The final Premier League gameweek before Christmas appropriately served up some crackers, including a festive feast of goals in North London, where Liverpool ran riot in an exhilarating 6-3 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
The Reds will spend December 25 at the summit of the table thanks to their triumph and Chelsea's 0-0 draw with Everton, and Arsenal have also closed the gap on the Blues thanks to their 5-1 thumping of Crystal Palace.
Nottingham Forest also remain in hot pursuit of Champions League football, beating Brentford 2-0 to end the Bees' unbeaten home record, but champions-in-crisis Manchester City lost again, this time a 2-1 reverse to Aston Villa.
The holders' arch-nemesis Manchester United will not be feeling the Christmas spirit either, having been humiliated 3-0 at home by Bournemouth for the second year running, while Newcastle United went one better, hitting Ipswich Town for four without reply.
Elsewhere, the Vitor Pereira era at Wolverhampton Wanderers commenced with a statement 3-0 win over Leicester City, Southampton held Fulham to a 0-0 draw with new boss Ivan Juric watching on, and West Ham United fought back to hold Brighton & Hove Albion to a 1-1 stalemate.
Here, Sports Mole selects its seasonal Team of the Week for the latest round of Premier League matches.
DEFENCE
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Bournemouth's outfielders may have lapped up the plaudits at Old Trafford on Sunday, but Chelsea-owned goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was just as crucial to the Cherries' second straight 3-0 win at Old Trafford, making seven saves in total and also registering two successful run-outs to snuff out the Red Devils' futile attacks.
Kepa represents one of two brilliant Bournemouth rearguard members in our Christmas TOTW, as teenage defender Dean Huijsen kick-started the Cherries' crushing of Ruben Amorim's men. Heading in a first-half free kick from Ryan Christie, Huijsen recorded the 17th set-piece goal Man United have conceded in the Premier League in 2024 - the Red Devils' highest total in a calendar year - and he also put in six clearances, three blocks and two interceptions to send tongues wagging again.
From Manchester to Merseyside, and another visiting centre-back stood tall at Goodison Park in the shape of Tosin Adarabioyo. Chelsea would not have even taken a point off of Everton had the ex-Fulham man not cleared an Iliman Ndiaye effort off the line, and he recorded a 100% success rate from five ground duels in one of his best Blues displays yet.
Another former Cottager who played alongside Adarabioyo for one season, Nottingham Forest's Ola Aina is thriving in Nuno Espirito Santo's system and drew first blood against Brentford with an incredibly composed finish. Normally so potent at home, Brentford's powers waned thanks in no small part to Aina, who also made six clearances, three interceptions and two tackles in West London.
Aina is excelling on the right for Forest, but he must shift back over to his former left-back slot to accommodate a defender with 100 big chances created since the start of the 2019-20 season. Trent Alexander-Arnold lit the blue-touch paper at Tottenham with a beautiful delivery for Luis Diaz - one of four key passes he made on the day - and he also contributed three tackles and three interceptions to the defensive cause in Sunday's spectacular.
MIDFIELD
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A quick rundown of Mohamed Salah's achievements in Tottenham 3-6 Liverpool: Two goals, two assists, the first Premier League player to register 10 goals and 10 assists in a single season before Christmas, the first Premier League player to register 10 goals and 10 assists in six different seasons, and overtaking Billy Liddell into fourth place in Liverpool's all-time scoring charts. Need we say more?
We certainly could, but Aston Villa wing wizard Morgan Rogers also merits the praise that is about to be heaped onto him. Tormenting the shaky Man City defence all afternoon, the former Middlesbrough man unselfishly teed up Jhon Duran for Villa's opener, before smartly letting the ball run across his body and firing back across goal for the winner. Oh, and he also completed five successful dribbles in the West Midlands; a penny for the thoughts of the City chiefs that sanctioned his exit from the Etihad last year.
Another player that slipped through Man City's grasp in 2023, Declan Rice was not named in the starting lineup for Arsenal's clash with Crystal Palace, but he demonstrated his £105m quality during a short second-half cameo. The Englishman's pass for Gabriel Martinelli may very well have been a shot, but it went down as an assist either way, and he completed a five-star display with a tremendous curler into the far corner.
Tipped to play alongside Rice in Arsenal's midfield next year - unless Man City beat them to the post - Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes was at his creative best at Portman Road. The Brazilian was alert to an Ipswich mistake to set up Alexander Isak, while creating two big chances and completing four of his five long passes; he was unfortunate not to score himself too.
ATTACK
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The aforementioned Alexander Isak scored his second of three goals at Ipswich thanks to Guimaraes's interception; that tap-in may have been a simple strike, but his brilliant volley to open the scoring and nonchalant finish to complete his treble were far from straightforward. The in-form 25-year-old is now one of just two Swedish players to have scored a Premier League hat-trick, joining Arsenal invincible Freddie Ljungberg in that exclusive party.
Current Gunners hotshot Gabriel Jesus would have left Crystal Palace feeling that he should have taken home his own match ball, having squandered one huge chance to replicate his EFL Cup treble against the Eagles. However, with two fine finishes in the first half, the Brazilian finally ended a Premier League goalscoring hoodoo stretching back to January; Jesus is well and truly born again at Christmas.
SPORTS MOLE'S PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM OF THE WEEK
Sports Mole's Premier League Team of the Week (4-4-2): Kepa; Alexander-Arnold, Adarabioyo, Huijsen, Aina; Salah, Rice, Guimaraes, Rogers; Jesus, Isak
Ben Knapton
