Saturday was quite a day in the Premier League, with shock results impacting both ends of the table, and the middle.
Liverpool appear to live challengers again in the title race after their 3-1 victory against Norwich City was followed by Tottenham's dramatic 3-2 win away to leaders Manchester City.
Mohamed Salah scored his 150th goal for Liverpool and Luis Diaz bagged his first in English football, while former City target Harry Kane insisted on shoving narrative into everyone's faces with a sensational performance for Spurs at the Etihad Stadium.
Elsewhere, a late Hakim Ziyech goal secured Chelsea a win at Crystal Palace, Arsenal's youngsters earned them a 2-1 win against Brentford, while West Ham were held to a 1-1 draw by Newcastle in the early game.
Burnley produced a surprising performance to win 3-0 at Brighton, with Wout Weghorst getting off the mark for his new club, while Watford also threw a spanner in the works of the relegation fight with a 1-0 win at Aston Villa.
The other game of a busy day in England's top flight saw Southampton beat Frank Lampard's Everton 2-0 at St Mary's thanks to goals from Stuart Armstrong and Shane Long.
Manchester City 2-3 Tottenham: City Kane-d by ruthless Spurs
Pep Guardiola's City team had looked imperious since losing at home to Crystal Palace in October, until today.
City were dominant but wasteful against Spurs, finding the target with only four of their 21 shots, while the visitors made Ederson work with five of their six efforts, beating him three times to take the points.
Kane’s winner, timed at 94:25, was the latest winning goal scored against City in the Premier League since Michael Owen for Manchester United in September 2009 (95:27).
Tottenham duo Kane and Son Heung-min have now assisted one another for 36 Premier League goals, the joint-most of any pairing in the competition's history, moving level with Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.
Son has been directly involved in 10 goals in 15 appearances against City (seven goals, three assists); only against Southampton (15) and West Ham (11) has he had a hand in more goals for Spurs.
Meanwhile, Guardiola has lost twice to Tottenham this season, and has only lost more games to Chelsea (eight) than Spurs (six) in his entire managerial career.
Liverpool 3-1 Norwich: Reds come back thanks to usual suspects, and a new one
Early in the second half at Anfield, it did not look like Liverpool would be cutting Manchester City's lead on Saturday, finding themselves 1-0 down to the Canaries after Milot Rashica's first Premier League goal.
However, a marvellous overhead kick from Sadio Mane was soon followed by a historic moment for Salah, who scored his 150th goal for Liverpool in just his 233rd appearance. Only Roger Hunt (226) has reached that total faster in the club's history.
Luis Díaz became the 16th different Colombian player to score a Premier League goal, producing a nice finish after a Jordan Henderson throughball. He was also Liverpool’s 16th different goalscorer in the competition this season (excluding own goals), the joint-most of any side in 2021-22 (Chelsea and City both also 16).
Henderson was a standout performer on the day as well, drastically improving from his showing at Burnley last weekend.
He completed just 50 per cent of passes (18 out of 36) in the 1-0 win at Turf Moor, but on Saturday produced his second-best pass success rate in the Premier League for Liverpool in a game where he made at least 100 passes, with 97.2 per cent (104 of 107), only bettering that against Hull City in 2016-17 (97.3 per cent, 108 of 111).
Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea: Late Ziyech strike saves Blues
Chelsea returned to Premier League action after winning the FIFA Club World Cup last week to eventually secure three points against Palace thanks to an 89th-minute Ziyech strike. The Moroccan has scored in three consecutive league matches for the first time since September 2019 in the Eredivisie with Ajax.
The Blues have now won back-to-back league games for the first time since October, when they won four in a row, and could also be looking up the table after City's wobble.
It was another clean sheet for Chelsea, who have kept 37 in 70 matches in all competitions under Thomas Tuchel, more than any other Premier League side since the German’s first match in charge in January last year.
It was not all good from Tuchel's men though, with struggling striker Romelu Lukaku managing just seven touches, one of which was at the kick-off, the fewest in a single top-flight game for a player to feature for at least 90 minutes since Opta started collecting the data in 2003-04.
Arsenal 2-1 Brentford: Young guns fire Arteta's side to victory
Goals from Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka earned Arsenal a hard-fought win against Brentford, despite Christian Norgaard's late strike for the Bees.
Smith Rowe bagged his ninth league goal this season; the only player to score more in a single campaign for Arsenal when aged 21 or younger was Nicolas Anelka in 1998-99 (17).
Saka registered his 11th goal involvement in the Premier League this season (seven goals, four assists), the most of any under-21 player and a haul bettered only by Jarrod Bowen (16), Mason Mount (13) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (12) among English players.
The Gunners netted their 600th (and 601st) Premier League goals at the Emirates Stadium, reaching the milestone in their 297th game there, with only United at Old Trafford (283) and City at the Etihad (290) doing so at a single stadium in fewer games in the competition.
Brentford are winless in their last seven league games, last having a longer run between September and October 2018 (eight games). Thomas Frank's side have also lost their last five away league games, their longest such run since February 2011 (also five).
West Ham 1-1 Newcastle: Magpies continue to rise under Howe
Eddie Howe's 500th league game as a manager (410 with Bournemouth, 77 with Burnley and 13 with Newcastle) ended with a well-earned point from the London Stadium in the day's early kick-off.
Craig Dawson gave West Ham the lead before Joe Willock's equaliser came just before half-time.
Newcastle have now taken 12 points from their last six Premier League games, two more than they managed in their previous 18 this season (10 points).
Dawson's goal was the 11th scored from a set-piece by the Hammers in the league this season (not including penalties), a figure only Liverpool (14) and City (12) can better.
Brighton and Hove Albion 0-3 Burnley: Weghorst gets off the mark in big Clarets win
A quite remarkable performance from Sean Dyche's side in his 250th Premier League game in charge of Burnley saw them ease to a 3-0 win at the Amex Stadium, with Weghorst, Josh Brownhill and Aaron Lennon all finding the net.
Brighton suffered the heaviest defeat by a team hosting the English top flight's bottom side since Crystal Palace lost 4-0 at home to Sunderland in February 2017.
This was Burnley's first away win in the league since May 2021 (v Fulham), ending a run of 12 games without a win on the road. They also scored more goals in this game than they had in their previous five Premier League away games combined (two).
Weghorst scored his first goal for Burnley, becoming the first Dutchman to score for the Clarets in the competition. This ended a run of seven league games without scoring for Weghorst, with his previous goal coming in December for previous club Wolfsburg against Cologne.
Aston Villa 0-1 Watford: Dennis a menace to Villa
Another relegation-threatened side stepped up to secure an impressive away win as Roy Hodgson earned his first victory in charge of Watford thanks to a goal from Emmanuel Dennis.
This was the Hornets' first Premier League away win since October (5-2 v Everton), and their first away win in the competition while also keeping a clean sheet since January 2020 (3-0 v Bournemouth).
After winning two of their first three home games under Steven Gerrard (L1), Villa are now winless in their last four games at Villa Park (D2 L2). This was the first Premier League home game they have failed to score in since May 2021 (v Everton), ending a run of 12 in a row in which they had found the net.
Watford have now kept as many clean sheets in four Premier League games under Hodgson (two) as they had in their previous 36 games in the competition.
Southampton 2-0 Everton: Another free-kick continues Toon revival
The revival of Everton under Lampard was nowhere to be seen at St Mary's as Ralph Hasenhuttl's side continued their good run of form.
Southampton have now won four of their last eight Premier League games (D3 L1), as many victories as they managed in their previous 20 games in the competition (D8 L8).
Everton's total of 22 points from their first 23 games in the league this season is their worst at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1950-51 (three points for a win), when they also had 22 and were relegated at the end of the season.
Long's goal was his first in the league since February 2020 (v Aston Villa), ending a run of 799 minutes without the Irishman scoring in the league.
Real Sociedad qualify for Champions League despite defeat at Atletico Madrid
Real Sociedad claimed a place in the Champions League despite a 2-1 defeat at Atletico Madrid in LaLiga on Sunday.
Fifth-placed Villarreal’s loss at Rayo Vallecano by the same scoreline meant Sociedad could not be caught in fourth spot.
Antoine Griezmann and Nahuel Molina were on target for Atletico at the Civitas Metropolitano with Alexander Sorloth hitting a late reply for the visitors.
Atletico’s victory took them back within a point of second-placed city rivals Real Madrid.
Raul de Tomas and Isi Palazon struck either side of the hour-mark for Rayo Vallecano against Villarreal at the Vallecas Stadium. Giovani Lo Celso gave the Yellow Submarine hope seven minutes from time but it was not enough.
At the other end of the table, Espanyol were relegated after conceding a late equaliser to draw 2-2 at Valencia.
Samuel Lino struck three minutes into added time to seal Espanyol’s fate after they had replied to Diego Lopez’s opener with goals from Cesar Montes and Martin Braithwaite.
Valladolid remain in the bottom three with a game remaining after drawing 0-0 with another troubled side, Almeria, who are just a point above them.
Cadiz boosted their survival hopes with a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Celta Vigo and Getafe did likewise as they saw off Osasuna 2-1.
Champions Barcelona, meanwhile, extended their unassailable lead at the top of the table to 11 points with a 3-0 win over 10-man Mallorca at the Nou Camp.
Ansu Fati opened the scoring in the first minute before doubling the lead after the dismissal of Mallorca’s Amath Diedhiou. Gavi wrapped up the win 20 minutes from time.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic struck an 89th-minute winner as Lazio moved back into second place in Serie A with a 3-2 victory over relegated Cremonese.
It was the Serbian’s second of the game at the Stadio Olimpico with Elseid Hysaj also on target for the Rome side.
Cremonese had hit back from 2-0 down through Pablo Galdames and a Manuel Lazzari own goal.
Hellas Verona remain in the bottom three after conceding a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 1-1 with Empoli.
The hosts had led at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium through Adolfo Gaich but Giangiacomo Magnani turned into his own net in the sixth minute of time added on.
Their survival fight will still go to the final day, however, with the result having pulled them level on points with Spezia.
Jeff Stelling signs off from Soccer Saturday as touching tributes pour in
Jeff Stelling signed off from the “best job that anybody could possibly have wished for” as the presenter bade farewell after almost 30 years of fronting Soccer Saturday.
The 68-year-old announced last month his intention to stand down as anchor of the Sky Sports programme and earmarked the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday afternoon as his last show.
After touching tributes from colleagues past and present, Stelling was given a lengthy standing ovation by the punditry panel of Paul Merson, Clinton Morrison, Kris Boyd and Michael Dawson.
Stelling, who had planned to quit last year before reversing that decision, briefly hid his emotions with a mask of himself and quipped: “This is tricky because I’ve changed my mind – just kidding.
“I haven’t changed my mind this time.”
Stelling was clearly moved by the highlights package Sky televised in the final minutes of the show after Everton retained their top-flight status and confirmed the relegations of Leeds and Leicester.
Merson, Alan Mullery, Frank McLintock, Clive Allen, Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thompson and Matt Le Tissier passed on their well wishes and congratulations, as did Chris Kamara, who in a nod to the catchphrase that has become synonymous with the pair and the show, said: “You are unbelievable, Jeff!”
Stelling revealed he had been contacted by the likes of former Scotland player and manager Gordon Strachan as well as singer Sir Elton John, a noted supporter and former chairman and director of Watford.
Stelling, an unapologetic Hartlepool fan who frequently celebrated their goals on Soccer Saturday, said: “Somebody asked me the other day if I’d ever been starstruck and yeah, I was starstruck when Elton John rang me at home to say ‘Thank you very much for all you’ve done’.
“He said ‘Every week I watch the show and every week you tell me Watford are losing and every week you tell me Hartlepool are losing so I feel like we’re kindred spirits’. There’s something in that, isn’t there?”
Stelling looked back fondly on his 30-plus years with Sky, in which he not only covered football but live snooker, darts, greyhound racing, pool, and thanked everyone with whom he had worked.
In his final monologue, he added: “It’s been the best job that anybody could possibly have wished for. My wife takes great pleasure in saying ‘You are the luckiest man ever to take a breath’ and you know what? I don’t tell her this often but she’s right.
“The principle success of Soccer Saturday is you lot at home, who have given us unswerving support – both for the programme and for me personally.
“So that’s it. Soccer Saturday will be back next season. I’ll be watching – when Hartlepool are not playing. From me, goodbye.”
I apologise I didn’t do better – Sam Allardyce says sorry after Leeds relegated
Leeds boss Sam Allardyce apologised to the club’s fans after a 4-1 home defeat to Tottenham confirmed their Premier League relegation.
Allardyce, who Leeds had turned to in desperation with four games remaining, also urged the club to quickly resolve their ownership issue to aid their bid to bounce straight back from the Sky Bet Championship.
The former England manager said he had no regrets about taking on the job and will sit down with the board next week to discuss whether he will stay in the role.
Allardyce said: “I can’t say I’ve enjoyed it. I’m glad I came back. I tried my best to get Leeds out of trouble, but I can’t enjoy anything when I don’t win.
“We didn’t leave a stone unturned and it’s really sad that Leeds is in this position and to the fans, I apologise that I didn’t do better and the players didn’t do better.”
Leeds issued a statement shortly after the game also apologising to the club’s supporters for a “painful” relegation.
It read: “We apologise to our fanbase that the performances this season have not seen the club consolidate our status as we had all hoped.
“However, Leeds United remains in a strong position to build a team that can challenge for promotion from the Championship next season.
“We know things have not been good enough, we know we have to improve, but please be assured that behind the scenes we have worked hard to ensure that the past will not be repeated.
“Our focus is now on how we get straight back to the Premier League. ”
Leeds majority shareholder and chairman Andrea Radrizzani is understood to have stayed in Italy as the club crashed out of the top flight.
Harry Kane’s brace and goals from Pedro Porro and Lucas Moura ensured Leeds’ three-year stay was over and Jack Harrison’s second-half effort for Leeds was scant consolation for their fans, who vented their fury at the board throughout the match.
Speculation is mounting over whether a consortium Radrizzani is reported to be part of is poised to complete a takeover at Sampdoria and so expedite the sale of his shares in Leeds to American co-owners 49ers Enterprises.
Allardyce said: “I can tell them (the Leeds board) what I think needs to be done and then they can say what they think.
“Obviously, how is the club going to go forward? And who with? Because we all know about whether it’s going to be bought or stay the same, what’s going to happen?
“That’s probably the first factor that needs to get sorted out before you even speak to me, if you’re going to speak to me.”
Spurs, who missed out on a place in Europe next season despite Sunday’s result, will also begin their search for a new manager and interim boss Ryan Mason said some “huge decisions” would have to be made by the club.
Mason, who has won two of his six games back in temporary charge, said: “First of all it’s to understand who we want to be and where we want to go, going forward.
“Then it’s realising who fits that, members of staff and also players as well. It’s an important few weeks now and hopefully we make the right decisions.”
Mason added: “We have quite big squad. Whoever is in charge in pre-season, there are a lot of players and decisions to make.
“Obviously the bigger picture is disappointment over how the season has gone as a whole because we’ve finished outside of Europe for the first time in a long time. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
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