Last weekend, all eyes turned to a rescheduled fixture at Goodison Park as Everton and Liverpool played in the final ever Merseyside Derby at the 132-year-old grounds.
Liverpool entered at the top of the table, looking to expand its lead during its chase for a second-ever Premier League title.
Beto opened the scoring after just 11 minutes of play to the roar of the Everton faithful.
This joy was short-lived as Alexis Mac Allister equalized in the 16th.
After a mid-game scoring drought, the league’s scoring leader Mohamed Salah scored his 22nd and put the Reds up 2-1.
It seemed like Liverpool got the last laugh in this final meeting at Goodison, but somehow, Everton was still alive and breathing in added time.
In the 98th minute, a cross in Liverpool’s penalty box set up Everton’s center back James Tarkowski to unleash a bullet of a volley to even the score.
Fans stormed the pitch in celebration and four red cards were handed out after the final whistle, and after a lengthy VAR review, the goal stood, sending the park into one last celebration.
The result forever cements the record between these two sides at this ground in a dead even tie, with each Liverpool and Everton winning 41 matches and drawing 37.
With that, Week 25 began.
Brighton & Hove Albion hosted Chelsea, who would fall out of the top four after the result.
After 27 minutes, Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen booted the ball up the pitch and Kaoru Mitoma controlled the kick beautifully, placed the ball on his right foot and unleashed a curling effort from outside of the box to beat the diving Filip Jörgensen, giving Verbruggen his first career assist and Brighton a lead.
Brighton didn’t stop there as eventual Man of the Match Yankuba Minteh found another tally 10 minutes later.
Minteh wouldn’t stop, either.
Receiving a pass from Welback, Minteh sat Cucurella down and scored his second — deja vu?
Saturday started as second-place Arsenal traveled to take on old title rivals Leicester City, sitting second-to-last.
After Leicester’s shock title in 2015-16 that left Arsenal second, the Foxes have been relegated and promoted back to England’s top division, while Arsenal spent two consecutive seasons in second.
Due to injury, Arsenal had no healthy attackers. Enter surprise hero Mikel Merino.
After being subbed on in the 69th minute the midfielder found himself in front of goal, scoring the opener in the 81st minute and then doubling the lead with a dagger in the 87th minute.
It’s clear Mikel Arteta’s men will scratch and claw until the end.
Arsenal still sits in second with little room for error in the title chase.
In what seemed like a potential mismatch, Aston Villa played host to relegation-threatened Ipswich Town.
In the 40th minute of a scoreless game, Axel Taunzebe, already on a yellow card, made a challenge that forced Ipswich to finish with only 10 men.
Even shorthanded, Ipswich found a way as Liam Delap scored with a deft touch.
The lead only lasted 13 minutes, as new loan Marcus Rashford thundered a free kick off the crossbar and Ollie Watkins was perfectly positioned to clean up the scraps and equalize — the 1-1 scoreline held.
In a fight between two surprise top-half teams, Fulham hosted Nottingham Forest.
Emile Smith-Rowe opened the scoring in the 15th minute, as Adama Traore played in an inch-perfect cross right onto the young Englishman’s head, whose only job was to guide the ball home.
Chris Wood equalized the affair to continue his stellar season and rise up the goal charts, sitting third in the league with 18, only behind Erling Haaland and Salah.
Calvin Bassey scored the game-winning header in the 62nd minute in Fulham’s 2-1 victory.
Next, Manchester City welcomed Newcastle United.
This game was over as quickly as it started, as new winter signing Omar Marmoush opened his Premier League account with not one, not two, but three goals, scoring a hat-trick within 14 minutes.
James McAtee added a late fourth as City dominated.
Meanwhile, Bournemouth got the privilege of playing bottom-of-the-table Southampton, and they made the most of the opportunity.
Dango Ouattara opened the scoring in the 14th minute and Ryan Christie added to it less than two minutes later.
Despite Southampton getting one back, Bournemouth had a final response as substitute Marcus Tavernier scored the 83rd minute dagger in the 3-1 victory.
In the only London derby of the weekend, Brentford traveled to West Ham.
Kevin Schade opened the scoresheet for the Bees in the fourth minute.
This came to be the match’s only highlight, as Brentford held on for the 1-0 win and a third-straight away victory.
In Saturday’s final match, Crystal Palace hosted high-flying Everton.
Keeping up from last time out, Beto scored his fourth goal in the past four games in the 42nd minute.
But Palace’s in-form striker Jean-Philippe Mateta equalized the score just five minutes later and Everton’s new winter signing Carlos Alcaraz put an end to the contest with his winner.
In Sunday’s opener, top-of-the-league Liverpool hosted the lowly Wolverhampton Wanderers.
This game was the complete tale of two halves, as Luis Diaz opened the scoring for the reds and a Salah penalty furthered his golden boot case after Liverpool thoroughly dominated.
The second half saw Wolves play out of their skin — Matheus Cunha grabbing one back — but they couldn’t find any more than that, losing 2-1.
In the weekend’s final game, two struggling sides, Tottenham and United, met in North London.
Tottenham would win the battle of mid as James Maddison tapped home a rebound in the 13th minute for the 1-0 victory.
So after 25 weeks, we have multiple unexpected teams fighting for top spots in the table, a three-horse race out of the two relegation spots and a slippage that plays into a more intense title race down the stretch.
