🔬 The Debrief on Saturday's Premier League action | OneFootball

It was another action-packed day of Premier League football with six matches for us to digest.

Here’s the rundown of today’s events.

What happened?

Manchester City and Arsenal ensured the title race remained as exciting as ever with Pep Guardiola’s men narrowly beating Bournemouth 0-1, whereas Arsenal put the Geordies to the sword with a 4-1 drubbing at the Emirates.

There was late heartbreak for both Everton and Manchester United as the pair conceded stoppage-time goals to draw with Brighton and to lose against Fulham respectively.

Crystal Palace ensured Oliver Glasner’s reign started smoothly with a sharp 3-0 win over relegation-threatened Burnley.

And lastly, Aston Villa put some space between themselves and 5th placed Tottenham, with a 4-2 battering of Nottingham Forest at Villa Park.

Player of the day

A crucial part of Villa’s win today and a vital member of Unai Emery’s side overall, Douglas Luiz is our Premier League Player of the day.

The Brazilian has been in fine form this season, scoring nine goals and assisting a further four in 25 league appearances.

Two of those came today in in their battering of Nottingham Forest.

A crisp strike into the bottom left corner for his first and a fine header for his second, it is clear to see why Arsenal were so heavily interested in the 25-year-old.

Key detail

After such barren run of form where Arsenal could seem to score to save their lives, the shackles have finally been removed.

Mikel Arteta’s side have scored 18 goals in their last four league games averaging 4.5 goals a game.

It’s not bad reading at all.

With the competition so high this season and the title race well and truly a three horse race, if Arsenal keep this emphatic reign of form going then they are in good shape to go one better than last season.

Stats of the day

Villa have been flying on all fronts under Emery’s observation this season and they have been scoring bundles of goals along the way.

The rich form of Ollie Watkins has been drawing the main spotlights but other players have all been chipping in to help the cause.

Leon Bailey is one of those unsung hero’s, having set up Watkins’ opener and adding Villa’s fourth to kill off Forest’s attempted revival.

Both Watkins and the Jamaican have over 15 goal involvements each this season, a feat shared only by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Darwin Núñez, alongside Man City’s Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.

Speaking of Foden, the 23-year-old was the difference maker for the Cityzens today as he scored the only goal of the game against Bournemouth.

Foden’s strike against the Cherries brought him to 70 goals and assists in under 100 league starts.

And he’s only won just the five league titles along the way….

What this means

The victories for City and Arsenal means the pair move withing one and two points of league leaders Liverpool respectively.

Aston Villa managed to put some daylight between themselves in fourth and Spurs in fifth, while Nottingham Forest will be looking nervously behind their shoulders, with 18th placed Luton Town just four points away.

Forest will be grateful for Lewis Dunk’s late equaliser against Everton, which ensured the Toffee’s didn’t leapfrog The Garibaldi.

Alex Iwobi and Fulham look to have dented Erik Ten Hag’s late charge for the top four, with The Red Devils now eight points off of the Champions League spots.

Oliver Glasner’s Selhurst Park welcoming was the lift The Eagles needed, with Palace now eight points clear of the drop zone, despite pacing Vincent Kompany’s Burnley into deeper trouble.

What they said

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on Phil Foden: “From a little boy, now he has become already Phil, a world class, top player. He’s so good. He can play everywhere, especially in the central position and play really, really good.”

Manchester United defender Harry Maguire on the loss to Fulham: “Disappointed on that aspect; the reaction was brilliant [1-0 down]. When we equalised there was probably only one team who would go on to win the game but we were probably just a little bit naive in the end.”

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner on forward Matheus França: “He had a big impact. He showed confidence. I spoke with him this week that he’s excellent in one-on-one situations but he maybe didn’t take the one-on-one situations as often as he could. But he got an assist [and won a penalty]. This is his quality, this is nothing I did with him. It’s his credit.”

What comes next?

We have just one Premier League game on Sunday, with Wolves playing host to Sheffield United at midday, as Chelsea take on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at 4:30pm.

Matchweek 26 will be rounded up on Monday evening as Brentford make the short trip to East London to take on West Ham United.