🔬 The Debrief after Liverpool smash Chelsea, Man City and Spurs win | OneFootball

The Premier League midweek fixtures delivered yet again, with three games that had goals, drama and more.

It’s Debrief time.

What happened?

Liverpool stretched their lead at the top back to five points with a dominant 4-1 win against Chelsea at Anfield, while Manchester City kept up the pressure with a comfortable 3-1 win at home to Burnley, a game which saw the return of Erling Haaland off the bench.

Spurs defeated Brentford in a thrilling 3-2 clash that sees them leapfrog Aston Villa into fourth, keeping alive their faint hopes of their own title tilt.

Player of the Day

Most Liverpool fans would have said there is no player in the world who could replace Trent Alexander-Arnold but they might have just found the perfect deputy from within their own ranks.

Conor Bradley has been a revelation since coming into the side and tonight against Chelsea was his best outing yet. He was solid in defence but it was in attack that he truly shun.

He smashed in his first goal for the club with a brilliant strike, and then provided an assist for Dominik Szoboszlai before going off to a standing ovation.

Alexander-Arnold was his replacement and will inevitably return to the side now, but the future looks incredibly bright for the Northern Ireland international.

Key Detail

Tonight was all about the title race.

Liverpool and Manchester City appear set for yet another title duel this spring, with both sides flexing their muscles tonight in different ways.

The Reds were on fire from the off, pressing the life out of Chelsea, while City were their usual calm, composed and comfortable as they made light work of Burnley and their former captain Vincent Kompany, making it eights win on the bounce in all competitions.

The instant return to form of Kevin De Bruyne has been remarkable and may give Pep Guardiola the edge, as could Erling Haaland, who should be back in the lineup from the weekend after a bench cameo tonight following his own injury absence.

Don’t rule out Spurs just yet, though, as they moved back into the top four after coming from behind to beat Brentford. James Maddison’s return to the lineup is a massive boost, and will soon be followed by that of their Asian and African Cup stars.

Stat of the Day

If automatic intelligence created a perfect player for this social media “content” era of football, it would be Darwin Núñez.

No matter if he is scoring or not, he is a complete agent of chaos and someone who is always involved in the thick of every single bit of action.

Tonight might have been his peak as he broke a Premier League record, rattling the woodwork four times, making it 11 for the season. One came from the spot, meaning Mohamed Salah should not worry about losing his duties upon his injury return.

Núñez is nothing if not entertaining, is he?

What this means

One last time?

As mentioned, it seems as if Liverpool and Manchester City will go head-to-head and blow for blow over the next few months to decide the destination of the Premier League title.

It could be the perfect farewell for Jürgen Klopp, who shocked everyone in football with his bombshell announcement last week that he would be departing Anfield at the end of the season.

Of course, his greatest career rival, and maybe Arsenal and Spurs, will be standing in his way.

What they said

Pep Guardiola on the returning Kevin De Bruyne: “It’s a long time, five months, he didn’t play. He comes back with energy. He played really, really good. Him and Erling [Haaland] are going to help us this part of the season…”

Ange Postecoglou on his side’s reaction to Neal Maupay’s dart celebration: “If you’re that brave about things, my players and their players get into a UFC ring and i’ll see how brave they are, we’re out there to play football!”

What comes next?

There are still two more games in this midweek batch of Premier League fixtures, with Manchester United travelling to Molineux to face Wolves and West Ham hosting Bournemouth tomorow night.

The weekend sees a full schedule that is headlined by Arsenal vs Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon in a game that could have major implications in the title race.