Premier League Matchday 22 review: Nunez helps Reds capitalise

Jonathan Victoria • 21 Jan 2025 Features

While Arsenal fail to see their result through.

This is really turning out to be a season to remember, isn’t it just?

From Nottingham Forest holding a top four spot to Tottenham sitting just three spots above the relegation zone, the 2024/25 Premier League campaign has provided us all with nothing but excitement and surprises.

Matchday 22 perfectly exemplified that, with some shock results, close battles and history for one player.

After a looong time without one of these, we’re returning to the Premier League Matchday review, with my thoughts on the good, the bad and the ugly from the week, plus the game of the week and the 5-a-side stars.

The Good

Credit: Núñez scores TWO stoppage-time goals! ⏱️ | Brentford 0-2 Liverpool | Premier League Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, YouTube)

Liverpool saved themselves from making it three draws in a row thanks to a Darwin Nunez brace. It sort kind of feels like his bread and butter, coming off the bench and bagging the goals to give them all three points.

This was the weekend for it as well, as much of the chasing pack tripped at the hurdle during the weekend. 

One team who did manage to clear the obstacle was Chelsea, who are still working their way back into form. While Wolves gave them a slight scare on Monday night, they managed to ease their way through in the end.

Manchester City are also finding their stride again, with an emphatic 6-0 victory at Portman Road against Ipswich seeing many stars finding their best once more, most notable the reigning Player of the Year Phil Foden.

Nottingham Forest also kept the pressure on Arsenal for second (still mad that that’s a thing) with a win over bottom of the table Southampton, although they were given a fright towards the end.

Bournemouth also made good ground on their efforts for a European spot, stunning the St James crowd by convincingly beating Newcastle 4-1 thanks to a second-of-the-season hat-trick from Justin Kluivert.

The Bad

Credit: Seagulls outclass Red Devils at Old Trafford | Man United 1-3 Brighton | Premier League Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, YouTube)

Manchester United. That’s it.

To elaborate, United’s 3-1 loss to Brighton at home is their sixth home defeat of the season, their most from their opening 12 home matches of a league season since… wait for it… 1893/94. They truly have reached a new low.

Tottenham are also reaching unbelievable lows, with their latest loss to Everton being potentially their worst of the season, having been 3-0 down before clawing two goals back to save a bit of face.

The result now marks six games without a win, with five losses in that stretch, and sees them fall all the way down to 15th in the table. Yikes.

The Ugly

Credit: City put SIX past Ipswich to climb up to 4th 💥 | Ipswich 0-6 Man City | Premier League Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, YouTube)

I don’t think anything belongs in the ugly this week, even with all three primary relegation candidates - the three promoted sides - losing once again.

That’s because, and call me crazy all you want, I actually don’t think that bad of either the teams. Of course, I have the most critical thoughts about my Saints, but if you actually watched the Forest game (not that I think many did), we weren’t god awful.

The same goes for Ipswich and Leicester. Each side have had a tough run of things this year because I think the gap between the Premier League and Championship is far bigger than it should be, more so than it has ever been before.

If all three sides immediately go back down, it will be the second consecutive season of this occurring. I believe that shows a major problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s normal for the promoted teams to be the main candidates to go back down. But two years in a row that the same teams who came up go straight back down don’t just seem like outliers. I’m almost tempted to put a bet on the three teams who get promoted from the Championship this season won’t be gone for long.

Game of the Week

Credit: Forest survive late scare to win! | Nottingham Forest 3-2 Southampton | Premier League Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, YouTube)

This week, you could take your pick really. If you want goals, look to Manchester City’s 6-0 drubbing of Ipswich. For a close clash that provided sparks, you could go for Arsenal and Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw.

But my pick this week is my own team, regardless of the final result. Forest may have embarrassed us in the first half, but our resilience and fightback in the second made for a spicy ending that kept the hosts on their toes.

As I mentioned earlier, we certainly aren’t the best team - you can even say were not very good and I wouldn’t correct you. But we do have something there, something that allows us to bring the fight to much stronger opposition (though it seems only when we feel like it).

5-a-side stars

I’m making another change to the 5-a-side stars format. I’m not longer going to put a dedicated goalkeeper in there, although I will try to each week (not this week, though). 

Going forward, we’re playing by rush goalie rules. Better hope for an AC Milan Olivier Giroud performance.

This week is a very attacking squad. Essentially imagine playing 4-2-4 on FIFA after the latest patch.

Ola Aina

I mainly just wanted to point Aina out as he exemplifies how confidence in a team can properly a player to become world class. He’s probably not quite there, but in recent games, Aina has been brilliant. He got an assist on the weekend, had the highest pass completion rate on his team for players who played the full 90 mins, and made three tackles + interceptions. Plus, he made an incredible goal-line clearance to save all three points.

Justin Kluivert

The star of the weekend, Justin turned into his father Patrick to net his second hat-trick of the season, and this time without a single penalty needed (still ridiculous his first was from three penalties). Better yet, he topped it off with the assist for Bournemouth’s fourth. Perfect game.

Phil Foden

Last year’s recipient of the PFA Players’ Player of the Season award hasn’t quite found his form this year that he reached last year, but his performance against Ipswich may be an indicator that he’s finding it again after two goals and an assist.

Darwin Nunez

Liverpool’s savior netted a brace off the bench in added time to steal two points from Brentford. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel he has a habit of netting late on.

Jean-Philippe Mateta

Mateta has made it four goals in his last three matches with a brace to sink London rivals West Ham, with one coming from the penalty spot, keeping up his perfect career record (eight from eight from the spot, at least according to FBRef, although I have no reason to doubt them).