Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 35, including:
- AFC Bournemouth comeback casts doubt over PSG turnaround for Arsenal
- Palmer’s resurgence should get Chelsea into UEFA Champions League
- Guardiola’s new formation pays off, but it doesn’t look like a long-term solution
- Brentford are in the strongest position for eighth spot and Europe
- Tielemans’ domination defines Emery’s obsession with control
- Howe’s last throw of the dice not quite enough as Newcastle start to worry
- Potter and West Ham running out of chances to raise spirits before the summer
- Vardy ending Leicester’s drought hints at a perfect send-off
- Enciso stunner at Everton shows potential value to parent club Brighton
- Fixtures offer Forest hope despite more dropped points
AFC Bournemouth comeback casts doubt over PSG turnaround for Arsenal
"We certainly wanted to create a really good vibe," said Mikel Arteta, after Arsenal's surprise 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth with a near full-strength side.
"What we have created now is a lot of rage, anger, frustration and a bad feeling in the tummy. So, [we have to] make sure that we use that for Wednesday to have a massive performance in Paris, win the game and be in the final."
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There isn’t much else Arteta could have said. Arsenal need to use whatever they feel in the tummy.
But there’s no doubt "rage" is a difficult place to start from at the Parc de Princes, especially considering the lapses in concentration on Saturday play into Paris Saint-Germain’s hands.
Arsenal have dropped 21 points from winning positions, their joint-most ever in a single Premier League season.
PSG have won 14 points from losing positions in Ligue 1, and more importantly, in UEFA Champions League home matches they have come back from 1-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-1 and from 2-0 down to defeat Manchester City 4-2.
When you add in that PSG are well-rested, while Arteta said he had to pick a strong team this weekend "because mathematically we are not qualified" for next season's Champions League, it becomes harder to see not only how Arsenal could come back from the 1-0 deficit – but also how they would stay in the lead.
Palmer’s resurgence should get Chelsea into UEFA Champions League
Cole Palmer is back, and just in time.
Palmer’s brilliant performance defined Chelsea's crucial victory against champions Liverpool, his shimmy through midfield ultimately setting up the opener before his late penalty ended an 18-match goalless run.
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But it wasn’t just those two actions. Palmer looked like his old self, floating dangerously between the pockets and pulling off beautiful moments of skill. It was as if the last three months hadn’t happened.
He took more shots (five) and created more chances (four) than anyone else, almost scoring an audacious effort that cannoned off the post and dominating a heavily-rotated Liverpool midfield that just couldn’t cope.
It was a performance to terrify the rest of the Champions League hopefuls. Well, all of them except Villa, that is, who might just be the surprise beneficiary of Palmer’s return to form.
If this is Palmer preparing for a late flourish, if he is back to his best, then Chelsea stand a very good chance of sweeping to victory against Newcastle United, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in their last three matches.
And if Chelsea take points off Newcastle and Forest, then all of a sudden a path opens for Villa to sneak through the middle.
Guardiola’s new formation pays off, but it doesn’t look like a long-term solution
Man City’s winning goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday evening perfectly summed up the benefits of Pep Guardiola’s new split striker, box-midfield formation; a change that has saved their season just in time.
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Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva have given Man City renewed control at the base of midfield, and with four other central midfielders in the line-up (two in the full-back positions, two as "false nines") they are suffocating their opponents again.
Sure enough it was Gundogan and Silva pincering Wolves’ Andre that led to the turnover and fast transition from which Man City scored the winner.
Guardiola’s tactical discovery has surely done enough to get Man City back into the Champions League. A win at Southampton this weekend would leave at least a three-point gap to sixth.
But it is not a long-term solution.
Man City’s Expected Goals (xG) of 0.6 tells a different story.
The formation is too stacked with midfielders, Omar Marmoush is limited when stuck out on the right wing, and there is no place for Erling Haaland in the current setup.
It’s a stopgap, a formation devised out of necessity. The summer rebuild will have to go in a different direction.
Brentford are in the strongest position for eighth spot and Europe
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim will not lose any sleep over his side's defeat at Brentford.
All of his attention is on the UEFA Europa League, hence his starting XI having an average age of 22 years and 270 days, the third-youngest ever side named in a Premier League match.
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Brentford were the lucky recipient of that pulled focus and in a slightly chaotic 4-3 victory, have emerged as the new favourites to finish eighth, which will bring European qualification should Man City beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final.
Thomas Frank’s side have now won three consecutive Premier League matches, doing so for the first time this season and the first occasion since October 2023. They could not have picked a better moment to hit form.
That momentum has put them just a single point behind Bournemouth, currently in eighth, and now that Brentford have found a way to win at home and away in succession, they can anticipate a strong finish.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
36 | +23 | 66 |
| 4 |
Man City
MCI
|
36 | +24 | 65 |
| 5 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
36 | +19 | 63 |
| 6 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
36 | +7 | 63 |
| 7 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
36 | +12 | 62 |
| 8 |
Brentford
BRE
|
36 | +10 | 55 |
A match at relegated Ipswich Town is clearly a winnable fixture, and after that Brentford host Fulham, a side who have lost four of their last five Premier League matches (beating Southampton in the other one), before their trip to Wolves on the final day.
A club-record high league position, and a debut campaign in Europe, is coming into view.
Tielemans’ domination defines Emery’s obsession with control
Youri Tielemans was the hero at Villa Park, earning widespread plaudits after scoring the winning goal in Saturday's early kick-off. But his value to the team goes far, far beyond goals.
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Tielemans is Villa’s most important player. Either as a No 6, No 8 or No 10, he has started every single Premier League and Champions League match for the club this season, controlling midfield with his immaculate passing.
The importance of that quality was highlighted on Saturday by Unai Emery’s furious ranting on the touchline.
"We started to play a bit [too many] back passes," Emery said after the game, responding to a question about the moment when he exchanged angry words with Villa defender Ezri Konsa.
"Doing back passes for one objective, to try to stop them and then progress [is OK], but we weren’t progressing like we needed and how we planned before.
"Even not doing it, we were losing some easy balls. We spoke yesterday and this week how important it is to try to play and focus seriously for 90 minutes on our game plan, each one to feel comfortable.
"But if someone is relaxing a little bit, we are closer to losing."
Konsa had played a loose pass in the Fulham half that allowed the visitors to create a dangerous counter-attack, a theme of Villa’s poor spell through late winter.
Tielemans is never the player to give away easy balls, nor to pass backwards when a line-breaking option is on. When Emery said “I can’t accept sometimes how we were managing the match,” there is no chance he was talking about Tielemans.
He is the de facto leader on the pitch, and, as captain John McGinn told TNT Sports after the match, "our best player by a mile this season."
Howe’s last throw of the dice not quite enough as Newcastle start to worry
It’s funny how quickly momentum can shift, how suddenly a team in command of the top-five race can lose their grip.
Newcastle's late equaliser, courtesy of a bold tactical change from Eddie Howe, could prove to be vital in their push for Champions League qualification. But it might not.
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After 75 minutes of Brighton & Hove Albion controlling things, mostly via smart vertical passes into the feet of the dropping Danny Welbeck, Howe went for broke, bringing on Callum Wilson for Joe Willock.
Now in a 4-2-4 formation, with Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes high and wide to support strikers Wilson and Alexander Isak, Newcastle fought fire with fire, hammering at the door until one of those four-man drives at the defence caused a scramble, a free-kick concession and a subsequent penalty.
But it wasn’t enough to win three points, leaving Newcastle in a spot of bother.
They host a rejuvenated Chelsea at the weekend knowing that anything less than a win opens the door to Villa.
They need to win two of their last three matches, and with a trip to Arsenal to come, that is far from certain to happen.
Potter and West Ham running out of chances to raise spirits before the summer
After Tottenham Hotspur made eight changes to their starting line-up, with Ange Postecoglou thinking only of Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League, this was a chance for Graham Potter to end West Ham's winless run and raise spirits ahead of a huge summer.
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Instead, his players were booed by the home crowd at the final whistle of a drab 1-1 draw.
The Hammers managed just two shots on target and an Expected Goals (xG) of 0.88, despite facing a Spurs back four of Archie Gray, Kevin Danso, Ben Davies and Djed Spence.
That lack of firepower left West Ham on a run of eight matches without a Premier League victory, their longest in the competition since December 2017.
With Man Utd (A), Nottingham Forest (H), and Ipswich (A) left, Potter is running out of chances to stop the rot.
Vardy ending Leicester’s drought hints at a perfect send-off
It had to be Jamie Vardy. His opener on Saturday ended a run of 826 minutes without a Leicester City goal at King Power, stretching all the way back to December.
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There has been little to cheer for Leicester fans this season, but with Vardy set to end his legendary stint at the club this summer, we could still get one feel-good story over the final three matches.
The duck now broken, Leicester are in a strong position for their final home match against Ipswich in May, when Vardy, in his last game for the Foxes, will be looking to score again.
He is only two goals away from 10 for the season, which would be a superb return considering Leicester’s poor campaign, and only two away from moving level with Teddy Sheringham in 13th place on the Premier League's all-time top scorers list.
Vardy’s strike on Saturday put him into joint-14th alongside Robin van Persie on 144 goals. He is already third in the list for Premier League goals with one club, behind only Sergio Aguero (184) and Thierry Henry (175), and now the competition's ninth-oldest scorer.
Two more goals from Vardy would be perfect. But just one, on his goodbye appearance against Ipswich, is what the fans really want.
Enciso stunner at Everton shows potential value to parent club Brighton
Julio Enciso might just have scored the goal of the season at Goodison Park, a stunning long-range shot that crashed in with a satisfying thump off the crossbar.
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Enciso was excellent, topping the Ipswich charts for shots (six), dribbles (two), fouls drawn (four), and crosses (four) in a clever, weaving performance.
He has been a quiet success story since his loan move in January, with two goals and three assists in 10 starts; that’s a goal involvement every two matches for a club struggling against the tide.
His parent club Brighton will have taken note.
Fixtures offer Forest hope despite more dropped points
At first glance, Forest's latest failure to win - after three defeats in their previous four league matches - looked to be a huge blow in their bid for Champions League football next season.
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However, the solitary point they picked up at Palace gives Nuno Espirito Santo's side a platform to reclaim a top-five place in Matchweek 36, given the first two sides above them - Newcastle and Chelsea - will meet on Sunday before they host relegated Leicester.
Forest will then face 17th-placed West Ham away, and finally Chelsea at the City Ground in a match that could decide the European fate of both clubs.
Premier League pundit Michael Owen observed: "It is still in Forest's hands. I can see it being a shootout at home to Chelsea on the final day. I don't think that's a bad point at all."
