To start the weekend, third-place Nottingham Forest hosted mid-table Brighton & Hove Albion.
Both teams entered the match off losses — Forest was coming off a 5-0 thrashing from AFC Bournemouth, while Brighton lost 1-0 on a penalty to Everton.
With the previous week’s misfortunes in mind, Nottingham devastated Brighton to the tune of a Chris Wood hat-trick and a 7-0 destruction. This is the second time in history a team lost by five or more goals, then won their next match by the same margin, and the first time ever doing so by seven.
After barely avoiding relegation last season, Forest’s meteoric rise is even crazier. They find themselves comfortably in the Champions League Spots and only nine points off the top with the FA Cup fourth round upcoming and then a trip to Fulham.
Despite consecutive losses, Brighton are still right in the thick of the European spots, and they have two straight home matches against Chelsea in the FA Cup and the league upcoming.
Later that afternoon, Everton played off the “new manager bounce” for their third-straight victory under recently-appointed David Moyes, beating Leicester City 4-0.
Whether it’s Moyes or something else, this stretch of form took Everton out of the immediate relegation picture and placed Leicester in it.
Abdoulaye Doucouré opened the scoring within 10 seconds of kickoff, taking a Jordan Pickford long ball forward in stride for his first goal of the campaign and the fastest goal of the season off Pickford’s second-career assist.
Beto doubled the Everton lead five minutes later in nearly the exact same manner, later getting his second. Last week’s match winner, Illiman Ndiaye, added a late fourth goal to lock this one in the win column.
Everton sits comfortably above the drop and will stay at home for their next two matches — an FA Cup matchup against Bournemouth followed by a visit from bitter rivals Liverpool as their next league fixture.
Leicester’s return to the top flight will not get any easier. After facing Manchester United in the FA cup, they return to league play against in-form Arsenal.
On the southern coast, Bournemouth failed to replicate last weekend’s powerful home performance as Liverpool maintained their first-place standing. Mo Salah fortified his lead in the golden boot race with a brace, giving him 21 on the season in the 2-0 victory.
This result shouldn’t dissuade Bournemouth though. Losing to the leaders takes nothing away from their stellar season that has them in the European places and only a point off Champions League spots.
At St. James Park, a late Rodrigo Muniz strike completed Fulham’s comeback, giving them all three points with a 2-1 away win against the usual home stalwarts Newcastle United.
This result is massive for both clubs as it leaves Fulham in the top half of the table five points off Newcastle in the final European spot.
Despite starting the day in the relegation zone, Wolverhampton Wanderers had a fire lit under them for their midlands derby, taking on Aston Villa.
Reeling off four straight losses in the league, Wolves struck early. Jean-Ricner Bellegarde found the back of the net in the first 12 minutes. The scoreline stayed this way until the seventh minute of stoppage time, when Matheus Cunha’s late dagger called game.
Wolves are still in a heated relegation battle, only a result out of the drop. Villa has yet to recreate last season’s form that has them competing in the Champions League this season, now sitting eighth without a win in their last three.
A relegation six pointer took place as Ipswich Town hosted Southampton, the bottom two teams. Southampton have been particularly dreadful to start the year, with the worst-ever finish of 11 points in a Premier League season within the realm of possibility.
They did, however, pick up their second win thanks to a late 87th minute winner from Paul Onuachu, but are still bottom and far away from safety.
Sunday’s three matches were all won by London-based clubs, with Crystal Palace traveling to Old Trafford and beating Manchester United 2-0 thanks to two goals from Jean-Phillippe Mateta.
Tottenham reigned supreme in a London Derby against Brentford after only winning once in the league through December and January, the one result coming against lowly Southampton.
In what will likely be one of the pivotal matches of the season, new-age rivals Arsenal and Manchester City met with Arsenal taking on the title race from second place — like they have the past two seasons — while City is completely out of the title race and fighting to make the Champions League.
The bad blood was palpable after the reverse fixture with its multiple lead changes, a disgraceful red card and a 98th minute equalizer. The anger would bubble over post-match, where an enraged Erling Haaland would tell Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and his squad to “stay humble.”
Arsenal center back Gabriel said they would be waiting for Haaland at home, and captain Martin Ødegaard proved this after just 105 seconds thanks to a Manuel Akanji mistake at the back, but the scoreline stayed there through the half.
Against the run of play in the 55th, Haaland got his revenge equalizer with only his ninth touch of the match.
This was short lived as Thomas Partey grabbed the lead back for the Gunners less than a minute later. Myles Lewis-Skelly then finessed the third goal of the night, celebrating with Haalands ‘mediation’ celebration — a calculated response after the Norwegian asked the 18-year-old “who are you?” in the previous meeting.
Kai Havertz added a fourth, and with the last kick of the game, 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri put up one more, ending the match 5-1.
Stay Humble Eh?
In the finale of the match week, another London Derby saw West Ham visit Chelsea. Despite West Ham’s first half lead off a Jarrod Bowen goal, Chelsea responded with two in the second, moving back into the top four in the table.
With 14 weeks left, the drama is building.
Arsenal have little room for error if they want to catch Liverpool, “big six” members United and Tottenham continue their uninspired flirtation with the bottom half and three struggling teams fight for one spot to stay up.
