Every week presents obstacles to Premier League favorites — Some new, some a bit too familiar. How you deal with them can be the difference between reaching your season’s goals and falling flat.
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There were several great examples of this in Week 23 of the 2024-25 Premier League season. Tottenham Hotspur continue to fight through an eye-popping injury list, Arsenal are trying to be shown red cards by all of the PGMOL’s referees, and Manchester City’s making sure even new defenders quickly get in on their habit of conceding huge chances.
Man City and Arsenal bounced back from their early problematic moments in Week 23, as City rallied around debutant Abdukhodir Khusanov and rained goals on Chelsea and the Gunners shook off Myles Lewis-Skelly’s unusual red card to beat Wolves and stay in the title race.
Spurs, well, who knows what to say about them? Ange Postecoglou’s in an almost impossible injury quandary but Spurs are not finding wins and have nearly buried their route to Europe through the Premier League table.
All that and more in the 10 things we learned from Week 23, as here are 10 quick thoughts about the nine games staged in Week 23 from our writers — Joe Prince-Wright, Andy Edwards, and Nick Mendola.
10 things we learned from Week 23 of the 2024-25 Premier League season
Gunners show lessons have been learned after another red card
Mikel Arteta and Arsenal celebrated wildly at the final whistle and for good reason — they secured a huge win after being reduced to 10 players in the first half. Red cards keep happening to the Gunneers this season as they lost at Bournemouth and drew against Brighton and Manchester City when previously going down to 10. But this was different. Arsenal just went for it after Myles Lewis-Skelly was harshly sent off. He caught Matt Doherty just a bit too high for Michael Oliver’s liking and it probably fell into the ‘orange card’ category. Still, Arsenal looked like the team who were up a player against Wolves in the second half as they pressed high and only gave up a couple of chances. Kai Havertz missed a few good opportunities throughout the game but Arsenal thoroughly deserved the win and they’re now 13 games unbeaten in the Premier League and aren’t going away in the title race anytime soon. They could have felt sorry for themselves and been distracted like they had been when they went down to 10 players in games earlier this season. That didn’t happen at Wolves and that shows Arsenal are learning how to cope with big moments, even when there’s a huge feeling of injustice. — Joe Prince-Wright
Foden finding form while Man City gets healthy is frightening
Perhaps Manchester City have already dropped too far out of the Premier League title race. Perhaps. But when you watch suddenly in-form Phil Foden joining resurgent Erling Haaland and electric new face Omar Marmoush in the same City blue, you can’t help but wonder what’s next for Pep Guardiola’s men. Foden was, after all, the 2023-24 Premier League Player of the Year and contributed virtually nothing — one assist — through the first 16 matches of the PL season. He’s since scored in five of seven Premier League matches including two braces, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that Haaland has five goals in his last five PL outings. City may not be able to chase down Liverpool, but they get the Reds in their next five matches. Arsenal, Newcastle, and Forest are also there. Would you bet against City reeling off four wins and daring those that wrote them off to not find their erasers? — Nick Mendola
Creativity gone as Tottenham hit new low
Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Leicester City
Ange Postecoglou defended his Spurs players after this damaging defeat but both he and his players were to blame for this woeful performance and the situation they’re in. Yes, Spurs have had huge injury problems. But so have other teams in the Premier League in recent weeks. Look at Bournemouth, Brentford and even Everton and Arsenal, they’ve all battled through injury issues for a while too. Tottenham can no longer blame that. Spurs had enough international, top-class players out there on Sunday who could close out a win against struggling Leicester City, at home, when 1-0 up. Failure to do that has put Ange Postecoglou under more pressure than he’s ever been under at Tottenham. He spoke after the game like a man resigned to his fate. He knows that Daniel Levy has to act soon and the only thing previously saving Postecoglou was that his swashbuckling and cavalier Spurs side were fun to watch, created chances and scored goals. That has stopped happening and Leicester had a higher xG. Spurs just panicked, ran out of ideas and lacked belief they would get back in this game. Postecoglou could stay on until the Liverpool League Cup semifinal second leg on February 6 but he may not last much longer than that. If Spurs can’t turn this around soon they’re in a real relegation battle. — Joe Prince-Wright
Bournemouth scored first, and it was O-V-E-R
Bournemouth 5-0 Nottingham Forest
In this matchup of unlikely European (and Champions League) hopefuls, it was painfully obvious in the minutes immediately following the first goal that Nottingham Forest were going to really struggle to create much of anything that might get them back in the game (It did help that the Cherries went on to score again, and again, and again, and again). When Forest score the first goal, it’s a nightmare for opponents because they defend incredibly well and play at such a low tempo than 10 or 15 minutes can simply go by in a game with nothing really happening on the pitch. The deciding factor was always going to be: What can they do when they fall behind? Based on 80 minutes of evidence, not much. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side amassed all of 0.20 xG on 7 shots in the first half and (unsuccessfully) deployed the cross-and-pray method in the second half (0.69 on 11 shots, nearly half of them headers from crosses). — Andy Edwards
Some wins paint a masterpiece, others put a fresh coat on the wall
- Ruben Amorim reacts to ‘really important win’ over Fulham
- Amorim says Rashford not working hard enough, would play GK coach over him
Very few are going to look back on this game with.... well, very few are going to look back on this game. Manchester United were solid at the back and so, mostly, were Fulham, but the entertainment was at a minimum unless you’re a fan of duels in the midfield. But Ruben Amorim’s team is not one that is seeking style points right now, it’s seeking any points. The most important thing was the three points. It hardly matters that Lisandro Martinez’s goal took a huge deflection, and it matters just as much — or as little — that Toby Collyer’s smart goal line clearance kept the game 1-0 late. With Palace, Spurs, Everton, and Ipswich next in the league, United can build on Sunday and — perhaps — show a buit more style along the way. — Nick Mendola
Liverpool’s consistency will see them stroll to title
The 2024-25 version of Liverpool isn’t going to go down as one of the best PL sides (or even the best at Anfield) in recent memory, but Arne Slot’s side has a secret weapon that no other side in the league doesn’t has this season, something that often eluded Jurgen Klopp’s best teams: consistency. Sure, it’s less exciting than Klopp’s heavy-metal football and they grind out wins more often than they blow their opponents away, but the current side controls games much more effectively and the entire squad still looks fresh with the business end of the season still to come. The Reds have drawn more games than they would have liked recently (5W-4D-0L), but Arsenal haven’t been able to capitalize and they remain a half-dozen points off the pace, and Liverpool still have a game in hand. They aren’t so much the unstoppable force this season, as they are a perfectly positioned immovable object. — Andy Edwards
Moyes’ 700th game tells a fitting and familiar tale
Brighton & Hove Albion 0-1 Everton
David Moyes became just the third manager in Premier League history to take charge of 700 games and this was the kind of performance we’ve seen hundreds of times from his sides, as you had to question whether this was 2004 Everton. The Toffees created a few decent chances in the first half and were handed a gift of a penalty kick for a slightly harsh handball, but they took the lead and then held on. Brighton had decent chances with Georginio Rutter and Joao Pedro going close, but Everton largely sat in and kept them at bay with Jordan Pickford only having to make a couple of decent saves. This was peak Moyes and the Scotsman was delighted at the final whistle as he delivered back-to-back wins to give Everton some much-needed breathing space in their scrap against relegation. You know exactly what you’re getting when you hire Moyes and 700 games on, it’s still working. — Joe Prince-Wright
Alexander Isak is breathing rarefied air
Southampton 1-3 Newcastle United
The Swedish striker is a man in confident form, and he looks capable of scoring twice a half. The Festive Fixtures saw Isak pick up steam after scoring just four times heading into December. Now the 25-year-old has goals in nine of his last 10 Premier League games and is level with Erling Haaland in the Golden Boot chase, two behind Mohamed Salah’s 19. Dropping Joelinton into a massive midfield with Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes gives Isak two true wingers in Jacob Murphy (seven assists) and Anthony Gordon (five). Isak has five assists himself and he’s bagged goals against the biggest names and best defenses in the game. Newcastle simply need to make it back to Europe, or else Isak will be scoring for fun on a Barcelona or Arsenal next season. — Nick Mendola
Brentford’s buzzy forwards edge tight clash
There wasn’t much in this game as the wind swirled around Selhurst but Brentford’s strikers turned up and Palace’s did not. Both Eberechi Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta huffed and puffed throughout the game and they combined for a big chance in the first half which Mateta hit straight at Flekken. At the other end Wissa’s deflected shot was superbly saved and Mbeumo and Schade were a constant threat. The former got lucky his penalty kick which hit the post was ordered to be retaken due to encroachment from Palace, but he calmly tucked home the retake. Schade’s towering header was brave and gave Brentford the win as their forwards just looked a bit sharper than Palace’s in a game between two very evenly-matched teams. — Joe Prince-Wright
Graham Potter’s shorthanded Irons hammer out deserved away point
Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham United
There are loads of false dawns for Premier League managerial tenures, and overhyping one result is always dangerous, but West Ham have to be feeling great about the way Graham Potter got a point out of Villa Park on Sunday. Yes, Villa’s legs wore down as the game went on, but Potter got a point away from home despite playing only one true center back in Max Kilman, who was terrific in a back three (or five) as four of West Ham’s 10 outfield players were fullbacks (goal scorer Emerson Palmieri as well as Vladimir Coufal, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and Aaron Cresswell. And it’s a pretty easy argument to make that West Ham could’ve easily won with a true center forward. Big summer buy Niclas Fullkrug missed this game and Michail Antonio remains out — not a CF, but top attacker Jarrod Bowen is injured, too — and West Ham won the xG battle and kept hold of 54% of the ball away from home. Things are looking up in East London for West Ham. — Nick Mendola
