Premier League news: Five talking points from matchday 21
As the dust settled on matchday 21 of the Premier League season, five key talking points emerged, including Alexander Isak’s goalscoring streak, Manchester City’s heartbreak, and Tottenham’s downfall.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Christian Willis discusses the biggest stories from the latest round of league action.
Alexander Isak scores for the eighth game running
Isak has been in the form of his life and duly scored a brace against Wolves in a 3-0 win for the Magpies.
His first strike was a heavily deflected finish from outside the box, the ball connecting with Rayan Ait-Nouri’s leg on its way past a despairing Jose Sa in goal.
The second was a tidy finish in the 18-yard area after a great through ball from Brazilian maestro Bruno Guimaraes.
With the brace, the Swede became the first Newcastle player to score in eight successive Premier League games and the first player of any team since Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge.
Only Ruud van Nistelrooy (10) and Jamie Vardy (11) have managed a longer scoring run.
Newcastle’s next game is against eighth-placed Bournemouth on Saturday, and Isak will be hoping to extend his impressive scoring form.
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City Ground clash lives up to the hype
Tuesday evening saw third-placed Nottingham Forest host top-of-the-league Liverpool in an intriguing showdown.
The hosts were in a rich vein of form having won seven games in a row in all competitions to sit tied on points with second-placed Arsenal.
In contrast, Liverpool had stuttered in recent games, drawing to Manchester United in the league before losing out to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.
Forest’s confidence was evident in the early exchanges of the game as Chris Wood fired the underdogs ahead with his 13th goal of the campaign, sending the City Ground into pandemonium in the process.
Incredibly, this was the 17th time in the league this season that Nottingham Forest had opened the scoring.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side then dropped back to preserve this lead, restricting Liverpool to half-chances and no shots on target for the rest of the half.
The break in play, however, seemed to spark something in Liverpool as they came out an entirely different-looking team in the second half.
Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas then came off the bench to grab the Reds’ equaliser, the former scoring a superb header past the helpless Matz Sels.
The momentum didn’t stop there for the visitors, though, as Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, and Jota all had subsequent efforts which were expertly denied by the Forest ‘keeper.
By the time the final whistle blew, Forest had secured a hard-fought point.
A draw leaves Liverpool top of the table and four points clear of second-placed Arsenal while the Tricky Trees remain third as they continue to dream of Champions League football next season.
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Fragile Manchester City collapse at Brentford
As if Pep Guardiola’s week couldn’t get any worse, he saw his City side concede two late goals to throw away a couple of points against Brentford on Tuesday night.
The second half began well for the Citizens as Kevin De Bruyne’s whipped cross met the foot of Phil Foden to open the scoring.
It looked as though the game was dead and buried when Foden scored again from close range with twelve minutes to go.
However, the Bees’ character and belief caught City off guard.
First up, Wissa’s smart swivel and finish gave the home side hope with eight minutes of regulation time left.
Then, in the dying moments of the game, Brentford captain Christian Norgaard rose highest to power a header past the outstretched Stefan Ortega and rescue a crucial point from a game that had seemingly slipped away from the home side.
The result leaves City sixth in the table while Brentford move up to tenth as they prepare to face league leaders Liverpool on Saturday.
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Tottenham plumbing the depths after derby defeat
There was the small matter of a north London derby at the Emirates on Wednesday.
A win for Arsenal would put them four points off Liverpool at the top of the table after the latter’s draw at Forest.
For Tottenham, after three losses in four games, the three points would simply arrest their rapid descent down the table.
It was the home team who came out firing, pinning back the Lilywhites in the early exchanges of the match.
If it wasn’t for the lacklustre finishing of Arsenal’s attackers, the game could have been out of sight before half-time.
Despite that early pressure, Tottenham took the lead thanks to Son Heung-min’s deflected volley off just their second shot of the game.
However, the Gunner hit back soon after when Gabriel’s header from a corner deflected in off Dominic Solanke.
This fired up manager Mikel Arteta as well as the Emirates crowd, and a second goal was on the cards.
It didn’t take long to arrive: Yves Bissouma lost the ball on the halfway line, setting up Leandro Trossard to roll one in at the far post.
The second half saw much of the same as Arsenal dominated the ball and Spurs looked surprisingly short of intensity in one of their biggest games of the season.
In the end, the score remained 2-1, meaning that Spurs have now collected a measly five points from nine league games to sit 14th in the table.
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The Ruben Amorim revival continues at Old Trafford
It has been a rough start for new United manager Amorim since he took over in November.
His team struggled throughout a difficult December, suffering defeats to Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, Bournemouth, Wolves, and Newcastle in the league, with only a late win over their ‘noisy neighbours’ City providing some sort of brief respite.
However, the turn of the year has seen a notable improvement in United’s performances.
The Red Devils have started to pick up some good results, showing defensive passion and resilience along the way.
They started 2025 with a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Anfield which was then followed by a dramatic penalty-shootout victory at Arsenal in the FA Cup third round.
Despite Diogo Dalot’s red card reducing United to ten men with half an hour to play at the Emirates, Amorim’s charges showed remarkable defensive fortitude to still take the win.
This positive momentum largely continued in their midweek fixture against Southampton, where Amad Diallo’s late hat-trick spared the Red Devils’ blushes.
It was the Ivorian’s first career hat-trick and fully turned around a game that had seen the hosts fall behind thanks to a Manuel Ugarte own goal.
The win sends United up into 12th place in the table while Southampton remain rooted to the bottom, now ten points from safety and facing an uphill battle to survive.
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