Premier League Highlights: Wednesday 1 January 2020

A host of fixtures in the Premier League were scheduled for New Year’s Day, 1 January 2020, as the 2019/20 season continued.

Highlights from each of the day’s fixtures are below, from Sky Sports football, the official UK highlights resource.

I post Premier League Highlights most match days, all in one fast-loading page, for fans of football. Any ads you see are from Sky Sports / YouTube. I don’t run ads in this site.

Brighton v Chelsea (1-1)

This is all about one thing: that overhead volley from Jahanbakhsh to level the scores at 1-1 for Brighton. 1-1 it would finish, and the points were shared. A nice start to 2020 for Brighton. What a finish!

Burnley v Aston Villa (1-2)

Grealish is in danger of being everything good about Aston Villa this season, and so it would prove again, here, as his powerful strike spelled the difference between them and fellow 2019/20 strugglers, Burnley.

Burnley at Turf Moor have been dire in the first half all season, and so it would prove again here. An improved second half was too little, too late. They are in a relegation scrap this term, that’s for sure.

Watford v Wolves (2-1)

Watford got another win notched with a solid 2-1 victory at home to Wolves, despite finishing with 10 men.

Newcastle v Leicester (0-3)

Despite being without Jamie Vardy again, Leicester were strong in this last fixture, but Newsxastle were once again architects of their own demise.

Shocking passes at the back and a hat full of injuries for Steve Bruce’s men left the Toon manager bemoaned ings the Christmas fixture schedule. No matter how many matches you have, someone should have a little word with Newcastle defenders about not squaring the ball across your own goal.

Southampton v Tottenham (1-0)

Another side who haven’t enjoyed the festive fixtures has been Spurs, who lost more ground on the top four, though will be thankful that wolves and Chelsea also failed to win.

Manchester City v Everton

City survived a late comeback from Everton at home, despite once again starting slowly in Manchester. De Bruyne was as ever a stand-out player for the hosts.

Norwich v Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace this term don’t know when they are beaten, and so bottom side Norwich found here. In truth, Palace could and perhaps should have got more from this match, but a point is a fair reflection of the 90 minutes.

VAR reared it’s head again in this one. The offside rule feels particularly harsh against attackers, with current interpretations.

West Ham v Bournemouth (4-0)

West Ham came out of the relegation zone at the main expense of their New Years Day opponents, as David Moyes showed why “I win” wasn’t just hot air on his first match in charge.

Bournemouth will be worried by the manner of this defeat.

Arsenal v Man United (2-0)

United missed an opportunity to make up ground on those around them who had a below par day, as they failed to make recent form tell away at Arsenal.

Newly appointed Arteta enjoyed a 2-0 win thanks in no small part to a goalkeeping error from De Gea, who looked to fumble a routine catch from a corner for the Gunners’ second.

Premier League Table at end of New Year’s Day

Below is how the table looked at the end of Wednesday 1 January 2020:

TeamPGDPts
1Liverpool193355
2Leicester212745
3Man City213244
4Chelsea21736
5Man Utd21731
6Tottenham21630
7Wolves21330
8Sheff Utd20429
9Crystal Palace21-428
10Arsenal21-227
11Everton21-825
12Southampton21-1325
13Newcastle21-1325
14Brighton21-424
15Burnley21-1024
16West Ham20-722
17Aston Villa21-1021
18Bournemouth21-1220
19Watford21-1719
20Norwich21-1914

Sheffield United will play Liverpool on Thursday evening, knowing that a win will put them into fifth spot. With Liverpool 10 points clear with two games in hand, a Sheffield United victory would be the most interesting result for the neutral, in terms of the table tightening up. Don’t bet on it, though, because Liverpool have looked immense of late.

Leicester and Manchester City look to have established themselves as the only two capable of maintaining any kind of challenge for the top spot, as the rest dropped points today.

The battle is on for 4th.

The relegation battle, on the other hand, could involve any one of 10-11 teams. Watford and Norwich have shown signs they are good enough to recover, recently, while Villa and West Ham have also shown recovery. Burnley, Brighton and Newcastle will be hoping to arrest their recent slump in performances, or they are getting pulled into the vortex.

About Robin Scott

I'm Robin Scott, a WordPress Consultant and WooCommerce expert developer who, along with three other people, runs a business called Silicon Dales Ltd remotely, from a base in the North of the UK. I enjoy using my talents for programming to track and interpret sporting, political or retail data - and therefore you'll see me posting some content in these spaces in this, my personal website. If you're interested to talk about leveraging this for your business (in sport, entertainment, retail, etc) please contact me.

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