Premier League winners and losers: Manchester United, Arsenal, Fulham, Liverpool, Forest, Palace | OneFootball

Arne Slot, Oliver Glasner and Thomas Frank will surely all be out of work soon, while Manchester United and West Ham being sensible does not feel right.

It was quite the Premier League weekend, with a single draw – which ultimately feels like a defeat for one of those teams – allowing for plenty of definitive conclusions to be drawn.

There were 16 from the Emirates alone, but plenty more below.

Fulham

This week’s ‘They’re Where In The Premier League Table?!‘ Award goes to…

Fulham. They’re 7th?!

Harry Wilson

Already his best Premier League season ever in terms of goals scored, minutes played and Harry Wilson things being done.

Manchester United

That’s why you reinstate an abandoned transfer ‘policy’ to pluck the two biggest xG overperformers of the previous season – one of whom is apparently a very proud vegan – from within the Premier League.

Harry Maguire

Do not run from it, Mr. Tuchel. It will nut you square in the face either way.

Andoni Iraola

Nottingham Forest

In the same week that Chris Wood was reported to have been ruled out for the remainder of the season, what a moment for two players to step out of his considerable shadow.

It was Wood who scored twice in that illusory opening win over Brentford in August, since which Forest’s best marksman has been Morgan Gibbs-White on a paltry five goals; only Everton and Wolves have a lower-scoring top scorer.

His need to shoulder more of that burden has taken a toll on the creative juices of a player stretched to and past his limits, so the emergence of players willing and able to step up is more than welcome.

Both Igor Jesus and Taiwo Awoniyi carved their goals out of individual skill, belief and persistence. It was the first time in 42 games that two specialist Forest strikers scored in the same league fixture. Wood you believe it?

Sensible West Ham

While one particular bounce has proven beyond West Ham’s means – their last three managers have failed to win their opening game – the Hammers might be pioneers in the field of the new coach rebound.

Rui Barbosa was appointed first-team goalkeeping coach in late October, after which West Ham won their next two matches – admittedly while conceding three goals.

And since Paco Jemez was brought in as Nuno Espirito Santo’s assistant, the Hammers have beaten Spurs away and Sunderland at home.

“There wasn’t much convincing to do. He told me he needed my help,” said Jemez, even if Nuno did seem less than enthused about either the advice of his right-hand man, or the method by which it was offered, when preparing to bring on Max Kilman at 3-1 up in stoppage time.

That perhaps spotlighted the inherent risk with bringing someone in to work alongside Nuno, who has already been sacked by one club this season for a failure to play nicely with others.

But the dynamic here is different, far less antagonistic and much healthier than that which Nuno encountered with Edu at Nottingham Forest. Having had a backroom staff reportedly foisted upon him when he took the role, the Portuguese could be revitalised by the arrival of Jemez as a figure who can challenge rather than undermine him.

Chelsea

The highest-scoring away team in the Premier League this season, with only Arsenal and Aston Villa picking up more points on the road.

Chelsea are the closest side in the division to perfect equilibrium between points won at home (18) and away (19). Liam Rosenior will have some sort of LinkedIn explanation for that, about company synergy or somesuch, but it’s working for him.

Yerson Mosquera

Five shots is the most any one player has mustered in a Premier League game against Manchester City since Yoane Wissa terrorised them last January.

And obviously it was a centre-half for the club stranded at the bottom of the table in a 2-0 defeat.

Emi Martinez

An easy target for criticism when he inevitably makes an arse of himself, but it is only fair to highlight the performances which make him such an irresistible maverick.

Only Unai Emery could truly capture the reason behind Martinez’s wonderful display against Newcastle: Marco Bizot.

Matheus Nunes

Not entirely sure how but a £53m central midfielder deemed “not clever enough” by Pep Guardiola to play in that position has accidentally become Manchester City’s most important player at right-back.

He’s elite at defending dribbles according to football analysts Gradient Sports.

Matheus Nunes is elite at defending dribbles according to Gradient Sports.

Premier League losers

Arsenal

Whether it would represent the biggest bottlejob in Premier League history is almost immaterial; Arsenal played like they were consumed by the mere thought of that label and the staff and supporters acted in kind.

Three consecutive runners-up finishes will do that, but it was a return to the emotional Arsenal cliche that has persisted for decades despite no longer really being applicable.

Their response to this defeat will be far more important than the result and performance itself. But equally there will be no 20-game winning run to the finish line that has characterised recent champions. The Premier League in its current state will not allow any team to embark on a period of such sustained dominance, so Arsenal as a club must learn how to drop points.

Liverpool

No-one was ever particularly distracted by an unbeaten run which, if anything, highlighted the myriad problems engulfing Liverpool this season. But the end of that streak brought even more things to the fore.

Arne Slot must see the issue with admitting he “tried to scream towards them to put the ball out of play,” but his players ignored him and opted to continue a man down due to that most common of ailments – a Joe Gomez injury – to the point where they conceded again.

It is not great that Andoni Iraola, who is managing a similar level of squad absences, explained how Bournemouth “normally go full gas” but “because we don’t have the numbers we are choosing when to go, choosing to save a bit of energy until the end of the game”.

Whether that was a specific decision with Liverpool’s late fragility in mind is unknown, but it was the fifth goal the Reds have conceded in second-half stoppage time this season, the cost of which has been eight points dropped against Bournemouth, Fulham, Leeds, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.

These are innate problems in terms of mentality and physicality, even before reaching the unavoidable tactical red flags which have been apparent for months. And Slot paying for them with his job seems a genuine prospect with each passing game.

Virgil van Dijk

Leave the football before etc and so on.

Crystal Palace

It is worth reiterating, after new depths were plumbed with a red card and penalty conceded in an 11th straight winless game across four different competitions, that this simply won’t work.

As lovely a thought as it is that Oliver Glasner and Steve Parish could reconcile and “clear everything” over “a long dinner”, it is also naive in the extreme.

And it presents the very real risk of Palace, 15th and only three points clear of both Leeds and Nottingham Forest with West Ham picking up steam behind them too, being dragged into a battle for which they are painfully under-fortified.

The contradictions have already started. Glasner insists he remains “100 per cent committed” to Palace, but in a separate interview also explained his otherwise entirely valid reasons for choosing to ultimately leave:

That maths ain’t mathing and it’s impacting the same club, the same fans and the same players Glasner believes “deserves” his unbroken dedication.

The Austrian compared this transparent truce to “the sun shining” after “a thunderstorm”, but the dark clouds will likely hang over Palace for as long as they have a manager in charge who, by his own admission, does not fully want to be there.

Spurs

There is precisely nothing new to say, not a single fresh angle from which to approach the now decaying, rotting elephant carcass in the corner of the Spurs cheese room.

Thomas Frank can continue because he is and will. But he shouldn’t considering the main thing keeping him in gainful employment is the desperation of those who appointed him to not be seen to have made an absolute hash of the club’s first post-Levy appointment.

It cannot be based on their Champions League prospects, as for how well Spurs have taken to reaching the knock-out stages, they will make no further meaningful progress through the tournament. And even if they won it, Frank’s predecessor was sacked for masking rank domestic failure with European glory.

The Premier League is ultimately what Frank must be judged on; his experience there was a huge part of the reason why he was picked in the first place.

Four more points and a single place higher than Ange Postecoglou had Spurs at this stage last season, backed by investment in the squad to the tune of more than £220m, does not exactly feel sufficient.

Sunderland and Newcastle

Maybe they can finally see eye to eye, having encountered precisely the same problem.

Brighton

A very quiet run of one win in 10 Premier League games, that. Even in this ludicrously bloated stodge of a season, a fall from 5th at the start of December to 12th by late January is mildly absurd.

Brighton are not nearly uncouth enough to indulge in any mid-season sacking nonsense. Sami Hyypia was the last such case over a decade ago – although even he won a game in December before being axed later that month – so Fabian Hurzeler need not worry about his immediate future. But he might want to survey the summer vacancies; a friendly handshake and parting of the ways at the end of the season seems increasingly likely.

If he does wish to expedite the process then making James Milner his first introduction from the bench at 1-1 in the 81st minute is probably the quickest way, in all fairness.

Burnley

It might seem harsh after a third consecutive draw against a member of the Big Six, but that is an honorary title at best for Spurs right now and the concession of late goals – Burnley (11) have let in at least two more than any other side after the 81st minute of games this season – is becoming ruinous.

Going unbeaten against Manchester United, Liverpool and Spurs is not bad going but even in the duration of that run they have lost ground in the relegation battle with those immediately above them cancelling it out with a single win.

It is 14 games since Burnley’s last; one more and they crack the top ten for longest winless streaks in Premier League history.

Ruben Amorim