The New Year is well underway and Christmas is a hazy memory of shredded wrapping paper and overeating, but the relentless Premier League calendar has hardly slowed down.
After a full round of midweek games for Gameweek 20 brought the familiar thrills, spills devoid of zero-zero, the division’s players returned to the spotlight, pushing their increasingly tired limbs through the fury of major league competition. This understandable fatigue gave way to a flurry of late goals, with seven scored in or after the 89th minute in ten matches.
These are the players who have managed to keep moving forward in this relentless schedule.
Just five days earlier, Trevoh Chalobah was technically still a Crystal Palace player. However, on Monday night, the Chelsea academy graduate did his thing second homecoming in impressive fashion. Commanding when called upon and only robbed of a memorable goal by team-mate Noni Madueke, Chalobah clearly lived up to Enzo Maresca’s description of his return as “the best solution”.
The game might have ended with Leandro Trossard cursing a shot wide but the Belgian strayed partially offside at the end of Arsenal’s frustrating performance 2-2 draw against Aston Villa on Saturday.
If anyone in red deserved to score the winning goal, it would have been the incisive winger, who set up both goals to give the hosts a 2-0 lead just half an hour into the game.
Kylian Mbappe, Raphinha, Luis Diaz, Lautaro Martinez. The list of elite players with fewer goals than Nottingham Forest’s reliably prolific Chris Wood is long and illustrious.
Only six individuals in Europe’s top five leagues can better the Kiwi’s tally of 14 for the season, a feat he extended with a third in a 3-2 win over Southampton on Sunday afternoon, extending Forest’s unbeaten run to eight games and moving them level on points with second-placed Arsenal .
“One of the things I’d like us to do better is to have a late winner,” mused Arne Slot ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Brentford. Ask and you shall receive.
Darwin Nunez came off the bench to raucous cheers from the home fans and went on in stoppage time to make sure a cathartic 2-0 win. The Uruguayan has been praised for his performances this season – and doubled his tally for the entire campaign in the space of three other minutes – but he was in the right place at the right time to score two crucial goals at Gtech.
If Slot craves late winners, Nunez is his man. Only one player (Sadio Mane) in Liverpool history has scored more Premier League goals after the 90th minute than the striker who set them apart.
Sometimes you just need a little luck. Phil Foden had to wait for his 30th goal of the season to score his first Premier League goal of the season. The reigning PFA Player of the Year has since scored five goals from 12 attempts in the top flight.
Foden scored twice in the first half 6-0 batting from Ipswich Town on Sunday afternoon as City – and their star midfielder – began to resemble their winning selves late on.
In one blissful, brisk afternoon, Justin Kluivert scored more Premier League goals at St James’ Park (3) than his revered father Patrick managed in an entire season playing for Newcastle United (1).
“That’s one win over him,” beamed the younger Kluivert when that statistic was shown to him after the game.
The Bournemouth’s three-time striker on Saturdayhis second trip away from home this season, was another big step towards stepping out of his father’s suffocating shadow. “I followed Newcastle when I was younger,” Justin said after scoring three superb late goals. “Unfortunately for them, Kluivert is now playing for another team.”
READ THE LATEST PREMIER LEAGUE NEWS, RUMORS AND GOSSIP
