Premier League Matchday 20 Recap (2025/26)

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Full Results (Matchday 20)

  • Aston Villa 3–1 Nottingham Forest

  • Brighton 2–0 Burnley 

  • Wolves 3–0 West Ham

  • Bournemouth 2–3 Arsenal 

  • Leeds 1–1 Manchester United

  • Everton 2–4 Brentford

  • Newcastle 2–0 Crystal Palace

  • Tottenham 1–1 Sunderland 

  • Fulham 2–2 Liverpool

  • Manchester City 1–1 Chelsea

Game of the Matchday 

Bournemouth 2–3 Arsenal

Arsenal kicked off 2026 with a huge win, but wow, Bournemouth made them sweat for it! You had the drama of Gabriel making a huge mistake to give Bournemouth an early lead, followed by him scoring the equalizer just six minutes later to make up for it. Then, the second half turned into the Declan Rice show. He finessed a beauty from just outside the box and then finished off a great team move to show why Arsenal are at the top. The complexion of the game changed again when Eli Junior Kroupi scored a late rocket to make it 3-2, though the Gunners held on through a frantic finish. When Arsenal conceded they must have had flashbacks to the seasons of the past when teams like Brighton, Villa, Forest, Fulham and Southampton prevented them from ultimately crossing the line. However, this season you can just see the desire and the desperation to prevent something like that from happening again in games like this. 

Biggest Surprise

Ruben Amorim & Enzo Maresca part ways with Manchester United & Chelsea

The biggest shock this week didn't even happen on the pitch, and frankly it doesn't even make sense. It all went down in the boardrooms, behind closed-doors. Even the timing is just wild! Both Ruben Amorim and Enzo Maresca were sacked by Manchester United and Chelsea within 5 days of each other, right as the January transfer window opened. It’s such a shock because these were supposed to be long-term projects. Both managers' press conferences indicated something else was going on behind the scenes than what meets the eyes to us fans. It's so baffling as Maresca led Chelsea to Club World Cup glory not even a 6 months ago while Amorim's United was finally showing signs of some real progress, even without the availability of some of their top players. To see two massive clubs lose their nerve at the same time is a brutal reminder of how little patience there is at the top level these days.

Best Team Performance

Wolves 3–0 West Ham


Brace yourselves, this is not a drill, Wolverhampton Wanderers have won a match. And they did not just won by luck or fortune, they convincingly dispatched West Ham 3-0! They totally left West Ham completely lost out there. The first-half display was brilliant, with clinical performances from the likes of Mateus Mane, Hwang Hee-Chan and Hugo Bueno among others. They were incredibly efficient, scoring three times from only a few big chances, while their defensive structure left West Ham toothless in attack, as they barely managed to get near the goal. The Hammers generated just 0.25 xG, the lowest for any side this matchday. Perfect start to Wolves' 2026. Arsenal beware, a title charge is coming.

Player of the Matchday

Igor Thiago (Brentford)

Another game, another Brentford hat-trick. This time it was their prolific striker Igor Thiago who did the damage. Usually, a hat-trick is enough to win this on its own, but his work was not limited to just scoring though. In the first few minutes of the game, he cleared a James Tarkowski header off the line to deny Everton the opening. To then go up the other end and score three goals - a tap-in, a smart lift over the keeper, and an open 1v1 run which started from his own half, - showed a player at the top of his game. His 14th goal of the season means only a certain Norwegian has more goals and more goal contributions than the Brentford talisman.

Honorable mentions - John McGinn (Aston Villa), Declan Rice (Arsenal) & Malick Thiaw (Newcastle)

Moment of the Matchday

Harrison Reed scores a screamer against Liverpool

Watch Reed's rocket here

Having scored a single goal in the years of 2024 and 2025, there was not a better way 2026 could have started for Harrison Reed. Liverpool thought they had the win in the bag after Cody Gakpo scored late on, but Reed had other ideas. In the middle of total stoppage-time chaos, the substitute collected the ball from Kevin and smashed an unstoppable shot right into the top corner. No one expected this. Probably not even Reed, and certainly not Gakpo, who got booked for taking his shirt off. How about this stat, counting this game, Reed has played a total of 7 minutes in the league and that banger is his only shot of the 25/26 Premier League campaign so far. The Kanes, the Haalands and the Mbappes of the world, try beating that goals/min ratio. And in that way!

Looking Ahead – Matchday 21 Fixtures (IST Kick-offs)

Wednesday, 7 January (IST)

    • West Ham vs Nottingham Forest - 1:30 am

    Thursday, 8 January (IST)

    • Bournemouth vs Tottenham - 1:00 am

    • Brentford vs Sunderland - 1:00 am

    • Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa - 1:00 am

    • Everton vs Wolves - 1:00 am

    • Fulham vs Chelsea - 1:00 am

    • Manchester City vs Brighton - 1:00 am

    • Burnley vs Manchester United - 1:45 am

    • Newcastle vs Leeds - 1:45 am

    Friday, 9 January (IST)

    • Arsenal vs Liverpool - 1:30 am

    by ShotBlogged


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