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The five hours when the title race lurched irrevocably – and inevitably? – in Manchester City’s favour. They did their duty by swatting Luton Town aside on Saturday and then watched on as both of their direct peers lost at home and with it lost all control of their potential perfect endings.
Aston Villa deserve to be more than an afterthought, brilliant as they were at Arsenal. Unai Emery – talk about a personal redemption story – now has a hold on fourth place after Tottenham Hotspur lost calamitously at Newcastle United. A six-goal goal difference swing is significant too.
At the bottom, Brentford and Crystal Palace are surely now safe but Nottingham Forest missed the chance to open up a clear gap to Luton. That one might well go down to the final day.
Scroll down for my verdict on every team (listed in table order).
Gameweek 32 results
Saturday 13 April
- Newcastle 4-0 Tottenham
- Brentford 2-0 Sheff Utd
- Burnley 1-1 Brighton
- Man City 5-1 Luton
- Nott’m Forest 2-2 Wolves
- Bournemouth 2-2 Man Utd
Sunday 14 April
- Liverpool 0-1 Crystal Palace
- West Ham 0-2 Fulham
- Arsenal 0-2 Aston Villa
Manchester City
A game that existed only as a warm-up for Wednesday night’s second leg against Real Madrid. Luton Town were pliable opposition, conceding after two minutes and then basically giving up the game as a contest from that moment on. Ederson was the only City player whose average touch position was in his own half of the pitch. This was near-total domination.
Such is the difference in financial might between the bottom and top of the Premier League – City rotated and it basically made no difference at all. Even Matheus Nunes, the Premier League player who cost £50m it is most easy to forget, got a start. They were profligate, Erling Haaland was still rusty and yet they scored five times because the volume was so high. City had 37 shots and 105 touches of the ball in Luton’s penalty area.
The only other point of interest was Rico Lewis starting the game at right-back. It’s only five months since Lewis made his England debut, playing 90 minutes in a competitive game at left-back. Since then, he’s dropped out of favour in that position because Pep Guardiola favours the central defender at left-back plan – either Nathan Ake or Josko Gvardiol do it.
That leaves Lewis as a teenage jack of all trades. So far this season in the Premier League alone, in just eight league starts he’s covered left-back, right-back, defensive midfielder, and a more advanced central midfield role. The notion of him being England’s starting left-back now seems far-fetched.
While that type of positional flexibility is appreciated by managers, in someone so young it makes it very easy for Lewis – at a club like Manchester City – to become the second or third choice in multiple areas. Before long, Lewis will need to push for starts every week, here or somewhere else.
Arsenal
Everything was set up for Arsenal to maintain their momentum and yet they failed to grasp it. Inevitable questions over their fortitude and readiness to win the top prizes will resurface, but maybe this was a case of Arteta overthinking it.
When Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko joined Arsenal from City in 2022, they were seen as potential game-changers. Increasingly, they are becoming a problem.
Considering how dangerous Villa are, this seemed like an odd occasion for Arteta to tweak a winning formula and incorporate the pair in his starting line-up.
Kai Havertz has flourished as a centre-forward, not just providing goals and assists at a previously unforeseen rate, but also blossoming into an effective target man, link-man and game-stretching runner, all in one neat package.
The Germany international produced his best performance in an Arsenal shirt eight days ago at Brighton only to be moved back into midfield in the very next league game. He had a good chance early on but was otherwise far less effective than he has been lately.
It would be hard to denigrate Jesus based on a performance that was fine; the issue is how his deployment through the middle impacted the rest of the Arsenal attack. Bukayo Saka made a lively start but faded; Martin Odegaard was substituted after picking up a knock with the scores level; and neither Havertz nor Leandro Trossard contributed enough. It was a risky ploy from Arteta and one that backfired. By Oliver Young-Myles
Read more: Arsenal pay the price for Arteta’s Jesus gamble
Liverpool
So much for the perfect goodbye, the long walk into the sunset with Jurgen Klopp as a double Premier League champion. In the space of four days, Liverpool have been virtually eliminated from one competition and humbled at home in another. The margins in the title race will be small and the gaps in Liverpool’s midfield are chasmic. The wheels have come off the season in spectacular fashion.
So little is working right now that it’s hard to remember back to when it was, although that was only weeks ago. It makes it difficult to apportion blame because every problem appears interlinked, like a form of destructive symbiosis. You criticise four components of the system and feel overly generous towards those you’ve omitted.
Defensively, there is a new shambles. On Thursday night, Ibrahima Konate returned to the team and it didn’t help. On Sunday, Alisson was back and nothing improved. By 50 minutes, they had the first-choice back five on the pitch. Liverpool have become a game of reverse Jenga, key pieces added to the tower and somehow only serving to make it less structurally sound.
There’s no doubt that their uncertainty increases because of a new midfield conundrum. The abiding image of the first half against Crystal Palace was Alexis Mac Allister holding out his hands because he couldn’t find a passing option. If only to exacerbate the same situation, Palace found it ludicrously easy to cut through right, left and centre.
And then there’s the strikers. Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz are both ranked in the bottom nine for non-penalty goals minus expected goals this season, indicating that they get a lot of chances to score and need them too. Unfortunately, when Liverpool’s passing sequences fall down, both are restricted and look less than useful.
That’s not helped by the form of Mohamed Salah, who was virtually non-existent before the break, but Nunez is becoming a clanging problem. Chaos is only fun when you’re winning and thus able to bask in its farce. Having lots of shots is only acceptable if you aren’t using up those others might score. Liverpool miss Diogo Jota. Liverpool missed chance after chance.
They imagined these final weeks a thousand times, the pursuit of the final peaks. They knew players were coming back, those who had stood up so many times before for Klopp. It wasn’t meant to go like this, self-inflicted defeats at Anfield soundtracked by ten thousand groans and just as many sighs. Klopp stood on the touchline in the final moments, arms folded, looking down. Everything is quickly unravelling just as he prepares to let go.
Read more: The wheels have come off Liverpool’s season in spectacular fashion
Aston Villa
Aston Villa were worthy winners and deserved immense credit for the courage they displayed. Initially, they set up to contain Arsenal, sitting deep and playing on the counter. It was a mark of respect to a team that has blown numerous teams away over the past few months.
At half-time they realised that Arsenal lacked their normal precision in attack and composure in defence and so switched tack. They completely dominated the second half, having more shots and more possession than their hosts.
It was a tactical masterclass from Unai Emery in a stadium that never fully accepted him and his players executed his instructions to perfection. It was a bold and brilliant display from the boys in blue.
There were exceptional performances right through the team. Emi Martinez made a vital save from Leandro Trossard; Diego Carlos swept up masterfully in defence; John McGinn outshone Declan Rice alongside Youri Tielemans; Ollie Watkins took his goal magnificently. Collectively, they were immense.
While Arsenal failed to capitalise on Liverpool’s lapse, Villa took full advantage of Tottenham’s latest nightmare in Newcastle. With a three-point cushion – fifth-placed Spurs have a game in hand – and a more favourable run-in, Champions League qualification is in their hands. Achieve it, and Emery will rightly be acclaimed as a miracle maker.
Tottenham Hotspur
Ange Postecoglou stood on the touchline, taking in the senses of St James’ Park before kick-off, unblemished by what had befallen Tottenham Hotspur at the same ground almost a year ago.
Postecoglou’s arrival was barely a consideration when Spurs slumped to a 6-1 horror show last April under Cristian Stellini, 5-0 down after just 21 minutes. He was still, quite literally, 10,000 miles away for the 5-1 final day humiliation under Mauricio Pochettino in 2016 that robbed them of a second-place finish.
Now he has a haunting Tyneside capitulation of his own to look back on. As much as Spurs’ brand of football has been a welcome breath of fresh air, there is no illusion that it will change or adapt, regardless of circumstances. Once, Spurs were applauded off the pitch after the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea, despite their late collapse being partly self-inflicted by a determination not to divert from their principles. Patience is wearing a little thin five months on.
The pace of Micky van de Ven, clocked at a Premier League record 23.23 mph earlier this year, has been the anchor of the gameplan. Even that was proven fallible up against a lightning front three and in particular, the speed of an in-form Alexander Isak. Van de Ven suffered a horror 95 seconds, in no way representative of his season, slipping twice to allow Isak and Anthony Gordon to score as Newcastle surged into a 2-0 lead before the break.
James Maddison, who had his summer gone differently might have been lining up in black and white, accepted afterwards that Spurs should have known how high Newcastle would press immediately after the first goal and still chose to go back to the goalkeeper and leave themselves vulnerable.
Just as worrying was the third. Tottenham may have sensed an opportunity against a second-string Newcastle defence and they did not have a single outfield player in their own half when Isak broke free. Van de Ven was close to the halfway line and still let the Swedish international sneak behind him, unable to win the footrace and falling spectacularly off the tightrope he has been instructed to grace.
Worst of all is that the 3-0 thrashing at Fulham in March can no longer be seen as an aberration. Then, it was viewed as a consequence of Van de Ven’s absence as a one-footed Radu Dragusin struggled on his full Premier League debut.
Had Van de Ven been fit, so went the logic, they would never have been caught so easily on the break and the high line would continue to be just another symptom of the scintillating football they have played under Postecoglou. The same vulnerabilities were on show at West Ham, where they escaped with a point thanks to Michail Antonio’s 1v1 miss.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened to us [a result like this] and it won’t be the last,” Postecoglou conceded after Saturday’s defeat, which was so heavy that they crashed out of the top four on goal difference. “It’s part of our growth. Sometimes that growth is painful.” He denied there was a mental hangover from last season’s defeat even with six of the squad having featured that day.
When Fabian Schar headed in the fourth, it was another case of yet another corner going unchallenged in the box. Spurs’ set pieces came into sharp focus after the 2-2 draw with Everton but they are not solely down to Guglielmo Vicario. The midfield battle is being lost too – no sooner does one of the central partnership return to form than there are question marks against another, this time in the form of Yves Bissouma’s defensive cover. By Katherine Lucas
Read more: Tottenham only have one mode – and that can no longer be accepted
Newcastle United
“Tottenham Hotspur, it’s happening again,” crowed a sell-out home crowd, who enjoyed taking another bite out of a club who probably have the most to fear from a resurgent Newcastle. This defeat was so bad they actually tumbled out of the top four on goal difference.
Newcastle were absolutely superb and have form, a favourable fixture list and a front three that can surely now go on to deliver Europa League football. And in Alexander Isak they have a player now chasing Erling Haaland in the race for the Premier League’s Golden Boot.
Micky van de Ven will wake up in a cold sweat after his brush with Newcastle’s No 14, a player who looks more and more like the Premier League’s most complete striker with every passing week. He has electric pace, elite technique, perfect timing and ice in his veins when presented with one-on-one opportunities.
The aplomb with which he took his two goals, dumping the unfortunate Van de Ven on his backside as he slalomed into the penalty box for the opener, was ruthlessness personified. No defender would want to face him at the moment – and the comparisons to Thierry Henry feel justified.
Ten points from a possible 12 since Newcastle returned from a restorative sunshine training break in Dubai tells its own story but it was the performance here that was most pleasing for Eddie Howe. He has harnessed a system that is getting the best out of Isak, who is a world class talent.
They cherish him here and are not minded to sell him. The Swede wants to stay and suddenly, St James’ Park feels like a place where great things are possible again. By Mark Douglas
Read more: Newcastle identify three summer targets as Miguel Almiron nears exit
Manchester United
It’s crucial to repeat, every time we criticise Manchester United’s openness, that Erik ten Hag claims that it isn’t a problem: “I explained it once more, we defended low at times and because Brentford are very direct we lost many second balls and had to defend the box… We concede shots, not so many goals.”
Firstly, Manchester United are conceding more goals now. They have now conceded 12 goals in their last five matches in all competitions. Ten Hag’s theory was that it didn’t matter how many shots his team faced. Many others – me included – wondered whether it was simply that United had got lucky and that the goals would soon follow. Recent evidence suggests that is true.
On Saturday evening, Diogo Dalot let it slip that he disagrees with his manager too.
“I think it’s a fact, something we are looking for,” Dalot said. “Maybe we are taking too many risks, sometimes the gap between the defence and midfield is a little bit too big. This is why we are sometimes getting the counter-attacks too many times and are conceding too many shots.” Well, bingo.
Saturday was significant, statistically. The combination of Manchester United allowing Bournemouth to take 20 shots and Sheffield United only allowing Brentford to take nine means that Ten Hag’s team have now faced more than any other team in the Premier League. Statistically the leakiest top-flight defence in Premier League history has allowed fewer shots than Manchester United. Whatever the spin from the manager, that is risible.
Viewing the quality of chances allowed does United few favours. Ranking the Premier League’s teams by expected goals faced takes Ten Hag’s team off the bottom, but only Luton and Sheffield United have a worse record. For all that the manager insists that this is an inevitable byproduct of his team’s strategy, it’s a strategy that has similarities with the worst teams in the league that were assembled on miniscule budgets by comparison. Dalot’s admission may prove to be a line in the sand.
West Ham
These are the end weeks for David Moyes. In previous seasons, when league form suggested that West Ham may look to upgrade – or at least attempt one – European form saved him. The late goals in Leverkusen forced eyes to turn squarely on the form in general.
And it’s not good. West Ham have won four games in 2024: Freiburg, Everton, Brentford, Wolves. Their last eight home league games have produced eight points and the 2-0 defeat at home to Fulham, a loss that came with no positive edge. Fatigue from Thursday was clearly a factor, but Fulham had won two away games in all competitions since August and one of those was against Championship opposition.
Every sensible and reasonable supporter will thank Moyes for his work. He took them to places, and gave them experiences, that they barely thought possible. The drunken dancing in Prague will be considered the high watermark long after he has left. He deserves to leave free from abuse but with a lap of the pitch and the applause of those who remember beyond the last two months.
But this team has now moved on from Moyes and the league form will be his undoing. 2023 was the mini-miracle year for West Ham, containing that European trophy and ending with them sixth in the Premier League (with a game in hand).
2024 was the year the energy ran out and the highly skilled attacking players became subdued by Moyes’ tactics and the lack of courage to continue to attack whenever they held a lead. A league table comprising results this calendar year has them 13th, six points above the bottom three. With Lucas Paqueta likely leaving, a rebuild is necessary. Moyes isn’t going to be the manager to oversee it.
Chelsea
Play against Everton on Monday evening.
Brighton
On 24 September last year, Roberto De Zerbi reached his peak as Brighton manager. His team had just beaten Bournemouth 3-1, making it five wins from six games to start the league season. Brighton were third in the Premier League and had won three consecutive matches 3-1. Newcastle United and Manchester United were among the vanquished.
At that point, given his work last season after Graham Potter left, it appeared unthinkable that Brighton supporters would get sick of De Zerbi and his football. And true, there are no “De Zerbi out” protests and nor will there be. Brighton are still in the top half and these supporters know too much of their own history to risk entitlement.
But let’s just say that De Zerbi has burned through most of his accumulated goodwill. The messy Europa League defeat in Rome didn’t help, but there’s a perceived dogmatism to De Zerbi that supporters believe has manifested in an inability to keep clean sheets.
Having managed five wins in their first six league games of the season, Brighton have, improbably, added only six more since – Brentford, Forest (twice), Sheffield United, Crystal Palace included. Only during the 4-2 home win over Tottenham did De Zerbi’s side offer those flashes of last season’s magnificence, the surging, streaming football that made this team so aesthetically pleasing.
Losing Solly March and Kaoru Mitoma hasn’t helped, but the accusation is that the defensive uncertainty – defenders who can pass the ball and start attacking moves but get worse at actual defending – has blunted Brighton’s attack a little. Several key players have gone backwards in 2024 from 2023’s higher standards.
Since that win – 28 December – they have scored 13 goals in 13 games and five of those came in 65 minutes against Sheffield United. Brighton have become the opposite of what we’d grown to love: functional, frustrating, even a little forlorn. That has coincided with De Zerbi being linked to prestigious jobs across Europe. It’s not a combination that makes fans happy.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
The full list of Wolverhampton Wanderers players to score more than 10 goals in a Premier League season: Raul Jimenez (17 and 13 goals), Steven Fletcher (12), and Matheus Cunha (11). Given Cunha has only started 25 league games this season, isn’t really a striker and has also created six goals, he is worthy of our strongest commendation.
On his first start in more than two months, Cunha saved Wolves twice. His goal in the first half, wriggling away from weak Forest defending, composing himself and then firing into the top corner, will probably win Wolves’ Goal of the Season competition. The second owed to his instinct, anticipating that Matz Sels might spill a header.
A week before he sustained his injury, Cunha scored a hattrick at Stamford Bridge. It’s relevant to wonder where Wolves might be now had he stayed fit. Wolves have won only seven of the 22 matches in which Cunha and Hwang Hee-chan have started together this season.
But it’s Cunha who dominates the attacking statistics. This season, he has more than 20 shots more than his nearest competition in Wolves’ squad, had more than double the number of shots on target of any other player and created six goals. He has become the multifunctional forward Wolves thought they were getting last season.
Bournemouth
Let’s talk about the handball laws, because I’m sure we’ll find a willing audience among Bournemouth supporters. They deserved to beat Manchester United and they should have beaten Manchester United.
Technically, it’s a penalty. The ball hits Adam Smith on the arm, his arm is away from his side and the ball would have rebounded to Marcus Rashford if it hadn’t hit the arm. There’s also a vaguely perceptible sense that Smith instinctively moved his arm towards the ball, or at least didn’t move it out of the way. That leaves a penalty as the most likely call, even after the deflection off a teammate.
It’s also worth considering the alternative. After the game, Andoni Iraola decried the decisions that went against his team (as is the manager’s standard fare these days). Online, people talked of corruption because, again, that’s all they do now. But if it hadn’t been given, Manchester United fans would have done the same. Everything in this culture is broken.
Still, we have to ask if any of this makes sense. Across professional football, penalties are scored at a rate of roughly four in five. This incidental offence, ostensibly a minor event by feel, allows an 80 per cent chance of a goal. 56 per cent of Premier League games this season have been decided by a one-goal margin or less (excluding 0-0 draws). The point: single goals are pretty damn important to the final score.
Perhaps this is one of those things we just accept, becoming such an established concept of the game that it becomes easier to overlook. But in the age of VAR and thus a change in culture where we now proactively seek out cause for intervention, it will take a lot of getting used to for a match to be titled on its axis by an incident like Smith’s.
Fulham
This has not been the perfect season for Fulham, but Sunday confirmed one are in which they have improved markedly even after the departure of their star forward from last season: London derbies.
In 2022-23, Fulham played 12 London derbies and took less than a point per game (11). The obvious comparison is with Brentford, their West London rivals, who took 20 points from their 11 games.
In 2023-24, Fulham have been far better in the same games. Despite their wretched away form in general (they sit 15th in an “away” league table), Fulham have taken 14 points from 10 London derbies. They still have Crystal Palace (h) and Brentford (a) to come, two of their easier capital assignments (what a second mention that is, by the way).
Fulham’s 14 points is only one less than Tottenham from the same number of derbies and four fewer than Arsenal, who top that particular table. I’d argue that only the 2-1 win at Old Trafford in February constitutes a more complete away Fulham performance since the 3-0 win at Palace on Boxing Day 2022.
Brentford
In the fog of Brentford’s season-long injury crisis, it’s easy to miss certain individuals. Those who have earned the most focus are the established attackers: Bryan Mbeumo has started only 17 matches and Ivan Toney’s grand return after eight months out seems to have peaked with his free-kick naughtiness against Nottingham Forest.
Kevin Schade’s absence went entirely under the radar, probably because he’s an unfamiliar face to a few, only made his loan move permanent last summer and then subsequently got a serious abductor injury sustained in a pre-match warm-up that required surgery and lengthy rehabilitation.
But Brentford have badly missed Schade. He’s young, he’s quick, he’s direct and he was also Brentford’s landmark signing of last summer, costing a then-club record £20m.
In 18 league appearances last season, supporters saw a glimpse of what Schade could become in this team alongside the penalty-box presence of Toney and the invention of Mbeumo. They have barely seen it since.
On Saturday, Schade came on as a substitute against Sheffield United in the 89th minute. It was his first appearance since 16 September, Thomas Frank easing him in slowly and using him ostensibly as a time-wasting enterprise with Brentford 1-0 up.
Three minutes later, Schade dashed towards a throw-in, spotted the run of Frank Onyeka, flicked the ball around the back of his right leg and provided his first assist of the league season. Talk about showing people what they have been missing.
Crystal Palace
This was Oliver Glasner’s first away win as a Premier League manager, a forced acclimatisation period from Roy Hodgson’s end days that took the players some getting used to. This is a plan that may rely upon the presence of attacking midfielders who will be targeted this summer, but it was founded upon brilliant defending. Nathaniel Clyne, who endured such injury heartache as a player at Anfield, was magnificent.
Dean Henderson may not perform better in his Premier League career. At full-time, the way end held each other tight and jumped en masse, but stopped to serenade their goalkeeper and their new-ish manager. They see the start of another new future and what better place to enjoy your breakout win.
Adam Wharton has made a difference too, a January arrival from the Championship who could also have needed time to settle. Not a bit of it; Wharton’s principles are simple – take the ball, pass the ball, try to win the ball – and he was magnificent in blocking those passing lanes that so frustrated Mac Allister et al. Had he come to the Premier League last summer, he could have been the Kalvin Phillips replacement for England on this form.
Everton
Play against Chelsea on Monday evening.
Nottingham Forest
“It’s disappointing with the way we conceded, the goals were too easy,” said Nuno Espirito Santo after Forest’s 2-2 draw with Wolves (although he could have said roughly the same thing after 90 per cent of Forest’s matches since promotion. “We have to look at all of them [set-pieces] in a realistic way and today the organisation was good but we should have done better individually.”
I do like the idea of watching Forest’s set-piece defending “in a realistic way”, because my god supporters have had to lower their expectations. Either they don’t react to a short corner, don’t track the run, don’t win the second ball or their goalkeeper makes a mistake. If you’re lucky, you might get a mix of all four in the same incident.
This will relegate Nottingham Forest if they don’t improve. We keep saying that and nothing does. Forest have conceded a league-high 22 goals from dead-ball situations.
The arrival of Nuno was supposed to bring added defensive organisation, but so it hasn’t proved. They’re having to score three goals to win games and that is in no way sustainable. It becomes a vicious cycle: you concede too many so you have to play more attacking which means you’re more vulnerable to conceding goals. And these are, usually, basic mistakes.
The twist to the story here is that Forest appointed a set-piece coach last year. Just before the final knockings of the Steve Cooper era, England U19s head coach Simon Rusk took a job at Forest to oversee an improvement in dead-ball situations in both boxes. Then Cooper left, Nuno was appointed and reportedly has chosen not to use Rusk’s expertise.
Whatever the solution, Nuno needs to land upon it quickly to save his own reputation and avoid a disastrous relegation for Forest. Luton host Brentford next weekend; Forest go to set-piece specialists Everton and Sean Dyche. If Luton better their result, Forest should be favourites to go down.
Luton Town
“We now have five huge games that we can get ourselves out of it, we almost have to write this off” – Rob Edwards, Saturday teatime.
And he’s right. It’s a write-off, nothing good came of it and nothing bad was produced as a result of it. Forest didn’t win, and that’s what matters for Luton.
Burnley
When Vincent Kompany made the decision to drop James Trafford for the home game against Brentford, he did not take it lightly. He was also agreeing with the majority opinion among home supporters, many of whom had voiced their anger at Trafford’s performances while Arijanet Muric stayed on the bench. Muric was a vital component of last season’s promotion. Supporters believed that he had been treated harshly.
Muric started well, key in that win over Brentford. But over the last two games he has made two calamitous mistakes. In the 1-0 defeat to Everton, Muric delayed over kicking the ball long, sending it careering into Dominic Calvert-Lewin and into the net. The second error was far worse, failing to control a simple backpass and thus giving Brighton a free goal.
Nobody wants to pick on a player unnecessarily. Muric knows that he should have done better. He will not need telling that his mistakes have cost his team points because it will be all he is currently thinking about. Those mistakes have also likely cost Burnley a shot at staying up. Had they taken four points from the last two matches rather than one, as they should, they would currently be three points behind Forest, who they play on the final day. Now they need snookers.
A penny, then, for Kompany’s thoughts. As we’ve said before, changing your goalkeeper is a significant move because it creates psychological rigmarole. Trafford’s confidence will have been knocked back, making it very hard to recall him so soon. Muric now has terrible errors in consecutive matches in his own head.
With the benefit of hindsight, Burnley should have just stuck with their £19m goalkeeper all season or stuck with Muric for this campaign. These are the decisions that unfairly come to define entire campaigns.
Sheffield United
“We had the blow of losing our skipper and for clubs in our position, to get to 0-0 at half time is an achievement,” Chris Wilder said after the game, an attempt and positivity that just sounded incredibly bleak. They lost 2-0 to a team that hadn’t won in nine games and the best spin the manager had was that they weren’t losing at half-time.
Still, what can you say? Sheffield United have conceded 84 goals in the Premier League this season, the most of any top-flight team after the same number of games since 1964. Conceding two goals away from home actually is an achievement because it’s considerably below their average for the campaign. They have now kept one clean sheet in their last 40 Premier League away games. Wilder has been in charge of most of them.
If only to add to the sense of slapstick that surrounds this Sheffield United season, they also conceded another own goal through the highly unfortunate Oliver Arblaster (who may be a rare candidate in this squad to stay in the Premier League next season). Arblaster joined a club that is growing less exclusive all the time – Anis Ben Slimane, Wes Foderingham, Jack Robinson and Jayden Bogle have also scored own goals in the league this season.
Sheffield United’s six total own goals is two more than any other Premier League club. Just another unwanted list that they top. Still, at least they haven’t allowed the most shots (CC Erik ten Hag).