Football writer Dan Edwards looks at the key talking points from Saturday’s Premier League action after big results at both ends of the table.
No Erling Haaland, no problem? Not quite – but in Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki, Manchester City showed they have more than one avenue of attack in their pursuit of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
News that Haaland would not be involved because of an injury would have given Leeds United supporters – and Arsenal fans too – a boost.
For City, it meant a slight tweak. Semenyo was pushed from his hybrid forward-midfield role into the front two with Omar Marmoush, with Cherki introduced in midfield.
Leeds had City on the ropes for the first 30 minutes of this match and had the first eight shots while City’s first came in the 40th minute, their longest wait this season.
It wasn’t until when Gianluigi Donnarumma halted Brenden Aaronson on the counter in the 39th minute that City finally woke up.
The visitors finally took hold of the game, and after Nico O’Reilly twice went close, Semenyo put them in front, finishing off a fluid move involving Cherki and Rayan Ait-Nouri on the left.
City have often struggled in the second half of games this season but Saturday was the opposite, and it was Cherki who was at the heart of it. Named Player of the Match, he had 103 touches, second only to Rodri’s 138.
Watch: Cherki’s performance against Leeds
“Cherki, for me, had his best game”, his boss Pep Guardiola said. “Solidity and aggressive with the ball.”
His side have now won four in a row in the Premier League to go within two points of leaders Arsenal before the Gunners host Chelsea on Sunday. Asked whether his team can keep it up, Guardiola responded: “One game at a time. Recovery, there are many games, people are tired. Every game is really, really tough. Yesterday Wolves won [against Aston Villa]. The Premier League is better than ever.”
The three 15:00 GMT matches produced chaos and lots of goals. The total of 19 was the most goals ever scored from three simultaneous matches in the Premier League, as each contest was full of drama.
Football can be a cruel game, but Burnley have shown that they will not go down without a fight.
They scored in the third minute of added time to earn a point against Chelsea last week through Zian Flemming, and in the match before that overturned a two-goal deficit to defeat Crystal Palace.
It looked like they might pull off another comeback against Brentford when, having trailed by three goals after 34 minutes, they were miraculously level by the 60th minute.
Flemming was nearly the hero again when his 78th-minute goal to put the Clarets ahead was overturned for a narrow offside. Instead Mikkel Damsgaard struck a stoppage-time goal to restore Brentford’s lead. Again Burnley scored, but Ashley Barnes’ equaliser in the eighth minute of stoppage time was again overturned, this time for handball.
Watch: The chaotic finale to Burnley v Brentford
Liverpool became only the second team in Premier League history to score three first-half goals from corners on their way to a sixth win in seven games in all competitions.
Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister all struck before the break against West Ham United, matching Manchester United’s trio of first-half corner goals against Leicester City in September 2016.
Van Dijk’s goal was his 28th in the Premier League. Excluding penalties, only John Terry, with 41, has scored more in the competition among central defenders.
Watch: All THREE of Liverpool’s corner goals
“It’s hard to explain the game,” said West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo after watching his West Ham team create a host of chances and outscore their opponents by 1.84 to 1.75 Expected Goals (xG) in this match.
Everton manager David Moyes had said the club were not ready to give up their European ambitions, and they showed that with a statement win at Newcastle United.
Key to the victory was their “bouncebackability” – twice they lost the lead and twice they responded instantly.
It took 105 seconds for Beto to cancel out Jacob Ramsey’s equaliser for Newcastle in the first half, and just 74 seconds for his replacement, Thierno Barry, to do the same for Jacob Murphy’s second-half equaliser.
Newcastle nearly equalised for a third time in the fourth minute of added time when Sandro Tonali was sensationally denied by Jordan Pickford, a save which astonished team-mate Jarrad Branthwaite. “I think it’s the best save I’ve ever seen”, he said post-match. “I don’t know how he’s pulled it off.” Pickford himself called it “my best-ever save”.
Watch: Pickford’s incredible save
Given that the Premier League is on course a fifth UEFA Champions League spot, a league-high 12th draw of the season was a missed opportunity for AFC Bournemouth.
Victory over Sunderland would have lifted them above Brentford into seventh, but after substitute Evanilson cancelled out an early Eliezer Mayenda goal for the visitors, Andoni Iraola’s side were unable to find a winner.
The Cherries are unbeaten in eight Premier League matches, with only Man Utd currently on a longer run.
The Sunderland fans who had undertaken their longest journey of the season, a 684-mile round-trip, leaving the night before, not only had a point to take back home with them, but the welcome sight of Granit Xhaka back on the pitch for their heroes.
