Almanac Soccer: English Premier League Matchweek 24 Highlights

 

Premier League Matchweek 24 Highlights 24/25

 

Matchweek 24 saw a great number of upsets and drama. The highlights for this week were, Nottingham Forest taking on Brighton at the City Ground, Iraola’s Bournemouth hosting Liverpool with both teams unbeaten in the league since November and Arsenal playing Manchester City at the Emirates with both sides looking for a big win.

 

 

Nottingham Forest v Brighton Hove & Albion

 

The opening fixture of Matchweek 24 saw Nuno Espirito’s Nottingham Forest host Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton at the City Ground with both teams coming off the back of disappointing losses. Forest took the lead just after the 10 minute mark in a very fortunate fashion. Morgan Gibbs-White received the ball down the right wing from Danilo where he drilled a pass across the 6-yard area. Lewis Dunk was then the unfortunate defender on the end of Gibbs-White’s cross who slid in to put the ball into his own net. Dunk now becomes the Premier League defender with the 2nd highest number of own goals (7). The hosts then doubled their advantage 13 minutes later when Gibbs-White saw his brilliant glancing header from Anthony Elanga’s corner fly in at the near post. Forest then sealed the 3 points in the 31st minute when star striker Chris Wood got in on the action. Elanga chipped the ball in from the right wing where the Kiwi jumped up to head the ball under Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen. The first half finished 3-0 with Forest looking to make a statement comeback after their 0-5 loss to Bournemouth last weekend. 

 

Number 4 came for Forest in the 64th minute when Elanga made it a hat-trick of assists by rolling the ball across the 6-yard box from the right wing for Wood to tap into an uncontested net. Wood also set a new Premier League personal best as he overtook his best ever season tally of 14 as his 2nd goal of the game took him to 16. Wood then found a perfect opportunity to make it a hat-trick of goals after Tariq Lamptey wrestled down Gibbs-White in the Brighton penalty area. Wood stepped up from the spot and curled the ball into the bottom right corner, sending Verbruggen the wrong way. No.6 came in the 89th minute for the hosts after Taiwo Awoniyi made a dangerous run in from the right wing. Awoniyi then saw his shot saved by Verbruggen but the ball was then not cleared by any Brighton defenders. After a few scrappy exchanges by the Forest attackers and Brighton defenders, left back Neco Williams ran in for Forest and smashed the ball into the top left corner. The 7th then came in stoppage time after Verbruggen carelessly gave the ball away to substitute Jota Silva. Silva was then through on goal and free to smash the ball into the bottom left corner, completing the embarrassment of Hurzeler’s side. The full time score finished 7-0, with Forest becoming the first team ever to lose by 5 or more goals, only to win by 5 or more goals the next week. Nuno’s side remain 3rd in the table on 47 points. Brighton fail to score in back to back Premier League games as they dropped to 10th in the table taking a big blow to their goal difference.

 

 

AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool

 

The following game of Matchweek 24 saw the 2 most inform teams in the league play off, with Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth hosting Arne Slot’s Liverpool at the Vitality Stadium. The Cherries made an electric start to the tie, with Antoine Semenyo rattling the upright after just 20 minutes in the first half. Liverpool then found a chance to take the lead, with Dominik Szoboszlai seeing his shot from close range parried away by Kepa, the Bournemouth keeper. The travelling side were then gifted a ‘ghost’ penalty, with referee Darren England making the horrible call to award Liverpool a penalty after Cody Gakpo tripped up his own feet inside the Cherries’ penalty area. After he’d missed a penalty at the Vitality 2 years ago, Mohamed Salah showed great spirit to step up and smash the ball into the bottom right corner, taking full advantage of England’s howler call. David Brooks then thought he’d equalised for the hosts in the 37th minute after he thrashed Milos Kerkez’s deflected cross from the left wing into the bottom corner, only to turn around to celebrate and see the assistant’s flag raised. The first half finished 0-1 with Bournemouth so unlucky to be behind and Liverpool so fortunate to brandish a 1 goal lead.

 

The hosts should have equalised the game in the 70th minute after Marcus Tavernier cracked a shot from outside the area. His curling effort rattled the post and fell into the path of Justin Kluivert who had made an untracked run into the 6-yard area. Although the angle was tight, Kluivert should have scored, blasting the ball wide of the post from what was an open goal. Liverpool then wrapped up an unconvincing win on the road when Salah secured his brace. The Egyptian received the ball in the right side of the penalty area from Curtis Jones where he immediately looked to carve out a shot. Salah picked his spot perfectly, curling the ball beautifully into the top left corner. The full time score finished 0-2 with Bournemouth losing their first game in all competitions since November 2024. Although they were lucky, Liverpool still managed to see off Iraola’s tricky Cherry’s as Slot’s men remain top of the table with 56 points. Bournemouth stay 7th despite just being 1 point away from the top 4.

 

 

Arsenal v Manchester City

 

The final game of Matchweek 24 played on Sunday evening was the most anticipated of the weekend with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal hosting Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium in what was a huge game in the race for the title. Much like last weekend, Manchester City conceded inside 2 minutes due to a woeful defensive error. Manuel Akanji gave the ball away to Declan Rice who played a first time pass into Kai Havertz inside the penalty area. Havertz then squared the ball to Martin Odegaard who smashed the ball into an uncontested net, scoring his first ever goal against the Citizens. City should have been punished for another defensive error in the 26th minute when keeper Stefan Ortega played a careless pass to Mateo Kovacic. Rice slid in and dispossessed the Croatian where the ball fell to Havertz. With all the time and space in the world, somehow the German striker still managed to fire the ball wide of the post with the goal gaping. The first half finished 1-0 with Arsenal fans left fuming that Havertz could not give them a 2 goal lead.

 

City punished Arsenal’s crucial miss early on in the 2nd period when Erling Haaland claimed his 18th goal of the season. Phil Foden played the ball into the penalty area where Savinho showed great skill to take the ball around Gabriel. The Brazilian then chipped the ball up for Haaland who rose high to head the ball past David Raya. The Gunners then conjured up the perfect response, snatching back the lead just moments later. Phil Foden played a dangerous ball from inside his own half which was intercepted by Thomas Partey. Partey lined up a shot from just outside the penalty area which took a big deflection off the back of John Stones, watching as it flew into the top left corner, a brilliant way to mark his 150th appearance for Arsenal. Only 6 minutes later, the hosts found a 2 goal cushion after Rice played the ball to academy product Myles Lewis-Skelly just outside the City penalty area. Lewis-Skelly progressed into the 18-yard box and chopped onto his right foot before getting a shot away. Ortega did get a hand to his curling effort, but it was not enough as the ball rifled into the top right corner, Lewis-Skelly’s first senior goal for the club. In the 76th minute, Arsenal sealed all 3 points when Havertz made amends for his previous miss. Gabriel Martinelli drove at the City backline with Havertz making an overlapping run to his right. Havertz received the ball from the Brazilian inside the penalty area where he cut back onto his left foot before curling the ball perfectly into the far corner. Arsenal put the cherry on top of a superb performance against the champions when yet another academy product in Ethan Nwaneri scored to make it 5-1. Rice, who had been a stand out performer of the evening, played a wonderful switch-ball out to the right wing where Nwaneri was occupying Buyako Saka’s usual residence. Fresh off scoring in the Champions League just days ago, it was almost a mirror image, the 17-year old cutting onto his favoured left boot before curling the ball beautifully into the far top corner. The full time score finished 5-1, with Arsenal putting out their best showing of the season. Arteta’s side stay in 2nd as they hope to chase down league leaders Liverpool who are 6 points ahead of them. Manchester City lose in a worrying manner as they find themselves lucky to hold onto their place in the top 4.

 

Written by Ollie Wade – Read the rest of Matchweek 24 at Premier League Matchweek 24 24/25 – Kickoff chronicles

 

 

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