Every single point matters right now. It is around this time of the season that unlikely cult heroes emerge and their performances are etched into club history. With this in mind, here is a look at the biggest talking points from across the weekend.
By Sam McGuire, Premier League expert
The Curtis Jones Show
Jones is having quite the end to his season. He’s been one of the most important players for Liverpool following the change in their shape and during an eight-game unbeaten run, he’d chipped in with a goal against Spurs and an assist against Leeds.
In the 3-0 win over Leicester City last night, the 22-year-old netted twice, completed 91% of his passes, created two chances, won 100% of his tackles and recovered the ball on five occasions in what was a Player-of-the-Match showing.
The Reds are just a point outside of the Champions League places now. The Foxes are 19th, two points from safety with two games to play.
Brighton bounce back
Everton humbled Roberto De Zerbi’s men ahead of Brighton’s trip to the Emirates. Sean Dyche’s side ran out 5-1 winners in one of the shock results of the season.
The Italian tactician did, however, say that the world would see the ‘real Brighton’ at the Emirates and he kept to his word as the Seagulls romped to a 3-0 win over the title challengers.
Brighton created four big chances to Arsenal’s one and dominated the second half, racking up an Expected Goals haul of 1.4 after the break. The performance forced Mikel Arteta into an apology after the final whistle.
Pressure? What pressure?
A trip to Goodison Park with Everton in a relegation battle would be a tricky fixture for a lot of teams. Not for Manchester City though. Kicking off before Arsenal’s clash with Brighton, the reigning champions knew that a win would see them move four points clear of the title pretenders with a game in hand.
Everton limited City for over half an hour before two goals in two minutes killed the game. Ilkay Gündogan nonchalantly flicked the visitors into the lead before Erling Haaland added his 36th Premier League goal of the season, with the City No.8 assisting the No.9.
Gündogan added his second after the break to make it four goals in his last two outings for the league leaders. Prior to this run, he had scored just four goals all season.
At the double
Chelsea finally picked up a win under Frank Lampard last weekend, beating Bournemouth 3-1. A home game against Nottingham Forest presented them with an opportunity to make it two wins from two and though they did at one stage have the lead, they failed to see this one out.
In fact, the away side carved out more big chances and had a higher Expected Goals haul.
Taiwo Awoniyi scored twice again for the second successive match and he kept the Chelsea defence busy throughout. He was involved in eight aerial duels and eight ground duels in the 81 minutes he was on the pitch.
Raheem Sterling netted twice for Chelsea, his first Premier League goals since he scored against Forest on New Year’s Day.
Stepping up
Manchester United were without Marcus Rashford for the visit of Wolves. They had lost their last two and Erik Ten Hag’s men were under pressure to get back to winning ways in a bid to retain their place in the top four.
Bruno Fernandes stepped up. The United No.8 ran the show, creating five chances, assisting a goal and having seven shots in the 2-0 win. It should’ve been more for the Red Devils, with the hosts creating chances with an Expected Goals value of 3.28.
(Images from IMAGO)
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