EPL Roundup: Aina’s Forest up to second as City snap winless streak

Ola Aina played the entire match as Nottingham Forest secured a decisive 2-0 victory against Everton at Goodison Park.

While Everton had scraped draws against top-tier teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester City, they couldn’t handle Nuno Espírito Santo’s revitalised Nottingham Forest squad.

A phase of head tennis created the first goal. A lightning-fast exchange of headers between Chris Woods and Anthony Elanga left Everton’s defence dazed. With a deft touch, Woods chipped the ball over a helpless Pickford for the opener.

Chris Woods diverted a pass from Morgan Gibbs-White to Anthony Elanga, who returned the favour with his head and allowed Woods to chip the ball over Jordan Pickford in the 15th minute. The second goal arrived as a late Christmas gift from Abdoulaye Doucoure. Elanga pounced on Doucoure’s misplaced pass, setting up a swift counter-attack. A quick one-two with Woods and Gibbs-White was in the clear. The Forest captain danced past Young before coolly lobbing Pickford to seal the victory.

Forest are up to second with 37 points from 19 matches, the best position since the 1987/88 season when they finished third.

City snap winless streak

After 25 days and four league matches without a victory, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City finally reclaimed their winning touch with a commanding 2-0 triumph over Leicester City. Savinho opened his Premier League account with a brilliant first goal, while Erling Haaland sealed the win with a second-half strike—his first goal since the 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on 7 December.

It was Leicester’s second consecutive defeat after the 3-1 defeat away to Liverpool last weekend. The Foxes are in a relegation battle as the defeat leaves them 18th on the table. The win takes City into fifth place.

In other matches, Southampton could not hold on at Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace came from a goal down to win 2-1. Tyler Dibbling scored in the 15th minute to give the Saints a deserved lead, but Palace equalised through Trevor Chalobah in controversial circumstances. Aaron Ramsdale appealed Jean-Phillipe Mateta impeded him, but VAR checks stood by the referee’s decision to award the goal.

Eberechi Eze scored the second, seven minutes into the second half to hand Palace all three points while Southampton stay rooted to the bottom of the table with six points from 19 matches. It was also the second consecutive loss of new manager Ivan Juric.

Alex Iwobi’s Fulham’s excellent form was punctuated by a 90th-minute equaliser by Bournemouth. Fulham slid down one place to eighth, and Bournemouth are in sixth place. Tottenham were also held to a 2-2 draw by Wolves, who continue their upward mobility with seven points from their last three matches.