally in the division.
It also maintained Arsenal’s remarkable record of resilience when losing a player. They are the only team in Premier League history to have won more games than they have lost, with 38 and 35 respectively, when having a player sent off.
Conversely, Wolves have lost 21 of their 28 Premier League matches, or 75 per cent, in which one of their players has been sent off – the highest loss rate of any side to have had a red card in 25+ matches.
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Man City came from behind to extend their unbeaten Premier League run to six matches and return to the top four for the first time since early December.
Noni Madueke struck inside just three minutes for Chelsea. But no top-flight side have won more points from losing positions this season than City’s 17.
Josko Gvardiol scored the equaliser just before half-time to take his Premier League season haul to five – more than any other defender.
Erling Haaland then added a crucial second, which told a story of two goalkeepers.
Notably shifting tactics, goalkeeper Ederson pumped 16 long passes against Chelsea, compared to his season average of 8.6 per game. One of those was the assist for Haaland’s goal, which took Ederson alongside Paul Robinson at the top of all-time goalkeeping assists in the Premier League, with five.
Haaland's goal v Chelsea
An incredible Ederson assist, a sublime @ErlingHaaland finish! 🍟 pic.twitter.com/inTgnv5til
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 25, 2025
Haaland was able to chip Robert Sanchez, who found himself marooned after charging off his line. No player has made more errors leading to a goal in the Premier League this season than Sanchez’s five.
Phil Foden then sealed the win with his sixth Premier League goal in four games – the most of any player in 2025.
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Two things Brentford excel at are scoring penalties and headers. They did both to see off Crystal Palace and register successive away wins within the same campaign for the first time in more than two years.
In fact, Bryan Mbeumo thought he had lost his perfect penalty record when he struck a post from the spot soon after the hour. But he converted a second attempt after Palace defender Marc Guehi was found to have encroached before the initial penalty was taken.
With the first effort chalked off, that ensured the Cameroonian has now scored all nine of his Premier League penalties, while Brentford have scored 95 per cent of their top-flight penalties (20 of 21) – the joint-best ratio by any side to take more than five (alongside Swansea City).
Kevin Schade then headed in Mikkel Damsgaard’s cross. Since they joined the Premier League in 2021/22, only Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City, with 50 and 43 each respectively, have scored more headed goals than Brentford's 38.
The only positive for Palace came from Romain Esse, who tapped in less than two minutes after coming off the bench, becoming the first teenager to score on his Premier League debut (19 years and 258 days old) since Rayan Ait-Nouri for Wolves in 2020.
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Spurs’ predicament went from bad to worse as they gave up a lead at home and fell to defeat against a Leicester side that had been on a seven-game losing streak.
Van Nistelrooy had overseen just one league win since taking charge of Leicester, but saw his side strike twice in four minutes immediately after half-time to avoid equalling the club record of eight consecutive defeats, set in 2001.
Spurs, meanwhile, are now without a win in seven Premier League games – their longest winless run in the top-flight since a nine-match sequence in 2008.
All was going to plan for Ange Postecoglou’s side when Richarlison scored his 10th goal in 12 Premier League starts from a wonderful Pedro Porro cross.
But Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss then struck for the visitors.
Aged 38 years 15 days, Vardy became the second player aged 38 or above to score in the Premier League this season after Everton’s Ashley Young, making it just the second time in the competition’s history where two players aged 38 or over have netted in the same season, after Dean Windass and Tugay in 2008/09.
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It was honours even at Villa Park, where Graham Potter’s West Ham United showed resilience to secure a draw after the familiar feeling of going behind early on.
When Jacob Ramsey put the hosts ahead after eight minutes, it was the ninth Premier League goal West Ham have conceded in the opening 10 minutes this season – more than any other team.
However, Villa have now failed to win four of the 11 top-flight matches in which they have scored first this season, and they were unable to hold onto their lead.
Emerson headed in Edson Alvarez’s cross with 20 minutes remaining to earn a well-deserved draw.
Despite not taking maximum points, Villa remain unbeaten in their last 11 Premier League home matches. Only twice in their history in the competition have they had longer runs on home soil.
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One shot on target, one goal and a much-needed win for Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United.
Man Utd supporters had to wait almost the entire first half to see their side have an attempt against Fulham.
Even then, Lisandro Martinez’s late effort required a fortunate deflection off Sasa Lukic to loop over the helpless Bernd Leno and provide United a victory after a lacklustre display.
London has not proved a happy hunting ground for United in recent seasons, with three wins at Fulham marking their only league wins in 20 trips to the capital.
They were second-best for much of the encounter, but maintained their record as one of four Premier League sides yet to lose a match in all competitions this season after going 1-0 up, alongside Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle.
They required substitute Toby Collyer to clear Joachim Andersen’s header off the line to ensure all three points, with Fulham now winless in their last five Premier League home matches.
