The long drought is over as Wolverhampton garnered its first victory of the Premier League season, in its 20th try, with a 3-0 win over West Ham. The win, which doubled Wolves’ point total for the season, was the first for long suffering Wolverhampton since last April. The 19-match winless run by Wolves to open this season was the first time that had happened in the English topflight in over 120 years. That infamous run is now over as Manager Rob Edwards’ side built on the momentum of a Tuesday draw with Manchester United which delivered Edwards’ first points with the club. Adding to the joy at Molineux was a top performance by 18-year-old Matheus Mane who scored the final goal on Saturday and has injected some fresh energy into the lineup.
Energy was not something exhibited by dismal West Ham whose manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, apologized to Hammer supporters after the club’s winless run was extended to nine matches with the loss to the league’s bottom side. West Ham is also very close to the bottom and facing relegation. The sacking of Grahm Potter and insertion of Santo has resulted in just two wins in the new manager’s 15 matches in charge. A massive tilt awaits on Tuesday when the Hammers face Nottingham Forest with the Tricky Trees clinging to the final safe position in the table, four points above the hapless Hammers.
Manchester United may not be hapless but is certainly dysfunctional as Ruben Amorim was sacked after a 1-1 draw at Leeds. It was not so much the draw with newly promoted Leeds but Amorim’s comments before and after the match that seemingly ended a borderline disastrous 14 months in charge. Amorim seemed to lash out at ownership for interference in tactical matters and for a lack of support in the transfer market. The man in charge for the worst season in Manchester United history, the 2024/25 campaign, did not have enough credibility to cushion his act of defiance. Despite improvement over last season’s debacle, Manchester United was still struggling with Amrorim’s 3-4-3 formation which the manager clung to as if it were the holy grail despite a seeming mismatch with the personnel at hand. Apparently, the club was unwilling to overhaul the entire roster to accommodate Amorim. The dismissal casts additional doubt on the capabilities of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS group to run the Manchester United organization. Many saw the mismatch of Amorim’s inflexibility and the demands of Premier League play at the time of his hiring. Among those were former technical director Dan Ashworth who was dismissed after a comically brief hiring and firing by INEOS. Where Manchester United goes from here is anyone’s guess.
Chelsea, meanwhile, is apparently looking to replace departed Enzo Maresca with Liam Rosenior, the manager for Ligue 1 side Strasbourg. The French club is also owned by BlueCo, the Chelsea ownership group. Rosenior has a thin resume but would seem to be a fit for the ownership’s group’s desire for a company man willing to be a coach versus aspiring to a more expansive manager role. Maresca was thought to be such a man but grew petulant in his final days. Reporting now indicates that Maresca resigned, rather than being sacked. His seemingly impulsive move will cost the manager millions and millions in what would have been a hefty sacking settlement. Chelsea U-21 squad manager Calum McFarlane was a smashing success in what might have been his only match in charge of the senior Blues. Enzo Fernandez’s stoppage time equalizer gave Chelsea a point against Pep Guardiola and Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday. The perceived managerial mismatch did not benefit the Citizens and McFarlane actually made some astute substitutions to facilitate the outcome. The strategy of Chelsea ownership to employ the same senior level tactics and formations throughout its age groups also helped to ease the abrupt transition for Mc Farlane.
Manchester City, meanwhile, lost further ground to Arsenal with a second consecutive draw. The table leading Gunners stretched their lead to six points over the Citizens as Declan Rice notched his first Premier League brace in a 3-2 win over Bournemouth. Rice’s two goals came after Gabriel Magalhaes was responsible for the first two goals of the match. An errant pass by the center back gifted Bournemouth an opening goal by the Cherries’ Evanilson. Gabriel would then equalize matters just six minutes later. A second Bournemouth goal by Eli Junior Kroupi in the 76th minute proved too little, too late after Rice’s unusual offensive outburst. Bournemouth has now gone 11 matches without a win, an ignominious run stretching back to October.
Aston Villa bounced back from its loss to Arsenal last week with a 3-1 defeat of Nottingham Forest. Jon McGinn scored twice and Ollie Watkins scored a goal in his 250th appearance for the club as Villa chopped down a Forest side which has lost its way in recent weeks and is again in relegation trouble. Any boost from the appointment of Manager Sean Dyche is long gone after the Tricky Trees lost a fourth consecutive match to fall within four points of the drop line with a massive match versus West Ham looming on Tuesday. Aston Villa, meanwhile, pulled level on points with Manchester City and showed little adverse effect from the sobering loss to Arsenal.
Things are still a bit rocky at Liverpool despite the Reds’ current fourth place standing, eight points below Villa. More than two points would have been expected from back-to-back matches with Leeds and Fulham. The Reds drew for a second consecutive week, however, when Fulham’s Harrison Reed blasted a wonder goal in the 97th minute to salvage a point for the Cottagers in a 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage. Reed’s strike from more than 30 yards away negated a 94th minute goal from Liverpool’s Cody Gakop which seemed to be a dramatic winner for a few brief minutes before Reed changed the script. Liverpool was without forward Hugo Ekitke on Sunday but is hopeful of having the star and his hamstring fit for Thursday’s headline match versus Arsenal.
Sunderland have now drawn each of their last four matches after a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur. The cagey Cats snatched their latest point when Brian Brobbey rocked homestanding Spurs with a thunderous 80th minute equalizer. Tottenham Hotspur’s uninspiring home form continued as supporters mercilessly booed the players and, perhaps more loudly, Manager Thomas Frank as they seem to do at every home match now. Only the three clubs in the relegation zone have delivered worse results at home than Tottenham Hotspur this season.
Brentford, meanwhile, does not seem to miss Frank at all. His replacement Keith Andrews has the Bees up to seventh in the table after a 4-2 win at Everton. Igor Thiago netted a hat trick and has 14 goals on the season, a haul exceeded only by Golden Boot leader Erling Haaland. The outburst ended a December drought which saw a lull in Thiago’s production. Thiago’s emergence this season has been key to the Bees’ fortunes after the departure of both Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa in the summer window.
Newcastle and Brighton remained within striking distance of the European places with wins on the weekend. The two clubs sit ninth and tenth in the table, respectively. Newcastle defeated a declining Crystal Palace side 2-0 at St James’ Park to move within two points of the top six. Crystal Palace lost for the fourth time in its last five league matches as a once-promising season is seemingly running out of gas. Brighton, meanwhile, has been wildly inconsistent and welcomed a relatively easy match versus relegation bound Burnley, a bedraggled side which has now won just one of its ten away matches after Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Brighton’s American Express Stadium. The Seagulls ended a six-match winless run.
