The 2022/2023 Premier League season is now into its twelfth game week, and the entertainment continues to be relentless and thoroughly enjoyable.

As a result, we will be breaking down each round of fixtures by picking out 3 of the biggest talking points, covering the biggest results, goals and general talking points from the week. We then will round off by picking our player of the week and game of the week based on what we saw in that round of games.

Let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) if you have seen anything in a game that you think we should be talking about, or have anything to share from what you’ve seen at a game that week. Any funny stories, tactical analysis or general comments will be featured.

Title Decider = Postponed

After the Europa League tie between Arsenal and PSV was postponed earlier this season, the rearranged fixture took place this midweek, putting a halt on the big clash between Arsenal and Manchester City. This game will now be rearranged to take place later in the season, at which point it would well become a title defining match.

Ronaldo’s Early Bath

Manchester United put on one of their finest performances of the season so far, as the whole team showed up and put Tottenham under pressure from the outset. Although they only managed a 2-0 win, this game never seemed in doubt and Ten Hag clearly got his tactics and ideas spot on against a Spurs side who are still so unpredictable. With Fred banging in a goal and Bruno Fernandes getting the second, it was a solid performance and a sign that things at Old Trafford could well be on the up.

Despite this performance and the atmosphere feeling like it had done previously, headlines were stolen by the benched Cristiano Ronaldo, who left the sidelines midway through the second half, and sulked off while his teammates celebrated the win and performance. Whether this decision was frustration to not being included, a reluctance to make a cameo for just a few minutes at the end, or the feeling that not enough attention and eyes were going to be on him, it’s a pathetic response whatever the problem may be. No matter how you feel individually about your inclusion in the squad, every player has to be a part of the team, and should be celebrating with your colleagues who have got the crowd going and things are good, especially at the tail-end of your career, no matter how illustrious. Ronaldo cannot realistically expect to start every game, and if United keep performing like this without him, I expect we may not be seeing Ronaldo on the pitch again at Old Trafford for some time, if at all.

Gerrard Is Done

With the biggest win of this round of fixtures, Fulham put on a dominant display in front of their home crowd, as they dominated a woeful Aston Villa side to win 3-0. With goals for Reed, Mitrovic and a Mings OG, Fulham secured a big win and added to their impressive start. With many (myself included) expecting their yo-yo performances of previous years to continue this season, they have massively exceeded expectations and deserve huge credit for picking up early crucial points this season.

For Aston Villa however, this loss see’s the end of Steven Gerrard’s time in charge, as the humiliating loss only topped off with a red card for Douglas Luiz, means his win % sits at 32.5% in his 40 games at Villa. To put this into perspective, this is 3.21% worse than Gary Neville’s ‘disastrous’ spell at Valencia. What comes next for Gerrard is anyone’s guess, as the credit he earnt at Rangers has been seriously damaged by this time at Villa. Whether her waits around for another Premier League job which may not come easily, drops down a division, or moves to a different league entirely to rebuild his credibility, the early expectations of his progression to the Liverpool job have definitely been hindered by this poor run.

Matchday 12 Player of the Week: Bruno Fernandes As one of Manchester United’s Portuguese stars departed early for unknown reasons, it left the stage free for Fernandes to step up as captain and dominate in a hugely impressive showing from Ten Hag’s side. In a game peppered with chances for the home team, Fernandes put in a huge shift, scoring the second, making 9 chances (1 big chance), having 6 shots and also maintaining a 93% pass accuracy, 90% long ball accuracy, 100% tackle success rate and making 8 recoveries.

Matchday 12 Game of the Week: Manchester United 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur We’ve covered this one already but with the other two league leaders waiting to play out their match, this game shone as a huge matchup between 2 sides capable of putting on a show. Although headlines were stolen by Ronaldo’s antics (just as he would have wanted), fans of Manchester United will surely just be looking at the performance of the players on the pitch as a sign of how far they are improving this season, and also perhaps questioning whether or not they need Ronaldo to return from the changing rooms at all from now.

Let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) what you made of the twelfth round of fixtures, and what you’re looking forward to in the next game week.