What we learned from weekend's matches

Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 15, including:

- Emery’s boldness pays off as Villa throw title race wide open
- Man City maintain title pursuit with win and elusive clean sheet
- Simons provides creative spark Frank has been searching for
- Salah's comments create new issues for Liverpool
- Barry's first goal shows sixth-place Everton still have levels to go up
- Disastrous week leaves Chelsea looking well off the title pace
- Home form and Wissa's return give Newcastle winter boost
- Hurzeler has got to find a distinct tactical strategy for games like these
- Palace see no ceiling after climbing into the top four
- Wolves in danger of recording lowest points tally

Emery’s boldness pays off as Villa throw title race wide open

Emiliano Buendia's 95th-minute winning goal sent shockwaves through the Premier League.

It could prove to be one of the most important moments in the 2025/26 season for both Arsenal and Aston Villa, who, just three points off the top, must now be considered among the contenders.

Their rise has been meteoric, a bolt out of the blue. The same can be said of Arsenal’s stumble.

They had looked secure to the point of unassailable, but now must collect their thoughts to end a sequence of only eight points won from their last five Premier League matches.

Their lead has evaporated, their stoicism has given way to that familiar, fragile feeling. Who knows what the league table will look like after the Festive Fixtures?

For that uncertainty, for that sheer drama, we have to thank Unai Emery for a bold battle-plan in the second half. Or perhaps we ought to thank the Holte End.

"After the equaliser, we recovered our momentum to dominate, to get the match in our control," Emery said after the game.

"And we were close. We were pushing. Villa Park is something we must feel in how they pushed us. We got the last goal because we believed we could win this match."

Fired up and pushed forward by the crowd, Emery took a huge gamble when he took off Matty Cash and replaced him with Buendia, a move that sent a clear signal Villa were going all-out for the winner.

They got what they deserved, that last-second goalmouth scramble representative of the way Villa, sensing Arsenal tiring, went for broke. Case in point: as Buendia hits the winner, Villa have seven players in the box.

Watch: Buendia's dramatic winner v Arsenal

Buendia's goal means Villa have now won nine of their last 10 Premier League matches, the first time they've had as many as nine wins in a 10-game spell in the top flight since December 1919.

They are starting to believe. Arsenal fans, seeing injuries pile up in attack and defence, might be starting to doubt.

Man City maintain title pursuit with win and elusive clean sheet

The gap is just two points. That is nothing at all, not for a side with Manchester City’s vast experience and expertise; not when the rival is one that has been bested so many times before.

It has been a nervy week of hard battles for Man City and yet they have emerged with three wins from three and five points closer to Arsenal at the top.

It’s the kind of week that will embolden Pep Guardiola’s side, that will have them believe more deeply in their ability to weather any storm, and that might even erase the relevance of all those goals at Fulham.

Man City’s clean sheet on Saturday against Sunderland was desperately needed after Guardiola’s side conceded eight goals in the three Premier League games that preceded it.

It also allows them to focus on the goals that are flowing at the other end: that’s now 11 in the last eight days of Premier League action.

We are still early enough in the 2025/26 season for narratives to be set, and how the players see themselves will have an impact on their outlook for the rest of the campaign ahead.

In other words, there is time for the 5-4 against Fulham to be ignored as a freak result, but for three, four, and five-goal hauls at the other end to be seen as the norm.

Simons provides creative spark Frank has been searching for

Dynamic attacking football is a slippery concept and all of us are capable of being fooled.

The tactical strategy that underpins a team's performances is important, but it is always secondary to results and all of us, no matter how much we like to think we are above it, are susceptible to letting results colour our perception of how well a team is playing.

It is true that Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur have been uninspiring in their tactical patterns between the two boxes, but it’s also true that if one or two of their attackers were in sparkling form, a lot of the complaints would dissolve.

"That’s more like it," Spurs fans will have thought at the final whistle on Saturday, and yet there was very little about their team's performance that had changed – apart from the individual brilliance of Xavi Simons.

His clever run and smart assist for Richarlison's opener wrenched open a sluggish game, before Simons then dribbled from the halfway line straight through the Brentford defence to score the second goal.

Watch: Simons' goal v Brentford

Frank was rewarded for a slightly more expansive team selection – Simons joined Mohammed Kudus, Kolo Muani and Archie Gray in supporting Richarlison – but Saturday's win was mostly the result of one of Spurs' attacking signings coming good.

Muani and Simons are very talented players who need time to find their feet in English football.

Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison are out injured. These factors explain Spurs' difficult 2025/26 just as much, perhaps more, than Frank’s tactical set-up.

Salah’s comments create new issues for Liverpool

Somehow the most explosive and most important incident of Liverpool’s weekend did not occur during a thrilling 3-3 draw with Leeds United at Elland Road.

"It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus," Mohamed Salah said after starting on the bench for the third consecutive Premier League game.

"That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame [for Liverpool's recent results]."

Hinting that Liverpool’s game against Brighton & Hove Albion next weekend could be his last for the club, Salah has sent shockwaves through the club. To put it lightly, Salah’s intervention has hardly made things easier for Arne Slot.

"I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship," Salah said.

"I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club."

Salah did not make it off the bench at Leeds, a game in which all four substitutions – made in two bursts, in the 68th minute and 84th minute – were defensive ones when Liverpool were leading.

He came on at half-time in the 1-1 draw at Sunderland in midweek but again did not play a minute in the previous weekend’s 2-0 win at West Ham.

When analysing Salah’s season, including his emotional outburst on Saturday, the wider context should not be forgotten.

Less than three months ago, Salah wept at the final whistle of Liverpool’s 4-2 victory over AFC Bournemouth, a match in which Liverpool paid tribute to Diogo Jota.

These are uniquely challenging circumstances for everyone connected with Liverpool. Nevertheless, there is no getting away from the fact that their next two games (at Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League, then at home to Brighton on Saturday) are loaded with a new kind of crisis.

Barry’s first goal shows sixth-place Everton still have levels to go up

A lot of neutrals will have done a double take when looking at the Premier League table on Sunday. Out of nowhere, Everton are sixth, and just a couple of points outside the Champions League places.

The league table is so condensed at the moment, it only take a short run of good form – four wins from five, in Everton’s case – to rocket up the charts and into a commanding position in the run-up to the Festive Fixtures.

And they might just stay up there, given that David Moyes’ team is adding new strings to their bow all the time.

This weekend it was Thierno Barry scoring his first goal for the club, on his 17th appearance and with his 19th shot of the season.

The sense of anticipation around the Hill Dickinson Stadium when the ball was put into Barry’s path, and the eruption of noise when he rolled it into the far corner, showed just how much the Everton supporters had been praying for their new striker to get off the mark.

"I’m so happy for him," Barry's team-mate Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall said after the game.

"I think it’s probably one of the loudest you’ve heard the stadium all season, and he deserves that. The last five or so games, he’s absolutely worked his nuts off for us."

Disastrous week leaves Chelsea looking well off the title pace

Chelsea have failed to win any of their last three Premier League matches, leaving them a worrying eight points behind leaders Arsenal and fourth in the table.

A 0-0 draw at Bournemouth is hardly a disastrous result in isolation, but after the defeat at Leeds, Enzo Maresca's side are now in danger of falling too far to sustain a challenge.

The psychological blow is huge, because the draw leaves Chelsea on 25 points from 15 Premier League matches, six points fewer than at this stage last season.

In fact, Maresca's side are on course to finish the season with only 63 points.

They host in-form Everton this weekend before facing Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Man City, and Bournemouth. Chelsea need an outstanding set of results over Christmas to stay in the title race.

Home form and Wissa's return give Newcastle winter boost

The best moment of Newcastle's victory over Burnley on Saturday was not the goals or the three points, but the sight of Yoane Wissa coming off the bench to make his debut for the club.

Wissa, who will not travel with DR Congo to the Africa Cup of Nations, can be a huge player for Newcastle over the next few months and the timing of his return is perfect.

Eddie Howe’s side have won 10 points from their last four matches and, four points off fourth, only need to carry this momentum through Christmas to return to expected levels.

Newcastle have won 11 of their last 15 Premier League games at St James' Park, with only Man City winning more home games (12) or points (37) than Howe's team since that sequence started in February.

Their home form, coupled with Wissa's return, has Newcastle well-placed to be the big winners this winter.

Listen to Wissa's thoughts on his long-waited debut

Hurzeler has got to find a distinct tactical strategy for games like these

As we predicted, and as has been the case for so long now, Brighton struggled to play against a low block at the weekend.

Their greater share of possession, 68 per cent, yielded few chances, with all four of Brighton’s shots on target coming in the 89th minute or later. The trend remains stark:

How Brighton's record looks based on possession 

On a very much related note, Brighton haven’t won any of their last six Premier League home games against opponents starting the day in the relegation zone, drawing each one.

Fabian Hurzeler’s side will not be able to qualify for Europe unless the head coach finds a radically different tactical route to winning these kinds of games.

Palace see no ceiling after climbing into the top four

It’s been an almost perfect 2025 for Crystal Palace and it looks set to end with a flourish. A late winner from Marc Guehi has lifted Palace into fourth. There is no reason to believe they cannot stay there.

Since Oliver Glasner's first game in charge of the club in March 2024, only Arsenal (65), Liverpool (57) and Man City (55) have won more Premier League points away from home than Palace (52).

What’s more, the Eagles only had 13 points at this stage last season, exactly half of this year’s tally of 26.

More European adventures, and maybe more silverware, is on the horizon.

Wolves in danger of recording lowest points tally

It is tempting to lavish Manchester United with praise for a sweeping performance that had so many of the fundamentals Ruben Amorim has been calling for: neat triangles through midfield; Mason Mount connecting with the front two; and Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo combining more fluently than ever before.

United have won three and drawn two of their last five Premier League away matches, a sign of their improvement, and they had 27 shots at Molineux, their most in a Premier League game under Amorim.

But Wolves tend to make everyone look that good. They struggled to defend from the off, a terrible defensive mix-up, followed by a slow recovery, allowing Man Utd to take the lead after 25 minutes.

With eight successive defeats, Wolves have equalled their longest-ever losing streak, first set in 1982, while their tally of two points from 15 games is the joint-lowest in a campaign in the history of the top four tiers, level with Sheffield United (2020/21), Southport (1975/76), Barrow (1970/71) and Newport County (1970/71).

Most alarming of all, Rob Edwards has been in charge for four matches and has not been able to provide a new-manager bounce.

In fact, on Monday night Wolves looked arguably more disorganised than at any other stage this season. Against a backdrop of fan unrest, it was a bleak evening at Molineux. Derby County’s record-low 11 Premier League points in 2007/08 could well be broken.

As for Man Utd, they won’t care about the quality of the opposition. Amorim’s side are sixth, and one point off fourth. It’s a solid base upon which to build this winter.

More on Matchweek 15