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Leicester City went from bad to worse after their 3-0 Boxing Day drubbing by Newcastle when they scored all three goals in a 2-1 loss to Liverpool while Arsenal extended their lead to seven points at the summit of the Premier League thanks to Manchester City being held 1-1 by Everton.
Arsenal’s 4-2 win over Brighton at the Amex Stadium was helped by Newcastle dropping points in a 0-0 draw with Leeds at St Jame’s Park. Manchester United moved into the top four with a 1-0 over Wolves while Spurs were beaten at home by Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, 2-0.
Brentford compounded the problems David Moyes is facing at West Ham with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Josh Dasilva and Ivan Toney. The win moved the Bees into the top 10 while West Ham languish a place above the drop-zone by virtue of goal difference.
At Anfield, Leicester too an early lead when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall raced through to slot past keeper Alisson but then defender Wout Faes put the ball past his own keeper seven minutes apart to hand Liverpool a 2-1 win which kept Liverpool in sixth place, four points adrift of Man Utd.
The Red Devils though struggled against Wolves at Molineux. Marcus Rashford had been benched for the game due to internal discipline issues and was required to come on in the second half and save Erik ten Hag’s blushes with the only goal of the game. The win lifted United into the top four, two points ahead of Spurs and a game in hand.
Spur’s blushes were worsened this evening when they lost at home thanks to goals from Emi Buendia and Douglas Luiz to give Emery his third win in four matches at the helm. The win has kept them within a point of Crystal Palace, who beat Bournemouth by the same scoreline.
Defending Champions Manchester City, were odds-on favourites to take all three points against Everton, but Frank Lampard’s side showed guts to come away from the Etihad Stadium with a point after a 1-1 draw.
The stalemate moved City to 36 points, seven adrift of Arsenal at the top, who outscored Brighton 4-2 with Bukaya Saka scoring after just 66 seconds on the clock. Arsenal’s breathing space at the top was also helped by Newcastle’s stumble against Leeds, but the pair meet on Tuesday at the Emirates Stadium in what should be a classic encounter.
Elsewhere, Chelsea stumbled against Nottingham Forest with the match ending 1-1 at the City Ground. The draw left Graham Potter’s side in eighth place, 18 points behind leaders Arsenal.
City, who take on Chelsea on Thursday, will be hoping that Newcastle take points off Arsenal and they can pick up a win at Chelsea to close the gap. But, Newcastle have never won at the Emirates Stadium and have not scored a goal since a 4-1 defeat in December 2014.
But Eddie Howe will take solace from the fact that they beat Arsenal at St Jame’s Park, 2-0, in May last year.
Paddy did extremely well in the Predictions game, scoring 14 points and closing the gap to just four on Woody, who managed just two points this game week.
I reached the 150-point mark after scoring seven while Chippy scored nine, but still 17 points behind.
There are now just three of us numpties that have not reached the 1000-point mark yet. Myself, Chug Along Ponies and Wellington Wanderers will be hoping that in GW18, we can join the 1000-clan.
I top-scored this last game week, scoring 70 points while Chippy and Paddy are level at the top with 1061, although Paddy, along with Crouch Potatoes, are the only two sides not to have dropped points yet.
