Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 26 including:
- This will be remembered as the Salah season
- Fernandes tactical switch drives Man Utd’s comeback
- West Ham strike again at Arsenal
- Asensio & Rashford could be the catalyst for late Villa surge
- If Wolves survive it will be all thanks to Cunha
- Nottingham Forest’s grip loosening on Champions League place
- Palace’s away run brings record-breaking season into view
- Son’s return to form will be crucial for Spurs’ recovery
- Brighton overcome their wobble with fast, direct football
- Heavy defeat leaves Leicester with enormous task
This will be remembered as the Salah season
A relatively comfortable victory for Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium came courtesy of Arne Slot’s decision to play in a deep 4-4-2 formation with two central midfielders – Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai – starting up front against Manchester City.
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Liverpool held just 33.9 per cent possession, their lowest in a Premier League victory on record (since 2003/04), and dropped the two forwards into typical central midfield positions (see below) to completely squeeze space in the central column of the pitch.
That meant Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden couldn’t get into the match and Erling Haaland's absence meant nobody was there to finish when Jeremy Doku successfully got beyond Trent Alexander-Arnold.
But the plan wouldn’t have worked unless Mohamed Salah was, once again, ruthlessly efficient, scoring the first from a set-piece routine and assisting the second.
The current record for most goal involvements in a season is 44, set by Haaland in 2022/23.
After his brace on Sunday, Salah is only three short of that number with three months to go.
As Liverpool look more and more comfortable at the top of the table, the story of their second Premier League title is forming. This is the Mohamed Salah season.
Fernandes tactical switch drives Man Utd’s comeback
A disappointing first 45 minutes at Goodison Park inspired Ruben Amorim’s most poetic analysis of a poor Manchester United performance yet: "We did not exist in the first half."
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To rescue a point from that situation was scarcely believable, and Amorim deserves a slice of credit for the tactical move that precipitated an excellent second-half performance from Bruno Fernandes.
In the first half, Fernandes struggled badly in an experimental left-midfield position. Coming short for the ball in Amorim’s lopsided 3-5-2, he was regularly crowded out by Everton's superbly energetic press, and this caused Man Utd's shape to look rather wild.
In this typical example below, note how the strange role for Fernandes (No. 8, pictured on the halfway line) contributes to Man Utd’s wonky and overly stretched formation, allowing Everton to win the 50-50, walk through the middle, and earn the corner from which they scored the opener.
Amorim found a fix with a substitution in the 62nd minute. On came Alejandro Garnacho for Casemiro, bringing a change back to the more familiar 3-4-3 with Fernandes now occupying one of the two central midfield positions.
He flourished, dictating the tempo, taking the sting out of the Everton press, and gradually forcing Man Utd up the pitch and into the contest.
Fernandes scored their first goal from a free-kick before indirectly setting up Manuel Ugarte’s equaliser with a cross from a set-piece, but it was his overall play that really made a difference.
He took 112 touches of the ball, a full 23 more than any other player on the pitch. Who knows where Man Utd would be without him.
West Ham strike again at Arsenal
West Ham United have done it again – and Graham Potter has done it again. Maybe we should have seen this one coming.
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Potter became the second manager to beat Arsenal at Emirates Stadium with three different clubs (also with Ostersunds FK and Brighton & Hove Albion) in all competitions, after Carlo Ancelotti, while West Ham repeated their victory at this ground last season.
Incredibly, all four of West Ham’s wins at Emirates Stadium have also been Arsenal’s first home league defeats of that season, in 2006/07, 2015/16, 2023/24 and 2024/25.
They were also the last team to beat the Gunners at Highbury and the first team to beat them at the Emirates.
Their 2-0 win in December 2023 put a serious dent in Arsenal’s title challenge. This one was even worse for Mikel Arteta's side.
Arsenal are now 11 points behind the Premier League leaders with a match in hand. Even if they were to win all of their remaining 12 matches, they would collect 89 points, which really doesn’t feel like enough, considering Liverpool’s relentlessness this season.
It isn’t over just yet. But it’s a very long way back from here.
Asensio & Rashford could be the catalyst for late Villa surge
Aston Villa desperately needed this. They needed not just the result – a win that keeps them clinging on in the race for UEFA Champions League football next season – but the psychological boost of a game-changing contribution from new signings Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford.
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Villa’s Premier League season was in danger of petering out and their only hope was that attacking reinforcements would inspire the club towards a more hopeful view of the league table.
That’s exactly what happened on Saturday evening.
Two assists from Rashford and two goals from Asensio have produced the perfect headline performance. Now they need to ride this momentum over the next three months.
Based on the current points-per-game averages in the Premier League table, Villa will need 65 points to finish fifth.
That’s 23 points from their final 11 matches: a two-per-game average that they haven’t hit across a period of that length since December 2023, when Unai Emery’s side looked like outsiders for a title challenge.
But a weekend in which Fulham, AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea, Man City, and Nottingham Forest all dropped points certainly gives Villa hope they can sneak into the top five.
With Asensio and Rashford, it’s just about possible.
If Wolves survive it will be all thanks to Cunha
Matheus Cunha was a cut above the rest on Saturday. It isn’t the first or the last time we will be saying that this season.
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Cunha’s expertly-taken winning goal lifted Wolves five points clear of the drop; proof – as if it was needed – that he is the most important player in this year’s relegation fight.
The Brazilian's goals or assists have now been worth a full 10 points to Wolves in 2024/25, the difference between a good-enough campaign and all-out disaster.
Indeed, his 13 goals and four assists in the Premier League account for 47 per cent of Wolves’ total.
At Vitality Stadium his influence was even more distinctive than usual. Cunha had more shots (three), shots on target (two), crosses (eight), and chances created (four) than any other player on the pitch.
He is the rarest of things: an elite player in a struggling Premier League side. If Wolves survive the drop it will be almost entirely thanks to him.
Nottingham Forest’s grip loosening on Champions League place
Three defeats in four Premier League matches and all of a sudden Nottingham Forest’s brilliant season is in danger of falling flat.
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If that sounds hyperbolic, then consider the creeping threat of not one but five Premier League rivals in the hunt for European football.
Newcastle United’s win on Sunday afternoon moved Eddie Howe’s side to within three points of Forest, and with Arsenal next up at the City Ground on Wednesday night, even Villa – currently eighth – could end the midweek round just two points short of Nuno Espirito Santo’s team.
The gap to Chelsea in sixth is just four points, a lead that appears vanishingly small when you consider Forest have Arsenal (H) and Man City (H) in their next two fixtures.
Before the weekend, Arsenal’s trip to Forest looked like an important moment in the title race. Instead, it could be a turning point in the battle for Champions League places.
Palace’s away run brings record-breaking season into view
For the second year in a row under Oliver Glasner, Crystal Palace have emerged out of nowhere to sprint towards a club-record season.
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Mid-table obscurity beckoned for so long, but now, after winning four consecutive top-flight away matches for the very first time (and, remarkably, all to nil), Palace are surging towards new territory in the Premier League era.
Last year’s 49 points was Palace’s joint-best return in a Premier League season.
They need 17 points from the final 12 matches to beat that, or 1.42 points per match, only slightly above their current 2024/25 average of 1.27 per match.
It’s definitely on, especially with a defensive record this good. No Premier League team has kept more away clean sheets this season than Palace (six), who prevented Fulham from getting a single shot on target at Craven Cottage for the first time since May 2021.
But the challenge now is to replicate this at Selhurst Park. Palace rank fourth in the Premier League on away form (22 points from 13 matches) but 16th for home form (11 points from 13 matches).
Villa on Tuesday is an important moment. Win that one, and a record-breaking season is on the cards.
Son’s return to form will be crucial for Spurs’ recovery
Slowly but surely, Tottenham Hotspur are on the road to recovery.
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Spurs' revival took another huge leap forward on Saturday as Ange Postecoglou’s side won their third successive Premier League match for the first time since December 2023.
Better still for Postecoglou, while the two wins preceding it were about returning defenders and a more solid defensive structure, at Portman Road we saw the other side of the coin.
Brennan Johnson scored a brace on his fist league start since 4 January, while Son Heung-min assisted twice in a rampant first half to cast off what has been a disappointing season for him.
He hasn’t managed two goal involvements in a single match since the 5-0 win at Southampton on 15 December. Having a ruthless finisher in the box certainly helped.
And there’s more. Destiny Udogie’s recovery from injury meant Djed Spence played at right-back and Pedro Porro was rested.
The amount of ground Postecoglou’s inverted full-backs are expected to cover makes it a particularly exhausting role; things should improve now the Spurs head coach has multiple options.
Postecoglou has long said the injury crisis was to blame for Spurs' decline. As the wins stack up after the return of senior players, his theory is being proven right.
Brighton overcome their wobble with fast, direct football
In our preview to this one we highlighted Brighton’s difficulty playing against defensive opponents: they had a win rate of 46 per cent against teams in the top half and 25 per cent against teams in the bottom half.
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Fabian Hurzeler overcame the problem at St. Mary’s by ensuring his team played fast and direct football, bursting forward in straight lines rather than recycling possession and allowing the hosts to shift into a low block.
The first goal was a high punt forward that ended with Joao Pedro put clean through; the second came from winning possession in the final third; and the third goal was all straight lines as Kaoru Mitoma was given a one-on-one.
It was textbook Hurzeler and another signal that Brighton are through their wobble.
After going eight Premier League matches without a win in winter, they have now won six of their last eight in all competitions.
If they are to get into Europe, Brighton must keep embracing the high-risk, high-reward strategy and avoid the possession-heavy football that weighed them down in December.
Heavy defeat leaves Leicester with enormous task
Brentford have won four consecutive away top-flight matches for the first time in their history and are closing in on the top 10 again, but the story on Friday evening was of Leicester City’s collapse.
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Ruud van Nistelrooy has not had the desired effect. He has lost 10 of his 15 matches in all competitions, and worse, performances are going in the wrong direction.
Psychologically, this was a huge defeat. The five-point gap to Wolves feels bigger, not least because the Foxes have now gone six home league matches without a goal.
That is the longest ever run of home losses without a goal by any side within a single season in English top-flight history.
That is damning, and nightmare preparation for a tough run to come. After West Ham in midweek, five of Leicester’s next six matches are against the current top nine. The other is against Man Utd.