A full programme of EPL action took place across the first two days of 2020, and while Liverpool continue to fly towards their debut Premier League title in the competition’s history, the race for fourth grows ever more complicated.
At the bottom of the Premier League, there were huge victories for Watford and Southampton, while Norwich and Bournemouth saw their survival hopes hit by devastating dropped points at home to Crystal Palace and away to West Ham respectively.
While Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur floundered on the road at Southampton, they were not the only Champions League challenger to hit a roadblock. While Manchester City beat Everton 2-1 and Leicester recorded a famous 3-0 triumph up at Newcastle United, other teams dreaming of 4th place and the richest prize club football has to offer had nightmares instead.
Brighton 1-1 Chelsea
The South Coast was the scene of the first EPL goal of the decade, and it was scored by Chelsea’s Spanish full-back and captain, Cezar Azpilcueta. Chelsea would not win their first game of 2020, however, and were denied by the Seagulls.
Brighton may be fighting for their lives at the wrong end of the English Premier League table, but Graham Potter has them playing some decent football, certainly a more attractive brand of stuff than Chris Hughton had them at last season.
It was a stunning overhead bicycle kick from Alireza Jahanbakhsh that earned Brighton a point just six minutes from time, and Brighton held off a Chelsea push for the winner to claim what could be a vital point. It’s odds-on that these sides meet other in Premier League competition next season.
Arsenal 2-0 Manchester United
The seminal classic of Premier Leagues past, Arsenal vs. Manchester United looked more like a mid-table battle as The Gunners won their first league game under Mikel Arteta at the third time of asking.
United were poor, with Jesse Lingard and Nemanja Matic both culprits of a team addled by procrastination in the middle of the pitch. Too often, the Red Devils looked sideways, backwards or simply too slowly at the space opening up in front of them. Having been shown exactly how to beat Arteta’s Arsenal by Chelsea just a few days earlier, United instead ignored all the help to dwindle away in defeat.
Arsenal, by contrast, excelled at the basics, something they found almost impossible to do under previous manager Unai Emery and, it might be argued, Arsene Wenger in the last days of the Gallic great’s 22-year reign.
In Pepe and Ozil, they had two players who finally seemed willing to chase back with the same appetite that they attack the opposition’s penalty area and that effort was enough against a United side beginning to create too many false dawns, an inauspicious sign on the first day of a New Year.
Liverpool 2-0 Sheffield United
The Reds moved yet another step closer to the title as Jurgen Klopp’s men dismissed Sheffield United after another easy Anfield victory.
With Mo Salah’s 4th minute goal opening the scoring, Liverpool rarely seemed troubled, and by the time Sadio Mane scored the Merseyside men’s second the same number of minutes past the hour, the result was a foregone conclusion.
Sheffield United will have better days, and entering the New Year in the top half of the table and contending for a European place is something of a miracle at Christmastime for The Blades. They may have been beaten twice by the Champions-elect, but in neither game were they humbled. Few other teams in the Premier League will be able to say the same come mid-May.
Gameweek #20 results*
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Chelsea
Burnley 1-2 Aston Villa
Newcastle United 0-3 Leicester City
Southampton 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Watford 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City 2-1 Everton
Norwich City 1-1 Crystal Palace
West Ham United 4-0 Bournemouth
Arsenal 2-0 Manchester United
Liverpool 2-0 Sheffield United
* Both Liverpool and West Ham have only played 19 gameweeks.
