Premier League Winners and Losers: United's Resurgence, Liverpool's Unravelling, and the Managerial Meltdown

What a weekend it's been. One solitary draw – which honestly felt like a loss for someone – has given us licence to make sweeping judgements about half the division.

The Rising Tide

Fulham

Seventh position. Seventh! This week's award for "how are they even there?" goes to Marco Silva's men. They've quietly assembled something rather special in West London, and nobody seems to have noticed.

Harry Wilson

His best Premier League campaign to date in goals, minutes and general Harry Wilson-ness. The lad's having a moment.

Manchester United

Sometimes you dust off an old recruitment strategy and it actually works. Picking up the two biggest xG overperformers from last season – including one fellow who's apparently quite devoted to veganism – from within the division? That's the kind of business that gets results.

Harry Maguire

Don't run from this one, Thomas. It'll catch you regardless.

Andoni Iraola

The new manager bounce is real, and Bournemouth's boss has made an immediate impression. There's something refreshing about a coach who arrives and makes an instant difference.

Nottingham Forest

With Chris Wood sidelined for the season, two of his teammates stepped up when they were needed most. After that deceptive August victory over Brentford, Forest's creative burden has rested too heavily on Morgan Gibbs-White's shoulders – just five goals all season. Only Everton and Wolves have a lower-scoring leading marksman.

Igor Jesus and Taiwo Awoniyi both showed genuine class and determination to find the net through sheer individual quality. The first time in 42 games that two specialist Forest forwards have both scored in a league match. You couldn't make it up.

West Ham's Curious Resurgence

Three consecutive managers couldn't manage a winning start, but West Ham might be pioneering something new here. Since Paco Jemez arrived as Nuno Espirito Santo's assistant, the Hammers have picked up wins against Spurs away and Sunderland at home. Even Rui Barbosa's appointment as goalkeeping coach in late October coincided with two victories.

"There wasn't much convincing to do. He told me he needed my help," Jemez reflected, though Nuno's body language when preparing to introduce Max Kilman at 3-1 up in stoppage time suggested not everyone was entirely convinced by his tactical input.

The risk here is obvious – Nuno's already been sacked once this season for not playing nicely with others. But this feels different. Less antagonistic than his situation at Nottingham Forest, where he reportedly had a backroom staff forced upon him. Jemez could be the figure who challenges him constructively rather than undermining him.

Chelsea

The Premier League's highest-scoring away team this season. Only Arsenal and Aston Villa have accumulated more points on the road. Liam Rosenior has somehow achieved remarkable balance – 18 points at home, 19 away – and it's clearly working.

Yerson Mosquera

Five shots in a single game against Manchester City. The most anyone's managed since Yoane Wissa terrorised them last January. Quite the stat for a centre-half from the bottom club in a 2-0 defeat.

Emi Martinez

Yes, he's an easy target when things go wrong, but credit where it's due – his performance against Newcastle was genuinely outstanding. Only Unai Emery could truly explain the depths of what makes Martinez such a fascinating character.

Matheus Nunes

Somehow, a £53m midfielder deemed "not clever enough" by Pep Guardiola for his intended position has become Manchester City's most vital player at right-back. Elite at defending dribbles, according to the analysts. Who'd have thought?

The Faltering Giants

Arsenal

Whether this qualifies as the Premier League's greatest capitulation is almost secondary. Arsenal played as if consumed by the very fear of that label, and the mood infected supporters and staff alike. Three consecutive runner-up finishes will do that.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: they need to learn how to lose points and keep moving. There won't be a 20-game winning streak to rescue their season – the modern Premier League simply doesn't permit that kind of sustained dominance anymore. How they respond matters far more than this result.

Liverpool

That unbeaten run was never truly convincing anyway. It merely papered over the cracks. Now those cracks are widening.

Arne Slot's admission that he "tried to scream towards them to put the ball out of play" – only to be ignored by his players – tells you everything about what's happening. Playing on with ten men because of a Joe Gomez injury, conceding again. It's a pattern, not an anomaly.

Andoni Iraola's explanation of Bournemouth's approach is damning: "normally go full gas" but "because we don't have the numbers we are choosing when to go, choosing to save a bit of energy until the end of the game". Whether that was calculated with Liverpool's known late-game vulnerability in mind is debatable, but the numbers are brutal – five goals conceded in second-half stoppage time this season, costing eight points against Bournemouth, Fulham, Leeds, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.

These are fundamental problems of mentality and physicality, layered on top of tactical issues that have been screaming for months. Slot's job security is looking increasingly precarious with each passing weekend.

Virgil van Dijk

Sometimes you just have to move on.

Crystal Palace

Eleven games without a win across all competitions. A red card and penalty conceded. Plumbing new depths. And the notion that Oliver Glasner and Steve Parish can simply "clear everything" over dinner is fantasy.

Palace sit 15th, just three points clear of Leeds and Nottingham Forest, with West Ham gathering momentum behind them. They're dangerously under-equipped for a relegation battle.

The contradictions are already apparent. Glasner insists he's "100 per cent committed" to Palace, yet separately explains his reasons for potentially leaving: "I demand one thing from myself, and that's 100 per cent, every single day, all the time, and if I feel I can't provide this to a club anymore, maybe, then I think I have to go, because the club, the fans, the players – especially the players – they deserve my full commitment, my full energy, my full motivation to help them, to progress and achieve big things."

That maths doesn't add up. Glasner compared this reconciliation to "the sun shining" after "a thunderstorm", but the dark clouds will linger as long as Palace have a manager who, by his own admission, isn't fully committed.

Tottenham

There's nothing new to say anymore. The elephant in the room has been rotting for months. Thomas Frank remains in place, but not because of anything he's achieved – purely because those who appointed him can't bear to admit they've made an absolute mess of the post-Levy era.

His Champions League prospects won't save him. Spurs reached the knockout stages, but they'll make no meaningful progress. And even winning it wouldn't excuse domestic failure – Frank's predecessor learned that lesson the hard way.

The Premier League is the measure. Frank was hired largely because of his experience there. Four more points than Ange Postecoglou at this stage last season, backed by over £220m in investment, simply isn't sufficient.

Brighton

One win in ten Premier League games is a very quiet descent. Dropping from 5th in early December to 12th by late January is remarkable, even in a season as bloated as this one.

Brighton won't panic-sack anyone – Sami Hyypia was their last mid-season casualty over a decade ago. But Fabian Hurzeler might want to start checking summer vacancies. A friendly parting of ways at season's end looks increasingly likely.

Making James Milner his first substitution at 1-1 in the 81st minute probably isn't accelerating matters, mind you.

Burnley

Three consecutive draws against the "Big Six" – though Spurs barely qualify for that title these days – shouldn't be criticised too harshly. But conceding late goals is becoming catastrophic. Eleven goals after the 81st minute is at least two more than any other side.

Going unbeaten against United, Liverpool and Spurs is respectable, yet they've still lost ground in the relegation battle. One more game without a win and they'll crack the top ten for longest winless streaks in Premier League history.

Newcastle and Sunderland

Perhaps they finally have something in common.

Ruben Amorim

What on earth were you thinking?