Mikel Arteta has slammed Arsenal for being ‘nowhere near the levels’ required to win the Premier League following his side’s 1-0 loss to West Ham.
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Meanwhile troubled Manchester United rallied from two goals down in a 2-2 draw at Everton.
Jarrod Bowen’s strike just before half-time at the Emirates proved to be the difference as the Gunners dropped to their third defeat of the season with their 15-game unbeaten streak coming to an end.
A red card to Myles Lewis-Skelly in the 73rd minute did little to help Arsenal’s cause as they missed out on the chance to cut Liverpool’s lead at the top to five points.
And Arteta was left bitterly frustrated as Arsenal created next to nothing as they lost at home to the Hammers for the second successive season.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, he said: “Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well.
“We didn’t hit the levels of today and I am very much responsible of that so I am very, very angry.” Arteta also refused to use the lack of attackers at his disposal as an excuse for his side’s toothless display up front.
Mikel Merino, a central midfielder, was named up top for the Gunners with Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri on the flanks.
In total, Arsenal took 20 shots, but just two of those landed on target. Yet Arteta bemoaned a lack of quality from his entire squad as the primary reason for the defeat.
“I refuse that completely because I am talking about the standards of the players and the team that we played today, me included,” he remarked.
“That was nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win a Premier League.
Arsenal’s Declan Rice is substituted by manager Mikel Arteta during the Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium, London. Picture date: Saturday February 22, 2025. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS
Match Stats “We were very consistent, yes, but football is about what you do today and today, nowhere near.” The loss to West Ham now leaves the Gunners’ title hopes hanging by the thinnest of threads.
With Liverpool drawing to Everton and Aston Villa recently, Arsenal had the chance to keep the pressure on Arne Slot‘s men.
But the loss to West Ham leaves the margin at eight points with 12 games remaining ahead of Liverpool’s clash away at Manchester City on Sunday.
“I think you have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played,” Arteta added.
“But as well I think a lot from our side that we never got right and they didn’t allow us to get enough momentum, enough sequence of play with positive action that could deliver into situations of threat for them.” Arteta and his troops must now quickly switch focus to Wednesday’s trip to high-flying Nottingham Forest.
He will also be without Lewis-Skelly as one of his defensive options. The teenager brought down Mohamed Kudus as the Ghanaian looked to break towards goal with no defensive cover nearby.
It was initially given a yellow card, but following a VAR review, it was upgraded to a straight red.
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Lewis-Skelly’s sending off was his second in his last four league fixtures, with the other coming in a 1-0 win over Wolves.However, it was later overturned upon appeal.
At Goodison Park, United were headed for a ninth defeat in their last 13 league games as goals from Beto and Abdoulaye Doucoure put Everton two up inside 33 minutes.
Ruben Amorim’s team had not mustered a shot on target until Fernandes’ free-kick pulled a goal back 18 minutes from time before Manuel Ugarte’s equaliser salvaged a point.
More late drama was to come as Everton were awarded a penalty deep into stoppage-time, only for referee Andy Madley to overturn his decision after a VAR review.
“We just played one half and we managed to draw the game. We didn’t exist in the first half,” Amorim said after his 15th-placed side’s dismal run extended to just four wins in 15 league games.
Brennan Johnson put Tottenham ahead in the 18th minute with a tap-in from Son Heung-min’s cutback.
Johnson was on target again eight minutes later, netting with a clinical strike from another Son assist.
Omari Hutchinson pulled one back for Ipswich in the 36th minute. But Djed Spence’s deflected 77th minute shot and Dejan Kulusevski’s 84th minute finish wrapped up Tottenham’s second successive victory.
Wolves boosted their survival bid with a priceless 1-0 win at 10-man Bournemouth.
Bournemouth had Illia Zabarnyi sent off late in the first half when his foul by Rayan Ait-Nouri was upgraded from a yellow to red card after VAR intervened.
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Wolves took advantage in the 36th minute as Nelson Semedo’s cross was missed by Dean Huijsen and Matheus Cunha steered his shot past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Vitor Pereira’s team are now five points clear of the relegation zone as fifth-placed Bournemouth’s top four hopes suffered a setback.
Joachim Andersen’s own goal put his former club Crystal Palace on course for a 2-0 win at Fulham.
Daniel Munoz’s 66th minute blast wrapped up Palace’s latest success on the road. Southampton slipped closer to relegation after a 4-0 defeat against south-coast rivals Brighton at St Mary’s.
Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood’s 82nd minute effort condemned bottom of the table Southampton to a 21st defeat in 26 league games this season.
Southampton are 13 points from safety with 12 games left to avoid an immediate return to the Championship.
Chelsea travel to Aston Villa looking to bolster their top four push in Saturday’s late game.
Liverpool will take on Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of this season’s Champions League while the draw also threw up a showdown between reigning champions Real Madrid and their city rivals Atletico.
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Arne Slot’s Liverpool finished first in the 36-team league phase of the competition to qualify directly for this stage, while PSG finished 15th and had to come through a two-legged play-off tie in which they crushed fellow French side Brest 10-0 on aggregate.
The first leg will take place at the Parc des Princes in Paris on Wednesday, March 5, with the return at Anfield six days later, on Tuesday, March 11.
The clubs last met in the Champions League in the group stage in 2018/19, when PSG won 2-1 at home after Liverpool triumphed 3-2 in England.
The only previous knockout tie between the sides came in the semi-finals of the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, when PSG won 3-2 on aggregate before losing the final to Barcelona.
Liverpool are currently eight points clear of Arsenal at the top of the English Premier League having played a game more than their closest rivals, while Luis Enrique’s PSG are unbeaten in Ligue 1 this season and sit 10 points clear at the summit.
With the draw being made up to and including the semi-finals, PSG and Liverpool know the winner of their tie will face either Club Brugge or Aston Villa in the last eight.
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That raises the possibility of an all-English quarter-final between the teams who succeeded each other as European Cup winners in the early 1980s.
Villa will face Club Brugge seeking revenge for their 1-0 defeat against the same opponents in Belgium in the league phase in November.
Real, fresh from eliminating Manchester City in the play-offs, will be at home in the first leg against Atletico on March 4.
The rivals from the Spanish capital met in the competition in four straight seasons in the last decade, with Real coming out on top every time.
They won the finals of 2014 and 2016, as well as in the quarter-finals in 2015 and in the semi-finals in 2017.
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“It’s an amazing tie, and we are ready for it,” insisted Atletico coach Diego Simeone, who was in charge for all of the past Champions League meetings between the sides.
“We have to play two magnificent games because of the quality of our opponents, but we have full confidence in our players and their ability to overcome all difficulties,” said Emilio Butragueno, the former Real player who is now the club’s director of institutional relations.
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The winners of that tie will progress to a last-eight clash against either PSV Eindhoven or Arsenal.
The Gunners, who came third in the league phase, will be coming up against a club they faced in the group stage of last season’s Champions League — Mikel Arteta’s team won 4-0 at home before drawing 1-1 in the Netherlands.
“We’ve played against them, they are a really good team. We have experienced it and it will be really difficult,” Arteta said of the reigning Dutch champions.
“We know what we are facing. When you are at this stage every team is really, really good. When the time comes we will be ready for it.”
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Another standout tie will see Bayern Munich, the current Bundesliga leaders, take on reigning German champions Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen, coached by former Bayern midfielder Xabi Alonso, are unbeaten in the last six meetings of the clubs, including a 1-0 win in the German Cup earlier this season. The teams have never previously met in a European tie.
Feyenoord, the 1970 European Cup winners, will play Italian champions Inter Milan, their reward for knocking out AC Milan in the play-offs. The winners of that tie will face Bayern or Leverkusen in the last eight.
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It is the first time two Dutch clubs have been in the last 16 since 2005/06. Current La Liga leaders Barcelona will face Benfica, who they defeated 5-4 away in Lisbon last month on their way to finishing second in the league phase.
Last season’s beaten finalists Borussia Dortmund will take on French side Lille. The semi-final draw raises the possibility of last-four showdowns between Liverpool and Arsenal, or between Kylian Mbappe’s Real Madrid and his old club PSG.
Barcelona are on the same side of the draw as Bayern and Leverkusen. This season’s final takes place in Munich on May 31.
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou wants his side to build on back-to-back Premier League wins as Spurs’ injury crisis begins to ease.
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Victories over Brentford and Manchester United have lifted Postecoglou’s men to 12th in the table and eased any fears of being drawn into a relegation battle.
Prior to that, Spurs had won just once in 11 league games to tumble down the table as injuries piled up.
Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and match-winner James Maddison returned to the starting line-up against United last weekend, while Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert and Destiny Udogie made the bench.
Centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero could return in time to face AZ Alkmaar in the last 16 of the Europa League next month.
Before then Postecoglou is keen to make more inroads into improving Spurs’ league position in games against Ipswich on Sunday before Manchester City visit north London on Thursday.
“Obviously our last two Premier League games, Brentford away and Man United at home, have been two important results for us to kind of try and arrest the form in the league,” Postecoglou told reporters. “But you need to keep backing that up.
“Tomorrow’s an opportunity to do that. It’s not easy when you’re playing away from home and in the Premier League, especially against a team that’s fighting like Ipswich are.
“But it is an opportunity for us now to get another strong performance, get another positive result, and like I said, hopefully provide a bit of a foundation for us to kick on.”
The former Australia boss hinted that the likes of Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski could be rested for the trip to Portman Road after being loaded with a heavy burden during Tottenham’s injury crisis in recent months.
“Once Europe kicks in, we know we’ve got to play midweek and weekend again, so we want to make sure we’ve got enough in the tank and we don’t want to lose any players during this period either,” added Postecoglou.
“Pedro, Kulusevski, these kind of guys, we’ve got an opportunity with the players we’ve got back to still maintain good levels of performance, but also give them a little bit of a rest.”
Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth battling the powerhouses for a Champions League place. No one predicted that.
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There is only a third of the Premier League season remaining and the race for the top four has arguably never been more intriguing.
Liverpool appears set to have one hand on the title, eight points clear of second-placed Arsenal, who have a game in hand, but the next rung down is where things get fascinating.
Nottingham Forest third, Manchester City fourth and Bournemouth fifth.
The latter jumped into the top five after Forest, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Newcastle all dropped points last weekend.
Forest have won 14, drawn five and lost six, while Bournemouth have won 12, drawn seven and lost six.
It reads like a Forest or Cherries fan plugging away on Football Manager for hours to get their team to dizzying heights, but supporters in England’s midlands and on the south coast better stop pinching themselves.
They are not dreaming. This is real.
The struggles of regular top six clubs Manchester United and Tottenham, along with Champions League Round of 16 bound Villa slipping in the league, presented opportunities, and Forest and Bournemouth have snatched them with both hands.
The Forest story is famous.
A powerhouse decades ago with back-to-back European Cup victories in 1979 and 1980 under legendary manager Brian Clough.
A year before their first continental breakthrough, Forest won the English top flight and they were runners-up the season after.
But following relegation from the Premier League in 1999, they fell into the football abyss.
Forest did not return to the Premier League until 2022 and barely avoided relegation by finishing 16th and 17th in their first two seasons back in the top tier.
Bournemouth were promoted from the Championship in the same season as Forest and initially found themselves in the bottom half of the table too.
A 12th place finish last season was preceded by coming 15th in their prior campaign.
Unlike Forest, however, Bournemouth is not a club with a rich pedigree.
Its first season in the Premier League came under now Newcastle boss Eddie Howe in 2015/16 and a ninth-place finish in their second season was the club’s best result in the top flight.
Years of mediocrity did not show too many hints of a breakout campaign in Bournemouth’s case, nor a stunning revival in Forest’s case.
But the dream of Champions League nights at the City Ground or the Vitality Stadium is alive and well, and this how they have put themselves in the hunt for midweek action against the best clubs in Europe.
Here is how they did it.
FOREST’S KIWI FRONTMAN
Like Forest’s, Chris Wood’s story is a fairytale.
The 33-year-old captain of the New Zealand national team has remarkably played for 12 different clubs in England.
He even went through a three-year period where he was sent out on loan six times by West Bromwich Albion.
Wood bounced around the various tiers of English football after moving to the UK as a 16-year-old to chase his dreams, and now the Forest talisman is a bonified star.
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND – AUGUST 17: Chris Wood of Nottingham Forest celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Premier League match between Nottingham Forest FC and AFC Bournemouth at City Ground on August 17, 2024 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The six-foot three striker is third in the golden boot race.
He has netted 18 goals so far this campaign, highlighted by a hat-trick in Forest’s 7-0 rout of Brighton earlier this month, to only sit behind Mohamed Salah (24) and Erling Haaland (19).
It is his best Premier League season, and he still has 13 more opportunities to add to his tally.
“When they talk about Mo Salah and Erling Haaland – they mention Chris Wood in the same breath – you can’t compete with that,” Wood’s high school coach former New Zealand international Mike Groom told Sky Sports.
“It’s theatrical, it’s magical, it’s the stuff of dreams and kids’ dreams are fuelled by those images and that exposure.
“We’re still a rugby-playing country, but Chris is single-handedly beginning to change that.”
Wood’s height automatically makes him an aerial threat as a target man, he has scored six headed goals this season, the most in the league, but his finishing is still underrated.
In fact, it is lethal.
Wood has had 28 shots on target for the season, and scoring 18 of them makes him the most effective of any of the Premier League’s top strikers in front of goal.
New Zealand’s record goal scorer, who is also nearing the record for most appearances for his country, has also endeared himself to football fans because he is not blessed with all the attributes of the likes of Salah and Haaland.
The biggest difference is pace.
Wood is not a quick player, and the fact he lacks speed seemingly contradicts the fact that Forest prefers to play counterattacking football.
But he makes it work by timing his runs perfectly and seizing big moments.
In some ways, it makes little sense but so has his entire football journey.
“It’s definitely exceeded what I dreamt of when I was a kid and hopefully, I’ve got a lot more I can achieve to make it an even better dream,” Wood told Sky Sports.
“I want to keep the path open for New Zealanders to hopefully make it into the Premier League one day – I want to grow that generation of new kids wanting to play football and wanting to dream of doing the best they can and ending up in the biggest league.”
BOURNEMOUTH CREATE CHAOS
Bournemouth’s blueprint in attack is not dissimilar to Forest’s.
The two sides are comfortably the Premier League leaders for playing fast and direct football.
They sit back and defend resolutely, and when they win the ball back, they are off to the races.
Once the ball is in their attacking half, they press high and try to force turnovers in dangerous areas.
It makes for exciting games to watch, and Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola has been heaped with praise this season for his tactics.
“I sometimes value much more a player carrying the ball and forcing things to happen,” Iraola said in an interview with The Independent.
“We have to prepare [positional] patterns, but we cannot just prioritise them. If you can see that you don’t have a teammate ahead, forget about the pattern, just drive the ball and try to force things to happen. I want him to attack first.”
Meanwhile premierleague.com’s Alex Keble summed up the essence of their play as “disruption”.
“High risk, high reward: that’s the mentality of Iraola and his team, whether in hounding the ball with an all-action and full-pitch press or piercing opposition lines with sharp vertical football and attacking overloads,” Keble said.
“Perhaps the best word to encapsulate their tactical approach is “disruption”.
“Disrupt the other team’s play with furious pressing, and disrupt the expected rhythms of your own attack with improvisations and surges forward in high numbers.”
That philosophy has brought out the best in Justin Kluivert, who has scored 11 goals so far this campaign, four more than last season.
The Dutchman has really found his groove in the Premier League in recent times.
He was player of the month in January for scoring five goals and recording two assists in four appearances, of which Bournemouth won three and drew one.
The highlight of his season so far was a hat-trick, and an assist, in a 4-1 away win against Newcastle who were previously unbeaten in nine matches before that January fixture.
BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND – JANUARY 25: Justin Kluivert of Bournemouth celebrates after scoring to make it 1-0 during the Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest FC at Vitality Stadium on January 25, 2025 in Bournemouth, England. (Photo by Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
That victory was followed up by a 5-0 victory against Forest, where Kluivert contributed a goal and an assist to help end Forest’s eight-game unbeaten run.
Knocking off several in-form teams led to Iraola taking home manager of the month, and David Brooks’ stunning volley against Everton made it a clean sweep of the awards by winning goal of the month.
All of that came amid a length injury list, including strikers Evanilson and Enes Unal.
But Kluivert’s breakout combined with the superb form of fellow attackers Dango Ouattara and Antoine Semenyo, who have scored seven goals apiece this season, has prevented injuries from being an excuse.
No matter who is on the sidelines, once Bournemouth wins the ball back there are simply too many runners for opponents to attack.
Remarkably, one would expect such a style of play to make them vulnerable at the back.
But Iraola’s side do not play a high line, and they have the equal-third best defensive record in the league, alongside Forest, conceding 29 goals so far. Only Arsenal and Liverpool have been stingier at the back.
They key has been the centre back pairing of Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi, a combination Iraola landed on during the season.
In the 13 games they have started together, Bournemouth have lost once, to Liverpool.
Zabaryni is the rock that has played every minute this season, while 19-year-old Huijsen has been a revelation.
“Huijsen is undoubtedly the star of the two,” Keble wrote.
“Signed from Juventus for around £15 million last summer, his strength in the air, composure in possession, and – crucially – assertive front-foot style have catapulted Bournemouth to new heights.”
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 08: Dean Huijsen of Bournemouth looks on during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Everton and AFC Bournemouth at Goodison Park on February 08, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
FOREST’S ELITE DEFENCE
ESPN’s Bruce Schoenfeld summed up Forest’s defensive brilliance in writing that manager Nuno Espirito Santo’s “football has hardly changed even though instead of a relegation battle, he has European qualification in his sights”.
Forest defends like their life depends on it.
They have comfortably made more clearances than any other team, including the equal most amount of clearances off the line.
They are level with Liverpool for the most number of clean sheets with ten.
Goalkeeper Matz Sels has punched away the aerial more than anyone else.
They are desperate.
And they are bringing an enormous amount of pride to the club’s greats.
“I haven’t watched a better pairing at the back than Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic in my 50 years of watching Forest,” former England and Forest midfielder Steve Hodge said on BBC Radio last month.
“I really mean that – pound for pound what they are as footballers and as a pair,” he added. “They have everything. As a pair, they complement each other perfectly and they both seem to be calm characters even under severe pressure.”
Nikola Milenkovic of Nottingham Forest celebrates victory during the Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion at the City Ground in Nottingham, England, on February 1, 2025. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Milenkovic joined from Fiorentina last summer and the 31-year-old Serbian is in many pundits’ team of the season so far.
He is an old-fashioned, no-nonsense centre back whose heading ability has led to him scoring two goals as well as clearing many attacking threats.
But in the coming games, Forest face arguably the biggest defensive test of the season.
Away at Newcastle, home to Arsenal and home to Manchester City are their next three league games.
They passed with flying colours earlier in the season, defeating Liverpool at Anfield and taking a point from them at home.
That shows that there is little to doubt that Forest’s steeliness will remain.
BOURNEMOUTH’S EXCELLENT ROAD RECORD
A major part of Bournemouth’s success has been their impressive away record.
The Cherries have won six, drawn four and lost three of their matches on the road this season, including going unbeaten in their last seven away games.
That streak has included a pair of 2-2 draws against rivals for the European places Chelsea and Fulham, as well as the Newcastle win mentioned earlier.
Their most recent away win was a 3-1 win against cellar dwellers Southampton in a south coast derby, and post-match Iraola identified fast starts as the reason for their away success.
“I think it’s key, especially when you play away,” he said.
“I think we are having good starts. I remember last games, Newcastle away, Everton the other day.
“Even the two goals in 16 minutes, but in the first minute I think we had two corners for us.
“It’s a good start and a message that we are coming here and we want to win this game and we are not happy with the 0-0 and we want things to happen quickly.
“Also, I think they are a team that now is aggressive in the press. I think there were spaces behind them. There were spaces behind us.
“The game could go very open and I’m happy, especially first half, I think we controlled the game very well.”
Their ability to get results on the road will be severely tested later in the season as they visit Arsenal and Manchester City in the final four games of their campaign.
