Game 34 – Quick Summary

Match day summary 34

Tuesday, April 21st

Brighton 3-0 Chelsea

Liam Rognior’s ending was, unsurprisingly, a ridiculous appointment from the start, and he made himself the butt of a joke through silly interviews. Well-cultivated looks, trying to look smart, coupled with ridiculous comments also trying to make him look smart, but failing miserably as he couldn’t get performances out of his players and had little to no tactical intelligence. Brighton dominated them almost the entire game and it was clear that Ronnie Orr had no idea how to stop them.

Starman:
Kadioglu – Gets forward at will and scores.
Van Herk – Had an easy day in defence, charging forward at will.
Gross – Running midfielder.

trigger:
Delap – To be fair, he didn’t get any services, but he doesn’t look like he would be a good fit for Chelsea at all.
Lavia – Pairing him with Caicedo doesn’t work at all.
Garnacho – Disastrous choice at half-time, poor performance.

Wednesday, April 22

Burnley 0-1 Manchester City

Although Citeh took an early lead, it was not an easy win. Nerves were really frayed in the final minutes and although the Clarets offered little in the way of threat, it was enough to keep the crowd on edge. At this stage of the season, the most important thing is that they keep winning and putting pressure on Arsenal, so Guardiola won’t be too worried about things being more difficult than they need to be.

Starman:
Dubravka – While he didn’t do anything special, he still kept Burnley in the mix with quite a few saves.
Haaland – It’s hard to believe he only got one.
Doku – Always a threat with his speed and skill, but really needs to improve his end product.
Kusanov – Has improved dramatically throughout the season and looks to be a better player.

trigger:
Tchaouna – Lack of quality.
Fleming – received little help and always dropped too deep to help the defence, leaving no options.
Semenyo – had a day off.

Bournemouth 2-2 Leeds United

Leeds struggled initially as their back three (which has been very successful since they switched to this lineup) could not cope with the way the Cherries played. Had their final ball been of better quality, Bournemouth would have had plenty of chances. Falke switched back to the fourth position, which made the game more fair. Although it wasn’t until they equalized through Hill’s own goal that Leeds really stepped up and took the game to Bournemouth. It’s a small step towards European football for Bournemouth, with Leeds already reaching the 40-point mark that usually ensures safety for Premier League teams.

Starman:
Truffaut – Had a very good season with the Cherries.
Senesi – got an assist and hit the woodwork himself.
Scott – pulling the strings in midfield.
Struijk – Did a really good job for Leeds United’s defence.

trigger:
Christie – A very weak performance, he fell to the ground while trying to win a free-kick and was embarrassed for Leeds’ first goal.
BROOKS – The pace is slow.
Evan Nelson – Needs to provide more of a goal threat.
Tanaka – uncharacteristically poor.

Friday, April 24

Sunderland 0-5 Nottingham Forest

A flurry of goals after half an hour put the game to bed. Forest already led 1-0 thanks to Hume’s own goal and they scored three more goals in the space of six minutes before half-time. Sunderland lost all confidence as they pressed on and were hit by the fifth ball in the dying seconds to rub salt in their wounds. This is a much needed result for forests, moving thorny trees to a safe distance.

Starman:
Boy – he doesn’t seem to have convinced all the Forest faithful just yet, but here he is assisting, assisting and scoring.
Wood – His return from injury is a huge boost for Forest, especially as he is already scoring goals.
Anderson – back to form and now scoring goals.
Gibbs White – Also scored and assisted.

trigger:
Rovers – He hasn’t looked entirely comfortable since returning from injury and had a nightmare coming into this game.
The rest of Sunderland’s squad – fans were sorely disappointed by their performance and they seemed to have finished the season at safety with European football beyond their reach.

Saturday, April 25

Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa

Is this a case of Villa choking, like they were accused of last season? They were really bad, and with Tielemans and McGinn back to fitness, they looked to be back on track with the help of Watkins finding his shooting boots. Villa still hold the UCL spot in hand, but they must avoid further mistakes that will give any hope to the teams chasing them. Fulham are one of them, and although they seem unlikely to reach European football, this result gives them a big boost.

Starman:
Anderson – Always a good search pass and a decent defender as well. If he had pace, he would have no chance of going to Fulham.
Lukic – always full of fighting spirit in the midfield.

trigger:
Robinson – Looks a far cry from where he was last season.
Rodgers – Very poor performance.
Torres — Struggling a lot.
Digne – looks like what he is, an average full-back who can hit crosses in good form. Because it’s in great form, similar to Trippier, he relies heavily on attackers to finish the game as he just targets one area and never picks out any players.

Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace

Liverpool were terrible but Crystal Palace were clearly reserving themselves for European competition so there was no threat of causing any problems at all. Liverpool could have scored a free-kick against the Eagles if they hadn’t been so dull for much of the game, but the Eagles simply didn’t come out. That doesn’t matter to Liverpool, they just need to keep getting good results to ensure they qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Starman:
Woodman – The third-choice goalkeeper performed well on his debut for Liverpool, making several fine saves.

trigger:
When Woodman went down injured, Liverpool’s four defenders just stood and watched, and Munoz sent the ball into an empty net without any challenge and no one tried to cover the defence.
Crystal Palace – The intensity of the game was too low and deceived the away fans.

West Ham United 2-1 Everton

West Ham were the more positive team from the start which is something I really wonder about after being coached by two such negative managers! They probably deserved the overall result but, it was a huge result and they were very lucky indeed that VAR didn’t award them a penalty for handball. Especially since intentional handball can also result in a red card, which would change the entire complexion of the game. You also have to say that Pickford was once again lucky to avoid a red card with another mad dash earlier in the game. His careless, extremely reckless rush had done damage and given the damage he had already done to them it was hard to see how this could not be considered serious foul play.

Starman:
Somerville and Diouf – The two’s movement with the ball caused a lot of problems for Everton on the right.
Soucek – He might not be the most mobile, but he’s great in scoring and goal-line clearances.
Bowen – Two assists from the winger.
Dewsbury Hall – He is a key figure for the Toffees.

trigger:
Pablo – A lot of running around but achieving very little.
Nuno – An attempt to end the game at 1-0 invited Everton on but it almost cost them a much-needed point.
Barry – Another poor game from the Everton striker.
Gueye – Didn’t perform well in this game, which is unusual because he usually performs well.
Pickford – Putting aside his furious sprints, it was a terrible game from the England goalkeeper, who seemed to lose focus in one of his matches.

Wolves 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

Wolves were disappointed again. From the perspective of strength, desire and fighting capacity, this team seems to have nothing to give fans hope of a quick return. This is a very worrying time in Wolverhampton. As for Tottenham, they are also bad, but slightly weaker than Wolves. The main difference is that Spurs want it more.

Starman:
No one – while Spurs are at least improving, they’re still not performing at a level that would suggest they’re staying ahead of the curve in terms of quality. Certainly not enough to be considered a star.

trigger:
Andre – nowhere near what he’s capable of.
Armstrong – is out of his depth at this level.
Muani – Very fast, but not much else.
Simmons – Ridiculously overrated player.

Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle United

Newcastle are there waiting to attack, while Arsenal are not really taking advantage of their predicament at the moment. It’s hard to say whether it was the Gunners’ runaway bottle, the tension in the stands, or Arteta’s caution (or more likely a mixture of the three), but it resulted in a game that lacked free-flowing, exciting football. I doubt anyone at Arsenal cares about that right now, all they care about is that they continue to win, whether that’s knocking out or out-blitzing their opponents. With City showing signs of pressure, it was crucial that the three points continued to pile on the pressure. Newcastle are in terrible form right now, having lost four games in a row, but the teams below them still can’t completely rule out them continuing to score enough points to put them in a relegation battle. Unlikely, they scored 42 points, but they have only themselves to blame for the way they ended the season.

Starman:
Hincapie – at least he’s trying to keep moving forward.
Eze – Goal.

trigger:
White – When Arsenal have to turn to White, you know things are going bad.
Marduk – a strange purchase.
Osura – still looks a long way from the Premier League.
Murphy – still some way off Premier League level.

Monday, April 27

Manchester United 2-1 Brentford

The game to end the week was one of the best of them all. It was a very good appetizer ahead of the truly exciting match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich at University College London the following night. After United took the lead, their performance seemed to drop, allowing Brentford to launch wave after wave of attacks. In the end, they can consider themselves extremely lucky because the Bees’ performance was so poor as they created chance after chance and then squandered it. United still created chances at half-time, meaning it was a fantastic game full of attacking football and arguably the best game in the Premier League this season. But it was quickly glossed over as it was nowhere near the quality of what followed!

Starman:
Casemiro – A great performance from the Brazilian.
Mainoo – His decision to let Amorim leave him out looked stupid.
Fernandez – The Portuguese has some great passes at times. He looks much better than the No. 10 role, rather than the deeper role he was previously forced to play.
Janssen/Darmsgaard – These two performed well in Brentford’s midfield and provided plenty of chances. Ultimately, Jansen had to score himself to help Brentford score.

trigger:
Diallo – Struggling on the left.
Thiago – Waited so long every time he got the ball in a dangerous position that he wasted a lot of golden opportunities.
Schade – Failed to really impact the game.

Written by Tris Burke April 30, 2026 15:46:31

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