Looking Back: The Winners and Losers of Premier League Gameweek 24

9 of Arsenal’s next 12 games are against Liverpool (twice), Manchester City, Bayern Munich (twice), Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea and Everton. 3 important points and at the top of table is the perfect way to go into that difficult run.

Also, with the likes of Wilshere, Ramsey and Kallstorm injured, and Flamini suspended, having Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back from injury was fantastic news. His first Premier League goals since the December of 2012 was the icing on the cake.

Manchester City is a team that won 4-1 - Man Utd, 6-0 - Spurs, 6-3 - Arsenal and 2-1 - Liverpool at home. This is a City team that was on a 61 game scoring spree at home. This is the team that is that’s everyone’s favourite to win the title this year. This was a team that had the league’s best attack. In the league’s best defence, this City team met their match.

Chelsea had conceded 13 goals in 9 games before that Sunderland clash. Now, Chelsea have let in just 2 goals in their last 10 matches.

A 3-0 victory shows exactly how dominating Sunderland were. A second successive victory in as many games against the same opposition, by the same margin, makes it all the more impressive. Then there was the small matter of this being the Tyne-Wear derby.

When teams usually win by big margins in important games, it is normal to have one/two players who were instrumental in the victory. On Saturday night though, it was a collective effort. If fighting against relegation wasn’t motivating enough, Sunderland were up against a derby rival that was doing well in the top half of the table. Sunderland stated the game on the back foot but soon got themselves into the game. Sunderland grew in strength and Newcastle were barely holing fort. Coming into this fixture on the loss of Loïc Rémy to suspension and Yohan Cabaye’s sale to PSG, Newcastle looked like a team that had all its morale sucked out of them. Once Sunderland got the elusive first goal, it was only a matter of how many more they would score. Like Paolo Di Canio found out, a win at St. Jame’s Park doesn’t mean a lot in the long run. Sunderland have been on a slow rise up the table and this result should provide Gus Poyet and his team with enough motivation to fight against relegation.

Andy Carroll headed a ball down to Kevin Nolan, who obliged and scored. Twice. Sam Allardyce’s master plan finally on show for the world to see. And the all important three points.

Replacing Peter Wittingham, one of Cardiff’s better players, with new boy Wilfred Zaha after only 31 minutes would be a very bad move in any parallel universe. On Saturday, though, it paid off handsomely. Zaha’s addition lifted his team’s morale, and those of the Cardiff fans. He brought the kind of urgency that a team trying to avoid relegation needed.

That it took him just 11 minutes to register an assist makes David Moyes’ already bad weekend worse.

Winning the game 2-1 after conceding first shows the kind of character that Roberto Martinez has instilled into this Everton side. Yes, Moyes laid the foundations for Everton’s spirited character but Martinez has gone ahead and added some flair to their game. Losing a talented Belgian like Romelu Lukaku to injury is bad, but if it can be compensated by another talented Belgian, then who’s complaining?

Also, is Belgian the new Spanish?

Jay Rodriguez , Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana. Scores this weekend and recent England internationals. Roy Hodgson finally has a selection dilemma when it comes to his forwards, and it’s a problem that he should be glad to have.

For Stoke, the 2-1 win against Manchester United means three well needed points and a leap from 17th to mid-table 11th. With only 6 points separating Stoke in 11th and Fulham at 20th, this victory might prove crucial as the season winds down.

A man who has all the cockiness of Gary Neville and none of the talent.

A run of 10 points from 10 games is bad for any team. With Swansea hovering just 2 points above 17th, Swansea need to start doing things right. Was sacking Michael Laudrup right? We’ll see soon enough.

Losing to a team that’s just one place above rock bottom doesn’t bode well for the looming relegation dogfight. With Norwich’s last 4 games of the season pitting them against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, their season could essentially be decided by their 34th game. That leaves them, currently, with 10 games and 16 points adrift of the ‘safe’ 40 point mark.

Last week’s derby win over West Brom was morale boosting but Lambert needs to ensure that such performances are more of a regularity than an exception.

Fulham

7 new players. 5 signed on deadline day. Will Fulham be playing in a different division by the time all those new signings settle down?

2014 has started the same way 2013 ended. 6 points gained of a possible 15, while exiting both the F.A Cup and the Capital One Cup. Where does one draw the line between loyalty and reality? Can Moyes saying "I don't know what we have to do to win" be that line?

Manchester City were flying away from the rest of the pack before Jose Mourinho decided to bring them back to the ground. It was widely rumoured that Pellegrini wanted to bring in both Fernando and Mangala in January, and the Chelsea clash completely justified that. Yaya Toure is an excellent footballer but his ‘lazy side’ gets covered when is partnered with the hard working Fernandinho. With the latter missing though injury, Toure was woefully exposed in the middle and a lot of the blame for Ivanovic’s goal rest on Yaya’s giant shoulders. Aguero’s injury and Negredo being half-fit for a vital clash didn’t make thing s any easier. That said, Man City can still tilt the title race and Pellegrini will be hoping to have all his players fight for that.

The Yevhen Konoplyanka saga provided background to Liverpool’s clash with West Brom, understandably. Brendan Rodgers lost the chase to sign Salah and turned his attention to Konoplyanka. By chasing him till the final hour of deadline day, Rodgers effectively made sure he didn’t have any time to pursue alternate targets. The effect of not strengthening a (relatively) thin squad was evident in their immediate game against West Brom. After West Brom levelled the score, Rodgers turned to Martin Kelly and Joe Allen in his chase for all three points, when he had players like Iago Aspas, Victor Moses and Luis Alberto on the bench. With a big chunk of the season left, will his lack of trust in the trio and failure to make any signings hinder Liverpool’s push for a Champions League spot?

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY @GoalllineDrama