Football writer Ben Bloom analyses an incredible weekend of Matchweek 28 action, including a big win for Nottingham Forest against Manchester City in the top-four race and Liverpool going further ahead at the summit.
Another victory for league leaders Liverpool, coupled with another winless match for Arsenal, means the gap at the top of the Premier League table is now up to a huge 15 points.
Forest got the better of Man City in the battle to head the chasing pack, Chelsea climbed into the top four with victory over Leicester City, and Brighton & Hove Albion beat Fulham to continue their fine run.
Unless West Ham United beat Newcastle United tonight (Monday), none of the bottom eight clubs will have managed to win in this matchweek.
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Forest produced a textbook tactical display to strengthen their grip on third place and return to winning ways in the Premier League for the first time since 1 February.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side sat deep and happily weathered City’s abundant possession, before striking late through Callum Hudson-Odoi with seven minutes remaining.
That winner was created by a wonderful Morgan Gibbs-White pass, which took his total Premier League goal involvements for Forest to 39 (15 goals, 24 assists) – only Ian Woan, with 44, has more for the club.
While Forest produced a 12th Premier League clean sheet of the season, with Matz Sels still leading the race for the Golden Glove, it was City’s ninth league defeat – the joint-most in a single campaign under Pep Guardiola.
Although Nico Gonzalez hit a post in the first half, City’s 14 shots generated an Expected Goals (xG) of just 0.85. It was the seventh Premier League match this season in which they have failed to reach an xG of 1.0.
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Brighton’s quest to secure UEFA Champions League football next season received another timely boost with a fourth successive top-flight win for the first time in almost 44 years.
Fabian Hurzeler’s team now sit just three points off fourth place after Joao Pedro converted a 98th-minute penalty to complete their comeback and see off Fulham for the first time in 10 Premier League meetings between the two clubs.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
28 | +17 | 49 |
| 5 |
Man City
MCI
|
28 | +15 | 47 |
| 6 |
Brighton
BHA
|
28 | +6 | 46 |
Raul Jimenez had given Fulham a 1-0 lead for the seventh time this season – only Forest’s Chris Wood, with nine, has netted the opener in more Premier League matches this campaign.
But the visitors did not manage a single other shot on target as they threw away victory yet again. Only Southampton (23) have dropped more than Fulham’s 22 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season.
Jan Paul van Hecke produced Brighton’s equaliser before Joao Pedro’s late winner from the spot. Of Premier League players in all competitions, only Mohamed Salah, with 18, has scored more penalties than the Brazilian since the start of last season.
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A sole Ismaila Sarr goal was enough to secure Crystal Palace’s fourth consecutive win in all competitions and continue to deepen Ipswich Town’s misery in the process.
Sarr struck eight minutes from time for Oliver Glasner’s 17th win in 41 top-flight matches in charge – only Roy Hodgson (59 in 182) and Alan Pardew (25 in 73) have won more games while managing Palace.
In a contest often lacking in quality, Adam Wharton impressed in front of watching England head coach Thomas Tuchel. The midfielder created six chances – the most by a Palace player in a Premier League game since Eberechi Eze against Sheffield United in August 2023.
Ipswich remain the only team in the Premier League without a win this calendar year.
They were not without chances, hitting the target eight times – the most by any team who failed to score in a Premier League match for more than a year.
Julio Enciso had four attempts, taking his tally to 31 shots (16 of them on target) since he last scored – more than any other player in the top flight this season.
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At half-time at Anfield, Southampton looked in with a chance of pulling off an almighty upset. Had they achieved it, they would have become only the fifth bottom-placed team in Premier League history to beat the leaders.
Will Smallbone’s goal in first-half stoppage time had given the struggling visitors a lead that prompted Liverpool head coach Arne Slot to make a triple substitution at half-time, bringing on Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Alexis Mac Allister for Kostas Tsimikas, Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Those changes had the desired effect, with Liverpool then striking three times to extend their unbeaten Premier League run to 25 matches. It's only the fifth time in the competition’s history a team have reached that mark in a single campaign after Arsenal in 2003/04 (38 games), Chelsea in 2004/05 (29), Manchester United in 2016/17 (25) and Liverpool in 2019/20 (27).
Darwin Nunez scored the equaliser, before Salah converted twice from the penalty spot for his 242nd and 243rd Liverpool goals in all competitions to become the club’s outright third-highest scorer behind Ian Rush (346) and Roger Hunt (285).
As has often been the case this campaign, it left Southampton fans wondering what might have been.
Their side had also led Liverpool 2-1 at St Mary’s Stadium earlier in the season before going on to lose, while this marked the sixth time they had tasted defeat after scoring the opening goal.
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A Champions League hangover has been a recurring feature of Aston Villa’s season this season.
Not since beating Wolverhampton Wanderers in September had Unai Emery’s side taken three points after a European fixture – a run of seven winless games.
An Ollie Watkins goal finally ended that unwanted streak, with the striker scoring soon after half-time to move Villa up to eighth place and boost their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League again next season.
Brentford’s European aspirations are diminishing as their home form falls away in alarming fashion.
Thomas Frank’s side went unbeaten in their first nine home encounters, but have now failed to win in seven league matches at the Gtech Community Stadium – Brentford’s longest winless streak on home soil since 2006, when playing in League One.
They are also the only club across English football’s top four tiers without a home clean sheet this season, having conceded in their last 16 home league matches since last May.
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Marshall Munetsi’s first goal for Wolves helped his side move six points clear of the relegation zone as Everton extended their run of Premier League matches without defeat to eight – their longest unbeaten sequence since 2017.
David Moyes has banished any fears of the drop since returning to Goodison Park, and his team earned a lead through Jack Harrison, who ended a run of 35 Premier League appearances without a goal.
Indeed, Harrison’s previous xG of 2.9 was the highest of any player without a goal in the competition this season.
Wolves have failed to win any of their last nine Premier League matches without Matheus Cunha starting – scoring just one goal across their last six games when the Brazilian has failed to make the starting XI.
With Cunha serving a three-match ban, it was attacking midfielder Munetsi who scored to become only the third Zimbabwean with a Premier League goal, following in the footsteps of Peter Ndlovu and Benjani.
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It was a day to forget for Cole Palmer, but Marc Cucurella proved Chelsea’s hero to send Enzo Maresca’s side back into the top four.
The hosts had a prime chance to take a first-half lead from the penalty spot, only for Palmer to miss a Premier League spot-kick for the first time at his 13th attempt, ending the best 100-per-cent success record in the competition.
It extended Palmer's goal drought in the top flight to seven matches, with his five shots against Leicester meaning he has now attempted 29 shots since finding the net.
Cucurella then popped up on the hour for his second goal in as many matches. Man City’s Josko Gvardiol (five) is the only defender to score more Premier League goals than the Spaniard's four this season.
The defeat means Leicester have lost five consecutive league games without scoring for the third time in their history, after January 1981 and February 2017.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s team now face Man Utd, Man City, Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool in their next five fixtures.
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After successive Premier League defeats, Europe-chasing AFC Bournemouth let a two-goal lead slip at Tottenham Hotspur to depart London with a disappointing solitary point.
No team has scored more open-play goals from crosses in the Premier League this season than Bournemouth’s eight, and the latest, created by Milos Kerkez, was as good as any.
The Hungarian has now assisted three league goals this campaign, with Marcus Tavernier being the latest scorer to benefit from his deliveries.
Kerkez's sensational assist for Tavernier
Evanilson doubled the advantage from Justin Kluivert’s assist, which was the Dutchman’s 18th Premier League goal involvement this season (12 goals, six assists).
Only Callum Wilson (23 in 2018/19), Dominic Solanke (22 in 2023/24) and Ryan Fraser (21 in 2018/19) have been involved in more goals in a single Premier League season for Bournemouth.
However, Andoni Iraola’s side were to be disappointed when Pape Sarr’s cross looped into the net, and Son Heung-min then scored a late penalty to level.
Only Liverpool (35) and Arsenal (27) have picked up more points away from home in the Premier League than Bournemouth’s 23. But they collected two fewer than they had hoped for after leading 2-0 against Spurs.
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The latest edition of one of the Premier League’s most memorable head-to-heads could well have provided the nail in the coffin of Arsenal’s title aspirations.
Mikel Arteta’s side have now failed to win any of their last three league matches, slipping 15 points behind Liverpool and almost certainly ending any hopes they still harboured of challenging for the top spot.
The visitors dominated the opening half at Old Trafford, but failed to capitalise, and fell behind to a Bruno Fernandes free-kick just before the break.
Fernandes' free-kick v Arsenal
Man Utd's captain has been directly involved in 25+ goals in each of the last three seasons for the club (12 goals, 13 assists this season); one of only three players to have done so for a Premier League club in 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25, along with Salah and Erling Haaland.
This was the first time in 15 matches that Ruben Amorim's men had found themselves ahead at half-time in the Premier League, but they were unable to secure all three points, Declan Rice equalising for Arsenal.
Man Utd are now winless in their last six matches against the Gunners across all competitions – their longest run without beating them since April 1999.