Premier League scores, Week 24: The relegation battle suddenly looks exciting

As the holidays rolled around, the relegation race looked fairly settled. The bottom three at that point — Hull City, Sunderland, and Swansea City — definitively looked like the three worst teams in the league. None of the teams above them looked too terrible. A shakeup for more than one of the drop zone spots would have been surprising.

But just over a month later, the relegation race looks wide open. Swansea has climbed out and stayed out, despite a loss this week. Every team in the bottom four has won at least once and avoided defeat twice over their last three games. The separation between the bottom team and 11th place is just 10 points, with six teams really in the thick of the battle to avoid the drop.

The top four race is going to be excellent, but the relegation race is going to be just as exciting, and no one thought that was possible six weeks ago.

Saturday’s scores

Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal
Crystal Palace 0-4 Sunderland
Everton 6-3 Bournemouth
Hull City 2-0 Liverpool
Southampton 1-3 West Ham United
Watford 2-1 Burnley
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Stoke City
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Middlesbrough

Sunday’s scores

Manchester City 2-1 Swansea City
Leicester City 0-3 Manchester United

The firing of Mike Phelan looked like a rash and unfair decision when it happened, but Marco Silva appears to be the real deal. His Estoril and Olympiacos sides were known for their organization and quick counter attacks, and he’s brought that to England. The Tigers were dominated, but limited Liverpool to half-chances while creating three big ones of their own from only six shots.

With this result, Hull are up to 18th, and look capable of pulling themselves out of the drop zone.

Meanwhile, what’s going on at Liverpool? They appear to be in absolute free-fall, and it’s inexplicable. They haven’t suffered any crippling injuries or demoralizing defeats to rivals. They just started playing poorly. And now their title challenge has turned into a fierce battle just to hang onto the top four.

The degree to which Palace collapsed at the end of the first half of their match against Sunderland is staggering.

Sam Allardyce, who has never been relegated, has Palace doing worse than they were under Alan Pardew. They’re in the drop zone and deservedly so after some heavy losses. Big Sam has a lot of work to do.

As for Sunderland, this was an impressive performance for them, and it featured a big milestone. This was the first time that Sunderland won a Premier League game with Jack Rodwell in the starting lineup. Rodwell, incredibly, joined them in 2014.

Defending champions Leicester City are now firmly in the relegation race after a predictable defeat to Manchester United. The Foxes generated some dangerous counter-attacks in the early minutes, but were undone by errors from their central defenders.

United’s first goal came off an incredible individual run and finish by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but he was gifted space to run into because Huth badly mistimed a challenge. Just one minute later, Morgan somehow switched off and lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was free to tap in a cross.

Leicester’s defense wasn’t spectacular last season, but Morgan and Huth were a decent combo. That was with N’Golo Kante in front of them, though, and he’s proven irreplaceable. Without the Premier League’s most active central midfielder to shield them, Huth and Morgan look old and slow.

Tottenham was all over Middlesbrough in their victory, keeping 65 percent possession and holding their opponents to no shots on target. But they only scored once and were under pressure down the stretch, barely holding on during a nervy finish.

Manager Maurico Pochettino was happy, though. “I think we played well,” he said. “I’m only disappointed a little bit that it was only one-nil. I know we played and it’s only one nil and we conceded some chances, and the game was open ... but I think the performance was good. We want to be more clinical when we create chances, but I’m happy.”

Maybe. Arsenal blog The Short Fuse has reached their breaking point after Saturday’s defeat to Chelsea, writing:

“If today doesn’t convince you that this team is a complete and utter shambles, managed by someone who should no longer be in a job, I’m not sure what will.”

And yet, Arsene Wenger has revealed that he’s been offered a new two-year contract. Saturday was probably the exact wrong time to break that news.

Because of what he did for the club and how long he’s served them, a large number of Arsenal fans will always be loyal to Wenger and insist that he’s earned the right to stay as long as he wants. But the Wenger Out brigade grows larger every season, and they may soon become a significant majority.

There have been players capable of scoring and creating in bunches at Everton for a while, but they’ve failed to maximize their potential. That might be turning around based on this six-goal performance against Bournemouth.

Romelu Lukaku is now the Premier League’s top scorer, and he appears to have been helped considerably by Everton’s central midfield adjustments. The signing of Morgan Schneiderlin and the introduction of 18-year-old Tom Davies have the Toffees winning more 50-50 balls, shutting down counters, and keeping the pressure on opponents. Young winger Amedola Lookman looks like a gem of a signing, too.

Don’t expect to see Everton score six goals every week, but also don’t be surprised if their attack looks permanently improved.

AC Milan bought M’Baye Niang as a teenager, gave him some minutes in his first season, and then just ... buried him. It was inexplicable given that Milan was in a down period, not competing for Champions League. They should have been giving as many minutes to youngsters as possible. Instead, they gave up on Niang and other young players.

He’s played a bit more over the last two seasons, but their (supposedly) incoming owners don’t see him as part of their future and moved him onto Watford for a small loan fee and an option to buy for £13.5 million in the summer.

In the current transfer market, that’s a bargain. Niang is only 22 and has been effective when he’s gotten a chance to play for Milan. He was effective in loans to Montpellier and Genoa. And on Saturday, he recorded a goal and an assist in his second start for the club.

Milan’s handling of Niang’s career has made no sense, and it looks like Watford has pulled off a heist.

The Saints are probably the eighth- or ninth-best team in the Premier League. But their goal differential is negative and they’re down in 13th, thanks to games like this one against West Ham.

Manolo Gabbiadini’s arrival might help with Southampton’s chance conversion issues, but Jose Fonte’s departure might lead to them conceding more clear chances, even if their tactics and midfield play limit the total number of shots they give up. They’ve solved one problem, but another has come up. They might continue to defy xG for this reason.

Maybe once every other week, a game happens that gives us nothing worthy of analyzing, and this is that game. West Brom and Stoke are both OK teams. The Baggies are slightly better. They were the home team, and they won 1-0. They created slightly more chances than Stoke. This was a football match.

It’s not a big sample size of games, but based on Gabriel Jesus’ starts for Brazil, fans had every reason to believe he could make an impact for Manchester City. Still, no one expected him to put the team on his back right away.

That was the game-winner in stoppage time, after Gabriel Jesus scored the opener. He now has three goals and an assist in two starts and one sub appearance. Pep Guardiola already seems to prefer him at center forward ahead of Sergio Aguero. He’s getting thrown right into the fire, and he appears ready to be a star.