Premier League winners and losers: Praise for Bournemouth and Gomez, flak for Arsenal, Lopetegui, Palmer

Bournemouth, Joe Gomez and Nottingham Forest’s assistant are praised. But Arsenal and Julen Lopetegui are in trouble and Cole Palmer must improve.

Bournemouth
“I think we need to improve, I think, from the games we played against these top three,” said Andoni Iraola in September, since when Bournemouth have lost 3-0 to Liverpool while having 19 shots at Anfield, before beating Arsenal and Manchester City in successive home games within a fortnight.

A draw against Aston Villa in between those memorable Dean Court displays only reinforces Bournemouth’s position as a legitimate and established top-half force. They are among the toughest opponents to face in the Premier League and that is remarkable.

This is incredible, scalable, achievable progress. Bournemouth have done nothing particularly ground-breaking beyond making brave decisions and capitalising on where it puts them each time. It is a while since the Be Careful What You Wish For warnings; comparisons with Gary O’Neil and Wolves feel hilariously irrelevant and outdated not 18 months since that controversial switch was made.

They have recruited consistently wisely, operated on a sensible and sustainable budget, quietly identified areas which can be improved and found a wonderful coach suited to the existing squad and willing to work with and develop players rather than insisting his own must be bought first.

Bournemouth conquered the reigning champions and their best players on the day were signed from Dynamo Kyiv, Feyenoord, AZ Alkmaar, Celtic and Bristol City, brought together by a manager from Rayo Vallecano who inherited eight of that starting XI. It is no coincidence that Iraola’s last season in La Liga featured home wins over Barcelona and Real Madrid.

“When you beat Real Madrid, it’s kind of similar,” he said after vanquishing Manchester City. “You know you have to be at your best level and wait for them to not have their best day.”

That almost does a disservice to Iraola and his players; they brought out the worst in Manchester City as much as they did the best in themselves.

MORE PREMIER LEAGUE WEEKEND REACTION
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👉 Arteta and his ‘Mourinho-lite’ pragmatism are costing Arsenal
👉 Flawed Arsenal left side both make worst Premier League XI of weekend

Rui Pedro Silva
One of the biggest compliments Arsenal defector Edu’s future employers can be afforded is that Nuno Espirito Santo’s touchline absence has barely been noticed. The banned manager has watched from a distance as Nottingham Forest have won three Premier League games in a row for the first time since the final matches of their most recent relegation season in 1998/99.

It was earlier in that campaign when Forest last finished a Premier League weekend in the top four back when it wasn’t really a thing. There will be no such slide this time around, even if it is accepted that this cloud is unlikely to carry through until May.

But there is no real reason it shouldn’t. This is neither unsustainable form nor unrepeatable performances. While this Chris Wood scoring streak might end soon, other players are chipping in frequently and that wonderful defensive record isn’t nearly as prone to volatility.

Forest first and foremost have formed unshakable bonds across their squad, the sort which can absorb the loss of a manager or even their phlegm-afflicted owner. It is to assistant coach Rui Pedro Silva’s credit that he has led this team as capably as Nuno down to the details of frequent bookings.

Newcastle
Eddie Howe said it had “been a long time coming” after some “very difficult” weeks, that his players “wanted more” and “weren’t happy with what we had” despite earning a first Premier League victory in two months.

This wait was not quite as long as in 2022/23, when a six-game winless streak was halted by a 4-1 victory over Fulham which triggered a 17-game unbeaten run and ultimately carried them to Champions League qualification. But the sight of a team remembering what makes them so powerful was eerily similar.

So too was that Willock-Guimaraes-Longstaff midfield. Central to the blueprint which turned things around in their best season together, Howe reverting to that triptych with Sandro Tonali continuing his struggle for minutes might make for a curious situation but the manager has his trusted lieutenants for good reason.

When it backfires it is infuriating to see Howe lean on them. When it works, Newcastle are not among the absolute best sides in the country but they are the most effective.

And with Newcastle more than any other team, it feels like these seasonal journeys of rediscovery are becoming an increasingly painful and necessary part of the process. The Magpies have endured long fallow periods in each of Howe’s campaigns, which shake the belief as to whether he is the right man to lead them into the next phase of their plan. It sometimes seems like they’ll never emerge but once they inevitably do they are stronger and more unified.

Joe Gomez
If this summer felt like the end of Gomez and Liverpool’s complicated love affair then his start to the season only reinforced it: across the first nine Premier League and three Champions League games he was given barely over half an hour to make his mark, having capably occupied a bench throughout the European Championship.

His services were certainly being offered elsewhere, be that in delicate part-exchange deals constructed with a panicking Newcastle, or with Chelsea hovering ominously in the background.

But Gomez knuckled down and waited patiently for the sort of opening which only an injury to a teammate can really provide. As difficult as it is coming into a game in those circumstances – not least when losing – he is a professional with a role to play.

Any of those Liverpool subs can be pinpointed for praise, even those brought on late to consolidate the lead. But Arne Slot was right to focus on Gomez and how that performance said “a lot about his mentality and his quality”.

Liverpool’s longest-serving player remains one of their most reliable. When he does finally score, the reaction will be biblical.

Aaron Ramsdale
Even in the details of Ramsdale’s last two career clean sheets, the reality of his situation was hidden as Arsenal’s distant second-choice to ineligible loanee David Raya; both of them came against Brentford.

This was different, a proper contribution from a keeper trusted by his club to deliver when called upon. Ramsdale has had his confidence knocked from painful pillar to public post over the past year or so and that can only have an adverse effect.

Russell Martin described Southampton as “lucky” to have Ramsdale, and himself as “surprised” they managed to sign him. Just on a base level, that must feel incredible for a player whose self-assurance can only have suffered of late, even before factoring in displays which measurably help his team again.

Pape Matar Sarr
No player has won possession in the midfield third more times in a single game this season than Sarr did against Aston Villa. It was how the third goal was created, how Spurs turned the tide against Unai Emery’s side and West Ham, and how the foundations for their League Cup victory over Manchester City were established.

Ange Postecoglou neatly summed up the strengths of a 22-year-old who only continues to flourish under his guidance: “His capacity again to work for the team but also the quality he has in breaking open oppositions with his running with the ball.”

Those are crucial characteristics helping form part of very possibly the most rounded midfield department the Premier League can currently offer.

Boubakary Soumare
The touch from Jamie Vardy was sublime and the finish produced by the Premier League’s surprise clutch player matched it. But without the work of Soumare in charging back to win the ball, carrying it, shrugging off one challenge and then offloading to the forwards to trigger the match-saving move, it wouldn’t have been possible.

Those 19 minutes were the most Soumare has been afforded in a league game for Leicester since May 2023. The influence he exerted in that cameo – and the drop-off in Wilfred Ndidi’s form – adds weight to the growing calls for him to be given more of opportunities.

Brighton
Losing consecutive games to Liverpool by a single goal is disheartening but certainly not disastrous. With Ferdi Kadioglu’s goal they have had 10 different scorers in the league this season – at least two more than any other team and halfway to the overall record. Get them shared out, Welbz.

Manuel Ugarte
No Manchester United player has ever committed more fouls in a single Premier League game. On only his second start, that is some going.

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Premier League losers

Arsenal
Before this season and since he signed permanently, Martin Odegaard had missed 11 games for Arsenal. The solutions conjured by Mikel Arteta ranged from Emile Smith Rowe to Granit Xhaka, Fabio Vieira and Kai Havertz.

In 2024/25 alone, Odegaard has now been sidelined for a dozen consecutive matches. And while the brilliance of Bukayo Saka could initially mask that loss, the captain’s absence and what that represents for this team was always likely to become too big a problem to resolve with makeshift fixes.

Arsenal have been without Odegaard for their last two trips to St James’ Park. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that they lost both games 1-0 but he scored in their previous visit: a 2-0 away win in which they matched the physicality of their hosts without sacrificing their technical strengths: compare that May 2023 midfield of Xhaka, Jorginho and Odegaard with Zinchenko inverting to Saturday afternoon’s, when Rice and Merino were supplemented by Partey and Timber stepping out.

The balance was all wrong; the concept of creativity was abandoned, or at least that entire responsibility was placed on Saka’s shoulders. It is why fans have been calling for Ethan Nwaneri to be trusted as the player most capable of replicating Odegaard’s ability on the ball and energy off it.

Arteta played to try and nullify Newcastle’s strengths rather than accentuating Arsenal’s. It was weak management which culminated in one of the least recognisable Gunners performances in recent memory.

READ: Arteta and his ‘Mourinho-lite’ pragmatism are costing Arsenal

Manchester City
That had been in the post, and for some time. While the suggestion was that Manchester City’s early lead of the Premier League table was a foreboding sign from a team which tends to stutter at the start before finishing seasons strongly, more than a few cracks were visible and waiting to be exploited by a side brave enough to try.

Manchester City have not won in the Premier League by more than a single goal since August. They have lost consecutive games for the first time in over a year. Only the smallest of violins can provide a backdrop to complaints about injuries sustained by a deliberately small squad, with that crisis helping distract from how it has been assembled sub-optimally with regards to the future.

But the reality is that much like Arsenal with Odegaard, Manchester City are yet to establish a consistently reliable alternative plan without Rodri. The positive results had concealed a series of disjointed, hesitant performances and Guardiola didn’t seem surprised at how it all unravelled under the weight of Bournemouth’s “intensity”.

Julen Lopetegui
The second-favourite in the Premier League sack race, having beaten only the first winner and the managers in third and fourth so far. Sean Dyche will avoid such woke nonsense as dressing up as the grim reaper but a home game against Everton just before the aching void of another international break feels particularly precarious for West Ham and Lopetegui’s relationship.

The first-half stoppage-time sending-off of Edson Alvarez does offer a caveat but when a manager deems it necessary to make multiple half-time substitutions four times in 10 games it is a damning indictment on whatever the initial plan was supposed to resemble.

Two against Nottingham Forest. Three against Manchester United. Two against Brentford. Two against Fulham. These are wholesale alterations being made, often aimlessly, to fix an irrevocably broken system and approach.

And those multiple half-time substitutions have all involved different players being taken off each time: Summerville, Rodriguez, Soler, Paqueta, Mavropanos, Kudus, Emerson, Soucek and Antonio. That is astonishing mismanagement and only compounding West Ham’s problems.

In 2023/24, David Moyes made the fewest substitutions of any manager who lasted the entire season, and brought them on at the latest time on average. Only four coaches have used more subs than Lopetegui in 2024/25 and the number of times he has felt compelled to change things so early is worrying.

West Ham supporters will be offered humble pie for forcing Moyes out but they need not indulge. There is no point in reminding them to be careful what they wish for when none of them wished for more of the same, only much worse and on an even less explicable scale.

Cole Palmer
It is more a reflection of Palmer’s rapid progress than any actual shortcoming in his game but the narrative is set: this 22-year-old in only his second proper full season as a Premier League player goes missing on the big occasions.

The idea is rather undermined by a) his goals in actual cup finals for Manchester City, b) his actual goal for actual England in the actual Euro 2024 final and c) the actual hat-trick he scored against Manchester United last season. But these things stick and it does show the next necessary steps.

It is true that in 13 games for Chelsea against Arsenal, Liverpool, both Manchester clubs and Spurs, he has scored two non-penalty goals and provided one assist. It is also true that trying to appease anyone on social media is a fool’s errand. But if there are any gaps on this burgeoning CV then Palmer’s brilliance is such that he has to do his utmost to change that.

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Ipswich
It is funny to see Ipswich supporters starting to parrot the recent Gary O’Neil line about how Premier League officials might “subconsciously” favour “the big guy” over “the little guy”, as if that wasn’t the Wolves manager talking after a game against Manchester City and something not in any way applicable to a home draw against the protected elite of *checks notes* Leicester.

Kieran McKenna veered into that sort of territory even when saying he didn’t want to complain about “the smallest team not getting things”. Adding later that “I didn’t think we got anything today in the game in general” suggested he didn’t mind playing up to that crowd at the slightest push.

It took more than that from Abdul Fatawu to barrel Conor Chaplin over in the area, granted. And perhaps there was an element of frustration which boiled over into Kalvin Phillips being sent off seconds later. The game swung on those moments and there is an alternate timeline on which Ipswich scored a penalty to go 2-0 up with 11 men.

But they didn’t and their responsibility is to channel that anger into what they can control. Tim Robinson didn’t miss those chances to establish a firmer cushion, nor those opportunities to stifle that last Leicester attack. He and his colleagues do provide easier targets to avoid proper introspection but if Ipswich prefer to foster a persecution complex than that is their prerogative.

Aston Villa
It is a privileged position Villa find themselves in, that Champions League perfection is able to provide respite from domestic struggles which have them down in lowly sixth.

The Carabao Cup exit was disappointing, particularly in light of defeat in a meeting with Spurs which was clearly prioritised.

But one possible read is that Morgan Rogers is even more crucial to this team than first thought. Ipswich equalised eight minutes after he was taken off in that 2-2 draw, while Villa were drawing with Spurs when he was substituted, only to be losing six minutes later.

He scored in both games and the dynamic between him and Ollie Watkins is certainly more fruitful than that between Villa’s two main character strikers currently, even with Jhon Duran’s record off the bench.

Eddie Nketiah
No player has had more shots without scoring this season. That honour has gone to Ryan Christie and Cheick Doucoure in the last two seasons, neither of whom a) are strikers or b) cost £30m.

Jarrad Branthwaite
While his return from injury is an undeniable factor, it feels beyond negligent for Everton to have a £70m asset on the bench with a manager only prepared to bring him on at 1-0 down in the final minutes so Michael Keane can be freed to go up front in search of an equaliser.

Gary O’Neil
One win against a current Premier League team in 20 games. The Crystal Palace draw does at least bring Wolves level on points with Burnley in a Premier League table since the beginning of March. Spot the problem there.

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