by Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table, while Tottenham manager Antonio Conte launched a tirade after his team’s 3-3 draw at Southampton.
The race to avoid relegation threw up more twists and turns as Leeds beat Wolves while Everton and Leicester picked up valuable points.
Here, the PA News Agency takes a look at five things we learned from this weekend’s action.
Will Conte’s criticism have consequences?
Under pressure, Tottenham manager Antonio Conte launched an extraordinary tirade that may have consequences after his team blew a 3-1 lead against Southampton, meaning they missed a chance to go third in the table.
Goals from Pedro Porro, Harry Kane and Ivan Perisic made it look like Spurs were poised to move into the Champions League places, but bottom-table Southampton fought back with a goal from Theo Walcott and James Ward. -Prowse. a point.
Conte then conducted a furious post-match interview, saying: “If we are going to discuss the penalty, it means we don’t want to see the other situations. I think it is much better to get into the problem because the problem is that, once again, we show that we are not a team.
“We are 11 players who enter the field. I see selfish players, I see players who don’t want to help themselves and don’t put their hearts into it.
“Why? Because they are used to here, they are used to it. They don’t play for something important, yes. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.
“It’s easy this way. The story of Tottenham is this. Twenty years there is the owner and they never won anything but why? It’s only the club’s fault, or each coach who stays here. I have seen the coaches that Tottenham had on the bench”.
Can Arsenal be stopped?
Arsenal bounced back from their Europa League disappointment to continue their league dominance after beating Crystal Palace 4-1 without a manager on Sunday.
Bukayo Saka again played a key role for the Gunners, who extended their lead at the top of the table to eight points; they have now recorded six straight league wins before the international break.
Brooks’ return encourages the cherries
The weekend’s top-flight action saw a welcome return from Bournemouth midfielder David Brooks, who came on in the 79th minute during a 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa.
It was the midfielder’s first appearance since he was diagnosed with cancer in October 2021 and cheers for Brooks rang out at Villa Park.
“Going back on the pitch and trying to help out and feel involved was a nice feeling,” the Wales international told Bournemouth’s official website.
“The game didn’t really go as planned in terms of when I came in, what I wanted to do and help the team achieve, but yeah, it was a good time to get back into the game.”
The problems with the referees of the Wolves continue
Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui was once again frustrated by refereeing decisions after the 4-2 loss to Leeds.
Rodrigo concluded the game with an injury time goal which saw unused substitute Matheus Nunes sent off and Wolves were angry that the goal stood after Adama Traore was fouled in the build up.
“I can do a book (on bad decisions): Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Southampton, today. Sometimes you can understand mistakes, they are part of football, but repeating the same mistake against us is not easy,” Lopetegui said.
“I don’t want an explanation, I’m not expecting one. In the last game (against Newcastle) it was the same, again today.
“I want to have fair decisions and not have the feeling or the feelings that I was unbalanced. At the end of the season they will normally be balanced but we are very unlucky, we have to be critical of bad things but we didn’t deserve to lose this game.
“We again had a very clear penalty but the referee and the VAR think otherwise.”
Downhill race heats up
The win against Wolves saw Leeds drop out of the bottom three as the fight for survival took another turn.
The valuable three points for Leeds see them rise to 14th, two points above the relegation zone, while Wolves are one place above the Yorkshire outfit.
Everton scored a crucial point after Ellis Simms scored his first goal for the club in a dramatic late equalizer against Chelsea and Harvey Barnes also scored late as Leicester drew 1-1 with Brentford, ending their run of five games without a win in all competitions.
