🔬 The Debrief as City get back to winning ways and Chelsea lose again | OneFootball

The first lot of Sunday’s Premier League fixtures had plenty of drama, goals and talking points.

Here is a low down on what you may have missed from the three fixtures which took place.

What happened?

Manchester City came from behind to beat Luton and pick up their first win in five games, while Everton inflicted more misery on Chelsea and Fulham hit West Ham for five.

You can catch up on all the results here.

Player of the Day

There aren’t many better at coming up clutch in the Premier League than Abdoulaye Doucouré.

The Everton midfielder popped up with the opening goal in their win over Chelsea and was quite simply everywhere on the pitch as Sean Dyche’s side battened down the hatches to keep the visitors out.

Since Dyche’s arrival at Goodison Park in February, no midfielder has scored more non-penalty goals in the league than the Malian (11).

Key Detail

At half-time of City’s clash with Luton it appeared the story was beginning to write itself.

Elijah Adebayo’s header in what was pretty much the last action of the first period had Pep Guardiola passively aggressively taking a sip from his water bottle as he was staring at what would’ve been a career first – five consecutive games without a win.

But aside from the Hatters taking a shock lead this was a much-more controlled performance from City, something which has been lacking in recent weeks and perhaps even all season.

The inclusion of Jack Grealish on the left-hand side in the absence of Jérémy Doku helped the visitors impose that dominance, he managed over 60 touches, completed three out of four dribbles and popped up with the winning goal in the 65th minute.

Stat of the Day

No team has scored more goals since the start of November in the league than Fulham (17), while also scoring more in their last four league games (16) than in their previous 14 beforehand (13).

What this means

The ‘mini-crisis’ at the Etihad is over, a first win in five games was needed after an uncharacteristic run of poor form – and they are now back to within four points of the top.

It’s not so rosy at Chelsea, who fall back into the bottom half of the table after a third defeat in their last four and are now closer to the relegation zone than they are the top four.

There has been no noise about Mauricio Pochettino being under pressure at Stamford Bridge just yet but that might change now.

What they said

Mauricio Pochettino: “I’m really disappointed. This was a game to play and to win. It’s a problem we need to check.”

Pep Guardiola (on Haaland): “The day after Villa he could almost not walk properly, yesterday I spoke to him saying, “I feel much better, I can walk, I have no pain,” that’s why we have to see how he is day by day.”

What comes next?

European football takes centre stage in midweek but the Premier League reconvenes next week with Arsenal facing Brighton and Liverpool hosting Manchester United.