Premier League Match Week 30 Results: Tractor Boys Stun Bournemouth; Hammer Woes Continue; Rashford, Ascensio Lead Villa Over Brighton; Anfield Curse Continues for Everton’s Moyes; Elanga Stars In Win Over Former Red Devil Teammates; Chelsea Pushes Postecoglou Closer To Edge

It will not mean much in the long run, but Ipswich Town supporters will relish a rare magic moment as their Tractor Boys won 2-1 at Brighton to record their first victory of 2025. Liam Delap, recently linked with interest from Manchester City and Chelsea, stroked the winner for Ipswich at the 60-minute mark, recording his 11th Premier League goal of the season. The loss for the homestanding Cherries was their fourth in their last five league matches as the curtain is beginning to close on Bournemouth’s hopes for European football next season.

While the taste of victory was sweet for the visiting Tractor Boys, they remained nine points from safety as 17th place Wolverhampton also came away with three points during the week, blanking West Ham in a 1-0 victory at Molineux Stadium. Wolves won for a fourth time in their last seven outings as Manager Vitor Pereira has revived a club which did not post its first victory of the season until November. Jorgen Strand Larsen scored the winner in the first half of a match which saw more struggles in the attacking end from visiting West Ham. This has been far from a successful renaissance for West Ham Manager Graham Potter’s career. Out of work for 20 months after a short, failed stint at Chelsea, the former Brighton Manager has tidied up West Ham’s porous defense but has failed to nail the Hammer attack. The net result is that Potter has no better record than sacked former Manager Julen Lopetegui as the Hammers have just three wins and 10 goals in Potter’s first 11 matches in charge. Hammer supporters are losing faith just three months into Potter’s so far disappointing tenure and have come to derisively calling their new manager “Graham Lopetegui.”

Tottenham Hotspur supporters are similarly disillusioned with Manager Ange Postecoglou. Spurs lost for the sixteenth time this season in a 1-0 loss to Chelsea. Postecoglou’s antics on Thursday included taunting his own traveling supporters and then engaging in yet another of his testy exchanges with an interviewer after the match.

Everton Manager David Moyes, meanwhile, has been wildly successful in his return for a second managerial stint at Everton. A nine-match unbeaten run for the Toffees, however, ended with an all too familiar outcome with a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool. Moyes has never won a Premier League match at Anfield with Wednesday’s defeat marking his 20th failed effort at the historic ground. Diogo Jota scored the winner for Liverpool while Everton could not manage a single shot on target as the Reds reasserted their Premier League dominance after being bounced out of two tournament competitions in recent weeks.

Bukayo Saka

Arsenal stayed twelve points behind the leaders as Bukayo Saka scored the winner in his first game back from injury in a 2-1 Gunner victory over Fulham. Saka had been out since December and Gunner supporters can only wonder how the season may have played out differently with their star on the pitch in recent months. The injury bug bit again on Tuesday as Arsenal center back Gabriel went down with a hamstring injury, particularly worrying considering next week’s Champions League semi-final tilt with Real Madrid.

Third place Nottingham Forest defeated Manchester United 1-0, a third consecutive victory for the Tricky Trees. Anthony Elanga electrified the crowd at The City Ground in the fifth minute of play by navigating the length of the pitch from deep inside his own end to find the net for the match’s only goal. The loss was disheartening for the struggling Red Devils who watched Elanga, their own former academy player, do them in. The attacking situation for Manchester United, meanwhile, is so bad right now that defender Harry Maguire was playing striker at the end of the match for Manager Ruben Amorim. A Manchester derby is next up for the Red Devils this weekend where the Old Trafford faithful will not be hesitant to vocalize their concerns.

Another discarded Red Devil helped lead Aston Villa to a key win in their chase for Europe. Marcus Rashford scored in the 51st minute for the opening tally in a 3-0 win over Brighton. Aston Villa’s aggression in the January transfer window is paying off as Marco Ascencio, on loan from PSG, scored the second goal as Villa leapfrogged the Seagulls into seventh place in the heated chase for European places. With the title chase and the relegation places seemingly resolved, the excitement in the coming weeks comes down to the battle for those European places. Match Week 31 will include one of those key matches when Aston Villa will try to maintain its momentum against a strong Nottingham Forest side which visits Villa Park on Saturday.

Newcastle also has high hopes for Champions League football after winning for the third time in its last four league matches with a 2-1 win over Brentford on Wednesday. Alexander Isak scored his 20th Premier League goal of the season, but it was Sandro Tonali, known more for his lengthy gambling suspension, who provided the winner for the Magpies. Still energized by their Carabao Cup win over Liverpool, Newcastle appear extremely dangerous in this European chase. The Magpies are currently just a point behind fifth place Manchester City in a year when five Champions League places are expected to be awarded.

The Citizens easily rolled over Leicester 2-0 during the week and now have their sights set on the Manchester derby coming up on Sunday.

A dash of cold water was thrown on the perhaps overly optimistic hopes of Europe for Crystal Palace when the Eagles dropped points to bottom of the table Southampton in a 1-1 draw on Wednesday. Only a stoppage time goal by Matheus Franca averted an even worse outcome for the Eagles. Next up for the Eagles is their odd rivalry match with Brighton this weekend. Crystal Palace is seven points back of the eighth place Seagulls for what could be the final qualifying position for Europe.