Nottingham Forest could be seventh by the time they host Tottenham Hotspur on Monday after Manchester City beat Everton. Funny how quickly things can change, isn’t it?
After a dull Saturday afternoon, here’s the F365 Blackout…
Everton 0-2 Man City: Champions win to raise Forest anxiety
Manchester City’s late win at Everton means Nottingham Forest – who face Spurs on Monday – could finish the weekend seventh in the Premier League, which feels absolutely mental.
The champions weren’t particularly impressive at Goodison Park and left it late to see the Toffees off, but we’re at the stage of the season where results matter far more than performances.
James Tarkowski’s header onto the post in the first half threatened to spark a dull match into life – or at least serve as a wake-up call for City – but not quite. There was an outrageously impressive Jake O’Brien diving-headed block to deny a Kevin De Bruyne goal, but other than those two moments, there wasn’t much to talk about until City took the lead through Nico O’Reilly.
In completely woke fashion, inverted makeshift full-back Matheus Nunes assisted inverted makeshift full-back O’Reilly. The pass was perfect, and so was O’Reilly’s attacking movement and finish.
Mateo Kovacic sealed the win in injury time, and considering how well Everton have been playing under David Moyes, it’s a very impressive result.
Missing out on the top five would be disastrous for City and Guardiola. Thankfully for them, their schedule looks pretty generous. They’ve managed to put themselves in a superb position to qualify for the Champions League – though this Premier League season will still be deemed a huge failure even if they do.
The bad news for Everton is that Tarkowski was forced off injured and might miss the rest of the season – though that’s just an assumption on our part. What makes things worse is that Michael Keane is his replacement in the team.
Brentford 4-2 Brighton: Good news for Forest, Ipswich, Wolves as Bees win at home
Well, Brentford have finally won a game at home. Their last came on December 7 against Newcastle United – which, funnily enough, was also a 4-2 win.
Brentford’s start to the season was all about their relentless home form, with an away win not coming until January 4 against Southampton. That triggered a superb run on the road, while they simply could not win at home. Now that they’ve finally won at the Gtech, the Bees will obviously be pants in their final three away games of 2024/25.
So congratulations to Nottingham Forest, Ipswich, and Wolves on their upcoming wins. Well deserved, lads.
In hands down the best of Saturday afternoon’s four games, Brentford ran out 4-2 winners against a miserably out-of-form Brighton side, whose European hopes have taken a massive hit over the last month. Only two points separate the sides now – and if nobody’s considering the Bees as contenders, then why should we still be considering the Seagulls?
A Bryan Mbeumo brace took him to 18 league goals this season, while Yoane Wissa’s fine form continued with another goal. A Joao Pedro red card for violent conduct at 3-1 made Brighton’s task even harder, but a Kaoru Mitoma goal set up an interesting finish.
Christian Norgaard restored Brentford’s two-goal advantage in injury time, but the result was overshadowed by a horror injury to Albion defender Jan Paul van Hecke. He received treatment for a long, long time – and I suspect we won’t see him again for a long, long time.
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West Ham 1-1 Southampton: Derby have company, Potter has problems
Southampton getting a point to equal Derby County’s record-low 11-point haul will be the main talking point after their draw at West Ham, but there has to be a conversation about Graham Potter.
Questions about Potter need to be asked. Everyone was very loud about Julen Lopetegui until he was sacked, yet barely anything is being said about the ex-Chelsea boss.
Lopetegui fell victim to replacing a big-name manager – a role that rarely works out. David Moyes after Sir Alex Ferguson and Unai Emery after Arsene Wenger come to mind: two brilliant managers, but both were set up to fail.
Moyes did a lot for West Ham and obviously isn’t comparable to Ferguson or Wenger in terms of achievements, but his Europa Conference League triumph – along with other European exploits – made him a very tough act to follow.
Lopetegui failed to endear himself to the Hammers faithful and was ultimately let go, replaced by Potter – who hasn’t improved performances and certainly hasn’t improved results.
Luckily for West Ham, the teams in the bottom three are absolutely atrocious and relegation has never been a realistic concern. But Potter has inherited a very decent squad and is averaging exactly one point per Premier League match this season. Lopetegui averaged 1.15.
Southampton are bloody rubbish – and they were the better team at the London Stadium on Saturday. It’s very, very alarming and starting next season strongly is crucial for Potter and the Irons.
Palace 0-0 Bournemouth: Cherries finally admit defeat in Champions League quest
We’re going on record to say Bournemouth’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League are now non-existent.
The Cherries’ recent form has been disastrous – highlighted by the fact Andoni Iraola has gone from being linked with the Real Madrid job to the Tottenham Hotspur job. What a direction to go in.
A trip to Crystal Palace was always going to be difficult, and they were handed a huge advantage – well, a one-man advantage – when Chris Richards was sent off for a second bookable offence in the first half.
Pulling someone down on the counter is usually known as taking one for the team, but on a yellow card, it’s the complete opposite. Richards’ stupidity didn’t cost Palace too dearly, even with Oliver Glasner sacrificing Eberechi Eze at half-time. The Palace boss probably had one eye on the FA Cup semi-final next week when weighing up his options. Hopefully, Eze didn’t come off due to injury.
Bournemouth were unsurprisingly on top for most of the second half but couldn’t find a winning goal. Had they done so, they would have hit 51 points and been within touching distance of the top seven. Failing to back up Monday’s win over Fulham feels significant, but at least Brighton lost, so a top-half finish remains in their hands.
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