Premier League winners and losers: Villa ‘genius’, ‘irrelevant’ Howe, Raya, Nuno sack, Man Utd and Liverpool | OneFootball

The Christmas fixtures delivered one particular theme which tied Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United together, with Eddie Howe and Nuno for the sack.

There are also bountiful words for Aston Villa, Everton, David Raya and a great deal more.

Premier League winners

Unai Emery

When the match-winning substitute can give a lucid and precise description of his manager’s “tactical genius” immediately after such a euphoric and ludicrous victory, it really does underline how ridiculous a job Unai Emery has done at Aston Villa.

“He changed it,” Ollie Watkins said, “because Chelsea were going man for man but they had the extra centre-back when we were going long.

“So when I came on second half he brought Sancho on the wing and Morgan [Rogers] and I think it gave us a little bit more space and then put Youri [Tielemans] in the No. 10 so we had an extra body up there.”

It was the response to a simple enough soft ball of a post-match question – “what did the manager say to you when you were brought on, and what kind of impact did he want you to make?” – but it emphasised how deeply Emery has imprinted his thoughts, words and ideals on this squad.

David Raya

Attack wins you games; defence wins you titles; goalkeepers do the rest and probably aren’t noticed until they drop anything resembling a clanger.

Raya will know that from the criticism he faced after what remains the only game this season in which he has failed to save any of the shots he has faced.

Those are the standards set and maintained by the keeper who has faced the fewest shots on target of any who have started more than one-third of their club’s Premier League games this season, but whose save percentage is the fourth-best in the division.

Few have such a reduced margin for error and as unforgiving a role as the final barrier for such a defensively phenomenal side which rarely gives up chances. Raya’s mentality and focus in that sense is as important as his ability for Arsenal.

And that save from Yankuba Minteh, his second and last of the game in that brief window during which his side otherwise lost control, underlined it: Raya needed elite reflexes, level of concentration and even speed of thought in choosing which hand to use to optimise his chances of keeping the ball out.

The only thing processed quicker was the replay which was immediately added to his remarkably highlights package of equally impressive and important saves in the last few seasons.

“The first shot that they had, they scored the goal and then David had to make another save to maintain the result,” said Arteta of a player who thrives in “the key moments” like few others.

Brentford

There is currently no better Premier League club at developing and platforming raw attacking talent.

The three biggest sales in Brentford’s history were all of forwards they signed either specifically in the Championship or before they played their first game in the Premier League. For the £24.35m spent on Ivan Toney, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, they received 191 goals and £160m.

But even after a third remodelling of their frontline in consecutive seasons, Brentford’s overhauled output continues to excel. The only club with two players in last season’s 10 top Premier League scorers sold both and can still match Manchester City with a pair of representatives in 2025/26’s top 14.

Neither Kevin Schade nor Igor Thiago are perfect. The former is infuriatingly consistent, while the latter often makes the wrong decision in his final action. But their basic ingredients are tantalising, as was showcased as they summarily dismantled Bournemouth.

The patience Brentford have shown with two club-record signings is being rewarded once more in the continuation of a cycle every bit as impressive as their ability to simply promote an assistant to become first-team manager every few years at no apparent cost to results.

Manchester United

Ruben Amorim has often referred to restoring “the feeling of winning” as being something elevated beyond the actual art of victory itself over the past year.

And for a club which has lost 21 of his 61 games, that is pertinent. It is a sensation many at Manchester United might find completely alien; Amorim himself said they were “just trying to survive” against Newcastle and needed “to feel that we can win sometimes without playing so well”.

The Portuguese appears to have at least inherited the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag knack of absurdly elongating a reign by spacing his wins impeccably, like a nurse overseeing a deliberate deterioration in a patient’s health specifically to keep them on life support while explaining to their loved ones that there’s nothing they can do because the ludicrously expensive medication has to be administered in one needlessly exact, sub-optimal and inflexible way.

Manchester United have not been beaten in consecutive games all season – in either the Premier League or all competitions – and have not lost from a winning position since May.

Amorim, who managed separate losing streaks of two, three and four in his first six months, has already watched his Manchester United win more Premier League matches (eight to seven) and score as many goals (32) in 2025/26 than 2024/25 despite being in charge for nine fewer games this campaign.

It doesn’t bear thinking what atrocities would have been inflicted on a defence of Dalot, Yoro, Fredricson, Heaven and Malacia behind a midfield of Cunha, Fletcher, Ugarte and Dorgu last season. But this version of the club, for all its myriad faults, has undoubted “spirit”.

Fulham

A third straight win. A fourth assist to sit nicely alongside Harry Wilson’s five goals in what is rapidly becoming a standout individual season. A current top-half spot for a club which had spent the entire campaign waiting for the graphic to switch to show those 11th and below.

Liverpool

If the general theme of the festive schedule’s results was of teams either reinforcing or rediscovering how to win in any circumstance, it is one Liverpool followed so faithfully as to almost squander a two-goal lead against perhaps the worst team to ever grace the Premier League.

The teams in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th all won their games on December 26 and 27 by a single goal; Liverpool should take solace in doing so against a side both Arsenal and Aston Villa have struggled to beat recently.

Arne Slot was right when he marked out as “progress” that his players have learned “when things go against us, we still need to find a way to win the game”. It sounds simple but for over two months adversity almost automatically meant defeat for Liverpool.

As Mikel Arteta said after Arsenal narrowly beat Brighton: “You win, you learn and you go again. The knock-on effect of winning is incredibly powerful.”

It is something Liverpool are beginning to remember. The steps they have made have been tentative. Three straight wins and a seven-game unbeaten run shows growth while leaving ample room for improvement.

Spurs

Of course, the teams in 10th and 11th also won by the odd goal. It’s Fulham’s thing but Spurs are somewhat less experienced in that regard.

Their only previous single-goal win came at Elland Road in early October. For their last 1-0 triumph in the Premier League, Spurs must go back to February.

Thomas Frank made a point of praising their “resilience” and “mentality” – and it should be said that after having nine shots to 16 and 38% possession you only really can focus on the immeasurables.

But the Premier League’s best away team can take pride at being able to grind things out like it’s a warm May evening in Bilbao.

Rayan Cherki

In 2022/23 it was Kevin de Bruyne (0.86 to 1.43).

In 2023/24 it was De Bruyne again (1.03 to 1.13).

Then in 2024/25 the De Bruyne hat-trick was completed (0.58 to 0.82).

For three seasons the closest player to matching Erling Haaland’s rate of goals and assists per 90 minutes in the Premier League for Manchester City was De Bruyne. And the only time he came within touching distance was when the Belgian played fewer than half of Haaland’s minutes a couple of seasons ago.

This might not be a rate Cherki can maintain – and he has similarly been given a fraction of Haaland’s minutes. But this is the strongest challenge the Norwegian has ever had from a Manchester City teammate (1.27 to 1.34) and Pep Guardiola must be loving it.

Brenden Aaronson

The praise should and will, of course, go to Leeds, Daniel Farke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for one of the more absurd months of form in Premier League history.

But a special mention is warranted for Aaronson, a player whose complicated relationship with the fanbase and ties to an unloved past regime have made his personal renaissance even more stunning than that of his club, manager or teammate.

The American’s run and pass for the equaliser against Sunderland marked his third assist in seven Premier League games, matching the tally from his first 46. His energy carried Leeds but it is quickly becoming allied with pivotal actions to produce a skillset close to irreplicable in a relegation battle:

Scott Parker

A literal quarter of the clean sheets Parker has overseen in his career as a Premier League manager have come against either David Moyes, Everton or David Moyes’ Everton.

He also sounded the “fine margins” klaxon post match so everybody wins. Except usually Burnley.

Premier League drawers

Sunderland

Only two teams in Europe’s top five leagues have drawn more matches: Celta Vigo and Pisa with eight to Sunderland’s seven.

But more pertinently, Sunderland have been level for 64.3% of their Premier League games this season. The closest side to them is Crystal Palace (56.7%).

Sunderland have spent less time leading in the Premier League this campaign than every team bar the bottom three they are 15 points clear of. Regis Le Bris has created a monster of a team.

Premier League losers

Newcastle United

Therein lies the innate problem with Eddie Howe and Anthony Gordon’s belief that Newcastle could compartmentalise the insipid defeat to Sunderland and “make it right” a few days later in the Carabao Cup.

The Magpies advanced against Fulham in the continued defence of a trophy very possibly keeping the manager in gainful employment, but there is little “right” about Newcastle currently.

Drawing with Chelsea having led was frustrating; a second straight 1-0 defeat away at a bitter rival is lamentable. Their own mild selection problems notwithstanding, Newcastle should be ashamed at failing to breach one of the more vulnerable Manchester United sides Old Trafford has seen.

But then Howe believes the specific stadium at which Newcastle flatter to deceive on any given matchday to be “irrelevant”. He wants to “look at the performances in isolation” and focus on “what the team’s identity is on that day and how it plays”, as if that would be in any way less damning.

“If it’s home or away, for me, I don’t really care,” added a man who really ought to. The only club with a greater disparity between their home and away results is Brentford, who sit above Newcastle in the table despite being hypocritically bullied by them in the summer.

Their pursuit and capture of Yoane Wissa is perhaps the last time the Magpies properly threw their weight around and asserted themselves; it certainly hasn’t been evident on the pitch.

Nuno Espirito Santo

That striker-based epiphany was brief but beautiful, triggering the only two wins, localised entirely within the space of seven November days, of an increasingly hilariously doomed reign.

It felt like West Ham would simply kick on at that stage, having vanquished Newcastle and Burnley to draw level on points with the latter and in the relegation zone on goal difference alone, with momentum heavily in their favour.

The Hammers can boast a better record than only the Clarets and Wolves since then and have thus been marooned further in the mire: that five-point gap to Nottingham Forest resembles a chasm.

And this is as sustained a slump for the manager as it is the team: in a table of Premier League results since February 1, when Forest apparently sacrificed their soul for a 7-0 thrashing of Brighton at the City Ground, a bottom four of ever-presents reads: Spurs, Nottingham Forest, Nuno Espirito Santo (32 points), West Ham and Wolves.

It would be grounds for a sacking if the best conceivable replacement candidate hadn’t a) been sacked by West Ham before, b) contributed to a relegation in his last Premier League post more than five years ago and c) hadn’t literally already been rejected by the club a few months back.

Sean Dyche

Given the “what a team” head pat by Pep Guardiola and the physical runaround at a decisive set piece. But ultimately it doesn’t feel like making two substitutions in an exhausting game with in-form Manchester City, the first of which was in the 88th minute, should really be the precursor to an entire weekend spent blaming the officials.

Did Arnaud Kalimuendo – 82 Premier League minutes across eight appearances as a £25m summer signing, 17 minutes and three appearances of which were under Dyche – bring an oil-less lamb curry in for lunch after training or something?

Chelsea

From one of the best teams at converting leads into victories last season, Chelsea have become the joint-worst in terms of wastefulness from winning positions.

Those 13 points squandered would have put them second and in the title race. Instead, this is a Champions League qualification race Chelsea’s recent setbacks suggest they don’t have the stomach for.

The watching world knew what was coming when they failed to press home their advantage at home to Aston Villa. It is worrying that Enzo Maresca either didn’t or simply could not adequately react to stem the tide.

Even with the innate outcome bias of judging a manager’s substitutions, Villa scoring within four and one minute of Emery sending players on from the bench can only reflect miserably on the coach who responded with an ineffective triple change and by removing his best forward when chasing a goal.

Everton

David Moyes “wouldn’t have wanted to come and watch that myself,” even if he did offer mitigation in the absences of Iliman Ndiaye, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish.

Remove the three foremost attacking fulcrums from any team and their subsequent creative struggles would be expected.

But this should not be mistaken as a slump related only to AFCON, injury and curiously timed Christmas illnesses. Everton have laboured in this department all season: Wolves and West Ham are the only sides with fewer goals and different individual scorers respectively.

The 14 players Moyes used at Turf Moor had a combined 78 Premier League career goals, to which their 55-year-old centre-half pairing contributed more than a third. Dwight McNeil, who last scored in the competition in May, accounted for more than a quarter by himself.

Everton’s highest shot taker in the Premier League this season, James Garner, has three goals in 103 games for the Toffees.

It is almost like exclusively speculating to accumulate in attack by spending upwards of £100m on talented but undeveloped and unrefined players might not be the best idea.

Bournemouth and Crystal Palace

Wolves

The descent beyond mere Derby 2007/08 territory continues. Wolves are five defeats away from breaking the record for longest losing streak in a single Premier League season, having already set a new bar for longest winless start and myriad other miserable markers.

There have been just enough narrow defeats – 1-0 to both Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest; 2-1 to both Arsenal and Liverpool – in recent weeks to sustain the illusion of progress, but Wolves have not done so much as lead a game in almost three entire months.

Rob Edwards was brought in with more than one eye on a future in the Championship, yet it has to be considered whether this is doing irreparable damage to his reputation with the fanbase, players and board.

While he ranks absurdly far down the list of individuals to be held accountable for this historic failure, this has already eroded Edwards’ goodwill, leeway, patience and momentum ahead of a summer in which more players will be sold and promotion will be the expectation.

Seven straight defeats with barely a whimper was basically baked into his appointment, yet the longer this goes on – and every indication is that it will – the weaker the foundations Edwards ultimately actually comes to build on will be.

Brighton

Time to consult the ‘Has Fabian Hurzeler Literally Ever Won A Game Of Association Football As A Manager In December’ updater:

No.

Eleven games, six draws, five defeats for the German as Brighton head coach in literally the busiest month of the Premier League calendar. As impressive as that level of solidarity with the Bundesliga winter break is, it isn’t ideal.