We have just wrapped the matchday 18 of the Premier league after Friday matches, and it is time to look at how it has affected the scoreboard before the 19th matchday drops.
Thanks to their good performances and effort, four out of the top five placed teams managed to come out with three points after their games, which means that Arsenal climbed to the second spot over Chelsea, which couldn’t improve its points count this week, but the fight between the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place remains as tight as it can with each one point behind the other.
Liverpool keeps going on their confident top run with a 6 points lead ahead from the rest, and they seem to be eager to keep pushing as we arrive into the middle point of the season.
Before we go forward to the upcoming matches, we need to take the time to analize what took place in the games played on the 18th matchday of an interesting Premier League Season.
Premier League Matchday 18 Roundup: Nottm Forest 1-0 Tottenham
It was a great day for Nuno Espirito Santo, who came back to haunt his former side with his current team now climbing into third place in the Premier League. It was thanks to Elanga’s first-half opener, which capped off their regular threat on the counter.
It was another afternoon to forget for Postecoglou and his team, as he watched on from the sidelines with his head in his hands following Djed Spence’s late red card against his former team.
Whereas for Forest, it was another day to celebrate. The team is now at four wins on the bounce and they are showing no signs of slowing down in their push for European football.
Premier League Matchday 18 Roundup: Chelsea 1-2 Fulham
It was an unbelievable end to the match when Fulham delivered a stoppage-time hammer blow to Chelsea’s Premier League title aspirations. Rodrigo Muniz’s last-gasp finish grabbed a 2-1 win and a first victory at Stamford Bridge for the Cottagers since 1979.
Muniz was in acres of space in the box when Sasa Lukic found him with a low cross to deliver a belated Christmas gift to the elated travelling support. The Fulham bench emptied in celebration – Chelsea’s subs, coaching staff and boss Enzo Maresca slumped back into their seats.
Now, seven points adrift of Liverpool, things are not looking that good as they wished.
Premier League Matchday 18 Roundup: Liverpool 3-1 Leicester City
The first few minutes of the match were the most surprising during this encounter, as, despite 17 places between the teams at kick-off, it was the Foxes who took the lead early on. It took a low cross from the left met by Jordan Ayew who spun and finished, via a deflection off Virgil van Dijk, into the bottom corner for them to take the lead on the 6th minute.
If the league leaders were at any point concerned at that, they didn’t show it, as later came a dominant display. However, it took until stoppage time at the end of the first half to find a leveller as Cody Gakpo cut in and bent one into the top corner.
Liverpool came out pretty strong right after the restart, as Curtis Jones netted from close range to complete the turnaround, with Mohamed Salah wrapping up the points towards the end of the game to send the Reds well clear heading into the new year.
Premier League Matchday 18 Roundup: Arsenal 1-0 Ipswich Town
There is something that didn’t finished convincing the fans on the match played by Arsenal.
In what was a laboured display from Mikel Arteta’s side at the Emirates, the hosts scored the only goal through Kai Havertz in the first half. Although this was far from vintage Arsenal, Arteta will be pleased to have cut Liverpool’s lead at the top of a Premier League to six points.
Even though the squad was dominant, they were yet equally unconvincing, as they eased to a 1-0 win over a toothless Ipswich side to move back up to second place.
Chances were generally limited though, and it was not until after half-time that the hosts had their next real opening, with Gabriel heading off target from a corner.
EN 
ES 
PT 
PT_BR