Brentford 4-0 Manchester United (13 August 2022)
The darkest hour is before the dawn, they say, and Erik ten Hag’s United regime began with two grim league defeats. After Brighton had won at Old Trafford, brilliant Brentford made hay in boiling temperatures as the new United, in attempting to play the ball out from the back, looked rather like the failing collective of the previous decade. David de Gea dropped clangers, Cristiano Ronaldo snarled at his teammates. “[Ten Hag] will need to be an exceptional manager, a man of considerable moral courage, to recover from this,” I wrote in my match report that day. He has gone a considerable distance to suggest he might be. Brentford, meanwhile, confirmed they were here to stay as a fly in any passing elite-level ointment.
Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle (23 October 2022)
Using this season’s Tottenham side as a gauge for anything is a dangerous pursuit but after an early-season draw with Manchester City, Eddie Howe’s team arrived in London to begin the upward curve that eventually qualified them for the Champions League. This was a statement win. Bruno Guimarães and Joelinton dominated midfield and Callum Wilson scored an opportunist’s strike before Miguel Almirón, in the form of his life, lashed in after cutting in from the right. Harry Kane – who else? – pulled one back for Spurs but Newcastle later locked the game down. It was a textbook example of the solid style that has lately moved Alan Shearer to pen the purplest of prose in gushing tribute to Howe.
Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United (5 March 2023)
About that Manchester United revival. Ten Hag’s improvement of the team has not made them immune to sudden collapses. When it goes badly, it can really go. Manchester City beat them 6-3, Sevilla pummelled them in the second leg of a Europa League quarter-final – but this was a historic destruction from an eternal rival. It also came a fortnight after the Carabao Cup had been claimed as a first trophy in six years. Liverpool were at their incendiary best, on a day everything went right for a team otherwise falling well short of their objectives. Two goals each from Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah pointed to Jürgen Klopp’s attacking trident of the future while the departing hero Roberto Firmino completed the rout with a seventh. In Graeme Souness’s final season as a Sky pundit, he had confidently predicted a Liverpool win, to smirks from Roy Keane and Gary Neville – only for the former Reds captain to reconfirm his status as punditry’s alpha male.
Tottenham 2-1 Brighton (8 April 2o23)
A brilliant game full of attacking quality, a touchline tear-up, refereeing injustices: Premier League chaos at its best. Perhaps Brighton fans might want a game their team actually won to mark this season’s breakout excellence, but most of the ingredients that make the Roberto De Zerbi-issue Seagulls such a joy to watch were there. Kaoru Mitoma flew down the flanks, Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo dominated midfield, Pervis Estupiñán bombed down the left. Perhaps the lack of a cutting edge cost Brighton, with the late substitute Evan Ferguson unable to make an impression. Harry Kane showed off typical class, composed when all around him were losing their cool, in hitting what would be the winner. There was also a pair of VAR errors, one for a foul on Mitoma, when Pierre-Emile Højbjerg stood on the Japanese flier’s foot. It was a mistake so glaring it led Howard Webb to make a Sunday morning call of apology. Oh, and there was an almighty touchline row between De Zerbi and Cristian Stellini, Spurs’ caretaker, its origins reportedly in Serie B battles of decades past, as tensions fully boiled over and both benches piled in. Scenes you don’t like to see, but actually really want to see.
Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal (9 April 2023)
The title was still in Arsenal’s hands as they went to Anfield, the fortress their club so rarely conquers, and a stronghold without which Liverpool’s season would have been an utter disaster. For the first half, Arsenal played beautifully, goals from Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli just reward for their dominance, and Anfield was almost quietened. But if there was a moment that changed the game, and perhaps the destiny of the title with it, then Granit Xhaka squaring up to Trent Alexander-Arnold and reigniting the Kop might be the one. Suddenly, the stadium seethed with passion and Arsenal lost their nerve as Liverpool recovered the form of, if not this season, then the very best of the Jürgen Klopp era. Aaron Ramsdale made save after save and Mohamed Salah missed a penalty, having scored just before half-time to set Arsenal minds into doubt. It was left to the old dependable Roberto Firmino to head the equaliser that mortally wounded Arsenal’s title challenge.
Manchester City 4-1 Arsenal, 26 April
After Anfield came Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at West Ham and a Friday folly in being held 3-3 by doomed Southampton. The winner-takes-all title decider trailed for months instead took on the role of a sentencing hearing, with City dishing out a draconian punishment to the upstarts who had dared challenge their dominance. Kevin De Bruyne’s early opener began the dominance at the Etihad, and the Belgian would swat in his second to all but confirm victory and the Premier League title at 3-0. The deal was sealed – of course – by Erling Haaland, so relaxed and fancy free his man-bun had come loose from his hairband. With his blond mane swishing behind him in the manner of a Pantene advert featuring a Norwegian death-metaller, he trundled the ball in with that clubbing left foot. “We were nowhere near our level,” said Mikel Arteta, his problem being that City’s level is streets ahead.
