Premier League Matchday 35 Rundown

Three matchdays remain this season with a smattering of catch-up games in between, and there is still a lot to fight for in the Premier League. Liverpool and Manchester City stayed perfect in their bids for the title, Arsenal and Tottenham kept their Champions League hopes alive, and Everton boosted their chances of survival.

The end of the Premier League season is in sight, but things are still up in the air. Only one team's fate has been decided, with Norwich destined for Championship football once again next season. But everything else is still open.

The fight for Champions League football is starting to look clearer, but the places are still available.

Liverpool are doing what they need to do in order to get ahead of Manchester City, but City are also doing what they need to do to stay ahead.

Matchday 35 was interesting in the way of how some results fell. Let's take a further look at the weekend.

 

Note - This article was written before the Manchester United vs Brentford game on Monday 2nd May. All stats reflect its absence.

 

24 Goals

No drab 0-0 draws this weekend. Every game had at least one goal, with only two featuring just the one in the contest. 

The most goals in a game this week was four, which happened in two matches; Manchester City won 4-0 over Leeds, and Tottenham beat Leicester 3-1.

The weekend had a 2.67 goal per game rate, which seems to be around the average for each weekends goal per game rate.

 

22.5 xG

It's always a sign of a good weekend when the xG is beaten. A difference of +1.5 goals on the xG shows the teams were performing better than thought.

Nine teams overachieved their xG in their game, while only three underachieved.

Most notable, Liverpool had a 2.3 xG rate but only scored one, Chelsea had a 1.2 xG but failed to score, while Arsenal were expected 0.9 and scored two.

Tottenham had the biggest goal to xG difference, scoring three goals from a 1.5 xG rate, so a difference of +1.5.

 

Possession: Chelsea, 78%

We won't touch too much on this game as it will feature later, but like Liverpool last weekend who had 83% possession, Chelsea dominated Everton on possession. 

Chelsea holds a season average of 61.8% possession, which is the third best in the league, so to beat their opponent for possession is no surprise.

Too bad they didn't make it count.

 

Saves: Martin Dubravka (Newcastle), 90%

Newcastle put up a strong fight against Liverpool, defending strong to hold Liverpool to just the one goal.

Liverpool used Newcastle as shooting practice, taking 24 shots in total and hit the target 11 times, giving them a 46% shots on target accuracy rate.

But Martin Dubravka was in brilliant form between the sticks for Newcastle. He managed to keep out 10 of those 11 shots to give Newcastle hope and keep the Reds worried throughout the match.

No keeper faced more shots this weekend than the Newcastle man. And with a lot of focus on Newcastle looking to bolster their squad again in the summer, Dubravka put in a performance that'll be used as a message to the board that he should be considered as a solid option going forward.

 

Best team performance: Manchester City

With Liverpool breathing down their neck, Manchester City must stay perfect till the end of the season if they want to come away as Premier League champions once again. They haven't lost in the league since Tottenham beat them 3-2 in February.

Leeds aren't easy customers, despite them not performing as well as last season this year. They still had a 1.2 xG in this game, so they City a good go.

But the Citizens were too strong. They got a goal early and never looked back, overachieving their xG rate by +1.3 goals, scoring four goals on 2.7 xG.

They had a fairly slender lead with possession by their standards with 59%. For comparison, they have a season average of 68.1% possession.

City also had a respectable 32% shots on target accuracy rate, taking 19 shots and hitting the target six times.

Passing for them was strong, too. They made 566 of their 649 attempted passes for an 87% pass accuracy rate. Like with their possession, they were just off of their season average, as this year they have averaged 88.1% pass accuracy.

 

Best player performance: Son Heung-min (2 goals, 1 assist)

Phil Foden was almost the choice here, getting himself a hat-trick of assists. But the award this weekend goes to Son Heung-min, who had a hand in all three of Tottenham's goals as they beat Leicester 3-1.

Son bagged his 18th and 19th goals of the season, which leaves him just three goals behind Mo Salah for most in the league.

Another assist to Harry Kane as well means the pair take their total to 41 goals together.

Performances like that are key for Spurs in their bid for a Champions League spot.

 

Surprise result: Everton 1-0 Chelsea

Chelsea have had a mixed run of form throughout April, which has brought their third place into the fight for Champions League football behind them. With Everton struggling this year, they should have capitalised on what should have been a far inferior opponent.

Instead, the Toffees caught them out on the restart after half-time and managed to hold on for the victory.

It wasn't like Chelsea played bad - they still dominated the stats sheets. As mentioned earlier, they had 77% possession and with it, they posted an 87% pass accuracy rate, making 663 of their 761 attempted passes.

They also had 17 shots, but only hit the target five times for a 29% shots on target accuracy rate.

For Everton, they did not pass so well. With so much of the possession going Chelsea's way, they only attempted 229 passes, making just 144 of them for a 63% pass accuracy rate.

Shooting was much better for them, though. They proved once again that it's not about the amount you take but the ones that make the keeper work that matters. Nine shots in total, four hitting the target and of course, one making its way past Edouard Mendy gave Everton the win and some much needed hope in their fight for survival.