I'm going to be doing the Premier League highlights differently from now on, I'll link to less individual goals and only post the top ones from each week. They do really good wrap-ups called Premier League Update on YouTube of all the goals and action from each matchday, so I'll post the links to those for each week. I'll also be posting the top saves and passes from each week more and pointing out interesting things of note that happen each week. And I'm going to have a specific section for the highlights of the Manchester United games.
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The Premier League returned on Boxing Day only a week after the World Cup finished. Manchester United played Nottingham Forest the next day, facing them in the Premier League for the first time since 1999, as this is the first year back for Forest since then.
Manchester United vs. Nottingham Forest
Manchester United win 3-0
The link to the full highlights of the game is here:
Here are the links to the Premier League Update videos for this match week. There are three of them, with games on December 26, 27, and 28:
December 26:
December 27:
December 28:
It didn't take long for vicious brutality to come out in the return to the Premier League from the World Cup. A Leicester defender took out a Newcastle defender for a penalty with this brutal tackle only a minute into their game on Boxing Day. You can see how bad it is on the replay:
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace got two red cards in their game against Fulham the same day:
The next day, Thiago Silva the defender for Chelsea went insane all of a sudden and put in a literal cross for the other team Bournemouth, which almost resulted in a penalty:
Chelsea got out of it though and won 2-0. For City against Leeds the next day on the 28th, Kevin De Bruyne was utterly rolling, with at least four wonderful passes:
In that game, Erling Haaland scored 2 more goals to make it 20 goals in his first 15 ever games in the Premier League, completely smashing the record. He's on pace for 50 goals this season, Salah has the record at 32! He would already win the Golden Boot in 5 previous seasons and we're not even halfway through, haha utterly sickening.
Harry Kane has won the Golden Boot 3 times, one of only 3 players to do so along with Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry. The first game back for the Premier League on Boxing Day morning was Brentford vs. Tottenham, and Brentford took a 2-0 lead in the 54th minute. Ten minutes later, Harry Kane scored for Tottenham off this wonderful cross:
Tottenham scored again a few minutes later to come roaring back and equalize it 2-2, and then in the 83rd minute Harry Kane hit the crossbar off another wonderful cross:
So he responded well in his first Premier League action after his penalty miss for England in the World Cup, but he couldn't quite get the dramatic late winner.
Meanwhile, Rashford responded exceptionally well after the World Cup, hitting the ground running and never looking back. After his wonder goal in the League Cup game vs. Burnley, he was electric in the Premier League return match vs. Nottingham Forest. In addition to his really nice goal and sweet assist 3 minutes later, he was looking like his old self all game in the pouring rain, including this beautiful through ball that almost set up a third goal:
Those were some of the top passes this week in the league. Now for the top goals, in no particular order:
Miguel Almiron, 2nd goal for Newcastle vs. Leicester:
Daniel Podence, 1st goal for Wolves vs. Everton:
Solly March, 3rd goal for Brighton vs. Southampton:
Marcus Rashford, 1st goal for Manchester United vs. Nottingham Forest:
Eddie Nketiah, 3rd goal for Arsenal vs. West Ham:
Rayan Ait-Nouri, 2nd goal/late winner for Wolves vs. Everton:
Tim Ream, 2nd goal for Fulham vs. Crystal Palace:
Mohamed Salah, 1st goal for Liverpool vs. Aston Villa:
Stefan Bajcetic, 3rd goal for Liverpool vs. Aston Villa:
Bobby Decordova-Reid, 1st goal for Fulham vs. Crystal Palace:
Anthony Martial, 2nd goal for Manchester United vs. Nottingham Forest:
