Winners and Losers: City's Relentless Form, Rosenior's Fatal Misstep, and Arsenal's Self-Inflicted Crisis

THE WINNERS

Manchester City

One victory has never felt quite so commanding. The Carabao Cup final looms, yet before that silverware was secured, City had stumbled badly—losing both Champions League legs to Real Madrid, scraping draws against relegation-threatened West Ham and Nottingham Forest, with only Newcastle dispatched in cup competition since March began.

Now trophies are within touching distance. One already secured, another four matches away, and the Premier League title race tilted decisively in their favour. This is a side that reeks of intent, hunting their prey with the precision that only elite April performances can deliver. Guardiola's team has found their rhythm at precisely the right moment.

West Ham

Revenge served cold. The Hammers' 4-0 demolition of Wolves represented not merely a victory but a complete reversal of fortune. Back in early January, that same opponent had hammered them 3-0 at Molineux when West Ham wallowed in the mire, closer to 19th place than safety and adrift of escape by four points.

Twelve games later, that emphatic win has hauled them clear of the bottom three for the first time since December. The transformation speaks volumes about January's recruitment drive. Taty Castellanos may not be perfection incarnate, but his work-rate elevates those around him. Axel Disasi has kept four additional clean sheets compared to his former Chelsea colleagues and stands among the most cherished loan signings in Hammers history.

Only Manchester City and Crystal Palace invested more substantially in the window, yet that backing of Nuno Espirito Santo could prove season-defining. Meanwhile, Spurs' refusal to chase mid-season "stress purchases" due to alleged market scarcity now looks decidedly foolish—West Ham have climbed from 12 points adrift to two clear.

Brighton

Form that simply cannot be ignored. Fabian Hurzeler has orchestrated a remarkable turnaround, though he'd rather not dwell on European aspirations, preferring to leave such talk to others.

Ninth position, two points shy of Chelsea, six behind Liverpool, with injury concerns among the division's least troublesome. The run-in reads like a gift—Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle and Wolves all in various states of distress, then Leeds away and Manchester United at home. Keep that European tab open and maintain this trajectory.

Igor Thiago

Would he constitute the most improbable Golden Boot winner imaginable? Thiago has already surpassed the career-best Premier League seasons of Michael Owen, Nicolas Anelka, Dimitar Berbatov, Mark Viduka, Jermain Defoe and Dennis Bergkamp. Brentford continue getting away with this extraordinary situation.

Crystal Palace's Redemption Arc

Jean-Philippe Mateta's three goals since returning have carried genuine weight—one igniting a comprehensive Conference League victory over Fiorentina, two off the bench helping Palace leapfrog Newcastle. Oliver Glasner's man-management proved instrumental in restoring a tarnished reputation.

The Palace boss himself endured a fractured relationship with supporters, perceived disrespect breeding a seemingly irreparable rift. Yet with the transfer window closed and that bone of contention removed, Glasner has engineered one defeat in ten matches, propelling Palace toward a European semi-final and within five points of continental qualification. A far more palatable narrative than seemed possible months ago.

David Moyes's Everton

The former Everton manager, once remarking they were "probably a centre-forward away from contention," now oversees a side where goalscoring duties are properly distributed. Beto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall both possess seven this season, having pulled clear with equalisers in the Brentford draw.

Tim Cahill remains the only player to exceed 50 of Moyes' total 1,006 Premier League goals. When Marouane Fellaini and Cahill shared top scorer honours in 2008/09 with eight apiece during a fifth-place finish, the vibes felt similar—Dewsbury-Hall surely despises corner flags, and Beto probably possesses remarkable chest control.

Liverpool's Silver Linings

The Champions League remains precarious, yet re-qualification may prove necessary should they eventually dispense with Arne Slot. Rio Ngumoha, while falling short of a second goal to match James Milner's 16-year-old Premier League scoring record, has finally opened his account to challenge Wayne Rooney's six goals as a 17-year-old.

Sunderland

Only three previous Premier League seasons have yielded more points than their current 46. Six matches remain to surpass 2010/11's 47, 2000/01's 57, or 1999/2000's 58.

Chris Wood

A 34-year-old emerging for 26 minutes on his first Premier League appearance in nearly six months won more aerial duels than any opponent at The City Ground on Sunday.

THE LOSERS

Arsenal

The troubling reality suggests Arsenal may become their own greatest obstacle. The chasm between institutional messaging and actual performances widens constantly. Arteta speaks of "beautiful" occasions whilst his players appear visibly uncomfortable. His rhetoric centres endlessly on emotional fortitude—"fire in the belly," "poison in the tummy"—yet wouldn't rational focus on removing such distractions prove more beneficial?

More corrosive remains the growing separation between squad and support. When Arsenal implore fans to generate atmosphere before a "big day" that the players barely contest, responsibility cannot fall entirely on those in the stands. The club's pre-match messaging about lunchtime kick-offs being "low key" rings hollow when the pitch-side performers seem incapable of matching the intensity they themselves demand.

Arsenal have become architects of unnecessary tension. Having lost merely three of their opening 49 matches while largely ignoring such drama, they've now surrendered three of their last four whilst actively feeding into it.

Eddie Howe

Bristling at selection questions following the Palace defeat, Howe's insistence that he "doesn't pick teams based on transfer fees" rings hollow for a manager so inextricably bound to recruitment decisions. His recent assertion that identifying "the very best" from signings remains "fundamentally important" becomes remarkably damning when his last four substitutes—all summer acquisitions costing over £200m combined—have yielded nothing approaching that ambition.

Roberto De Zerbi

One match into his £60m, five-year Spurs appointment, the Italian confronted the true magnitude of his task. Not relegation rescue, but rather achieving something almost unthinkable: winning a single match. De Zerbi referenced this apparent impossibility repeatedly after Sunderland's defeat, stressing the need to "work on one win," that "everything will change" with victory, repeating the mantra of securing "one game. One game. One game."

The Europa League champions now earn nearly £200,000 weekly to remind a thoroughly broken squad that they require basic success. De Zerbi bears no blame—he's merely the second managerial casualty of a bounce that's proven illusory. Yet Spurs' predicament remains ludicrous.

Liam Rosenior

Death knells ring faintly but distinctly. No manager survives long after invoking Guardiola and Klopp whilst desperately pleading for patience. Following a fifth defeat in six games, Rosenior argued: "Even someone as experienced as Pep or Jurgen Klopp when he won the titles he did at Liverpool, they had a year to sort things out. I've come in January."

Yet Guardiola and Klopp earned such time through prior accomplishment, both before England and upon arrival. Graham Potter employed identical reasoning in January 2023, departing four months later. Mauricio Pochettino recycled the same argument in February 2024, sacked four months hence. Enzo Maresca, however imperfect, knew better than crowbarring himself into such conversations. Rosenior doesn't belong in that company and should feel embarrassed attempting the comparison.

Scott Parker

An extraordinary lapse in judgment.

Aston Villa

A respectable draw, yet that represented their oldest starting XI in a Premier League match since David Ginola, Paul Merson and Ian Taylor inflated the average age during a 2001 Ipswich victory. It was also the second-oldest lineup fielded by any Premier League side this season. Champions League money must translate into a productive summer.

Fulham

Not alone in stumbling after a three-week break, but this isn't the moment to share company with Newcastle, Spurs, Burnley and Wolves.

Wolves

Only six players have scored two or more non-penalty Premier League goals against Wolves this season. Yet the list grows increasingly absurd: Erling Haaland, Zian Flemming, Yerson Mosquera, Keane Lewis-Potter, Taty Castellanos, Konstantinos Mavropanos. Whether the two West Ham players or the defender who actually plays for Wolves represents the more damning indictment remains uncertain.

Wolves Again

Let the ball bounce once—shame on you. Twice—shame on me. Thrice—shame on Wolves. Four times? What exactly are Hugo Bueno, Andre and Jackson Tchatchoua doing?