Premier League Talking Points: Arsenal Crush City, Forest’s Stunning Seven And More

Arsenal’s impressive 5-1 victory over Manchester City on Sunday maintained the Gunners’ position in the Premier League title race, keeping them near Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest made significant progress towards qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Liverpool demonstrated their championship potential by ending Bournemouth’s 12-match unbeaten streak with a double from Mohamed Salah on Saturday. Shortly after, Arsenal made a strong statement with a decisive victory over the dethroned and disorganized defending champions.

At the other end of the table, the battle to avoid relegation looks increasingly like three from the bottom four as Everton and Tottenham pulled clear of the drop zone.

Sportxparte looks at talking points from the Premier League weekend.

Arsenal’s Academy boys

It was a day to celebrate for Arsenal as they faced the team that has thwarted their title ambitions in the last two seasons, highlighted by goals from academy graduates Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.

The teenagers became the youngest players to score in the Premier League against the reigning champions since Wayne Rooney announced his arrival for Everton against Arsenal in 2003.

Lewis-Skelly would have been banned had his controversial red card against Wolves last weekend not been rescinded.

The left-back made the most of that reprieve with a barnstorming performance that was capped by his first goal for the club.

He capped off the moment with a confident celebration, imitating City striker Erling Haaland’s signature meditation pose.

Nwaneri completed the rout with his seventh goal of the season and is thriving in the extra minutes offered by Bukayo Saka’s injury layoff.

The energy of Arsenal’s youth stood in stark contrast to Manchester City’s aging squad, whose prime years appear to be over. A refresh is necessary if Pep Guardiola aims to make them contenders once more in the upcoming season.

Liverpool’s six-point lead, with a game in hand to come, may prove too much for Arsenal to usurp by May.

But there is plenty of promise in the future for Mikel Arteta’s men thanks to two potential homegrown superstars.

Forest’s Stunning Seven

Forest responded to any questions over their top-four credentials with a stunning 7-0 thrashing of Brighton on Saturday.

Chris Wood scored a hat-trick, while Morgan Gibbs-White and Anthony Elanga also shone in a devastating response to a 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth a week earlier.

To cap off an excellent few days for Nuno Espirito Santo’s team, they observed as all their rivals competing for a Champions League spot suffered defeats.

On top of defeats for City and Bournemouth, Newcastle fell 2-1 to Fulham and Aston Villa 2-0 at Wolves.

Forest’s lead over fifth-placed Newcastle now stands at six points.

A top-five finish is likely to be sufficient for securing a Champions League spot this season, thanks to the impressive starts of English teams in the European competitions.

Everton’s savoir Moyes

David Moyes has rolled back the years at Goodison Park since taking charge of Everton for the second time last month.

The Scot, who established his reputation during 11 years with the Toffees from 2002 to 2013, returned with the expectation of facing a relegation battle to help the club maintain its 71-year presence in the top tier.

But a 4-0 win over Leicester was Everton’s third consecutive victory to move nine points clear of the bottom three and within three of Manchester United in 13th.

“The job is to make sure we are a Premier League team. The last three results will go a long way to making that happen,” said Moyes.

“I found the noise incredible. I remember what it was always like. You have to give them something to shout about, and we did that from the start.”

By contrast, Leicester’s eighth defeat in nine dropped them back behind Wolves into the bottom three.

Ipswich’s chances of survival suffered a significant blow as bottom-of-the-table Southampton secured their first win since November at Portman Road.