What we've learned from Matchweek 23

Arsenal could start to get jittery after a stuttering couple of weeks

Michael Carrick masterminded another superb tactical victory on Sunday afternoon but Arsenal’s performance has more long-term significance.

Things are getting jittery again. In their first home Premier League defeat of the season, Arsenal conceded three goals for the first time since December 2023, while Martin Zubimendi's glaring mistake to let Manchester United back into the game was the Gunners' second error leading to an opposition goal in their last four Premier League matches, more than in their first 19 games of the campaign.

In theory there is no need to worry. Arsenal have looked both the most consistent and complete team in the division this season and if, back in August, they had been offered a four-point lead at the 23-round mark they would have gladly taken it.

However, there can be no denying Emirates Stadium was an anxious place on Sunday, which seemed to infect the players with a heaviness that created a hesitant, claustrophobic performance.

Ending a two-decade wait for a Premier League title will always involve nerves but having come so close twice before under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal are perhaps particularly tense. The battle over the final 15 rounds is an internal one.

Arsenal have now gone three Premier League games without a win. That isn’t cause for panic but Arteta needs to find a way to get his players to loosen the limbs, breathe deeply and stride forward with the confidence of champions-elect.

Guardiola's opportunity to galvanise Man City after Guehi and Semenyo impact

Watching Arsenal lose to Man Utd on Sunday evening, Pep Guardiola must have sensed that his team are in danger of letting an opportunity slip between their fingers. It was a result that ought to galvanise Manchester City – and spark the upturn in form we all thought was coming this year. They have have failed to kick on from winning all seven of their matches in December, dropping points in four consecutive Premier League games this month prior to Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Man City will consider themselves lucky that Arsenal did not pull away. In fact, they will smell blood.

Guardiola’s side host Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium in mid-April, 10 rounds from now. The target for Man City – the message Guardiola can drum into his players – is that the title will be in their hands as long as they are within two points of Arsenal by the time that fixture comes around.

That means making up just two more points on the current leaders. It means focusing their minds and capitalising on the nervousness creeping in at Arsenal, because if Man City start to believe this is theirs for the taking then it will be.

That feeling should be rising after a 2-0 victory notable for the performances of three players in particular. First, Omar Marmoush netted the first goal while top scorer Erling Haaland was on the bench. Since Haaland’s arrival, Man City have won 18 of their 22 Premier League games he has not started (82%) and 73 of the 155 he has (63%).

That presents a way for Guardiola to shake things up, as does the arrival of Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo. Guehi slipped in seamlessly on his debut, performing well and getting a clean sheet, while Semenyo scored a brilliant cushion goal in his fourth Man City appearance across all competitions.

Guehi and Semenyo could be the injection of energy Man City need to step up, put a string of wins together, and make the April showdown with Arsenal a title decider.

Liverpool defensive lapses allow Bournemouth recovery to continue

Andoni Iraola deserves huge credit for continuing to adapt to losing his best players. After a summer of high-profile departures, AFC Bournemouth sold Semenyo this month to Man City, shortly after he scored a late winner against Tottenham Hotspur that ended the Cherries' 11-match winless run.

Bournemouth's 3-2 win over Liverpool at Vitality Stadium has huge symbolic significance, then, proving can once again adapt, survive and thrive under Iraola.

The hosts benefited significantly from Liverpool errors, mind. Arne Slot’s side struggled to defend throughout and Virgil van Dijk uncharacteristically made mistakes for two goals - the opener and Amine Adli's stoppage-time winner.

That final one will hurt the most. Liverpool, now winless in five Premier League games, have conceded three 90th-minute winning goals this season and two more equalisers, costing them seven points.

Those seven points would put Slot's team comfortably inside the top four and only seven points off the top of the table. For all their faults this season, it’s the late concessions that have really damaged the champions.

Perfect away performance puts Villa back into title contention

“My players were extraordinary,” Unai Emery said, after Aston Villa's 2-0 win against Newcastle United at St James' Park, reflecting on what could be called the perfect away performance. “The individual and collective discipline was so high”.

Was it the performance of champions? Emery dismissed title talk out of hand but the professionalism with which Aston Villa dispatched of a team who are supposedly their rivals and near-equals was hugely impressive. After all, this was Newcastle United’s first home defeat since September and Villa’s first win on this ground since 2005.

It was another long-range strike that set them on their way, but Emiliano Buendia’s opener was a tactical victory, too. Emery’s usual use of two No 10s overwhelmed Newcastle through the middle. The Magpies badly missed Bruno Guimaraes, while their flat 4-5-1 formation left too many gaps for Villa’s No 10s to get on the ball – and, in Buendia's case, shoot.

Guimaraes would have helped with that. He has missed just 11 Premier League matches since joining Newcastle four years ago. They haven’t won any of them.

Forest’s goalscoring strikers offer fresh angle in bid to avoid the drop

Following Nottingham Forest's alarming run of poor form, Sean Dyche has stabilised things again. Forest's 2-0 win at Brentford, on the back of a 0-0 draw with leaders Arsenal and 2-1 victory at West Ham United, means they have collected seven points from their last three Premier League games.

The threat of falling back into trouble has receded again. They are five points clear of 18th-place West Ham and have just one fewer point than Leeds United.

Forest are far from safe, but the goalscorers in the 2-0 win at Brentford give them particular cause for hope.

Igor Jesus netted just his second Premier League goal to give Forest the lead at the Gtech Community Stadium, before Taiwo Awoniyi scored his first goal in the competition in over a year to seal the victory.

Forest are 11th in the Premier League since Dyche took charge. If he now has goalscoring strikers to add to the mix, then Dyche will be confident of avoiding the drop.

Estevao’s brilliant performance suggests Rosenior could enjoy a long winning streak

Chelsea's 3-1 win at Crystal Palace was their second victory in as many Premier League matches under Liam Rosenior and they’ve achieved those results with the minimum of fuss. It’s hard to recall a time when a Chelsea head coach began his tenure so calmly and so confidently.

The fixture list has been kind to Rosenior, who after hosting a Brentford side that had won only twice on the road this season (away to Everton and Wolves), then played a Crystal Palace side on a 10-game winless run in all competitions.

The sequence could extend even further. Chelsea’s next four in the competition are West Ham United (H), Wolves (A), Leeds (H) and Burnley (H).

Rosenior will be hopeful of winning all four of those, especially if Estevao – playing under the new head coach for the first time on Sunday – continues like this.

The 18-year-old was clinical, scoring and assisting in the same Premier League match for the first time and becoming the youngest Chelsea player to do so since Neil Shipperley in April 1993.

Summerville gives West Ham new hope of closing gap in relegation battle

West Ham's 3-1 home win over Sunderland was only the second time this season they have produced back-to-back Premier League wins and, just like that, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are back in the running to avoid relegation.

The five-point gap to Forest and Leeds looks surmountable now, especially with the latter due to visit the London Stadium on the final day of the season.

On Saturday they benefitted significantly from Granit Xhaka’s absence, exacerbating Sunderland’s poor form away from home. However, the credit should go to Crysencio Summerville who, after a slow start, has scored the opener in each of West Ham’s last two Premier League wins.

When Summerville was signed from Leeds in the summer of 2024, fresh from amassing 29 goals and assists in the Championship, he was seen as one of the most exciting new talents around.

But a difficult 2024/25, with just seven Premier League starts, was followed by a forgettable first six months of 2025/26 too.

Goals in consecutive games might just relaunch his Premier League career – and propel West Ham out of the bottom three.

Spurs' reliance on set-pieces and centre-backs leaves them in Ange territory

A late Cristian Romero equaliser as Tottenham Hotspur drew 2-2 at Burnley has done little to raise Spurs' spirits.

Spurs' return of 28 points from 23 Premier League matches, leaving them mired in the bottom half, is only slightly better than the 24 from 23 at this stage last season under Ange Postecoglou.

Both Spurs goals at Burnley were set-pieces and both were scored by centre-backs. The team has been overly reliant on both.

Only three Spurs players have scored more than five goals in all competitions this season and two of them are Romero and Micky van de Ven. Meanwhile 11 of their 33 Premier League goals have come from set-pieces.

Frank must find a way to play more fluent football in open play.

Another Wilson moment for Fulham leaves Brighton going backwards

Harry Wilson is having the season of his life.

A swerving, dipping 25-yard free-kick in the 92nd minute to complete the turnaround as Fulham beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 was another moment of brilliance to add to the Welshman's collection.

Since the start of November, only Man City's Haaland (12) has more combined goals and assists than Wilson (11), while his 12 in total – eight goals, four assists – is already his best-ever in the top flight.

While Wilson's stoppage-time winner lifted Fulham into seventh place in the Premier League table, it inflicted a defeat that has thrown the spotlight on Brighton's difficult campaign. They are now in 12th place and have four fewer points than at the same stage of 2024/25.

Fabian Hurzeler’s side have won just one of their last 10 Premier League matches. For now, the club appear to be moving backwards.

The next two games, at home to Everton and Palace, are must-wins.

Formation change allows Everton to recover against "Real Madrid-like" Leeds

It was such a dominant and swashbuckling performance from Leeds United in the first half at Hill Dickinson Stadium – led by silky displays from 10s Brenden Aaronson and Anton Statch – that at the interval Sky Sports’ pundit Jamie Carragher said Everton had made the visitors “look like Real Madrid”.

At that point, after James Justin’s opener and after Dominic Calvert-Lewin had crashed a shot off the post, it looked highly unlikely Everton would get anything out of the game.

But David Moyes changed formation to a 3-4-3 to match-up with Leeds’ system, which closed off the gaps between the lines and simplified Everton’s defensive set-up. The momentum completely switched and Thierno Barry’s equaliser – his fourth goal in five games – earned the hosts a deserved point.

It was the first time in 2025/26 that Everton had deployed a back three, and its success suggests Moyes might reach for that solution more often in the future as he looks to find a way to stabilise the club’s form.

However, the more significant lesson from Monday night’s game was that the sheer speed and ingenuity of Leeds’ first half is an ominous sign for Arsenal, who travel to Elland Road off the back of three consecutive Premier League games without a win.

If Arsenal are as anxious and timid as we have seen over the last couple of weeks, and if Leeds race out of the blocks like they did on Monday night, then it is more likely than not Man City or Villa will further close the gap to the top.

No side has lost fewer Premier League games since the start of December than Leeds (1), while only Villa (22), Man City (21), Arsenal (20), Man Utd and Fulham (17) have collected more points in that time than Leeds’ 15.

This Saturday’s game could be a defining moment in the title race.