PREMIER LEAGUE – Chelsea falls against Fulham (1-2), Tottenham sinks into Nottingham (1-0) for Boxing Day

The end-of-year celebrations have obviously calmed Chelsea’s enthusiasm somewhat. Four days after their goalless draw against Everton, the Blues lost at Stamford Brigde against Fulham (1-2). The Cottagers pushed into added time to bring down their opponent thanks to a goal from Rodrigo Muniz, who came off the bench a few minutes earlier. Before that, Harry Wilson responded in the 82nd minute to a superb goal from Cole Palmer scored in the very first quarter of an hour of play.

And that alone said a lot about the state of form of the Blues, whose level of play declined as the match progressed. They won’t have much time to rest, since they have an appointment in Ipswich this Monday. For Fulham, it is a first victory for 45 years in the Chelsea stadium, and above all three precious points which allow them to remain in eighth position and above all in the race for qualifying places in the European Cup.

This is the new reality of this 2024/2025 Premier League season. Nottingham Forest upheld the hierarchy in the standings against Spurs who are no longer able to do so in the league with only one victory in their last six meetings. The situation is becoming urgent for Ange Postecoglou and his men who see Europe moving away by six points, having obtained a 5th place last season. However, they had more attempts on target than their opponents in the evening (4 against 3), but fell on a festive Matz Sels, author of four decisive interventions.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s men relied on a goal after half an hour from Anthony Elanga. The Swede overtook the totally apathetic Spurs defense on the action before adjusting Forster. The beautiful story therefore continues in Sherwood Forest, since while waiting for Arsenal tomorrow at the end of the day against Ipswich, Forest are 3rd in the standings, one point ahead of the Gunners.

It was the big shock of this holiday in England and it came to an end. The Magpies, 8th before the start of the match, faced Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, who defeated City last week. Anthony Gordon quickly lit the fuse with a marvelous curling strike to lob Emiliano Martinez, who could do nothing at the time (2nd). Often decisive for the Villans in recent weeks, Jhon Duran did his teammates a disservice by being sent off for an avoidable anti-play gesture (28th).

Alexander Isak concluded a great collective action (59th), before Joelinton took advantage of Amadou Onana’s wanderings to score a final powerful goal. Newcastle moved up to 5th place and carried out a good operation, while Villa missed the boat and did not take advantage of the missteps of City and Bournemouth, held in check this afternoon.

Like this Boxing Day, which was quite poor in terms of goals, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace parted ways in a goalless draw this Wednesday evening at the Vitality Stadium (0-0). Eberechi Eze, on one side, and Dango Ouattara, on the other, tried to liven up the meeting but the stars of the match were more in defense. The three-man Guéhi-Lacroix-Chalobah axis of the Eagles responded to the Zabarnyi-Huijsen duo on the other and the two teams neutralized each other.

A result which does not really do the business of Crystal Palace, still stuck at the bottom of the ranking in 16th position, with only five points ahead of Wolverhampton, first relegated with one game less. And for Bournemouth, it is the virtual qualifying place for the Europa League which is lost to Newcastle, defeater of Aston Villa.

Despite its change of coach, Southampton is not doing any better. For Ivan Juric’s first match on the Saints bench, the players of the promoted club had started the match well and could have opened the scoring in the first half. But they quickly paid for their inefficiency, and Jarrod Bowen quickly took charge of scoring the only goal of the match at the start of the second half.

On the Hammers side, Alphonse Aréola was finally able to play the field again for the first time since the end of October. The French international replaced Lukasz Fabianski, who was injured a few minutes before half-time. Above all, Julen Lopetegui’s players were able to continue to distance themselves from the relegation zone, and are now closer to Newcastle (5th, 29 points) than to Wolverhampton (18th, 12 points). Southampton remains last.