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Gameweek 31 was dominated by non-EPL football as Manchester City and Arsenal locked horns in the Carabao Cup final. However, while most eyes were on Wembley, so many EPL games played out in very interesting fashion. European chasers secured crucial victories, relegation stragglers continued the battle for survival, and we had another Tyne-Wear derby. Here are all the winners and losers from a fascinating gameweek of football.
Yeah, so here is the thing: Tottenham might be the worst-run club in the world. I don't know if there is any other club of Tottenham's size and ambitions being run as terribly as they are. The manager they hired to help them fight off relegation threats hasn't won a single game so far. You could argue that the games they've had to play so far have been tough, but last gameweek, they faced Nottingham Forest. NOTTINGHAM FOREST. Fellow relegation stragglers, a club that is also being run into the ground by bad management. The least Tottenham and their new manager could do in this game was give a good account of themselves. So maybe you don't expect them to blow Forest out of the way, but you would expect a disciplined, tight, determined, and organised performance, and a point at the very least. Instead, Tottenham got blown away 3-0 by Forest, and Forest have now moved to 16th place on 32 points, with Tottenham replacing them in 17th with 30 points, just 1 point above West Ham in the drop zone.
David Moyes is performing a miracle at Hill Dickinson stadium (yes, I typed Goodison Park before I deleted it, sue me). At the beginning of the season, West Ham fans expected Everton to be dealing with relegation under Moyes. The consensus among the West Ham fanbase, at least, was that Moyes has run out of ideas at the top level of football and needs to call it quits. After beating Chelsea 3-0 in a very convincing display, Everton currently sit 8th on the table with 46 points and dreams of Europe in their eyes. As for West Ham, well, anyone leading this knows how West Ham's season is going. What is even more impressive is that Moyes has kept the momentum going after losing Jack Grealish to injury about halfway through the season, given that he had been arguably their most important player in the first half of the season (along with Kiernan Drewsbury-Hall and Jordan Pickford, of course). One thing I think is abundantly clear, regardless of whether Everton makes it into Europe: Moyes is not yet finished at this level.
Liverpool is having a see-saw end to the season, with great performances that seem like they are heralding a turnaround at the club, followed by incredibly subpar performances. This gameweek was one such week for Liverpool. They came from 1-0 down to blow Galatasaray away 4-0 in the second leg of the UCL Round of 16, a brilliant result. And then at the weekend they lost 2-1 to (an admittedly seemingly rejuvenated) Brighton, a disappointing result. See-Saw. This defeat has serious implications for Liverpool's push for a top 4 finish. With Aston Villa picking up a win to end their own rotten streak, they put a bit of distance between themselves and Liverpool and gave Arne Slot more headaches than he'd have liked going into the last 7 games of the season.
Marco Silva at Fulham, like David Moyes at Everton has done wonders at Craven Cottage with a small budget, a group of players most would consider just about midtable quality, and while juggling losing several players at several points this season. Their 3-1 victory over Burnley saw them move up to 9th place in the league, just below Moyes's Everton in 8th, and both clubs able to go into the rest provided by the international break with dreams of Europe on their mind. For Silva and Fulham in particular, it's quite the turnaround given hoow much time Fulham spent in and around the relegation places in the early days of the season. Whatever happends, Marco Silva and his team deserve a lot of praise for orchestrating such a wonderful season against all odds with the resources available to them.
I like to think that, given the kind of season they've been having, Newcastle had only one objective coming into this game: do not lose two Tyne-Wear derbies to a club that only gained promotion to the Premier League again this year. And they started well enough, too. Anthony Gordon scored in the 10th minute, and the opening periods of the game were dominated by a Newcastle side that seemed determined to exact revenge for the loss to Sunderland earlier in the season. However, as the game wore on, Newcastle began to fade away. Sunderland equalised in the 57th minute and stole a late winner in the 90th minute to heap even more despair on Newcastle fans in the same week that they were dumped out of the Champions League by Barcelona unceremoniously. Questions about Eddie Howe's future are swirling already, and given how disappointing the season has been, one of the possible answers to the question of Howe's future is "moving on from the Newcastle job."
After beating Liverpool 2-1, Brighton has now won 4 and lost just 1 of their last 5 games, And that singular loss came against league leaders Arsenal in a tightly fought contest. In other words, Brighton has turned a corner under Fabian Hurzeler. As the season draws to a close, they currently sit in 10th place on 43 points, just 6 points behind Liverpool in 5th with 7 games to go. For a long time this season it seemed like Fabian Hurzeler had lost the plot and the only reason he was still in a job was that the Brighton hierarchy dislike sacking managers midway through the season prefering regime changes at the end of the season so the new manager can start on a clean slate. However, given the recent turnaround, and with 7 games left to go, Hurzeler might be making a last ditch effort to prove that he deserves to stay on and be given more time. Also can we talk about Danny Welbeck rolling back the years at the age of 35. Not only is he scoring more goals than before, he's also doing it in the really important games like the one against United and now this brace against Liverpool. This is not a statpadding session against weaker opponents. I think Tuchel should have him on the plane for the World Cup.
tottenham are surely the worst run club at the moment. https://paragraph.com/@thefalsenine/epl-gw31-winners-and-losers