With six games left in the Premier League season, Liverpool’s lead is back to 13 points, so it will take an incredible collapse to keep them from the league title. We recap the tremendous and the tremendously bad that the weekend had to offer as the season winds down.
Premier League winners from Matchday 32
Kevin de Bruyne
How many times have we seen this happen? Manchester City went two goals down against Crystal Palace, and their play drew some boos from the faithful at the Etihad. Yet the brilliant Belgian turned the match around with a vintage performance, scoring one goal and assisting on another in what turned into a 5-2 City rout. He has already announced he will leave the club where he has achieved so much, and even neutral fans will miss his works of wizardry in the attacking third.
Liverpool’s contract extensions
Mohamed Salah signed up to stay at Liverpool for a few more years, and assisted on Luis Díaz’ opening goal against West Ham. Then Virgil van Dijk atoned for causing an own goal by heading home a corner kick at the right end to win the match, and afterwards hinted that his own contract negotiations were coming to a happy ending. The red half of Merseyside is in clover right now.
Aston Villa’s subs
It was Ollie Watkins who came off the bench and had a spectacular backheel finish to open the scoring for Villa. Then fellow substitute Donyell Malen rang up his third goal in four Premier League games, and third sub John McGinn pounced on a rebound to make the 3-0 final score look better than Villa deserved against relegated Southampton. It’s still Villa’s fourth straight win.
Chris Richards
The former FC Dallas and Bayern Munich player scored his second goal in the Premier League (and his first this season) when his Afro’d head turned in a corner kick for Crystal Palace. If only he and the rest of his defense hadn’t let in five goals to Manchester City, right?
Stephy Mavididi
After Leicester suffered eight straight losses (and, not coincidentally, eight straight games without a goal), their striker who missed much of that time with injury broke the goalless streak when his blocked shot came back to him and his follow-up attempt went past Bart Verbruggen. The losing streak also ended with the Foxes’ 2-2 draw at Brighton. Barring an incredible turn of events, it’s too little and too late to save them from the drop, but the English forward can at least say that his team needed him to finish chances for them.
Wolverhampton
Four straight wins in the top flight for Wolves, for the first time since Richard Nixon visited China. Not only are they well ahead of the relegation zone, they’re ahead of West Ham on goal difference and right on the heels of both Manchester United and Tottenham. They may get to mid-table before this season is done.
Julio Enciso
The Paraguayan loan player scored one goal and assisted on the other as Ipswich Town took an early two-goal lead on Chelsea. The resulting draw likely won’t be enough to save Ipswich from the drop, but at least Enciso can go back to Brighton when the season ends.
Jadon Sancho
The word “disappointing” has frequently been attached to his name since he left Borussia Dortmund, but he pulled out the draw for Chelsea with a thunderbolt of a shot from just outside the box.
Premier League losers from Matchday 32
Nottingham Forest
They got Chris Wood back into the lineup, yet somehow their offense seemed stodgier than ever in a 1-0 home loss to Everton. The visiting Toffees seemed to be creating all the chances, and the loss leaves Newcastle one point behind Nottingham with a game in hand. (The Magpies have won four straight now, by the way.) The Trees do have some easy ones left on their schedule, including a match at home to Leicester, but they need to sort out their issues fast or they might find themselves playing in the Europa League next season.
Mikel Arteta
He needed to rotate his squad after that big Champions League win over Real Madrid, and he got his rotations wrong against Brentford. Thomas Partey’s goal on the breakaway was canceled out by Yoane Wissa’s turn-and-shoot goal, and Arsenal couldn’t grab the winner. It wasn’t even the Gunners’ lack of a striker so much as the Bees playing level against their youngsters that led to the draw.
Marco Asensio
Anybody can have a penalty stopped, but two in one game? Granted, Asensio’s second penalty rebounded to John McGinn, so Aston Villa scored anyway, but this is an issue that Coach Unai Emery doesn’t need with the Champions League fixture against Paris (and a possible penalty shootout to decide it) looming next on the schedule. He’d better hope that his fellow Spaniard resets his mind before that match.
Altay Bayındır
Manchester United benched André Onana in favor of their second-string goalkeeper. On his Premier League debut, the Turkish netminder gave up four goals to Newcastle, creating one directly when his attempted clearance bounced off the head of Joelinton straight to Bruno Guimarães, who passed the ball into United’s net. Oh, for the days of Edwin van der Sar.
Guglielmo Vicario
When he’s playing well, the Tottenham keeper is capable of pushing Gianluigi Donnarumma for Italy’s starting job. Yet he was at the heart of a car crash of a defensive display by Spurs, as one punch went straight to Rayan Aït Nouri for Wolves’ opening goal and then another one ricocheted off Djed Spence for an own goal. It’s a miserable time to be a Spurs fan right now.
Antonee Robinson
Neither USA fans nor Fulham fans will like seeing this, but it was his stumble on the ball that allowed Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo a free run to score the game’s only goal less than a minute into the match. The Cherries’ win pulled them ahead of Fulham into eighth place.