December's first round of fixtures has come and gone, and they produced plenty of drama as expected. We got the highest scoring game of the season so far, a surprise victory by a relegation team, and the second highest scoring game of the season in a Midlands derby. And it's still only round one. Premier League action resumes tomorrow, but before then, here are the winners and losers from this round of games.
Every time Manchester United have a chance to climb up the table, they squander it. Against West Ham, they were not at their best, but you probably don't need to be at your best to beat West Ham. Diogo Dalot's goal seemed like it would be enough to secure all three points and take United level on points with Chelsea. However, with seven minutes to go, the worst team at set-pieces in the league struck from a set-piece. Soungoutou Magassa scored to salvage a desperately needed point for West Ham and leave Manchester United adrift in 8th with only one win in their last five games. With AFCON looming and the impending loss of Mbuemo, Amad Diallo, and Mazraoui, things might get better before they get worse at Old Trafford.
The Villans came back from two goals down to mount what is perhaps the most impressive comeback of the season so far, beating Brighton 4-3 to maintain their winning streak ahead of Arsenal's visit. Beat Arsenal on Saturday, and Villa may very well be in title race conversations. It's quite the turnaround for a team that didn't score a goal until gameweek 5 and didn't win a game until gameweek 6. Unai Emery continues to work his magic and imbue the Midlands club with ambition beyond their wildest dreams. Villa fans will be particularly pleased with the Watkins brace in this game. Questions about the ability of their frontman had begun to appear, and he badly needed those two goals to silence critics and give himself some confidence going forward.
The wheels are coming off a little at Vitality Stadium. The last five games have produced four defeats and one draw for Bournemouth, leaving them just seven points above the relegation places. Those numbers are the kind you expect from teams fighting a relegation battle, not a team which was widely expected to be in the mix for the European spots this season. And the fixtures don't get easier for Bournemouth, they play Chelsea twice and Arsenal before the month is over, with a difficult trip to tricky Brentford sandwiched between those fixtures. Andoni Iraola needs to find a way back and fast. I don't think anyone was expecting him to be sacked at the beginning of the season, but discontent grows quickly in the Premier League, and he might be in trouble soon if the dismal results continue.
When you're a club fighting relegation, some wins do more than put points on the board, they lift the spirits of everyone involved with the club. Such was the nature of the rousing defeat of Chelsea by Leeds at Elland Road. Leeds had lost their four previous games and were probably not expecting much against a Chelsea team widely regarded as title contenders. However, Daniel Farke's men rose to the occasion, aided, of course, by Maresca's poor team selection and put three goals past a porous Chelsea defence. That win not only lifted spirits at Elland Road, but it also lifted Leeds out of the relegation zone. Next up for Leeds is a shaky Liverpool at the weekend, and they will definitely have their tails up going into that game.
The last two games have been polar opposites in terms of experience for Enzo Maresca. Against Arsenal he showed that he'd learnt something from navigating so many games with a man down. He made the right subs at the right time and fired his team to a brilliant performance against the league leaders. Against Leeds, he put out a drastically changed team and lost the game 3-1. The problem isn't necessarily that Maresca chose to make changes, it's December after all and squad rotation is always necessary this month. What is important is that the changes don't completely disrupt the team's momentum at such a crucial point in the season. It's clear that Maresca still has some work to do in that department, but he has to do it fast, the fixtures are coming thick and fast.
Beating Manchester City was always going to be a bit far-fetched for Marco Silva's side. Going into the game, they would have wanted to keep the momentum of the last two gameweeks going more than anything else. Win, draw, or lose, they needed to actually compete and assert themselves on the game; the last thing they needed was an embarrassing defeat. However, at half-time, it looked like they were in for a particularly embarrassing defeat at the hands of Guardiola's men. And then Samuel Chukwueze stepped on the pitch. Fulham's wide acquisitions haven't exactly started firing since arriving at the London club, but Chukwueze has shown glimpses already, especially with the assist for the Raul Jimenez goal against Sunderland. He scored a brace and inspired a rousing performance that almost saw Fulham nick a point off Manchester City. They may have lost the game, but they certainly produced a momentum-maintaining performance and will go into the next game against Crystal Palace brimming with confidence.
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