Category: English Premier League

Arne Slot’s ten men rescued a late point at Anfield, Arsenal were frustrated and Ipswich piled more pain on Gary O’Neil

Arsenal 0-0 Everton. A fast start for the hosts, with the sheer presence of Bukayo Saka causing the dithering Jordan Pickford angst. The keeper sorts himself out just in time. Then he claims a Declan Rice corner. “Greetings from Free State California,” writes Mary Waltz. “It’s pitch dark, pouring rain, the perfect surroundings for watching my Everton march into the Arsenal home ground. Not feeling especially optimistic but who knows … who am I kidding, it’s going to be ugly. Sigh.”

Liverpool 0-0 Fulham. Andy Robertson has taken an early knock on the knee, courtesy of Issa Diop, who goes into the book. Robertson’s up and about, but took a while to get back onto his feet. A concern for the hosts at Anfield.

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Hungarian defender is, like his club, a bundle of energy with grand ambitions – and he wants to build a lake

A broad smile unravels on Milos Kerkez’s babyface as he watches a clip of himself doing what he probably does best: putting his body on the line for the cause, in this case his previous club, AZ. It was May last year, deep into a 3-0 Eredivisie win at Nijmegen, when the ball squirted free after he executed an expert slide tackle on the touchline. Having gone to ground, Kerkez was surely at a disadvantage to beat Anthony Musaba to the punch?

“My teammate Tijjani Reijnders went: ‘No, no!’ I was like: ‘I have to do something,’” says the Bournemouth defender. So Kerkez, on his backside, scrambles towards the ball, throwing his body at it, twirling mid-air like a commando, to block and retain possession. “I wanted to hit it with my head but it came off my back. I mean, it’s still a good tackle, no?”

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Enzo Maresca’s team started the season in chaos and uncertainty. But that was the case the last time they claimed the league crown

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Nobody saw Chelsea coming the last time they won the title. The key moment came in the sixth game of the season when they found themselves 3-0 down at half-time away at Arsenal. They’d lost at home to Liverpool the previous week and drawn at Swansea the week before that. Their manager, Antonio Conte, having tried to accommodate himself to the squad decided enough was enough: the squad had to bend to him. At half-time he switched to his preferred back three and in the comforting drabness of a goalless second half of a game that was already lost, was born the revolution.

Chelsea won their next 13 league games and by the time anybody had worked out how to deal with their 3-4-2-1, with N’Golo Kanté and Nemanja Matić an apparently impenetrable shield at the back of midfield, it was too late. There was no European football to worry about – the previous season had seen José Mourinho’s meltdown and a 10th-placed finish – and so Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso remained fresh enough to keep tearing up and down the field at wing-back. Elsewhere the stars aligned: Manchester City were still getting used to Pep Guardiola in his first season in English football, Arsenal were still in their late-Wenger drift, Liverpool still building under Jürgen Klopp, and so Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham were Chelsea’s closest challengers. But 93 points would probably have won the league whoever came second.

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Fulham’s Antonee Robinson shines against Bukayo Saka, Tottenham squander another lead and woe at Old Trafford

There are numerous issues when taking over a team mid-season. One is that a new head coach might not have the right players for his plan and he has very little time to implement what he wants with those he does. Ruben Amorim has arranged his players – in various combinations – into his preferred 3-4-3 formation and it is clear what the strategy is, although there are flaws. The defence is struggling, where the three centre-backs are not performing their main duty of keeping clean sheets. Against Forest every set-piece looked like it might result in a goal. Only Nikola Milenkovic did score from a corner but the others were more farcical as André Onana got confused by Morgan Gibbs-White and a seemingly harmless Chris Wood header was allowed to drop in off the post. Maybe chopping and changing is Amorim’s issue and he needs to back a first-choice back three to allow them to settle and offer a foundation to build on. Will Unwin

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Raúl Jiménez gave Fulham the lead then William Saliba equalised for Arsenal – of course from a corner – before Bukayo Saka’s late winner was disallowed for offside

Email! “Especially big shout out for Lukic amongst Fulham’s ex-Arsenal contingent,” chuckles Mammillaria Hahniana. “Respect.”

He just goes on and on.

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Cole Palmer scored two penalties, the second a Panenka, as Chelsea came from 2-0 down to win a pulsating game

“Caicedo will invert in possession, playing next to Lavia,” says our man Jacob Steinberg. “Fernandez pushes on and it becomes a 3-2-5.”

The way we describe formations is outdated, isn’t it? I know this sounds a pretentious but you really need to list two formations – one with and without the ball. <Two Banks> Ideally 4-4-2 and 4-4-2 </Two Banks>

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Nikola Milenkovic, Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood got the goals as Nottingham Forest emerged as more than worthy winners

• Read Jamie Jackson’s match report from Old Trafford

Everton P-P Liverpool

Aston Villa 1-0 Southampton

Brentford 4-2 Newcastle United

Crystal Palace 2-2 Manchester City

Manchester United v Nottingham Forest

View the Premier League table

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To Ruben Amorim’s recent buzzwords of “suffer” and “storm” Manchester United’s manager can add “defending” after a rearguard horror show culpable for all three Nottingham Forest goals.

As Amorim had mentioned before kick-off, the blustery conditions were no excuse, as the Old Trafford bowl offers protection, while André Onana, Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martínez and Leny Yoro are elite players.

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City had to come from behind twice to earn a point, Brentford were impressive at home again and Aston Villa edged past Southampton

Paul MacInnes on an important topic – how clubs are squeezing the pips of fans.

It is time for unity.

Jeremy Boyce gets in touch: “Looking forward to your MostlyPremierLeagueClockwatch. There could be plenty of slapstick, given the weather conditions, and possibly a custard pie in the face for are they/aren’t they ? Citeh at Selhurst Park, one of the most difficult grounds to get to I can remember from my days following Shrewsbury Town round the 2nd and 3rd division in London back in the day (Griffin Park (RIP), Brisbane Road (RIP), The Old Den (RIP) etc.... Thanks for the update on my other team, NotAsNastyAsTheyUsedToBeLeeds.”

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The way things have been going for Pep Guardiola, this could have been much worse. With his side having twice fallen behind to a Crystal Palace side brimming with renewed confidence, the Manchester City manager saw Erling Haaland end his mini drought with a 13th Premier League goal of the season before Rico Lewis equalised again to end the losing run of five successive away matches.

Even if this was another afternoon to forget for the underperforming Kyle Walker, whose mistakes helped Daniel Muñoz and Maxence Lacroix establish the lead, City will be thankful to have emerged with something after Lewis was shown a second yellow card in the later stages.

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• Safety risk at Goodison Park with rain and 70mph wind
• Leaders left with little leeway in their packed calendar

Liverpool are facing acute ­fixture congestion after Saturday’s ­postponement of the Merseyside derby because of Storm Darragh. Should the Premier League leaders win their Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton on 18 December they will have a midweek game every week until mid-February, with the exception of new year.

That would leave them with little leeway in a packed calendar to face Everton for the 245th edition of the derby and the final one in the league at Goodison Park. Liverpool’s next game will be against Girona in the Champions League on Tuesday with Everton travelling to Arsenal next Saturday.

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Dribbling runners such as Tyler Dibling are exhilarating to watch, and a reminder that football always finds new forms

The Premier League has got more exciting. And it’s fine, really. For the more grudging among us it can be hard to accept this at face value, if only because the league is always telling you how exciting it already is, the regular in-house TV hosts styling the whole experience with the glazed and proselytising look of shopping channel presenters trying to sell you a hamper of executive cheese.

But sometimes the hamper of cheese is just good. The games are exciting right now. The median standard of teams is high. Financial power, improved scouting, the presence of clued-up global data nerds mean even the weaker teams are studded with mindbogglingly good footballing hyper-athletes. Ah yes, club that was quite recently in League One and represented on the pitch by men who look as if they’ve just been dishonourably discharged from the navy. You appear to have signed a 21-year-old Paraguayan genius made entirely from elastic and feathers.

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Leaders Liverpool travel to Goodison Park bidding for a 100th victory in the Merseyside derby against Everton

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Goodison Park

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Teenage defender Dean Huijsen became Bournemouth’s youngest Premier League goalscorer by heading his side to victory over Tottenham at the Vitality Stadium.

Andoni Iraola’s Cherries had upset title hopefuls Arsenal and Manchester City in two of their previous three fixtures on home soil.

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Alex Iwobi scored twice as Fulham marched into the top half of the Premier League with a win over Brighton at Craven Cottage.

The Cottagers were pegged back after Iwobi’s quickfire opener by Carlos Baleba’s fine strike early in the second half. But Matt O’Riley’s own goal gifted them the lead again and Iwobi hit his second to ensure Brighton have still never beaten Fulham in the Premier League.

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