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25/26 Match Week 21 Recap
Chelsea, Match of the Season (so far, maybe) & Relegation Race
nick lochner
January 09, 2026
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In Today’s CleanSheet:
Results 🏟️
Current Situation📈📉
Quick Kicks ⚽
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- FA & Carabao Cup
Off Island 🏝️ - AFCON
Best Bets 💰
Results 🏟️
Top Teams Draw - Newcastle, Brentford and Bournemouth find the net and get exciting wins.
What a match, maybe the best of the season, Newcastle over Leeds.
2 more 0-0 matches.
Thiago with 2 more goals for Brentford, gaining on Haaland for the golden boot.
Red cards for Everton as Wolves get a point in Liverpool.
Bee’s are buzzing with former set piece manager Keith Andrews.
Sunderland coming back down to earth.
City struggling, for City.
At least Chelsea has players to sell.
 | BIG result for Forest. The Hammers took the lead into HT 1-0 and it looked like they had extended it to 2-0 after half but a very tight off-side call in the build up to the goal kept their lead at 1. That turned the game and Forest had the better of it getting a goal to tie it up and then earning a penalty in the box and converting the penalty at 85’ for the win. WH remain in 18th place in relegation and now sit 7 points behind Forest in 17th. |
 | City scoring has slowed and BHA travel to the Etihad and earns a point. City had the better chances and deserved all three points but credit to the Seagulls for taking a tough road point. |
 | Scrappy 0-0 draw and feels like points lost for Arsenal. Liverpool really did not have any great chances, but the Gunners did. Good news for the Gunners, all the teams chasing them drew, bad news - they could’ve extended their 6 point lead to 8. |
 | This match felt like Palace had all the great chances. They dominated the 1H and part of the 2H but it shifted and Villa started to create great chances. Could’ve been many goals in this one both ways but ends as a point for each. |
 | Burnley started fast with an OG at 13’ and held a 1-0 HT lead. They looked in controll until Sesko scored for United at 50’. The game started to even out and Sesko scored his second at 60’ putting United in the drivers seat. Burnely had several good chances to win it but had to settle for the draw. |
 Red Card to Everton at 83’. Red Card to Everton at 90’. | That’s 3 straight matches with points for Wolves, 2 draws on the road and a home win. Disappointing dropping points at home again for Everton who are right on the cusp of Europe but just can’t seem to keep the momentum going. |
 Red Card to Chelsea at 22’ | Fulham and West London belongs to the cottagers who beat their rival in a game that saw a red card given to Cucurella at 22’ that put the Blues down to 10 men. It took Fulham until the 2H to get on the board but Chelsea responded down a man. Yet 60+ minutes is a long time to go 10 on 11 and a Harry Wilson goal at 81’ sent the home side home happy. |
 | Thiago AGAIN. Igor has been on a goal scoring streak. This time with 2 goals, one in each half and the Bee’s are flying high sitting 5th in the table. Sunderland’s hot streak continues to cool. While they have 4 draws in their last 5 matches they have just 1 win in their last 8, and 2 in the last 12. |
 | What. A. Match. Leeds took the lead three times, Newcastle tied it up three times. The third time at 90+1’. Then it was Harvey Barnes, the former Leicester City Fox, to score at 90+12’ for all three points at St James Park. |
 | Another Great Game. Spurs jumped out quick at 5’ only to see Bournemouth take the lead by 36’ and lead 2-0 at HT. Looked liked Spurs were going to share a point when Palhinha scored at 78’ but a Semenyo goal at 90+5’ gave a much needed 3 points to the Cherries and sent Thomas Frank back to North London continuing to struggle. |
Current Situation 📈📉
Standings
Current Table (Arrows represent a team that moved up or down 2+ spots or into/out of Europe/Relegation) 
| Season Clean Sheets by Team  |
Goals & Clean Sheets
How does the current 25/26 season compare to EPL averages for goals and clean sheets.
Goals 29 Match Week 21 28.0 25/26 Season Average (G/MW)
| Clean Sheets 5 Match Week 21 5.2 25/26 Season Average (G/MW)
|
Goal Scorers
Multi Goal Scorers 2 Goals
3 Goals
4+ Goals
| Season Goal Leaders 24 Own Goals (See Below)* 20 Erling Haaland - City 16 Igor Thiago - Brentford 10 Antoine Semenyo - B’mouth 9 Dominic Calvert-Lewin - Leeds 8 Hugo Ekitike - Liverpool 8 Denny Welbeck - BHA 8 Jean-Philippe Mateta - Palace 8 Bruno Guimaraes - Newcastle 7 Woltemade - Newcastle 7 Richarlison - Spurs 7 Phil Foden - Man City 7 Morgan Rogers - Villa 7 Ollie Watkins - Villa 7 Harry Wilson - FFC 7 Junior Krupi - Bournemouth | Saves Made 77 Martin Dubravka - Burnley 73 Robin Roefs - Sunderland 68 Alphonse Areola - WH 62 Caoimhin Kelleher - B’ford 61 Bart Verbruggen - BHA 59 Djordje Petrovic - B’mouth 57 Jordan Pickford - Everton 57 Dean Henderson - Palace 55 Guglielmo Vicario - Spurs 53 Bernd Leno - FFC |
4 Own Goals Allowed
3 Own Goals Allowed
| 2 Own Goals Allowed
| 1 Own Goal Allowed
|
Quick Kicks ⚽
Let’s focus a bit on The Blues.
Dubius Record. Enzo Maresca’s sacking by Chelsea was the FIFTH time a PL manager was sacked the season after winning two trophies. The other 4 managers are pretty famous - Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto de Matteo and Jose Mourinho. The clubs they managed for doing the sacking -
Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea.
Liam Rosenior. Meet Chelsea’s latest manager.
2 years ago, Liam Rosenior was being sacked by Hull City of the Championship.
Over the last 18 months he has been building his resume at Strasbourg, a sister club of Chelsea.
The 41 year old is being described as an innovator but he is relatively inexperienced.
So, why did Chelsea appoint Liam manager -
History - Rosenior has relationships with a couple Chelsea executives - he met co-sporting director 15 years ago when playing for BHA. He worked with gobal recruiting director when he began coaching at BHA. Last summer Rosenior traveled to the US during the Club World Cup and met with Chelsea leadership.
Short List - Rosenior has been on the short list of future managers, but this was ahead of schedule.
Similar Tactics - Rosenior’s approach to play is similar to Maresca’s, so this should be a simpler transition.
Controllable - This is not an official narrative, but it is believed Chelsea was going to hire a manager the executives could control. If ownership says play player x, then they want a manager who will not question the directive.
Jump Right In. A busy couple weeks with very little time to work together in training.
Chelsea currently sit in a European Spot, 5th in table.
They traveled the mile across Fulham to play their rival in the PL.
They travel to Charlton for a FA Cup match Saturday.
They host the Carabao Cup semi-final next Wednesday against Arsenal.
After another PL rivalry game against Brentford they host Pafos in the Champions League.
Fall Out. Strasbourg plays in France and in the Europa League. There is a lot of discussion about the precedent being set regarding Chelsea’s ownership of Strasbourg. Basically, Chelsea is treating Strasbourg as a “minor league” club. They decided to call up a manager from one of their clubs to the “big” club. Strasbourg no longer has their independence.
Unrelated to Chelsea
Semenyo. Antoine scored the winner for Bournemouth against Spurs and then said farewell to the fans as he is off to Man City.
Relegation Race. Unless one of the bottom three teams goes on a big run, the Championship may be welcoming West Ham, Burnley and Wolverhampton next season.
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥
England Tournaments Back At It
FA Cup
The all-England Soccer Tournament (FA Cup) kicks off again with 32 matches and the PL and Championship joining this round.
20 Premier League - PL teams enter the competition.
24 Championship - All teams
8 League One
9 League Two
1 National League
1 National League North
1 National League South
There are 3 matches between PL teams this round.
Newcastle v Bournemouth
Tottenham v Aston Villa
Man United v BHA
Carabao Cup - FINAL 4
The Soccer Tournament between the top 4 leagues of English Soccer semi-finals will be played next Tuesday and Wednesday. 4 PL teams remain.
Newcastle United v Man City - 2p Tuesday.
Chelsea v Arsenal - 2p Wednesday.
Off Island 🏝️
AFCON - Africa National Team Tournament
If your favorite club has a player in AFCON - here are the teams still in play. For example, Mo Salah in Egypt is still in the tournament and unavailable for Liverpool or another team if he is transferred.
Lookman plays for Atalanta in Italy.
Osimhen plays for Galatasaray in Turkey.
Diaz plays for Real Madrid in Spain.
Mane plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi.
Foster plays for Burnley in the EPL.
Best Bets 💰
Season - Down $49
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Match Week 21 Results
DOWN $104
W ($20) - Brentford to Win v Sunderland -119. $24
L ($20) - Villa to Win at Palace +130. $20
L ($24) - Newcastle v Leeds to Draw +280. $24
L ($23) - Palace v Villa Over 2.5 goals -117. $23
W ($20) - Bournemouth v Spurs Over 2.5 goals -145. $29
L ($20) - Man City v BHA Over 3.5 goals +104. $20
W ($20) - Brentford v Sunderland Over 2.5 goals -103. $21
W ($20) - Burnley v Man United Over 2.5 goals -143. $29
L ($28) - Arsenal v Liverpool Over 2.5 goals -140. $28
L ($24) - West Ham v Forest Under 2.5 goals -118. $24
W ($20) - Everton v Wolves Under 2.5 goals -140. $28
L ($20) - FFC v Chelsea Under 2.5 goals +100. $20
L ($10) - Brentford, Everton, Man United to Win +451. $10
L ($10) - Jarrod Bowen (WH) to score +218. $10
L ($10) - Gyokeres (Arsenal) to score +143. $10
L ($10) - Cole Palmer (Chelsea) to score +195. $10
L ($5) - All three to score +2180. $5
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