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Liverpool make a statement, Pep Guardiola tries to see the funny side and Sandro Tonali fires on all cylinders
Midway through Ruben Amorim’s post-defeat media conference the roof in the press room, located in the bowels of Old Trafford, did what some of the outside sections of the stadium do: leak. Spots of water hit a scribe perched in the front row, merriment ensued, and Manchester United’s head coach offered a wry smile, a fitting end to an afternoon on which Bournemouth had rained on his side’s pre-Christmas Day parade. Nine games into his tenure, the Portuguese’s coach record is poor – four wins, four losses and a draw – and the next four matches look tough: Wolves (away), Newcastle (home), Liverpool (away) and a trip to Arsenal in the FA Cup. Amorim, who continually repeats the need for victory, knows things have to improve. Jamie Jackson
Match report: Manchester United 0-3 Bournemouth
Were Manchester City’s meltdown not such appointment viewing, Liverpool’s supremacy in the Premier League and Arne Slot’s reinvention of a squad that appeared exhausted by the end of Jurgen Klopp’s tenure would be the story of the season. Who can stop them? Certainly not a Tottenham team living up to historic cliches, and those added by Ange Postecoglou’s conceit of being the alpha-male manager whose team sting like a butterfly and press like one too. Liverpool’s forwards surging through Spurs’s defence, taking potshots as they liked at Fraser Forster, who for all his foibles kept the total down to single figures, was a devastating sight for those who trail in Liverpool’s wake. Not that Arsenal and Chelsea would have relied on Tottenham for favours. Spurs, who kept playing in a next-goal-wins fashion, poked holes in Liverpool’s defence and Mohamed Salah’s demeanour at being subbed raised questions about his future. Beyond that, Liverpool may well be untouchable. John Brewin
Match report: Tottenham 3-6 Liverpool
“Maybe one day we are going to win,” Pep Guardiola said. It was a touch of gallows humour after Manchester City hit another low at Villa Park, his side slumping to a ninth defeat in 12 matches. The City machine is malfunctioning in a manner few, if any, considered possible. City host Everton on Boxing Day, a team they have not lost to since a 4-0 defeat in 2017 at Goodison Park, which killed Guardiola’s hopes of winning the league in his first season. City have not lost at home to Everton since 2010, when Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta scored, and Roberto Mancini was in charge. Everton couldn’t, could they? “We won a lot, it was exceptional, and now we are living the parallel,” Guardiola said. “We broke all the records and now we start to record records on the other side. I thought it would be a difficult season but I didn’t expect this, to be honest.” Neither did we. Ben Fisher
Match report: Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester City
A kink of the profitability and sustainability rules that Nottingham Forest fans take in vain may have aided the team’s rise to a Champions League position. The same club docked four points for financial issues last season is benefitting from the liberalised market for talent that the rules have produced. Bigger clubs and direct rivals have been offloading talent, often seeking pure profit to level off expenditure. Nuno Espírito Santo’s squad is full of players who embody this drip-down effect. At Brentford, Ola Aina, once of Chelsea, and Anthony Elanga, cashed out by Manchester United, scored the goals. A midfield pairing of Elliot Anderson, reluctantly let go by Newcastle, and Morgan Gibbs-White, who exited Wolves for similar financial reasons, weathered Brentford’s early storm. Callum Hudson-Odoi, another Chelsea graduate who arrived cheaply, played well in the forward line. Forest, not long ago derided for scattergun transfer dealing, are now capable of competing in the higher reaches. JB
Match report: Brentford 0-2 Nottingham Forest
No goalkeeper has kept more Premier League clean sheets this season than Jordan Pickford, who registered his seventh when stopping Chelsea from scoring in a league game for the first time since their opening day defeat by Manchester City. It is some turnaround by an Everton side that conceded 13 in the first four matches of the campaign and restricted Chelsea to an xG of 0.77 in a contest in which they enjoyed 74.6% possession. But Sean Dyche is under no illusions that, until his attack matches the effectiveness of his defence, progress will be slow. “Five clean sheets out of six and seven in 10,” the Everton manager said. “We knew we had to correct that early season and the challenge now is to find the balance, I have spoken about it endlessly. We are playing some tough teams. Chelsea are a good outfit and you don’t spend a billion pounds and get weaker … I’m not naive, you have to win games.” Andy Hunter
Match report: Everton 0-0 Chelsea
Alexander Isak’s hat-trick took the headlines at Portman Road but the game’s best player was stationed a few yards behind him. Nobody in an Ipswich shirt could get close to Sandro Tonali, who ran the show. The Italian had a chastening first year in English football but he looks a talent from the top bracket and is hitting a vein of exceptional form. Tonali was precise and varied on the ball and his influence out of possession was equally crucial. Ipswich threatened to make hay with their characteristic quick transitions on several occasions but invariably found him one step ahead of everyone else, his reading of the game keeping Newcastle’s backline secure. Eddie Howe’s side may be finding their wings at last; Ipswich can only hope that, having given Kalvin Phillips his first action for almost two months in the final half-hour, they can happen upon a midfield that purrs half as assuredly. Nick Ames
Match report: Ipswich 0-4 Newcastle
Oliver Glasner bemoaned Crystal Palace’s defending as they surrendered to Arsenal for the second time in four days, although it was the absence of Daniel Muñoz through suspension that really highlighted the weaknesses in their squad. The Colombian also missed the 3-2 defeat in the Carabao Cup after managing to get himself banned for both competitions as the 18-year-old Caleb Kporha was handed his first start at the Emirates, with the veteran Nathaniel Clyne stepping in on Saturday. Neither possesses Muñoz’s ability to provide an attacking threat down the right, while Tyrick Mitchell didn’t enjoy his best game on the opposite flank. Palace have been linked with a move for Benfica’s Jan-Niklas Beste and finding alternatives for a system that relies heavily on wing-backs will be Glasner’s main priority in January. Ed Aarons
Match report: Crystal Palace 1-5 Arsenal
Danny Ward had not started in the league for Leicester since March 2023 but was called upon to replace Mads Hermansen against Wolves. He never looked comfortable, making an early error with the ball at his feet and, once the first goal went under an arm, his day was not going to get any better. The goalkeeper has enjoyed an impressive career but a lack of regular football has affected him, leaving his reactions slow and confidence short. It cannot have helped the Wales international that his own supporters booed him and then sarcastically applauded when he did manage a simple save or to intercept an aimless ball over the top. Supporters have a right to express their views on the team’s performance but it must have hurt Ward to suffer such targeted criticism from those supposedly hoping he would save the next shot. He performed poorly, but there needs to be some recognition that footballers are human beings. Will Unwin
Match report: Leicester 0-3 Wolves
Niclas Füllkrug’s return presents Julen Lopetegui with a dilemma. In theory, if fully fit and in some semblance of form, the man who played 46 times and scored 16 goals for Borussia Dortmund last season, plus two in five substitute appearances for Germany at the Euros, should be West Ham’s best centre-forward. But the player who made vanishingly little impact on his first start of the season on Saturday is not that man. Lopetegui’s suggestion, in short, is that while Füllkrug may not deserve to be in the team now, the only way he will ever deserve to be in the team is if he is already in the team. “Sometimes you know a player is not in his best way but you have to put him to play,” he said. “We think we’re going to need him in his best way. You can make training sessions but he needs to have minutes.” So in order to pick his best possible team in the future Lopetegui has decided not to pick his best possible team in the present. Given the mounting pressure on him, and the need for immediate improvement, it is certainly brave. Simon Burnton
Match report: West Ham 1-1 Brighton
Aaron Ramsdale hadn’t played since 9 November. In the six games he has missed, Southampton have taken a single point and conceded 18 times. It’s fair to assume they would still have struggled even had he been available, but perhaps not quite as badly as they did: form, good and bad, has a thousand sources. “His energy is fantastic for the group,” said the Southampton interim manager Simon Rusk. “We’re fortunate to have such a top-level player playing for our football club. He delivered a top-level moment. It’s great to see him back.” Ramsdale played with a fractured finger taped to the one next to it, helped by a modified glove that had a thumb, two standard fingers and one double-width finger. Whether his presence really did make a difference is difficult to say, but he is a more commanding figure than either Alex McCarthy or Joe Lumley, and the save he made from Harry Wilson’s back-post volley was spectacular. Jonathan Wilson
Match report: Fulham 0-0 Southampton
Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
