An abridged Premier League weekend thanks to a Monday night fixture and two FA Cup semi-finals, but plenty of moves made and positions that matter continue to bunch up.

Arsenal carried on Arsenalling, a set-piece goal in a tight victory to go back to the top. Tottenham won for the first time in the league in 2026 but then saw their move matched by West Ham and Nottingham Forest to leave us as we were at the bottom. Forest’s scoreline was surely the most surprising of the season.

The other huge point of interest are the European places, a tussle potentially extending all the way down to Crystal Palace, 13th but with a game in hand. And the chances of the Premier League having six Champions League places just went up…

Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…

This weekend’s results

  • Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa
  • Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace
  • West Ham 2-1 Everton
  • Wolves 0-1 Tottenham
  • Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle

Wolves’ leading issue

We know what Adam Armstrong is. Anyone who signs Adam Armstrong knows what he is. Heck, even Adam Armstrong must know what he is.

Armstrong has scored seven goals in 98 career Premier League appearances. In the Championship since August 2020, he has scored 63 goals in 131 appearances. So when Wolves signed him in January for £7m and sold Jorgen Strand Larsen, it was clearly with one eye on next season.

As with Rob Edwards, however, impressions towards the end of this season matter. And Armstrong isn’t just failing to score; he’s failing to take the chances that have come his way and failing to have many shots at all. In 816 minutes in the league, he’s had just 13 shots of any kind and managed a total of 0.13 xG per 90 minutes played. The question: do you trust this to just click into place back in the Championship given Armstrong is now 29?

Positives and negatives for Tottenham

Only the results matter. With Forest and West Ham winning, failing to beat the worst team in the Premier League would surely have consigned Tottenham to relegation. Now they have a chance. From green shoots, trees can grow quickly.

But we are still allowed to dwell upon the negatives. Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons, Roberto De Zerbi’s first-choice striker and creator, left the field with injuries. More importantly, Spurs looked perfectly pleasant in possession but hardly offered any goal threat from open play.

Obvious statements: Tottenham have to avoid defeat at Villa given the other results and they will need to be far more inventive to do so. For now there is still light, even if it is only a flicker. Richarlison and Lucas Bergvall might be two of their defining players now.

West Ham’s unlikely saviour

Crysencio Summerville and Jarrod Bowen are brilliant. Matheus Fernandes has been exceptional since moving slightly higher up the pitch. West Ham signed two strikers in January and both have contributed. But if they stay up this season, they will thank Callum Wilson more than most.

Wilson looked like he was leaving in January (there was talk of a move to Leicester City, which is a sliding doors moment for both clubs). But why would you want to lose him, when even as third choice his goals have been worth seven points?

Wilson has played 1,084 league minutes and scored six times. That minutes-per-goal ratio puts him in the same ballpark as every Premier League player this season bar Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago and Eli Junior Kroupi.

Nottingham Forest’s magic trick

Given Tottenham and West Ham’s results, Nottingham Forest ended the weekend in roughly the same place they began it. And yet it hardly feels like it given the margin of victory at Sunderland an unbeaten run that now stands at eight matches in all competitions.

The magic trick? Two strikers. At half-time against Burnley, Vitor Pereira took off a winger (Dilane Bakwa) and brought on a striker (Igor Jesus). He put Morgan Gibbs-White in a position best described as “left 10”, nominally a wide player but told to find space infield.

Since then, Gibbs-White has scored four goals and assisted another in three halves of football and Forest have scored nine goals. Chris Wood occupies central defenders and his movement is excellent, creating space for Jesus (who looks revitalised with a strike partner). Keep this up and Forest will not go down.

Newcastle’s £120m headache

Last summer, in a recruitment process that we know Eddie Howe was a large part of, Newcastle spent £120m on two forwards that they believed could replace Alexander Isak. There have been injuries, but it is the end of April and the only game that Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade have started together was at home to Bournemouth in the FA Cup.

Howe has to change that. He may feel that William Osula is his best striker option right now, but a) that hardly paints his own recruitment in a good light and b) Newcastle cannot afford to have two expensive forwards on the bench. It is not as if Osula in the team without the other two has provoked a vast improvement in attacking quality.

If Howe wants to keep his job beyond this season, the next few weeks are an audition for what might happen in 2026-27. With so many other areas of the squad needing surgery this summer and with key players likely to be sold, Howe surely has to try Woltemade off Wissa to create some better vibes for both players?

Crystal Palace can’t finish their dinner

You will never guess what; Crystal Palace played pretty well against Liverpool. They conceded to a few half-chances and they failed to take a couple of more presentable opportunities that they created themselves. Jean-Philippe Mateta was twice guilty.

This is the story of Palace’s domestic season, really: a good football team that failed to maximise the periods in which they are on top because they don’t finish their dinner in front of goal. Only Wolves, Burnley and Sunderland have scored fewer times this season. Only Wolves have scored with a lower percentage of their shots than Palace.

Unsurprisingly, Palace also have the worst record for goals vs expected goals (by an absolute mile) and for the difference between the number of goals scored and big chances missed (-21).

Le Bris rumours prove unhelpful for Sunderland

Last week, there was a media rumour that Regis Le Bris’ position as Sunderland manager could come under pressure if the club fail to qualify for Europe. The Black Cats quickly moved to deny anything of the sort, but you wonder whether it played into the club’s shambolic defensive performance on Friday evening.

Le Bris has done a phenomenal job here, but will also know that he cannot lose control of this season. Sunderland rank 17th in the Premier League over their last 20 and 25 matches; their fabulous start to the campaign has carried them through.

In that context, Le Bris overseeing Sunderland’s joint heaviest margin of home defeat in the club’s history came at an inopportune time. It would be nice to see the club publicly back him and create a little serenity before the final weeks of the season.

Do Everton have an April problem?

After Everton lost late against Liverpool and late again against West Ham to dampen the mood of prospective European qualification, supporters were quick to point out that, for all the progress of this season, there is a chance the Toffees could finish in roughly the same position as 2024-25.

It also begs an interesting question (particularly given the same has been said of Mikel Arteta at the top of the table): does David Moyes struggle in the month of April, when things get real?

Over his last 21 April Premier League fixtures, a run stretching back to 2021, Moyes has taken only 24 points. It is a far lower rate than his season average and, if it continues, it is going to annoy Everton fans.

All hail Fulham’s four weeks of madness

The Premier League’s middle pack is often congested, but the increase in European places (and this season could be unprecedented) has changed the rules of engagement. These “other” clubs are not only competing for prize money. At least one of them is going to make Europe and their inconsistency makes it impossible to get a handle on the whole thing.

Fulham are the perfect example. Before Saturday, they were winless and goalless in three successive matches and the fanbase was getting itchy about Marco Silva’s potential long goodbye and another season that promised plenty and ended in perceived mediocrity. Fulham have finished 10th, 13th and 11th since promotion.

And Fulham are 10th again, only this time that puts them potentially two points off a Champions League spot and level on points with one team who will reach the Conference League. The mood turns with one win. Which is silly this far into a season, but I’m here for it.

Why everyone wants Aston Villa to win

It doesn’t really matter to Aston Villa whether they finish third, fourth or fifth (although Unai Emery will obviously be urging them to finish as high as possible). They are eight points ahead of sixth and that margin is surely not going to be overturned by anyone below them.

But for all of those clubs – and sixth to 12th are currently separated by four points – Villa’s Premier League form really does matter. Because if Villa win the Europa League (and they are favourites to do so) and finish fifth (a position they currently occupy), sixth place will qualify for the Champions League.

It creates a bizarre situation: supporters of Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford, Bournemouth, Everton, Sunderland and Fulham will all be cheering on Villa in the Europa League and cheering on their opponents in the Premier League.

Liverpool fans protest against ticket price increases

“You greedy bastards, enough is enough,” sang the Anfield crowd, plenty of them holding up yellow cards in protest at the move from owners Fenway Sports Group to put up season ticket prices again.

And good on those supporters. It’s always the same: football clubs talk up the importance of their home atmosphere as a genuine difference maker to team performance. And then they price out that grassroots support quite deliberately. And then, when form turns for the worse, they urge that they need the supporters to help them.

Make no mistake: the emotional blackmail about PSR and everyone having to help out is nonsense. Ticket revenue is a small percentage of the whole. If costs go up, there is one party capable of swallowing it (the club) and one who really can’t (the long-term season ticket holders). This isn’t a dilemma; it’s a choice.

Arsenal are doing it their way

The supposition was that the title race potentially coming down to goal difference might be a good thing for Arsenal. With their previous matches being uber-tense and uber-tight, margins reduced and set pieces becoming the only likely source of attacking joy, this gave Arteta a get out. He wouldn’t be sacrificing his principles; he’d simply be adapting to the needs of the situation by being more attacking to seek an advantage.

That did not happen against Newcastle, a team in no form at all who had conceded two or more goals in each of their previous four matches. Arsenal scored from a corner routine – setting a new Premier League record in the process – and largely refused to test Newcastle’s resolve from that point onward. They were fortunate for Newcastle’s own profligacy.

Perhaps the plan is to win every game their way and hope Manchester City stumble. Perhaps they will be more expansive against Burnley and score enough goals to pip City. But Arsenal have now gone seven games without scoring more than one goal. Which is an interesting vibe when the title might come down to how many you’re scoring.

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