With the 2 top sides battling out in the League Cup final this weekend, the attention in week 31 of the Premier League turned to the European and relegation battles. With Manchester United dropping points on Friday night, Chelsea and Liverpool both failed to capitalise, while at the bottom, West Ham and Tottenham both suffered defeats which leaves them as the unfortunate 2 at serious risk of being the 3rd team inside the drop zone at the culmination of this season.

As always, in this post we will be picking out 3 of the biggest talking points of the weekend, along with giving out the game of the week and player of the week awards. If we’ve missed something in this post that you saw over the weekend please do get in touch with us on all the usual places (Bluesky @NextGoalWinner – Instagram @NextGoalWin), and if you prefer an audio round up of the action then do check out our YouTube channel (@NextGoalWinner) where we post weekly reviews on there of all the key talking points in the Premier League and around Europe.

Derby Victory

There are derby wins, and then there are derby wins that seem to alter the emotional temperature of an entire region. Sunderland’s 2-1 victory away to Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Sunday belonged firmly in the second category. It was dramatic, it was late, and it carried real substance in the table as well as the stands. Brian Brobbey’s 90th-minute winner completed a comeback after Anthony Gordon had put Newcastle ahead early, and by full-time Sunderland had moved above their rivals into 11th place on 43 points, one ahead of Newcastle. That alone would have made it one of the stories of the weekend. In a derby, though, the meaning always travels beyond the arithmetic.

What made the result so striking was the way the game swung. Newcastle started like the home side desperate to impose themselves, and Gordon’s 10th-minute goal seemed to set the tone. Yet Sunderland grew into the contest, found more composure after the interval, and were rewarded when Chemsdine Talbi equalised in the 57th minute. From there, the match took on that familiar derby feel, tense, ragged, emotional, forever one mistake or one big moment away from flipping. Newcastle thought they had found a way back in front only for a goal to be ruled out for offside, and when Gordon then passed up further chances, the sense grew that Sunderland might yet seize the day. Brobbey did exactly that, striking at the very end to send the away end wild and leave Newcastle stunned.

The wider significance was just as important. Reuters reported that this defeat made Eddie Howe the first Newcastle manager to lose his first two derbies against Sunderland, which gives the result historical weight as well as immediate pain. It also came in the context of growing frustration around Newcastle’s form, with Howe himself lamenting a poor second-half display and too many turnovers. Sunderland, by contrast, suddenly look like a side with momentum, belief and a genuine sense of progress under Régis Le Bris. Winning a derby is one thing, doing it in a way that lifts you above your biggest rivals in the table makes it feel like a statement about direction as much as desire.

It is also important to note that the game was overshadowed by an allegation of discriminatory abuse directed at Sunderland defender Lutsharel Geertruida, an incident the Premier League said it was investigating. Newcastle also said they would cooperate and reiterated a zero-tolerance stance on discrimination. That inevitably became part of the post-match conversation and prevented the occasion from being remembered purely in footballing terms. So the biggest talking point here was not only Sunderland’s comeback or Newcastle’s collapse under pressure, but the sense that this derby became one of those weekends where football, emotion, rivalry and responsibility all collided at once.

You Better Start Believing In Relegation Battles

For months, Tottenham’s season has had the feel of a club insisting the danger is temporary, the quality too strong, the correction always just around the corner. But their 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest on Sunday stripped away much of that comfort. This was not a narrow loss to one of the division’s elite, nor an unfortunate afternoon disguised by bad luck. It was a direct meeting between teams in trouble, and Forest handled it far better. The result moved Forest up to 16th on 32 points, two ahead of Spurs, who dropped to 17th and finished the weekend only one point above 18th-placed West Ham. By that stage, the conversation had plainly changed: Tottenham were no longer flirting with danger; they were in it.

The scoreline also told an uncomfortable truth about the contest itself. Reuters reported that Richarlison missed an early chance when Spurs began brightly, but once Forest settled, they looked increasingly capable of punishing the home side’s fragility. Igor Jesus opened the scoring just before halftime, Morgan Gibbs-White added the second in the 62nd minute, and Taiwo Awoniyi sealed the win late on. It was the kind of defeat that starts with anxiety in the stands and ends with resignation. Fans booed, many left early, and the sense of a team buckling under the weight of its circumstances became impossible to ignore. Forest, meanwhile, looked sharper, clearer and more emotionally prepared for the occasion.

That pressure was acknowledged openly afterwards. With Igor Tudor absent because of a family bereavement, assistant coach Bruno Saltor admitted Spurs had struggled with the “weight” of the match. That is a revealing phrase because it speaks to something deeper than tactics. Relegation battles are rarely just technical problems; they are psychological tests, and Tottenham looked like a side feeling every ounce of the jeopardy. Reuters noted that Spurs have now gone 13 league matches without a win, a run that turns concern into genuine alarm, especially for a club whose identity is built around aiming upward rather than peering anxiously over its shoulder.

What makes this such a major talking point is not only the defeat itself but what it says about the final weeks to come. Cristian Romero described the remaining fixtures as “seven finals,” which may sound familiar footballer language, but in this case it fits. Tottenham’s margin is tiny, their confidence is brittle, and their home form has offered little reassurance. Forest’s victory was their first league win under Vitor Pereira, and it came at exactly the moment when survival races start to turn on nerve and conviction. Spurs still have enough time to recover, but after this loss, the idea of Tottenham being dragged into a full-blown relegation fight no longer felt dramatic or exaggerated. It felt like the plainest reading of the table.

European Race

One of the most compelling themes of the weekend was how much the race for Europe shifted in just a couple of days. On Saturday, Liverpool lost 2-1 at Brighton, and Chelsea were beaten 3-0 by Everton. On Sunday, Aston Villa defeated West Ham 2-0. Taken together, those results gave the table a different shape and changed the emotional tone around several clubs chasing Champions League or European qualification. Liverpool stayed fifth on 49 points, Chelsea remained sixth, Everton climbed to seventh on 46 points, and Villa strengthened their position in the Champions League conversation. It was the sort of round that did not settle anything, but absolutely sharpened everything.

Liverpool’s defeat at Brighton felt especially damaging because it continued a run that is starting to look more than a blip. Reuters reported that Danny Welbeck scored both goals in a 2-1 win, taking his league tally to 12 for the season, a personal best. Liverpool had levelled through Milos Kerkez after a mistake by Lewis Dunk, but they never really established control and were hindered by circumstances too: Hugo Ekitike went off injured early, while Mohamed Salah and Alisson were absent. The result left Arne Slot’s side winless in three league games and dealing with the growing pressure of a top-four chase in which dropped points now feel especially costly. Brighton, meanwhile, kept their own European hopes alive and reminded everyone how disruptive they can be at this stage of a season.

Chelsea’s setback may have been even more jarring in terms of optics. Losing 3-0 at Everton is one thing; losing that heavily while chasing Europe and trying to steady the mood after a difficult run is another. Reuters reported that Beto scored twice and Iliman Ndiaye added the third in what was Everton’s biggest win over Chelsea since 1987. James Garner, fresh from an England call-up, was central to the performance, and Everton suddenly look like a side with momentum and a realistic chance of gatecrashing the European places. For Chelsea, though, the concerns were glaring. Manager Liam Rosenior pointed to “cheap goals,” and the defeat stretched the club’s losing run to four matches in all competitions. At this point in the season, that kind of slide can quickly reframe a campaign.

Then there was Aston Villa, who had the feel of one of the weekend’s cleanest winners. Their 2-0 victory over West Ham, secured by goals from John McGinn and Ollie Watkins, pushed them closer to Champions League qualification and gave them another example of the clarity and control Unai Emery has built. Watkins’ goal carried a neat side-story too, coming after his omission from England’s latest squad. Villa did what good top-four contenders tend to do in March: they beat the team they were supposed to beat, kept the mood calm, and let rivals damage themselves elsewhere. That is why the real talking point from this cluster of results was not simply that Liverpool and Chelsea lost, but that the entire European picture now looks more volatile, with Villa strengthening, Everton surging, and very little margin for error left for the traditional heavyweights trying to force their way back in.

Game of the week: Tottenham Hotspur 0-3 Nottingham Forest With the League Cup build-up in the background, the league action headed into the international break in dramatic fashion, with Tottenham being dismantled by relegation rivals Forest. This result has only been saved by the West Ham defeat, however the narrative of Spurs being back to a decent level after their European result has just been thrown away, as the club surely need to make another managerial change in this break.

Player of the week: Beto Although Beto is one of the most patchy strikers at best, his showing against Chelsea really laid down a marker that Everton are in a European battle here, and could even find themselves in a Champions League race, especially if Villa do them a favour in the Europa League. For Chelsea the performance was another huge red flag against Rosenior, but Beto’s brace and assist sends him and Everton into the break full of confidence.