Premier League Results Match Week 16: Liverpool Drops More Points As Chelsea Closes; Dyche And Everton Frustrate Arsenal; Red Devils Win Battle of Manchester; Tricky Trees Back In Top Four; Wolves and Saints Sack Managers; Magpies Rout Foxes; Eagles Continue Climb with Brighton Win

Chelsea won a fifth consecutive football match to draw closer to table leader Liverpool which dropped points for a second consecutive week. The Blues defeated Brentford 2-1 at Stamford Bridge to pull within two points of the Reds. Marc Cucarella was the unlikely scorer of Chelsea’s first goal just minutes before the end of the first half when the diminutive and wildly coiffed defender executed a flying header to give the home side the advantage. Nicolas Jackson would later find the net for his ninth goal of the season in the 80th minute. A 90th minute goal by the Bees’ Bryan Mbeumo made things mildly interesting but Chelsea held on to the three points despite goal scorer Cucarella losing his mind at game’s end. A yellow card for a 95th minute foul and a second yellow card for a post-game shove of an opponent will sideline the Spanish international for Chelsea’s next match. Despite the late indiscipline, Chelsea continued to stoke supporters’ hopes of a title after two years in the wilderness. The young squad is grinding out wins for Manager Enzo Maresca while entertaining supporters with the most prolific goalscoring in the league.

Liverpool has scored just one fewer goal than Chelsea, but it has been the Reds’ defense which has been the pleasant surprise of Manager Arne Slot’s maiden season. Liverpool has conceded only 13 times this season, a league best, but some warts have appeared as five goals have leaked in as four points were dropped over the last two matches. The Reds averted another shock loss at Anfield when Diogo Jota’s 86th minute strike salvaged a point  in a 2-2 draw with Fulham. Liverpool needed to come from behind twice in a match where the Reds played with 10 men after a 17th minute red card on defender Andy Robertson.

Arsenal and Manchester City also dropped points as Chelsea was the only winner of the top four entering the weekend. The title race could be wide open for the first time in years as Manchester City looks done and Arsenal’s progress as a contender seems to have stalled. Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat in the Manchester derby marked the eighth loss in the Citizens’ last 11 matches across all competitions. Manchester United were handed three points on Sunday when City threw away a 1-0 advantage in the contest’s closing minutes. Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandez converted an equalizing penalty kick in the 88th minute. The winner came with a long ball over the Manchester City defense two minutes later which Amad Diallo deposited for the game winner. Diallo also drew the penalty which led to Fernandes’s equalizer, his success coming as Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were left off the match day roster. New Manchester United Manager Reuben Amorim is not hesitating to assert his authority and demand accountability of underperforming players. Amorim has also now defeated Manchester’s other manager twice this season, having earlier led Sporting Lisbon to a Champions League victory over Manchester City and Manager Pep Guardiola.

Arsenal also dropped points this weekend as the Gunners fell victim to the dark arts mastery of Everton Manager Sean Dyche. The Toffees went into the Emirates and emerged with a point in a goalless rock fight which saw Arsenal unable to penetrate Dyche’s low block defense. It was the fourth time in the club’s last five matches that Everton held an opponent scoreless. On Saturday, Dyche’s side conceded 76% of the possession and launched only two shots of its own as the focus was solely on resolute defending. There remain mixed feelings, however, about Dyche’s style among Everton supporters. Despite losing only two of their last eleven matches, the Toffees have won but three times this season. Arsenal fans, meanwhile, will be feeling some uneasiness after the Gunners dropped points for a second consecutive week and have failed to score a goal from open play in their last three matches. Arsenal’s recent success from corner kicks was stopped cold by the well-organized Toffees despite the Gunners having eight opportunities from the corner on Saturday.

Now lurking just behind Arsenal in the table is Nottingham Forest which scored a comeback 2-1 victory over Aston Villa at the City Ground. The Tricky Trees replace Manchester City in this week’s top four. Forest was down 1-0 until an 87th minute equalizer headed in by towering defender Nikola Milenkovic. Former Manchester United winger Anthony Elanga then won the game in stoppage time for Nottingham Forest’s fourth victory in the club’s last five home matches and third victory in the Tricky Trees’ last four Premier League matches. Manager Nuno Espirito Santo has engineered a remarkable turnaround for a Forest side which was 17th in the table last season and now has aspirations for Europe. Aston Villa, meanwhile, remains in the top four chase, just three points behind the Trees, but controversy is growing around who should lead the line for Manager Unai Emery. There are understandable calls for Jhon Duran to continue staring up top for Emery in place of England international Ollie Watkins. Duran got the start on Saturday and scored for the fifth time in as many starts for the Villans.

Brighton is in the midst of a rough patch as the Seagulls descended further down the table with a 3-1 home loss to bitter rival Crystal Palace. A four-match winless run has seen Brighton tumble from the top four all the way to its current ninth place position in the table. The Seagulls were undone on Sunday by a Crystal Palace side which has lost only once in its last eight league matches, a run that has seen the Eagles soar out of the relegation zone and climb all the way to 15th in the table. Ismaila Sarr scored twice against Brighton while Chelsea loanee Trevor Chalobah provided the opening goal in addition to another outstanding defensive performance. Brighton were the fortunate recipients of a late own goal by the Eagles which denied a clean sheet for keeper Dean Henderson who otherwise frustrated the Seagulls with his five saves on the day. Crystal Palace Manager Oliver Glasner has turned around the Eagles’ fortunes and justified the faith of Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish who has not hesitated to replace managers in the past.

Two other Premier League managers were sacked after this weekend’s results. Things have spiraled out of control at Wolverhampton. Not only have results buried the club in the relegation places but the behavior of players has proved an embarrassment in the last two weeks. Mario Lemina had the club’s captaincy taken away from him after a post-match tussle with a West Ham player last week. After Saturday’s 2-1 loss at fellow relegation straggler Ipswich Town, two additional Wolves players made fools of themselves. Rayan Ait-Nouri needed to be physically carried from the pitch by a teammate to remove him from a tussle with one of the Tractor Boys after the match. Matheus Cunha, meanwhile, scuffled with an Ipswich Town security guard after the match. Frustration and anger have enveloped the club, leaving no option but  for Sunday’s dismissal of Manager Gary O’Neil. Vitor Pereira has reportedly agreed to replace O’Neil with Wolves’ paying compensation to Pereira’s Saudi Arabia club, Al-Shabab. The new manager will be tasked with both quieting the chaos and improving a defense which has conceded a league high 40 goals. Hopefully results will follow, and the club can mount a reasonable survival fight. Jack Taylor’s stoppage time winner for Ipswich, meanwhile, puts the Tractor Boys within two points of safety in the table.

The other manager to be sacked this week was Southampton Manager Russell Martin. The Saints are the only team below Wolverhampton in the standings and were thoroughly embarrassed on their home pitch in a 5-0 pasting administered by Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. Spurs midfielder James Maddison scored in the first minute of play and added a goal later in a first half barrage which saw all five of the match’s goals scored. Martin, who led the Saints to one Premier League victory during his tenure, was relieved just shortly after concluding his post-game press conference. A replacement for Martin is still unclear for the budget conscious Saints.

Leicester was also smashed this weekend, but the Foxes have already fired the manager who started their season. New man Ruud van Nistelrooy suffered his first loss with Leicester in a 4-0 rout at Newcastle as Jacob Murphy had a brace for the homestanding Magpies who ended a four-match winless run. Leicester is now just two points above Ipswich Town and the relegation line after the Tractor Boys’ win at Wolverhampton.

Bournemouth and West Ham, meanwhile, could have skipped the first 86 minutes of their Monday match. Lucas Paqueta broke the ice with a penalty kick at the 87-minute mark only to see the Cherries’ Enes Unal equalize with a 90th minute goal as the two clubs shared the points. Bournemouth is sixth in a crowded table which reflects seven clubs within three points of the Cherries.