January 2022: A Week of Premiership Games

By: Lucy Hudson, Staff Writer
January 23, 2022


The new year has started, the transfer window is in full swing, and the Premier League has already delivered on incredible action. Two titans fought hard and walked away with an admirable draw, Manchester United failed abysmally against Wolverhampton, and Arsenal suffered a loss to current league toppers Manchester City. Elsewhere in the league, Crystal Palace met West Ham and missed out on a win by two goals, Leeds thrashed Burnley 3-1, Brentford dominated Aston Villa with a 2-1 win, and Watford lost to Tottenham at 0-1. Throughout this article, we will pick apart our favourite games of the year so far.

Arsenal 1, Manchester City 2

League toppers clashed against the Gunners on 1st January 2022. Arsenal was able to take the lead at 31 minutes when Bukayo Saka scored the opening goal. Unfortunately, Arsenal player Gabriel couldn’t behave himself and was handed a red card during the second half. This resulted in a penalty opportunity for Man City’s Riyad Mahrez, which he netted to bring in the equaliser. After this, the game looked set to finish on a draw for them both to share the points. Luckily, out of nowhere, Man City’s Rodri found the back of the net during stoppage time. The next team to face Arsenal is Nottingham Forest. Let’s hope they can conduct themselves following their shocking behaviour against Man City. If you want to place bets for the game, choose one of the sites through OnlineCasinos. They have an enormous catalogue of quality reviewed casinos that are all licenced by the UKGC.

Crystal Palace 2, West Ham United 3

West Ham left Crystal Palace chasing their tails during their 3-2 win. During the 1st half, Michail Antonio and Manuel Manzini found the back of the net three times between them. The second half started, and it seemed as though Crystal Palace were in for a devastating loss. Then, with goals starting to come in 83 minutes, hope was restored. Unfortunately, despite a stoppage-time goal from Michael Olise, Palace weren’t able to hit the equaliser.

Brentford 2, Aston Villa 1

Underdogs Brentford came back strong against Aston Villa and managed to secure a 2-1 win. Danny Ings scored the opening goal at 16 minutes, and everything seemed to look well for Villa. That was until the comeback heroes found the equaliser in the shape of Yoane Wissa. Interestingly, this goal is Brentford’s first to be achieved from outside of the box. A draw seemed like the most likely outcome for the rest of the game. Then, in the 83rd minute, Mads Roerslev scored the winning goal.

Leeds United 3, Burnley 1

When Leeds went up against Burnley, they hit a milestone, with their first 3-goal game of the season. Further, this meet ended their 4-game dry spell and has pushed them further away from relegation. To start proceedings, Jack Harrison found the back of the net 39 minutes in. Burnley found the equaliser at 54 minutes when Maxwell Cornet scored from their first direct free kick in several years. All was looking great for a draw at Anfield until the 77th minute when Dallas put Leeds United ahead by one. Burnley was running out of time and had their fate sealed by a stoppage-time goal from Daniel James.

Everton 2, Brighton and Hove Albion 3

Everton met Brighton at their home stadium Goodison Park. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough for the home team as they suffered a 3-2 defeat. This game marks the fifth season in a row that Everton has lost their new year game. In Brighton’s fastest away goal, Alexis Mac Allister found the back of the net after two minutes and 43 seconds. This goal was followed by Dan Burn, who scored just before Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a penalty. After this, Everton started to find hope when Anthony Gordon scored both his debut and second goals for Everton. Unfortunately, this draw was taken away by Allister, who scored for a second time. At this stage in the season, Everton has only managed to find 19 points, which is their worst points haul since 2005/06.

Liverpool 2, Chelsea 2

Premier League titans Chelsea and Liverpool clashed at Stamford Bridge, with the final score resulting in a tie. Opening the match was Sadio Mane, who found his 37th Premier League goal for Liverpool, only nine minutes into the game. However, controversy hit as fans debated whether Mane should have been asked to leave following the Azpilicueta elbow incident six seconds in. Liverpool’s triumphs didn’t stop there when Mo Salah doubled The Reds’ lead. In the first quarter of the game, Liverpool will have been feeling on top of the world. Just before the end of the first half, Chelsea bounced back and found the back of the net twice within the space of four minutes. Mateo Kovačić came first, followed shortly by Christian Pulisic. Unfortunately, neither of the teams managed to secure the win during the second half, which left them sharing the points. This is the fourth time this season that Liverpool has lost their nerve despite having an early 2-goal lead.

Manchester United 0, Wolverhampton 1

On January 3rd 2022, Manchester United went out against Wolverhampton in a game that should have been a walk in the park. For the first time in fourteen years, Ronaldo donned the captain’s band, and the fans were excited. Unfortunately, the scenes fans were met with at Old Trafford were shocking. The entire team failed to play together or on an individual basis. This atrocious lack of form from the Premier League giants led to Wolverhampton’s Joao Moutinho sneaking in a goal at 82 minutes. This was the first Premier League game that Manchester United have lost under the reign of stand-in manager Ralf Rangnick. The devastating loss has left fans asking whether Rangnick and Ronaldo are any good for the team.


January 2022 has packed plenty of action into its first week of games. Former titans have fallen hard, and underdogs have found strength so far. With another half of the season left, there is plenty of time for City to be knocked off the top spot.