Football writer Ben Bloom analyses an incredible weekend of Matchweek 26 action, including a setback for Arsenal's title hopes and more records broken by Mohamed Salah.
After defeats for Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, Liverpool triumphed at Manchester City to tighten their grip on top spot in the Premier League and extend their lead to 11 points.
Newcastle United were the only other top-seven side to win, while Tottenham Hotspur's resurgence continued with a third successive league victory.
At the bottom, Wolverhampton Wanderers' win over AFC Bournemouth opened up a five-point gap to the relegation zone.
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Brentford head coach Thomas Frank confirmed his lofty aspirations to guide Brentford to European football this season after his team heaped yet more misery on Leicester City.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side became the first team in English top-flight history to lose six successive home matches without scoring. The Dutchman has won only two of his 13 league matches in charge.
By contrast, this was a rampant Brentford’s fourth straight away win, leaving them six points off seventh place.
As has become customary this campaign, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa were two of the four scorers for the visitors, with Christian Norgaard and Fabio Carvalho also finding the net.
In Mbeumo (15 goals) and Wissa (12), Brentford are the only Premier League team with two players to reach double figures this season, while they have both scored in the same match six times – the joint-most by any pair, alongside Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah.
The irrepressible Mikkel Damsgaard set up both of their goals to reach 10 Premier League assists this season – the most ever by a Brentford player in a single campaign in the competition.
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Two goals down and without a shot on target for the opening 72 minutes, Manchester United were staring down the barrel of a third straight Premier League defeat.
Set-piece goals from Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte spared their blushes, but United have claimed just 15 points from a possible 45 since Ruben Amorim took charge.
It has been nearly a month since United’s last Premier League goal from open play and all of their hard work could have been undone had Everton not seen a late penalty awarded their way overturned.
The referee pointed to the spot when Ashley Young went down under Harry Maguire’s challenge, but the decision was overturned following a VAR review.
That denied the hosts a shot at victory after Beto and Abdoulaye Doucoure continued their excellent form with first-half goals to put them ahead.
Everton are now unbeaten in their last six league matches.
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If Wolves are to avoid relegation from the Premier League this season, no player will have been more important than Matheus Cunha.
The Brazilian struck in his fourth successive match across all competitions, taking his Premier League season’s tally to 13 in the process – only Raul Jimenez has managed more across a single campaign in the competition for the club (17 in 2019/20).
The win stretched the visitors’ relegation-zone buffer to five points, with Marshall Munetsi providing the assist on his first Premier League start.
Wolves’s cause was significantly aided by the dismissal of Illia Zabarnyi, whose yellow card for a slide tackle on Rayan Ait-Nouri after 31 minutes was upgraded to red after a VAR review.
Defeat cost Bournemouth a chance of moving into the top four, and extended Wolves’s unbeaten run against them to five Premier League away matches – the most against one opponent on the road without defeat.
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How costly could this defeat prove for Arsenal’s title aspirations? Many observers believe it might spell the end, after Liverpool ended the weekend 11 points clear of their main rivals.
Jarrod Bowen’s header just before half-time was enough to give West Ham an unlikely win that ended Arsenal’s 15-match unbeaten Premier League run.
It was also Arsenal’s first defeat in a Saturday 15:00 kick-off in the competition in 17 matches since April 2022.
Bowen nodded in Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross for his 50th Premier League goal, becoming only the second player to reach the milestone for the club after Michail Antonio (68).
It was the first time Arsenal had trailed in a home Premier league encounter at half-time this season, but they rarely looked like finding a route back into the match.
Mikel Arteta’s side had 20 shots and enjoyed 68 percent possession, but came up against a resolute West Ham defence, while they had to play the final 17 minutes with 10 men, after Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off for a professional foul on Mohammed Kudus near the halfway line.
Graham Potter has had a tricky time at West Ham, but he is now only the second manager to beat Arsenal at Emirates Stadium with three different clubs (also with Ostersunds and Brighton), after Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, Everton and Bayern Munich).
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Crystal Palace dented Fulham’s European aspirations by maintaining their brilliant away form this season.
Oliver Glasner’s side have won their last four consecutive away Premier League matches without conceding, while their six away clean sheets is behind only Liverpool (seven) this campaign.
Former Palace defender Joachim Andersen’s own goal gave the visitors the lead, before Daniel Munoz secured the win.
That goal meant Munoz (three goals and three assists) became only the second defender to register 3+ goals and 3+ assists in the Premier League this season, after Wolves’s Ait-Nouri (three goals and five assists).
Fulham had the vast majority of possession at Craven Cottage, but failed to record a single shot on target in a Premier League home match for the first time since taking on Newcastle in May 2021.
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With a steady flow of injured players returning to action, the Spurs resurgence continues as Ange Postecoglou’s team notched a third consecutive Premier League win for the first time since December 2023.
Making his first Premier League start since early January, Brennan Johnson scored twice early on – his first double in the competition for Spurs – to take his league tally to nine this season.
Goals from Djed Spence and Dejan Kulusevski then killed off the game in the final 15 minutes after Omari Hutchinson had halved the deficit with a wonderful strike.
While Spurs are now up to 12th, the defeat continued a wretched season at Portman Road for Ipswich Town.
In fact, the hosts could have been many goals to the good early on, with Liam Delap failing to convert three prime chances inside the opening six minutes.
Kieran McKenna’s side have now picked up only seven points at home in the Premier League this season. Across the top four English football leagues this season, only Southampton (four) have earned fewer points at home.
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Southampton’s plight continues to deepen, with goals from Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood sinking their south-coast rivals to pile misery on the Premier League’s bottom club.
After beating Chelsea 3-0 last time out, Brighton & Hove Albion stuck four past Ivan Juric’s side in a strong response to a crushing 7-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
The result was never in doubt, with the visitors totally dominant throughout. Joao Pedro has now scored and assisted in the same Premier League match on four separate occasions, the joint-most of any Brighton player alongside Pascal Gross.
By setting up Rutter, Yankuba Minteh has been involved in six goals in his last six Premier League starts (four goals and two assists).
The statistics make grim reading for Southampton, who have picked up only four points from their 13 home matches in the Premier League this season, behind only Sunderland in 2006/07 (three points) in top-flight history.
Southampton have lost their last eight Premier League home matches and tasted defeat by a 3+ goal margin five times this season.
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Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, two of Aston Villa’s new boys, helped their side come from a goal behind to boost their European hopes.
The hosts went 1-0 down when Enzo Fernandez prodded in after some fine work by Pedro Neto. But the half-time introduction of Man Utd loanee Rashford changed everything.
He provided both assists for Asensio’s goals, the second of which – in the 89th minute – was aided by a big mistake from Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen.
Villa have now won 18 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season – more than any other team.
Of the 15 points that Chelsea have dropped from winning positions, a huge 13 of them have come since Boxing Day – more than any other side during that period.
After the 3-0 defeat against Brighton, Enzo Maresca’s side have slipped up against fellow UEFA Champions League contenders for two consecutive weeks.
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An astonishing 11-minute period was all it took to give Newcastle United's top-four hopes a giant boost and put another dent in Nottingham Forest’s.
Having fallen behind to Callum Hudson-Odoi’s opener, Eddie Howe’s side struck four times in quick succession to take a 4-1 lead into half-time.
Two of those goals came courtesy of Alexander Isak, who now has 19 Premier League goals for the season and 50 overall. He has achieved that mark in 76 top-flight matches – only six players in Premier League history (Erling Haaland, Andrew Cole, Alan Shearer, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Fernando Torres and Mohamed Salah) have joined the 50-club quicker.
The win was much-needed for a Newcastle side who had come into the match with three league defeats in their previous four outings.
Forest have now also lost three in four – as many defeats as they suffered in their previous 16 Premier League matches.
They pulled back two late goals through Nikola Milenkovic and Ryan Yates, but were too far back to take any points, and next face Arsenal and Manchester City in the league.
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The Liverpool juggernaut keeps on rolling. Yet another Salah-inspired performance saw Arne Slot’s side capitalise on Arsenal’s defeat to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table and take another step towards winning the title.
Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai both scored one and assisted the other, as Liverpool overcame a lively but impotent City, who were without the injured Haaland.
It was Liverpool’s first league win at the Etihad Stadium in nine attempts since Pep Guardiola took charge in 2016.
They have now picked up 35 points on the road this season – 10 more than any other team.
With 25 goals and 16 assists in the Premier League this campaign, Salah has six more of each than any other player. He is also the only player in Premier League history to be directly involved in 40+ goals in more than one season, having scored 32 and assisted 10 in 2017/18.
Liverpool came out on top despite enjoying just 34 per cent possession – their lowest in a Premier League victory on record.
City remain fourth but are 20 points off the pace – the furthest from top they have been since July 2020, when they were 21 points behind Liverpool.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
27 | +38 | 64 |
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
26 | +28 | 53 |
| 3 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
26 | +11 | 47 |
| 4 |
Man City
MCI
|
26 | +15 | 44 |
| 5 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
26 | +10 | 44 |