Manchester United beaten, Chelsea slip-up, Liverpool win and Lampard hammers Rooney
Liverpool streaking clear at Premier League summit as title challengers continue to stumble, Kohli fined for barge on teenage opener
Incredibly, the Premier League managed to get 16 of its 20 members playing on the same day. Sure, all the action was staggered across four different kick-off times, but as long as television companies continue to hand over those lovely big cheques, the wish for every game to begin at 3pm will remain pie in the sky.
It would have taken a trouper to sit through all of it overnight in this part of the world, then, especially after the Christmas excess, so let us guide you through everything that unfolded while you were sleeping.
The wrong Portuguese red?
Did Manchester United appoint the wrong Portuguese manager? Ruben Amorim suffered a fourth defeat in seven Premier League matches since joining United from Sporting Lisbon, as his side were sunk 2-0 at Wolves.
For new Wolves boss Vitor Pereira, the victory at Molineux was his second in two matches after replacing the sacked Gary O’Neil. Wolves were given a helping hand by Bruno Fernandes, who received his third red card of the season shortly after half-time.
Matheus Cunha duly scored directly from a corner, the second player to beat United keeper Andre Onana in that fashion in a week, after Son Heung-min for Tottenham Hotspur, and Hwang Hee-chan added a second deep into stoppage time.
Poor old Amorim was the outlier among the Premier League’s contingent of Portuguese bosses. In addition to success for Pereira, Marco Silva led Fulham to a come-from-behind 2-1 victory at Chelsea, and Nottingham Forest’s remarkable season under Nuno Espirito Santo continued with a 1-0 win over Spurs to climb to third. As a footnote, Amorim’s successor at Sporting, Joao Pereira, has been fired after eight games in charge and replaced by Rui Borges.
