Premier League Awards: VAR drama and peerless Palmer | OneFootball

Our weekly Premier League awards honour the best – and worst – of the football action from the weekend.

Moment of the Week

We usually like to save our Moment of the Week for a great goal, a brilliant game, or a feel-good story. But it’s hard to escape the controversy surrounding Manchester United’s late defeat at West Ham.

Julen Lopetegui must have been thanking his lucky stars after the Hammers were handed the gift of a stoppage-time spot-kick. Referee David Coote was called to the pitchside monitor by VAR, who recommended a penalty was awarded for a coming together between Matthijs de Ligt and Danny Ings. It was an innocuous incident, with a half-hearted appeal from Jarrod Bowen the only call for a penalty despite a wealth of claret shirts around the box.

We’ve watched this over and over and have struggled to make sense of it. A real bad one for VAR and Ten Hag, at a time when the Manchester United manager needs things to go his way.

On a more positive note, Beto’s last-gasp heroics were a more heartwarming tale from the weekend’s action. The forward has played just 52 minutes of Premier League football this season but came off the bench to rescue Everton a point against Fulham.

The outpouring of emotion showed just what it meant.

Player of the Week

We’re running out of superlatives for Cole Palmer.

We just love watching Palmer play and the Chelsea midfielder was at his best once again in the club’s 2-1 win over Newcastle. Palmer scored the winner at Stamford Bridge but it was his role in the opener that will be remembered, executing one of the passes of the season so far to split open the Newcastle defence.

His elevation from making just three league starts at Manchester City, to almost instantly becoming one of Europe’s most exciting talents, has been truly astonishing.

And to think people thought Chelsea had vastly overpaid…

Goal of the Week

One of the best things about Bukayo Saka is that you always think something is going to happen whenever he picks up possession.

Saka slammed home the opener against Liverpool this weekend to reach 50 goals in the Premier League, embarrassing Andy Robertson with a cheeky nutmeg before blasting a finish beyond Caoimhin Kelleher.

Miss of the Week

Diogo Dalot, this is an all-timer.

Do they still do Christmas DVDs for own goals and gaffes? The Manchester United right-back will hope not.

Save of the Week

Mark Travers earned a rare chance this weekend due to Kepa Arrizabalaga’s unavailability and did his utmost to give Andoni Iraoloa a selection headache.

The Irishman made seven saves as Bournemouth battled to a point at Aston Villa, with arguably the best of the lot this stop from Amadou Onana. Just look at Onana’s disbelief.

Stat of the Week

Just what has Nuno Espirito Santo done to Chris Wood?

Tweet of the Week

Wood has been one of the success stories of Nottingham Forest’s erm, scattergun, recruitment drive.

If you throw enough mud at the wall and all that…

Donkey of the Week

Spare a thought for poor Harry Clarke.

The Ipswich Town defender made his full Premier League debut at the weekend, but endured a nightmare afternoon at Brentford. The torrid trifecta of scoring an own goal, conceding a penalty, and getting sent off in a game had only been completed once before.

History made.

Read – Premier League Team of the Week – Palmer, Cunha, Wood

See more – Five of the worst debuts in Premier League history

Follow The Football Faithful on Social Media:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTok