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Manchester United began their post-Ronaldo era with a confident 3-0 win at home to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday with goals from Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Fred while Arsenal maintained their grip on top spot with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over West Ham.
Newcastle maintained their incredible season with a 3-0 win over a lackluster Leicester City but the biggest surprise cam in the opening game of the Premier League resumption with Brentford holding Spurs to a 2-2 draw.
There was action-packed drama at Selhurst Park where 9-man Crystal Palace were trounced 3-0 by Fulham. Shortly after Fulham’s Bobby De Cordova-Reid scored, was Tyrick Mitchell given a straight-red card. James Tomkins was then shown a second yellow on 57 minutes before Tim Ream and Aleksandar Mitrovic put the nails in the Palace coffin.
Wolves, who started the day bottom of the log, needed an injury-time goal from Rayan Ait-Nouri to condemn Everton to another home defeat and heap more pressure on Frank Lampard. Wolves’ position on the log was replaced by Southampton, who suffered a 3-1 home defeat to Brighton, who are showing life without Graham Potter is not that bad.
Potter though, was relieved as Chelsea broke a three-game losing streak when they beat Bournemouth 2-0. Manchester City, who rounded off the “Boxing Day” fixtures on Wednesday, began the day in third following Newcastle’s win, but a brace from the league’s leading goalscorer, Erling Haaland and another goal from Rodri, gave City a 3-1 win over Leeds at Elland Road.
Arsenal maintained their five-point advantage over City and seven-point lead over Newcastle, but with Spurs dropping points against Brentford, coupled with United’s win, leaves Spurs just a point ahead of United but having played a game more. Should United win their game in hand, they will replace Spurs in the top four.
I managed to pick up a stellar 23 points on the prediction front, grabbing a full-house of points for the Brentford-Spurs, Villa-Liverpool, Arsenal-West Ham and Chelsea game. I could have added a further nine points had Fred not scored late for United and Ait-Nouri’s late strike against Everton.
Paddy picked up 11 points while ChippyBoy managed seven. Woody, who has seemed to have given up, failing to provide any predictions and hence being given 0-0 for all games, picked up just two for his draw prediction in the Brentford game.
Tonight, Liverpool will look to build on their 3-1 win over Aston Villa when they host Leicester, who looked completely out of it against Newcastle after heading into the break on the back of some good performances.
Brentford travel to West Ham and will be hoping that they can emulate their away performance before the break when they beat City 2-1 and pick up three points against a struggling Hammers side.
Tomorrow, United travel to Molineux to face Wolves, Everton face another difficult task when they travel to the Etihad to face champions City while Newcastle host Leeds. Arsenal round off the day with a tricky trip to the south coast to tackle Brighton. On New Year’s day, Spurs host Aston Villa and Forest host Chelsea.
On the Fantasy front, all I can say is that I am the only player to have 800 points! Yes, I am still rock bottom after scoring 76 points. But more importantly, Paddy and Chippy both crossed the 1000-point mark – well done – while Chug Along Ponies notched 100 game week points, although, Chippy kept mentioning to me yesterday that he got 99!
Bring on the New Year’s festivities and a whole lot of footy!
