Premier League winners and losers: Bournemouth, Postecoglou, Moyes, Sanchez, Arsenal

Bournemouth are phenomenal while David Moyes and Manchester City are turning things around. But it can’t be long for Ange Postecoglou and Robert Sanchez.

 

Bournemouth
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was repeating the Leicester season but distracting everyone with a rogue Nottingham Forest, because if any team is going to rip up the fabric of the Premier League, it is quite clearly Bournemouth.

To be fair, the 2015/16 season was characterised not only by unrepeatable brilliance emerging from the East Midlands but also something phenomenally exciting developing on the south coast. Southampton finishing sixth, three points off Champions League qualification, might be more fondly remembered were it not for the massive Claudio Ranieri-shaped smokescreen.

That was their peak and the subsequent decade at St Mary’s is proof of how breaking the code to sit among the established elite is no guarantee of staying there; one bad decision can prompt an inexorable spiral back down to whence you came.

The shot-callers at Bournemouth will always be wary of that but the supporters should only revel in an unthinkably positive moment. They are the envy of almost every club outside the Big Six and a great many in it, with a European place theirs to squander based on form.

That is pertinent, because Bournemouth have just dismantled the Premier League’s two best teams of recent weeks: Newcastle and Nottingham Forest have won 13 and drawn one of their last 16 games combined, scoring 36 and conceding 15 goals. The Cherries scored nine of them and conceded one in tearing both to shreds while handling an injury crisis which has robbed them of, among many players, their starting striker and record signing.

 

Bournemouth again
While 31 clubs have played more Premier League games, only 13 have scored more Premier League hat-tricks. Bournemouth being one behind Leicester and West Ham just doesn’t sound right.

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David Moyes
A 1-0 win with a goal not scored from open play, 31.1% possession and three shots to 16 might trick the mind into thinking Sean Dyche never left, but in securing Everton’s first consecutive wins of the Premier League season, Moyes has already justified the decision to make a change.

The differences in approach are negligible. Moyes has made Everton more efficient in front of goal while restricting the quality of opposition chances, but any remaining Dyche disciples will point out that the numbers are shudderingly similar to those with which the former manager was beaten by the fanbase.

Yet he was still recording them after two years with no sign of evolution or even an attempt to change; Moyes will benefit from more time and patience if he shows an ability and willingness to keep trying to raise that ceiling.

It might be that the same crossroads is eventually reached where the effectiveness of the methods start to wear off and a difficult call must be made. That much is clear not only from Dyche, who had a similarly invigorating start underpinned by an ability to make them far harder to beat before failing to build properly on those foundations, but also Moyes and how his West Ham reign came to a natural if faintly unsatisfying end.

There is no avoiding that and the challenge for Moyes will be to break the cycle to make this more sustainable. While that has to be the long-term objective, there is ample time to commend the oldest manager in the Premier League for remaining relevant and bloodying the noses of the youngest and hippest.

 

Leicester
A massive victory and necessary shift in the mood after seven consecutive defeats, fan protests and reports of manager and player clashes.

Ruud van Nistelrooy would have hoped for an appointment with Dr. Tottenham sooner but once it was scheduled he took full advantage. This Leicester side had already displayed a bit of a knack for thriving in adversity when the circumstances were right and they have now won ten of their 17 points from losing positions.

The manager took the most pleasure in the blocks, tackles and general defensive work to maintain a lead they had scarcely looked like establishing until then, but it must have been career-affirming for Van Nistelrooy to make one change and Bobby Reid, on his first Premier League start since August, to assist both goals.

 

Manchester City
Erling Haaland scored and assisted in the same game for the first time in 61 matches. Those with the inclination to do so might already have figured out how well remunerated he was in achieving that particular feat but the champions will not care as long as he helps pull something from this season’s wreckage.

That was certainly a step in the right direction and the injection of fresh blood helped, even if Abdukodir Khusanov had Eliaquim Mangala wincing with those early steps on his debut and Omar Marmoush struggled to stay onside for long periods.

But ultimately that adaptation not only to a particular opponent but Manchester City’s own weaknesses should encourage the fans that they can turn this around. Ederson’s long kicks helped bypass the Chelsea press and negate a midfield battle Pep Guardiola himself has admitted his players do not have “the legs” for. It is certainly one of the easier ways to bring Haaland into games.

READ MORE: 16 Conclusions from Man City 3-1 Chelsea: Poor Khusanov and ultimately Poor Chelsea

 

Arsenal
No team has had more players sent off in the Premier League this season but for the first time, Arsenal channelled their justified frustrations at a farcical red card properly to emerge victorious.

It did help that Joao Gomes kindly evened the numbers later on and it was in the immediate aftermath of that sending-off that Riccardo Calafiori scored the winner. But when Arsenal went a man down to Brighton, Manchester City and Bournemouth earlier in the season their fate was effectively sealed.

With 10 men they had one shot in 45 minutes plus stoppages against City, three in 40 against Brighton and five in well over an hour at Bournemouth. In 25 minutes away from home they mustered three against Wolves before parity was restored.

It was Arsenal’s first Premier League win after having a man sent off since November 2023. The focus will quite inevitably fall elsewhere but it was important for the Gunners to finally prove they can compartmentalise their vexation for at least long enough to secure a result.

 

Dominik Szoboszlai
“Something that we have to work on with him is that he’s also even more involved in scoring goals and creating chances. Last season he scored three and for an attacking midfielder at Liverpool his numbers need to go up,” said Arne Slot in October of Szoboszlai, and one of the few small improvements the Reds have needed to make in this potentially historic season.

It was a long wait to match that Premier League goal tally from last season but time and momentum is on Szoboszlai’s side with 16 games remaining and 20 shots in his last four league starts; Mo Salah mustered 19 from more minutes in those same games.

Liverpool rediscovering their attacking dominance has helped Szoboszlai properly define his role as the most forward-thinking member of that midfield. While Slot remains impressed with his “unbelievable” work-rate, it is time for the Hungarian to have a greater and more consistent impact in front of goal.

 

Jacob Murphy
Eddie Howe’s transformation of Joelinton from barn door-allergic forward into ludicrously effective central midfielder finally has a challenger as the most startling metamorphosis of his Newcastle reign.

Jacob Murphy has never scored or assisted more goals in a single Premier League season; only seven players have more assists across Europe’s top five leagues this campaign and all but one have played more minutes.

That sole exception is Nuno Tavares, also the anomaly among a group of players in Mo Salah, Bukayo Saka, Lamine Yamal, Omar Marmoush, Florian Wirtz and Antonee Robinson who a) are deemed indispensable by their clubs, b) would attract interest of around £50m if their club is willing to countenance a sale or c) have already moved for such a sum.

The beauty and inherent Howe’s Newcastle-ness of Murphy is that he somehow only falls into that first category. A player who probably wouldn’t prompt a bidding war if he were made available for £20m, whose signing for a rival club might induce protests from their underwhelmed supporters, is integral to this team, this system, this manager and this Alexander Isak as an irreplaceable cog in a Champions League-chasing side. Howe would have it no other way as the king of misfit management.

The Magpies still need to sign a right winger but only as competition for the league’s most improved player.

 

Manchester United
Ruben Amorim’s quest to remove the spotlight from anything Manchester United do on the pitch and place it squarely on him and his words continued unabated and perhaps that was for the best after what was served up against Fulham.

But a win’s a win, and with a clean sheet no less. They were “being maybe the worst team in the history of Manchester United” and are no more. While neither victory since has been in any way convincing, it suggests the message was at least heard loud and clear by players who would rather not be tarred with that brush.

It was only ever going to be a gradual process with initially small wins: Toby Collyer’s maturation, the emergence of Lisandro Martinez as a legitimate goal threat who can’t tackle properly, being outshot twice over at Craven Cottage and nary an eyelid being batted.

That is a true reflection of Manchester United’s position as a mid-table mess. If the bigger issues, of which their distinct lack of attacking threat must be the most glaring, are to be sorted then it will take time.

It is impossible to know whether Amorim is the right man to do it yet but the incremental victories are a necessary part of the journey. Few are as incremental as 1-0 from a deflected shot which is your only one on target all game.

 

Brentford
They have never actually finished there but 11th just seems like the most perfectly Brentford of positions, not even vaguely concerned about events beneath them in the table with Europe just out of reach above.

The victory over Palace was earned with just four players who were with Brentford in the Championship, which points to how quietly impressive Thomas Frank has been in upgrading this squad and integrating new signings wherever possible.

It bodes well for the future if Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa are moved on, if the seamless transition post-Ivan Toney did not already fill supporters with confidence. Mikkel Damsgaard and Nathan Collins in particular have been excellent additions to a side looking up.

 

Graham Potter
“The academy has done fantastic work, and there’s good players here. Our supporters like to see players from the academy in the first team, and we’re pushing for that. It can help us in how we identify players and our recruitment. The starting point should always be, ‘What do we have here in the academy?'” said Potter, whose West Ham Way manual has obviously not gone to waste.

It was a real blind spot of Julen Lopetegui’s reign, something he did not seek to address until it was far too late. In 22 games he gave 37 Premier League minutes to academy players in Ollie Scarles and Kaelan Casey; in four matches Potter has already far surpassed that with 172 minutes handed to Scarles and Lewis Orford.

Supporters are not stupid and will not be appeased solely by seeing homegrown players come off the bench; it has to be part of the wider picture. But it is such an easy win when combined with a clear vision and Potter knows to take advantage.

 

Whoever has held back that dodgy video of Michael Oliver saying some inadvisable things at an afters
If there is no footage of him laying into Arsenal and calling Mikel Arteta a “Spanish something or other” then what really is the point of all this?

READ MORE: Arsenal fans and media must share blame for Michael Oliver death threats

 

Premier League losers

Ange Postecoglou
‘This has to be the platform to build towards something greater, more meaningful and substantial,’ was one of the lines in Premier League winners and losers as part of coverage which many Spurs fans felt was too faint and damning in its praise of a 4-0 victory over Manchester City.

Since that incredible but isolated result, Spurs have accrued fewer Premier League points (five) than every team bar Southampton (two), and  three of those points came in a win over Saints. That relegation form holds true with a glance at a Premier League table which has Everton within touching distance.

It is an ingrained inconsistency which should not temper celebration in the moment, but it perennially undermines any hope of progress. Even the Carabao win over Liverpool has been followed by three defeats between limping victories over Tamworth and Hoffenheim.

And no, Postecoglou is not the biggest problem. It is difficult to argue that his methods have not contributed to one of the most obvious issues in terms of the injury list but recruitment has been substandard for too long at Spurs and a long line of managers have not been equipped properly for the task at hand.

But really there is no way of looking at this team without thinking it has regressed since the Australian’s appointment. They have already lost more Premier League games than in the whole of last season and while there is sympathy for how stretched the squad is, it is on the manager to find solutions and alternatives either in terms of personnel or approach.

It might be that Postecoglou is given time for enough players to come back or a couple of signings – quit giggling in the back – and it makes a vast difference. But Spurs are slipping towards relegation and in no real position to depend on that virtue, and the increasing desperation only makes it more likely those returning will be susceptible to further injury or poor form if thrown in too soon.

Daniel Levy is the common denominator but Postecoglou has multiplied the problems while trying to solve them. It can be true that he has been dealt an atrocious hand and is playing it abysmally.

 

Brighton
There can be no panic at drifting into a mid-table morass of teams neither fretting about relegation nor contemplating European qualification, but frustration is inevitable. Brighton, the blueprint to follow for teams hoping to break the glass ceiling and bother the elite, have been overtaken by Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth and matched by Fulham and Brentford, seemingly plateauing.

The consistency is enviable – after 23 games last season they were one place lower and a point worse off with exactly the same goal difference – but the persistency in their problems is infuriating: only the promoted trio of teams have fewer home wins against current bottom-half sides than Brighton’s two from seven as the new manager wrestles with the same issue which plagued his two most recent predecessors.

The Seagulls have won one of the nine games – the reverse fixture against Everton – in which they have had more than 55% of the ball this season, and lost one of the nine in which they have had less than 45%.

Fabian Hurzeler did at least try something different when chasing a result against the Toffees but praise ends there for the concept of throwing on fourth-choice centre-half Adam Webster as a makeshift centre-forward in stoppage-time having spent the most in transfer fees of any club in world football this season, while trying to find a loan suitor for Evan Ferguson.

 

Nottingham Forest
Perhaps those two late Southampton goals were not ideal for Nuno Espirito Santo to underline the standards Forest need to meet in every game, but rather a sign of things to come. As he himself said after the Bournemouth humbling: “It is 7-0 against us in three halves of football. That is the reality.”

And it is harsh one to come to terms with every time a team in this position slips or stumbles. Third place above Manchester City coming towards the end of January is unconceivable and implausible but the inevitable fear and danger is of this phenomenal work going to waste.

Going from a relegation battle to the most comfortable of mid-table finishes would ordinarily be cause for immense praise and it would be an extraordinary achievement but there is no avoiding how disappointing it would be for Forest to fall out of European contention from where they were. A four-point buffer is not exceptionally snug.

It will not be an easy course to correct against Brighton, Fulham, Newcastle, Arsenal and Manchester City either. That run is the ultimate test of whether crashing back down to earth will do Forest some good.

 

Robert Sanchez
No Premier League player has made more mistakes leading to a goal this season and it should shame Sanchez that he stands alongside Aro Muric on that front. While Ipswich have dropped their error-prone keeper in the midst of a relegation battle, Chelsea are sticking by theirs with bizarre and uncharacteristic patience.

Enzo Maresca knows the Spaniard is “still far, far, far from where I want him to be” yet the alternative is the untested Filip Jorgensen or Lucas Bergstrom. Chelsea have spent more than £70m on goalkeepers since the summer 2022 takeover and still have none they can truly trust, while Kepa is in tremendous form after being sent to Bournemouth on loan.

The ruthlessness with which so many players have been ostracised or sold in constant pursuit of improvements across the squad clashes so starkly with how Chelsea are handling their goalkeepers.

Sanchez has made the same calibre of baffling mistake throughout his entire career, does not have the same heaps of untapped potential as the rest of this squad – he was the oldest used against Manchester City – and has long been this team’s most consistent liability. It does beg the question as to why he is the one player Chelsea have decided to expend their entire reserve of patience on.

 

Vitor Pereira
Oh, sweet summer child. There were two instances of damaging naivety in Pereira’s post-match press conference: overestimating the Wolves owners and underestimating Spursiness.

A defeat to Arsenal is generally no cause for anger but the circumstances of failing to capitalise on a half-hour one-man advantage are frustrating. “Next year will be in the Premier League,” Pereira reiterated with Wolves hovering above a relegation zone they were dumped back into after Leicester’s surprise win the next day in north London.

There is a great deal more danger in Pereira being “very confident” about Wolves making the requisite signings in what remains of the January transfer window when his predecessor’s parting shot before being sacked revolved around frustrations at not being properly backed, while the manager before that cited similar broken promises.

Emmanuel Agbadou had an excellent Molineux debut but Wolves need a great deal more. Pereira’s optimism might well be checked when a couple of unseasoned teenagers come in with the funds generated by Matheus Cunha’s deadline day sale.

 

Aston Villa
If it could have been written off as an unhappy coincidence before based on the quality of opposition, no longer can Aston Villa’s post-Champions League form really be ignored.

Their record in Premier League games played straight after Champions League matches is: P7 W1 D3 L3 F6 A10. That solitary win was at home to Wolves in September. The Champions League hangover is real and Unai Emery needs to find a cure.

 

Oliver Glasner
For the first time this season, a Crystal Palace substitute scored a Premier League goal. Glasner was the last manager who started the campaign to achieve that feat, including the six who have since been sacked.

The apparent ease with which Romain Esse found the net from the bench might suggest Glasner needs no attacking reinforcements but the lack of depth in forward positions is obvious and Eddie Nketiah looks like a vanity purchase at £25m. At least the £5m in performance-related add-ons might go untouched.

 

Fulham
Marco Silva surely won’t mind viewing Fulham’s season through the prism of Manchester United so here goes: they have done the double over two teams so far this Premier League season and the Cottagers will know that any statistic shared with Southampton is not a positive one.

 

Ipswich
Kieran McKenna was right to “take a lot of positives from the second half” and that late Jacob Greaves header was a necessary shift in momentum after Ipswich had conceded 13 unanswered Premier League goals to that point.

The bottom three can ultimately only have lost on a weekend when the two sides above the relegation zone won. A home victory against Southampton next is an absolute necessity.

 

Southampton
A historically poor team this deep into a top-flight campaign. The Portsmouth 2009/10 vintage of Avram Grant, finishing 20th and having nine points docked had kept Southampton from being quantifiably described as such so far but that was always an illusion and it is finally official: no side has ever had a worse Premier League record after so many games.

The desperate hope remains that Derby 2007/08 can be beaten but it does not bode well that Southampton have led fewer matches (eight) than every side bar Leicester yet still no team has lost more games from winning positions in a single season since Wolves in 2011/12.

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