Weekend awards: Best performance, substitutions and more!

Football writer Adrian Kajumba looks at the standout players and moments from Matchweek 29.

Best individual performance - Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)

In this season of general underachievement for Manchester United, one player who cannot be faulted, especially recently, is Bruno Fernandes. 

Man Utd's captain Fernandes was the main reason they overcame Leicester City 3-0.

He created drought-ending goals for Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho, to become just the sixth Man Utd player to record 50 Premier League assists, before scoring a fine goal himself to wrap up the win. 

Watch: Hojlund's goal v Leicester | Watch: Garnacho's goal v Leicester

Fernandes's display was voted as the performance of the weekend by fans on our Premier League WhatsApp channel.

Man Utd have gone unbeaten in 90 minutes in their last seven matches in all competitions, their joint-longest run of the season. Fernandes has stepped and led by example during that period.

Of the 15 goals Ruben Amorim’s side have scored in the run, Fernandes has been directly involved in 10 of them (seven goals, three assists) and his set-pieces have led to three other goals.

Playing deeper has also done little to reduce his influence and goal threat, with Leicester the latest side to discover that.

Fernandes has predominantly occupied a role in central midfield, rather than at No 10, since a positional change part-way through the first match of the seven-game spell, Man Utd's 2-2 draw at Everton in Matchweek 26. 

Only Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez, with 16, has created more Premier League chances than Fernandes' 13 since Matchweek 26 and the six opportunities he created at Leicester was a league-high for Matchweek 29. 

Most Premier League chances created since Matchweek 26 

Best substitutions - Marco Silva (Fulham)

Fulham boosted their European hopes and climbed up to eighth after head coach Marco Silva once again displayed his knack of bringing on goalscoring substitutes. 

Rodrigo Muniz and Ryan Sessegnon both came off the bench to score the two late goals that earned Fulham a 2-0 victory against Tottenham Hotspur. 

No Premier League team has more goals from substitutes this season than Fulham’s 13 and there was additional significance to their efforts for the two scorers.

Muniz’s goal was his fifth as a substitute in the Premier League this season, the most by a Fulham player in a single campaign.

Meanwhile, Sessegnon's goal was an emotional one, his first at Craven Cottage since his return to Fulham. It also came against his former club Spurs, where he spent five years but was unable to produce his best form, largely due to injury. 

Watch: Sessegnon's goal v Spurs

Sessegnon's clincher was also the second-quickest goal scored by a Premier League substitute this season. 

Sessegnon found the net 63 seconds after coming on against Spurs, an instant impact only bettered by Diogo Jota, who scored 21 seconds after his introduction for Liverpool in their 1-1 draw at Forest in January. 

Best set-pieces - Brentford

Set-piece coach Keith Andrews received plenty of praise earlier this season for being the brains behind Brentford’s record run of goals straight from kick-off.

There was more admiration heading Andrews’ way after Brentford successfully replicated two more training-ground routines to earn a 2-1 win at AFC Bournemouth.

Yoane Wissa made a bee-line for Andrews in the celebrations after scoring Brentford’s first goal with a towering header from Bryan Mbeumo’s corner, in a clear indication of who deserved the credit.

Bees captain Christian Norgaard then swept in Kevin Schade’s long throw to score Brentford's second goal of the game.

"These two [set-pieces] are something we did work on during the week but you still have to execute it," Norgaard said. 

"Sometimes set-pieces don’t have to be rocket science, it’s more about conviction and it was a clear plan from us to be very aggressive in those areas we wanted to hit."

Highlights from Bournemouth 1-2 Brentford

Wissa and Norgaard’s goals brought up two notable landmarks for Brentford. 

The win at Bournemouth was the first time they scored two non-penalty, set-piece goals in a Premier League match since their 3-2 victory against Nottingham Forest in January 2024. 

Even more impressively, the Bees made it five successive Premier League away wins by beating Bournemouth, their best run on the road since December 2010 in League One.

Brentford's last five away results

Brentford

Sat 04 Jan
(A)

0 - 5 W

Sun 26 Jan
(A)

1 - 2 W

Sat 15 Feb
(A)

0 - 1 W

Fri 21 Feb
(A)

0 - 4 W

Sat 15 Mar
(A)

1 - 2 W

Best quote - Vitor Pereira (Wolverhampton Wanderers) 

It was not just points on Vitor Pereira’s mind after Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 2-1 win at Southampton but pints too.

Victory took Wolves another step closer to Premier League safety, leaving them nine points above the bottom three.

Relegation battle

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
17	Wolves WOL	29	-18	26
18	Ipswich IPS	29	-34	17
19	Leicester LEI	29	-40	17
20	Southampton SOU	29	-49	9

View More

And it preceded an entertaining post-match press conference in which Pereira discussed his bond with Wolves fans, which was there for all to see in the jubilant full-time celebrations at St Mary’s.

"I think I am one of them," Wolves’ head coach said. "Because I’m the guy to finish a game and go to the pub and drink two or three pints with them.

"For me it's very normal to go in a restaurant or in a pub. I can eat a pie, because I like a pie, with a pint."

Pereira has already surprised locals with his pub visits since moving to the area, including one made on Christmas Day with his backroom staff.

Plenty of fans will be happy to buy him a drink the next time he enters a bar, given the turnaround job Pereira has done at Molineux. 

Wolves were second-bottom with nine points and only two wins from 16 matches when he was appointed in December.

But they have collected 17 points and five victories in Pereira’s 13 games, more than doubling their points-per-game from 0.56 up to 1.3.

Wolves' improvement since Pereira's appointment

Funniest moment - Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) 

Mikel Arteta went viral following Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Man Utd in Matchweek 28 after walking out of one of his post-match television interviews early to avoid answering a question about the title race. 

But he showed his sense of humour by jokingly doing it again a week later following Arsenal’s 1-0 win against Chelsea.

Watch: Arteta pretend to storm out of his post-match interview

As his interview with one broadcaster drew to a close, Arteta was asked about winger Bukayo Saka’s chances of being fit after the international break.

The Arsenal manager pretended to storm off again and bring a premature end to the conversation, only to quickly return and reappear back in shot with a smirk on his face following his prank.

And he came back with optimistic news about Saka who has not featured for Arsenal since suffering a hamstring injury against Crystal Palace in December. 

"Yeah, he’s got a good chance [of returning after the international break]," Arteta said.