Haaland head and shoulders above the rest: Five things you might have missed from the PL 3pms | OneFootball

The first Saturday of 2025 brought a bumper Premier League matchday.

There were seven games on the day in total, with five kicking off in the traditional 3pm slot.

Manchester City hosted West Ham United, Chelsea travelled to Crystal Palace and Aston Villa took on Leicester City among the top-four chasing clubs. At the other end of the table, Southampton hosted Brentford and Everton travelled to Bournemouth.

As the schedule starts to return to normality, in both life and football, it’s not easy to keep track of what’s happening.

So that’s where we come in. We’ve picked out five things you might have missed from the Premier League’s 3pms, one from each match.

Erling Haaland head and shoulders above the rest

Man City have won back-to-back games in the Premier League for the first time since October. Pep Guardiola’s men ended 2024 with a 0-2 win over Leicester and then started the new year with a 4-1 victory over West Ham.

It was always going to happen. Guardiola has a perfect record against West Ham at the Etihad Stadium, now having won all nine league games in charge. Overall, Guardiola’s still unbeaten in 18 league games, but they’ve only won 17 of those.

Erling Halaand will have welcomed the opponents too. The Norwegian went into the game having scored seven goals in five league games against West Ham. But just one of those had come at the Etihad.

Now, Haaland has scored nine goals in six league games against West Ham, with three at the Etihad. Haaland’s first was a header, his 14th in the Premier League since joining Man City in 2022-23, more than any other player during that time. Across Europe’s top five leagues, only Harry Kane (19) has scored more headed goals since the start of 2022-23.

Haaland is also the only Premier League player to score 10+ headed goals, 10+ goals with his left foot and 10+ goals with his right foot since 2022-23. Whisper it quietly, but he might be back.

Chelsea’s woes continue

It’s not too long ago that Chelsea were being counted in the Premier League title race. Now they’re holding onto their spot in the top four by the skin of their teeth.

A rough post-Christmas run has been the problem, with the Blues winless in four in the league. It’s their worst winless run since going six games without victory covering the end of the 2022-23 season and the start of the 2023-24 campaign.

To make the run worse, Chelsea have led in two of those four winless games. In their first 17 games of the season, Chelsea had dropped just two points from winning positions. Those came in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.

In their past three games, Chelsea have now dropped five points from winning positions. First they were beaten 1-2 by Fulham on Boxing Day, before Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.

Enzo Maresca will be sick of the sight of the Eagles.

New year, new Bees

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s finally happened. Brentford have won an away Premier League game!

Going into 2025, two Premier League teams were still waiting for their first away win of the season. Southampton and Brentford. That fact that Brentford are the joint-best home side in the Premier League makes their away form so much more interesting. The Bees had taken 24 points from 19 games, 22 of which had come at home.

But a trip to the worst home side in the Premier League finally gave Brentford their first three points on the road this season. Brentford got themselves in front early on through Kevin Schade, and from then on the result looked a forgone conclusion. But the Bees made sure of the win thanks to a brace from Bryan Mbeumo in the second half, before Keane Lewis-Potter and Yoane Wissa completed the rout.

The goal from the latter drew him level with Ivan Toney is Brentford’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League. Mbeumo is just one goal back.

Toothless Everton (don’t) strike again

Everton fans must be getting pretty fed up. The Toffees lost for the eighth time in the Premier League this season, and are now winless in their past five.

Sean Dyche’s side have been toothless in front of goal, with only Southampton (12) scoring fewer than their 15. But Everton have now failed to score in 11 of their 19 Premier League games this season, more often than any other team this season.

The Toffees had nine shots against Bournemouth, but failed to hit the target once. It’s just the second time in the league this season that they had failed to hit the target in a Premier League game.

And to make it all worse, Jordan Pickford (55) ended the game with the joint-most touches of any Everton player. That’s not a stat fans will want to be seeing.

Leon Bailey ends long wait

Leon Bailey had a decent 2023-24 season in the Premier League when it came to goals, scoring 10 goals in 35 games.

But his 2024-25 took a long time to get up and running. The Jamaican had started 11 of Aston Villa’s first 19 games of the season, with a further five substitute appearances. But he hadn’t scored.

Fortunately, like Brentford, Bailey had delivered on making changes in the new year. The Jamaican got his first Premier League goal of the season against Leicester, ending a run of 19 games without a goal.

The match-winner, Bailey handed Villa their first league double over Leicester since 2003-04 in the Premier League. The Villans have also gone 10 consecutive Premier League games without defeat at Villa Park, making it a fortress once more.

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