Bukayo Saka brilliance helps Arsenal extend lead at the top as West Ham suffer blow at the bottom – Premier League hits and misses

Saka’s back: Arsenal ace delivers statement performance

It’s a measure of Bukayo Saka’s performance that, even coming off at half-time, he finished the match with twice as many chances created to his name as any other player on the pitch.

In his first start since the cup final, the captain-for-the-day was electric. A twist and turn which left Raul Jimenez on his backside summed it up: he was too much for this Fulham team to handle.

His cross for Viktor Gyokeres’ opener was spot-on; his finish for his goal oozed confidence and quality.

Any concerns about Arsenal’s open-play threat have been quashed with the return to fitness of their talisman.

Their failure to add to the scoreline after he went off underlined the point – although buoyed by the headstart he’d given them, Gyokeres and Riccardo Calafiori could easily have added further goals.

At one point in that second half, Arsenal fans reprised their ‘Saka and Emile Smith Rowe’ song from a few years ago, showing their appreciation for the now Fulham attacker when he went off with an injury.

Two talents from Hale End. But Star Boy Saka has turned into a leader of this team.

Fit and firing again, he looks primed to deliver the goals and assists to lead them to glory.
Peter Smith

West Ham need results over performances with time running out

West Ham are no longer in a position where performances mean anything. Results are all that matter with just three games left and the defeat at Brentford will set alarm bells ringing. If they can lose when playing well, what will happen when they’re bad?

“The big one today was just finding a way to win,” said Brentford boss Keith Andrews. They are up to sixth in the race for a European place, except it is West Ham who are in far greater need of points at this stage of the season.

The irony is that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have been good for a while now and earned 22 points from their last 14 Premier League games to be two points clear of the relegation zone – at the start of this run, they were seven points from safety.

Only five clubs had won more points than West Ham before their defeat by Brentford. They looked good value to get something in west London too, hitting the woodwork four times, having an equaliser ruled out by VAR and firing off 13 shots.

Even Brentford’s opener carried controversy, with a possible foul on Konstantinos Mavropanos overlooked.

West Ham’s performances suggest a side capable of survival, but the table needs results. There is no longer any room for hard-luck stories.
David Richardson

Stach’s star quality has Leeds nearly safe

Jamie Redknapp called Anton Stach one of the signings of the season in the Sky Sports studio on Friday Night Football. Indeed the midfielder’s modest £18m transfer fee looks better value by the week.

In victory over Burnley, Stach created the most chances (3), had the joint-most touches in the opposition box (5) and took the most shots (5) of any player, having only played 72 minutes after returning from injury.

Ability with both feet, from open play and set-pieces, is what sets him apart. As of Friday, only Bruno Fernandes had created more chances than the German international (61) in the Premier League this season. His command of the middle third is perfectly balanced with the combativeness of captain Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka plays his role smartly too.

That is a midfield structure capable of competing and staying in the top flight. Often, it’s the department that lets the relegation-threatened teams down most desperately. Burnley’s woeful central midfielders were the perfect illustration of that fact at Elland Road.

Another standout display and goal from Stach has Leeds all but safe. Their quest for survival is tantalisingly close. They surely cannot fluff it from here.
Laura Hunter

‘Massive’ win comes at exactly the right time for under-pressure Howe

Saturday’s hard-earned win over in-form Brighton felt big for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United.

The Newcastle head coach had what he described as “challenging conversations” with the club’s Saudi owners on Thursday, with his own future having been a topic of intense debate in recent weeks after a worrying run of nine defeats in 12 Premier League games. That had left the Magpies languishing down in 14th place in the table ahead of kick-off with the high-flying Seagulls.

However, in front of Newcastle’s owners, with chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and co-owner Jamie Reuben in attendance at St James’ Park, the home side impressed in a first half that saw them record a non-penalty expected goals total of 2.14, the eighth highest this season, to lead 2-0 at half-time.

And while the Magpies were made to work hard for the three points in the second half, they held on to end their joint-longest losing run under Howe in the Premier League to move up to 13th in the table and now just three points off Fulham in 10th.

Howe later admitted he would “sleep well” after this “massive” win that, with still three games left, gives Newcastle a chance of squeaking into Europe next season.
Rich Morgan

ANOTHER red card for pulling hair

Even Wolves boss Rob Edwards did not think Dan Ballard meant the hair pull on Tolu Arokodare that saw the Sunderland defender sent off at Molineux. Edwards confirmed that the players were fine with each other afterwards. “It is just the letter of the law.”

Black Cats boss Regis Le Bris might well conclude that the law is an ass. Speaking about the incident in the press conference after the game, Le Bris said: “We understand the rule, Paul Tierney is a great referee, but the execution of the rule is hard.”

He added: “It is really hard to digest because I do not think it was intentional and violent conduct. It was a duel in the air with a tall striker, 1.98 or 1.99 metres, 100 kilos more or less. Ballard is massive as well. You battle in the air 20 times in the game.”

As Le Bris pointed out, “many things can happen” in those situations and recent evidence suggests that to be true. Michael Keane and Lisandro Martinez are among those to be sent off already for such offences – the former also up against Arokodare.

What can Le Bris do to stop this happening again? It was the obvious question to ask. “First of all, we will see who is the striker. If he has long hair, okay, we have a problem now. If they play long, be careful.” But the concern is that it will keep happening.

“When you face a striker with long hair, you will have problems because you cannot defend.” Grappling is part of the game as Fabian Hurzeler seemed to confirm when revealing that Brighton had turned to an MMA fighter for help. Just don’t touch the hair.
Adam Bate

Edwards under growing pressure at Wolves

Rob Edwards admitted last weekend that he understood the question when it was put to him that Wolves could probably do with the season ending now. He could be forgiven for feeling that more than ever after the abuse that he received from fans on Saturday.

The crowd settled for gallows humour for much of the game but there were boos for his substitution of Hugo Bueno and chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ before things turned uglier when he went down the tunnel rather than face the fans at full-time.

Edwards had previously claimed he would applaud all four corners “win, lose or draw” but thought better of it here. “I was frustrated but also I just thought, I’m not going to incite it anymore. I don’t want to make the ground any more angry,” he later explained.

He is probably right and it might help supporters to know that Bueno had not trained fully all week and was being protected. But all this must be a concern at a club where the need for some togetherness is obvious as Wolves seek to alter the trajectory.

When Edwards was appointed, the hope was that even if he could not salvage the season, he could make good use of the preparation time to put Wolves in the best possible position to attack the Championship. Internally, there remains optimism about that.

But if the relationship with the fans is fractured it becomes trickier. Edwards thinks good recruitment will change the mood and help him to hit the ground running in August. But he knows the score. “We’ve got to get off to a good start, that’ll be the important thing.”
Adam Bate