Premier League
SEVEN TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE FIRST PREMIER LEAGUE ACTION OF 2020
Goals, red cards, VAR drama, general drama, upsets, and Manchester United not being very good. It might be a new year in the Premier League but the same old themes occur.
What did we learn as England’s top flight entered 2020? Have a gander for 90min’s seven main talking points from the 21st round of fixtures.
Acrobatic Finishes Are Back in Fashion
Two cracking acrobatic strikes in the same round of Premier League fixtures? Don’t say we don’t spoil you.
The first came when Alireza Jahanbakhsh, in the midst of a dramatic career revival in a Brighton shirt, denied Chelsea a victory with an exemplary overhead kick in New Year’s Day’s early kick-off.
Then, in the 5.30 kickoff, Sebastian Haller – who has also struggled to adapt to life in England, if not quite to the same extent – doubled West Ham’s lead against Bournemouth, showing off some similarly ridiculous technique to dig out Ryan Fredericks’ cross and send it across Aaron Ramsdale into the corner.
If the rest of 2020 follows in this vein then that goal of the season competition come May is going to be some contest.
Moyesy-Mania Lives
West Ham’s rampant victory, of course, only came about after the return of the prodigal son, the Special One, Fife’s finest, and arguably the greatest manager who ever lived.
David Moyes took charge of a football match for the first time since being let go by the Hammers in 2018, and showed us exactly why he should have been kept on in the first place.
Bournemouth were of course poor, but in a clinical 4-0 victory, the West Ham players showed a level of intensity near-unrecognisable from that they were showing under Manuel Pellegrini in the first half of the season. If they can keep this level of performance going, then another Moyesy masterclass beckons.
Literally Anyone Could Go Down
What even is the relegation battle this season? Norwich, unfortunately, look finished, but beyond that, it is unfathomably tight.
Everton and Southampton have been resurrected, the latter conquering José Mourinho’s Tottenham over New Year, but although they prop up the top half, they each remain just five points clear of safety.
Watford have dragged themselves back into the fight, Bournemouth have dropped into the bottom three, and Burnley have lost three on the spin – with Chelsea, Leicester and Manchester United on the horizon. With just five points separating 11th from 18th, it seems as if literally anything could happen with regards to the drop, and more than half the league may fear they could yet be dragged into a scrap.
Jack Grealish Might Be England’s Most Creative Midfielder
With an assist and another stunning goal in Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory at Burnley, it’s now 11 goal involvements in 19 Premier League appearances for Jack Grealish since Villa’s return to the top flight.
In that respect, he’s out-performing James Maddison, Dele Alli and Mason Mount in that respect, and he’s doing so for a team languishing near the bottom of the league.
Remarkably, he’s yet to be capped for England, but on current form, it shouldn’t be long before that changes.
Life After Vardy
Jamie Vardy remains the Premier League’s runaway top scorer, so with Leicester missing him following two hard-to-take defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool, they might have taken some time to lick their wounds.
They might have, but they didn’t. In the absence of their talisman, they’ve bounced back with successive victories, scoring five goals from five different scorers – suggesting they are a long way from a one-man team.
Kelechi Iheanacho made a case for himself as Vardy’s heir-apparent with a match-winning display against West Ham before the New Year, and it was Ayoze Perez’s time to shine against Newcastle in their first match of 2020, scoring one and assisting another in a 3-0 win. Vardy will be a difficult asset to replace once he hangs up his boots, but the raw materials needed to do so are already there.
Arteta Out-Thinks Ole
Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United, less than two weeks into Mikel Arteta’s tenure, gave us a glimpse of an Arsenal team playing with a high intensity and a clear tactical plan. They were sharp, switched on and well-drilled; not perfect, but efficient, functional, and certainly promising.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been in charge at Manchester United for over a year now, and they showed none of those things.
It seems they have only regressed since their early days under the Norwegian, despite a wealth of investment in the summer, and while the same could yet happen to Arteta, on the evidence of Wedneday evening’s clash at the Emirates, it was abundantly clear which manager you’d rather have.
The Future Is Bright for Manchester City
There has been so much negativity flying around surrounding a Manchester City team who have committed the crime of being human in recent weeks, but as the title ‘race’ took another painstaking step towards its inevitable conclusion, one thing became clear for City – the future is remarkably bright.
Defeat to Wolves after Christmas perhaps signalled the death of their hopes of retaining the title, but they’ve bounced back from that with two impressive victories, and the latest over Everton showed that in Eric Garcia, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus, the years to come are in good hands.
Jesus in particular put the Toffees to the sword with a two-goal showing, but Garcia has been a revelation at the back since coming in, while Foden’s meteoric talent is finally being recognised with minutes on the pitch.
They may not catch Liverpool this season, but with three trophies still up for grabs and some hugely promising talents beginning to shine in the first-team setup, there is little to worry about long-term.
-90min
Manchester United’s under-pressure coach Ruben Amorim will be given the full three years of his contract to prove himself and the club will become the most profitable in the world, co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said on Wednesday.
Amorim was Ratcliffe’s choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November but the Portuguese coach has struggled to turn around the club’s flagging fortunes, winning only 10 of his 34 Premier League matches in charge.
United endured their worst top-flight finish last season since they were relegated in 1973–74, coming 15th, and they missed out on Europe after being beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
But Ratcliffe has issued his strongest statement of support for Amorim yet, comparing the situation to when Alex Ferguson struggled in the early years of his reign before becoming the greatest manager in the club’s history.
“I remember the clamouring for Alex Ferguson to be fired in his first two years,” Ratcliffe, who owns 30% of the club and controls the football side of the business, told The Times’ podcast The Business. “You look at (Mikel) Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time for the first couple of years.
“We’re results-driven at the end of the day, but we have to be patient and we have to see through the results. I think there’s lots of good things at Manchester United. We have to be patient and we have a long-term plan. It isn’t a light switch.
“Ruben needs to demonstrate that he’s a great coach over three years.”
‘WE’VE MADE ERRORS’
While the American Glazer family retain majority control of the 20-time champions of England, Ratcliffe rejected suggestions they could instruct him to sack Amorim.
“It absolutely wouldn’t happen because it’s just a good working relationship. They come to the board meetings. We sit down and we talk about things,” Ratcliffe said.
“We’ve made errors. There’s absolutely no question that we’ve made errors as we’ve gone along and we’ve talked about it. But no one’s perfect.”
Asked to confirm whether Amorim would see out his contract, Ratcliffe said: “Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years, because football’s not overnight.”
Despite United’s stock falling on the pitch, off it they recently posted record revenues of 666.5 million pounds ($892.1 million) in the year to June 2025, albeit with a 33 million pounds loss.
Amorim’s squad was boosted by more than 200 million pounds worth of new signings in the summer.
“The better your squad, the better your football should be. So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing,” Ratcliffe, who completed his acquisition of a minority stake in the club in 2024, said.
“If you look at our results for last year we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League.
“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”
Ratcliffe also said he wants to revive the club’s Academy that once churned out the likes of multiple title winners David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.
“The academy has really slipped at Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said. “You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United cruised to a rare comfortable home Premier League victory as goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko secured a 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday.
With the pressure growing on manager Ruben Amorim after a disappointing start to the season, Mount calmed the nerves around the ground with a fine early finish to break the deadlock.
United continued to dominate, with a spectacular save from Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs preventing Bruno Fernandes from adding a sumptuous second before Sesko netted his first Old Trafford goal after 31 minutes.
Sunderland were awarded a penalty late in the first half, a decision that was overturned following a VAR intervention, but they never really threatened after the break as United eased to a third home league victory of the season.
The result put United in provisional eighth place with 10 points from seven games, two places below Sunderland on 11.
Wins, especially comfortable ones, have been in short supply for Portuguese Amorim since he took charge in November.
United supporters have slowly started to turn on the new manager as a result, with nothing short of victory over promoted Sunderland, despite the visitors’ impressive start to the season, enough to appease the disgruntled masses.
Mount’s superb control and finish was just what the beleaguered boss needed. The fine strike was the earliest United have scored in the Premier League since Marcus Rashford’s goal at Ipswich Town in Amorim’s first game in charge.
It was only a matter of time until the hosts scored again, such was their dominance. From a long throw, Sesko was alert to the flick-on before steering home his second in as many games.
United thought they had shot themselves in the foot as Sesko was penalised for a high boot in his own penalty area, only for VAR to deem it not to be a foul.
The hosts took their foot off the gas in the second half, but still should have added to their tally, with veteran Brazilian Casemiro blazing their best chance over the bar.
Sunderland did manufacture a late gilt-edged chance but Senne Lammens, making his debut in the United goal, stood tall to block, completing an assured performance from the keeper and his new teammates.
-Reuters
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Premier League champions Liverpool dropped points for the first time this season when they lost 2-1 at Crystal Palace in the eighth minute of added time as Manchester United and Chelsea suffered 3-1 defeats on Saturday.
United slumped at Brentford and 10-man Chelsea were beaten at home by Brighton & Hove Albion, who scored twice in stoppage time.
Manchester City thrashed Burnley 5-1 thanks to two own goals and a late brace from Erling Haaland while Leeds United were held to a 2-2 draw after Bournemouth equalised in added time through 19-year-old Eli Junior Kroupi.
There was also a late twist at Tottenham Hotspur when Joao Palhinha struck an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
LIVERPOOL SUFFER FIRST LOSS
Liverpool were on the back foot early on when Palace took the lead in the ninth minute through a set-piece when the ball fell to Ismaila Sarr who smashed it home.
Liverpool would have conceded more if not for goalkeeper Alisson while Jean-Philippe Mateta nearly made it 2-0 when he hit the post.
Although Liverpool equalised through Federico Chiesa in the 87th minute, fellow substitute Eddie Nketiah provided late drama when he scored the winner in the 97th minute, with Selhurst Park celebrating the goal twice after VAR confirmed he was not offside.
“The boys are in really good form and think we can win every game and today we showed that,” Nketiah told the BBC.
Palace ended the day in second place, three points behind leaders Liverpool although Arsenal can go second if they beat Newcastle United on Sunday.
OWN GOALS, HAALAND GIVE MAN CITY WIN
Burnley’s Maxime Esteve became only the sixth player to score two own goals in a Premier League game as City climbed up to fourth.
Esteve scored the first when he tried to deny Phil Foden but Jaidon Anthony made it 1-1 with a shot that deflected off Ruben Dias.
Matheus Nunes restored City’s lead with a close-range effort before Esteve’s second own goal came when he looked to stop Oscar Bobb from finding the net.
Haaland struck twice in the dying minutes to hand Burnley their biggest loss of the season.
MANCHESTER UNITED LOSE AT BRENTFORD
Bryan Mbeumo received a warm welcome from the Brentford fans as he returned to his former club for the first time since his move to Manchester United but the reception paled in comparison to the roars when the home side went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes.
Igor Thiago capitalised on United’s high line for the opener when Jordan Henderson sent him through on goal in the eighth minute, before the Brazilian forward grabbed his second when United keeper Altay Bayindir spilled a save right into his path.
United pulled one back when Benjamin Sesko scored his first goal for the club but Bruno Fernandes had a penalty saved by Caoimhin Kelleher before Mathias Jensen put the game out of reach in added time with a rocket from outside the box.
“We didn’t control the game, we played the game of Brentford. We were really confused (on) second balls, first balls, set pieces,” United manager Ruben Amorim said.
“The crucial moments, they were against us. Tough to lose again.”
CHELSEA SEE RED AGAIN
Chelsea had a player sent off for a second time in as many league games when Trevoh Chalobah saw red for denying Brighton a goal-scoring opportunity at Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Fernandez had given Chelsea a 1-0 lead with a close-range header but Chalobah’s red card in the 53rd minute reduced the home side to 10 men and Brighton made it count when Danny Welbeck opened his account for the season with the equaliser.
Brighton capitalised again in the 92nd minute when Maxim De Cuyper powered home a header and the visitors sealed all three points when Welbeck scored in the 10th minute of added time.
Bournemouth took the lead at Leeds when Antoine Semenyo scored from a free kick but the home side made it 2-1 when Joe Rodon and Sean Longstaff netted either side of halftime.
With Leeds close to taking three points, Kroupi volleyed home from inside the box in the 93rd minute to lift Bournemouth into a group of three clubs on 11 points.
Sunderland moved to 11 points and fourth place by beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the City Ground to leave Forest’s new manager Ange Postecoglou winless after five games in charge.
Omar Alderete’s first-half goal was the difference between the two sides with Sunderland mounting a staunch rearguard action as Forest laid siege to their goal.
Wolves were seconds away from earning their first win of the season after losing their opening five games in their worst ever start to a league campaign.
They led through Santiago Bueno’s scrappy goal early in the second half but Palhinha guided in a superb finish to send Tottenham to third place on goal difference.
-Reuters
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