This is shaping up to be one of the great Premier League seasons. The title race looks set to go the distance, the battle for Europe is heating up and the relegation scrap is wonderfully poised. Last weekend, we saw Spurs slip closer to the mire, Arsenal and Manchester City continue pushing the pace at the top, and the battle for Champions League places remain hotly contested. We also witnessed notable performances from strikers Viktor Gyökeres and Raúl Jiménez.

There are plenty of takes around after the weekend, and ahead of the next batch of fixtures — like we’ve done with NFL and rugby union — we look at some snap judgements before weighing up whether they are overreactions or legit takes.

Let’s start with the battle for the title.

Jump to:
Man City, Arsenal title race will go down to wire?
Spurs in relegation battle?
Chelsea least disciplined side in PL history?
Gyökeres has lived up to transfer fee?
Jiménez one of PL’s great stories?

The title race will go down to the wire

Manchester City are five points and a game in hand behind Arsenal with three months to go. The Gunners stuttered against Wolves last Wednesday in a 2-2 draw, then demolished Tottenham 4-1 on Sunday. It’s developed into the classic game of cat and mouse.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

You can reduce this title race to a handful of words: If either team wins its remaining matches, it will claim the Premier League. The date to circle is April 18, when Arsenal travel to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City, but you can expect many twists and turns until we get our eventual winner.

Arsenal have been in the driver’s seat for much of the season, but the ghosts of near-misses are peering over their shoulder. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola’s Man City have title-winning acumen throughout. In mid-January, Arsenal had a eight-point lead. Then came the draws at Brentford and Wolves, which opened the door for City. They strode straight through it, getting a late win over Liverpool, easing past Fulham, then hurdling Newcastle United last weekend on the back of Nico O’Reilly‘s pair of goals. Guardiola said his team would celebrate that 2-1 win with a cocktail or two. But Arsenal responded, obliterating rivals Spurs.

Opta still gives Arsenal a 82.8% chance of winning the league, predicting them to finish six or so points ahead of City. But the stats don’t account for the psychological aspect. Arsenal had an eight-point lead in April 2023, but ended up surrendering the title to Manchester City just a month later. It is going to be a fascinating, but excruciating, end of the season for the two teams.

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Gab & Juls discuss the potential of Mauricio Pochettino joining Tottenham after the World Cup.

Spurs are in the thick of the relegation battle

Too good to go down? Perhaps not. After their derby defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, Tottenham are in a precarious situation, sitting in 16th and just four points out of the relegation places.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

Tottenham’s injury list is extensive: Wilson Odobert, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie, Kevin Danso and Pedro Porro are all sidelined. Cristian Romero is suspended. They’ve also had to navigate relentless upheaval behind the scenes. And amid all of that, they’ve forgotten how to win; their last league victory was against Crystal Palace on Dec. 28. Oh, and they also have Europe in the equation.

New Spurs manager Igor Tudor has played one, lost one in the Premier League, but says he is 100% convinced Spurs will be a Premier League team next season. Regardless of what he thinks will happen, Spurs are in a relegation scrap. Worryingly, West Ham United and Nottingham Forest are showing signs of improvement and resilient beneath them.

Spurs look low on confidence: These are players who are accustomed to playing in Europe and trying to reach the summit, not scrapping around at the base of the league. Tudor is well versed in getting top players to think his way, and he has managed big clubs (Juventus, Lazio, Marseille) to then steer them through choppy waters, but this could be his greatest ask yet.

Key to survival will be their ability to rally and fight for one another. Take this from Jarrod Bowen after West Ham’s 0-0 draw with Bournemouth: “That’s a pleasing thing in the changing room when you can look around and say: ‘He’s got my back and I’ve got his.'” Can the same be said for Spurs?

Leeds, West Ham and Nottingham Forest are ready to battle. Spurs must start landing some punches of their own.

Chelsea are the most undisciplined side in Premier League history

Chelsea’s disciplinary record is truly grim. They picked up their sixth red card of the Premier League season in their 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday, with Wesley Fofana getting sent off for two yellows. At this point, the league record for red cards is not that far out of reach.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

We looked at Chelsea’s discipline back on Dec. 2 and whether it would cost them a Champions League spot. Back then, coach Enzo Maresca looked settled, and Chelsea were finding a way to grind matches out with 10 men. We said it wasn’t yet an issue that would scuttle their season, but they needed to sort it quickly.

Well, it’s still a major problem. Chelsea have lost 17 points from winning positions this term, and it happened again against Burnley as they conceded a 93rd-minute equalizer, with Zian Flemming heading home. But their red cards are not helping in the least. On Saturday, Wesley Fofana’s red made it nine total in all competitions (if you count Maresca’s against Liverpool in October). They’ve won just one of the six league matches in which they’ve had a player sent off.

But the Premier League record? Chelsea still have a way to go. Sunderland (2009-10) and QPR (2011-12) managed nine red cards, so they hold the record for the poorest discipline. It would take a lot for them to reach that unenviable mark.

It’s one of the unwanted habits that has crossed from Maresca’s tenure into Liam Rosenior’s. Chelsea have a young squad, but that’s not the sole reason for blame. “We need players you can rely on in the moment to do their job,” Rosenior said. “I know what we need to get there. It’s not down to youth; it’s down to assessing the players and identifying the ones you can rely on in difficult moments.”

Viktor Gyökeres has finally filled his Arsenal shirt

Gyökeres put in arguably his finest performance for Arsenal in the North London derby, scoring a second-half brace. As the Gunners chase their first title since 2003, Gyökeres might finally be living up to his $74 million transfer fee after making the move from Sporting CP last summer.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

In addition to his two wonderful goals, Gyökeres linked well with Bukayo Saka coming off the right wing, and was generally an immense nuisance down Spurs’ left side. His runs also created space for others, drawing defenders away. While he sometimes struggles in holding the ball up, his lethal form in front of goal was what Arsenal fans have been waiting for.

He has faced frequent challenges to his spot in the side. There was that spell when manager Mikel Arteta favored Mikel Merino as a false nine, and Gabriel Jesus‘ return added a further threat. With Arsenal in the driver’s seat of the title race, though, it’s Gyökeres’ shirt to lose. He’s scored more goals across all competitions than any other player in the Premier League in 2026.

But to say he’s finally living up to his transfer fee is premature, as he now faces the challenge of backing it up across the remaining 10 matches of the season. He’s rightly receiving praise for his performance last weekend, but he needs to show consistency over the coming weeks.

Raul Jiménez is one of the Premier League’s great stories

Jiménez suffered a fractured skull in November 2020 and after eight months of rehabilitation, he returned to action the next summer. Since joining Fulham from Wolverhampton Wanderers in June 2023 for a fee of $6.4 million, he has proved to be one of the best signings in Premier League history, with his brace for Fulham in their 3-1 win at Sunderland on Sunday the latest evidence.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

The Jiménez who arrived at Fulham in 2023 was still finding his feet in the sport after that horrific injury. “He was not in a good moment in his career,” Fulham manager Marco Silva said postmatch Sunday. That’s no surprise given doctors told Jiménez he was lucky to be alive.

In his final season for Wolves, Jiménez scored just three Carabao Cup goals. But Fulham believed they could nurture him back to his best. “We showed the confidence that we are capable for him to get to his best level,” Silva said. “We hope there is more to come. For a striker that we signed at the price we signed, he is doing very, very well.”

Jiménez’s brace gave Fulham a priceless win at Sunderland. It’s safe to argue that he must be one of the best points-per-pound acquisitions in the top flight. He has eight league goals this term, after chipping in with 12 last year and seven the season previous. With Rodrigo Muniz having missed so much of this season through injury, Jiménez has been leading the line.

While he doesn’t have the same pace we saw when he broke through for Wolves back in 2018, he still has that lethal touch in front of goal. His first against Sunderland saw him head home unmarked a corner, and his second was a calmly taken penalty. He’s 34 now, and heading into the twilight of his career, but his influence has not diminished.

Shakhtar Donetsk sporting director Darijo Srna recalls “a couple of times” when the Ukrainian club’s players and staff had to huddle together in their hotel reception, alerted to an incoming drone strike and waiting for the call to head for the air-raid shelter. It happened once on matchday. “We were all in reception together until 6 a.m. but did not go and afterwards we slept until 12, then we had a meeting at 2 and a game at 4 p.m.,” Srna tells ESPN. “We lost, but this is part of our life.”

Tuesday marks four years of this reality. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022 and The Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) believes it is the deadliest conflict since World War II. Estimates vary, but the CSIS states as many as 140,000 Ukrainians have been killed in addition to 325,000 Russians. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees believes 5.9 million Ukrainians have left the country.

It is all the more remarkable that against this backdrop, Shakhtar’s strategy for survival as a club remains heavily reliant on the transfer market outside Ukraine, specifically signing young players from Brazil.

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The policy began more than 20 years ago, a product of Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov’s fondness for the country’s flamboyant football style. The club established an extensive network of contacts in Brazil and over time, created a lineage of players who would join Shakhtar and then, later, an elite European side.

Willian (Chelsea), Fernandinho (Manchester City), Douglas Costa (Juventus), Fred (Manchester United) and Luiz Adriano (AC Milan) are among the big names to tread this path. Most recently, winger Kevin joined Fulham last September in a €40 million transfer, a record fee for the Premier League side.

In total, club sources told ESPN that Shakhtar have signed 47 Brazilian players, who have scored more than 1,000 goals combined, since 2002. (Luiz Adriano, who played between 2007 and 2015, is still the club’s all-time top scorer with 128 goals.) But the money generated through outgoing transfers has become vitally important. Club officials suggest the transfer of Brazilian players has raised in excess of €350m and that revenue stream is more vital than ever in wartime.

“The biggest two sources of income now are UEFA competitions and player sales,” Shakhtar chief executive Sergei Palkin tells ESPN. “That’s it. We have almost zero sponsorship, no matchday revenue, no TV revenue, nothing. To survive here, you have to change the ways to develop the club.”

Shakhtar’s story is a reminder that the conflict has been going on for much longer. Russia occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014, forcing the club’s displacement from their home in Donetsk. They have played European ‘home’ games in six different cities — Krakow, Poland is their base for this season’s UEFA Conference League campaign — and complete domestic fixtures in Lviv, which lies in western Ukraine. The team cannot fly to Poland due to airspace restrictions, and so European away games involve bus rides to the border, with journeys taking up to 16 hours, depending on the destination: in last season’s Champions League, they made trips right across Europe for fixtures at Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven.

Ukraine is experiencing one of the harshest winters on record, exacerbating the debilitating effects of Russian attacks targeting the country’s infrastructure which have left more than a million citizens without electricity, water and heating. The European Union has sent Ukraine almost 10,000 generators since the invasion began in 2022.

“If anybody would tell me at the beginning of 2022 that the war would continue four years, I wouldn’t believe it,” Palkin says. “Four years is a big part of your life.

“Our players, they live in a hotel and opposite the hotel, we have a pitch to train. In Europe, you can easily maintain the level of pitch but in Ukraine it is not possible because of one issue: light. When you have blackouts for one, two, three days, how can pitches survive in these conditions, especially after this severe winter when we had temperatures like -25 [Celsius, -13 Fahrenheit]?

“For my life, I don’t remember these kind of temperatures. We have a training camp in Kyiv and we maintain pitches there because they need a chance to train before games. You need to completely restructure the management of pitches because nobody had experience of doing it in wartime.

“And in modern medical history, you will not find experience like this where you can fully recover players after 16 hours of travel to play again.”

And yet, Brazilian players still join Shakhtar in large numbers. There are 12 listed in their first-team squad, the majority of whom joined the club within the last four years. Says Palkin: “You know why they come? Because they understand, here we create an unbelievable platform for the development of those players to build a bridge to top European football.

“They see all examples. The last one is Kevin. When the war started, we sold David Neres [for €15m]. He didn’t play one game for our club but we sold him to Benfica for more than we paid [€12m]. Even if it is risky for life, to reach something in top European football, they should come to us.

“We are signing a lot of deals now. I spend 70% of my time in negotiations convincing players to come in this very hard time because we have war. I need to show where a player lives, what happens for example when we have air raid sirens, all the security issues.

“I need to be open and explain, but the biggest explanations come when players call our existing players. They explain everything and it helps.”

Marlon Gomes was able to go one better. The 22-year-old joined Shakhtar from Vasco da Gama in January 2024 and consulted his veteran teammate Alex Teixeira, who made the same move in 2010. Teixeira spent six years in Ukraine and later returned to Vasco in 2022 before joining Greek side Panserraikos last month.

“Shakhtar always was a famous club, especially in Brazil,” Gomes tells ESPN. “Among young players with a promising talent, it is really known as a platform you can use to pass to the higher tier leagues.

“Alex Teixeira is a good friend of mine. In my career at Vasco, we speak a lot. Also he told me a bunch of things about Shakhtar — the way they are interested in young Brazilian players.

“When I discovered the history [of Brazilian players who have moved to Shakhtar], I have been thinking and dreaming about the same [journey and] the trophies they won. I was really inspired by those examples. Alex advised me that Shakhtar would be a beautiful option. There is not a single day I regret that decision.”

Gomes’ family, including his seven-year-old daughter Maite, remains in Brazil, where his mother anxiously watches news reports of the ongoing conflict.

“She watches TV and reads all the articles as well and she is getting really worried,” Gomes says. “For my side, I try to keep her calm and explain that in fact not everything is as terrible as can be displayed in the media. Yes, some attacks may occur even in the western part of Lviv where we currently stay but even despite that, the club is doing everything possible to keep us safe.

“During the season, we spent some time in Lviv and some in Kyiv. Whenever people from Brazil ask me something about Ukraine, I only reply with positive things. I really love the city of Kyiv, I believe it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and even despite all those terrible moments, I enjoy my life in Ukraine.

“Sometimes you can hear or see the drones attacking Ukrainian cities unfortunately and in fact all the TV, all the media shows part of living in Ukraine but they cannot represent what is going on inside the country. Of course, those events are completely terrible and I am deeply concerned about that but the country keeps living, keeps moving on for day to day and that can be the true inspiration for everybody.”

The adaptation process is vital, Palkin says: “When a new Brazilian player comes, we connect them with each other, they explain everything that is going on here, how we treat everybody, what’s going on, where we live, how we travel.

“When they move here, they can have any personal issues, especially in wartime, and so we have special people involved in all processes of adaptation and they understand what they want, they are always in contact with players and in a position to help any time.

“We create a structure that allows them to adapt very quickly and in wartime, this adaptation is even accelerated because we have no time. Fifteen years ago, we could wait two years for Brazilian players to arrive at the top level. Today, we have one or two months adaptation, and they go straight to the main squad.”

But Shakhtar’s established model of attracting promising players from Brazil and then transferring some of them to Europe’s elite is being squeezed by those top clubs being more willing and able to go direct to the source. Chelsea, for example, agreed a deal to sign Estêvão from Palmeiras in 2024 and Andrey Santos from Vasco a year earlier, while Denner will arrive from Corinthians this summer.

“Chelsea have changed the market in Brazil,” says Srna. “They are buying players not just in Brazil, but Argentina and Ecuador who are 16 or 17 years. Manchester City look too.

“For us it is more difficult than before, but there is still a lot of talent in Brazil. Estêvão for example, was on our list, but it is difficult to fight with Chelsea.”

Palkin explains how Shakhtar have adapted. “What it means for us is if before we signed players who were 18, 19, 20 years old, we need to pay attention to 16-, 17-year-olds,” he says. “And we need to be very quick. If you are not quick, you lose. Speed is the most important condition of how to be successful in the Brazilian market.

“Our president makes decisions very quick. He is not afraid to invest big money into young Brazilian players. He believes in his strategy and therefore even taking into account the war, we are still competitive in this market. Chelsea, City and other clubs are there and they could destroy the Brazilian market for clubs like Shakhtar, Benfica and Porto etc. for financial issues. They pay big money and it is difficult to compete with them.”

Money is a bigger issue when Shakhtar are not competing in the Champions League this season. Revenues are much smaller in the Conference League, but at the same time, there is something bigger at stake: the pride of a nation.

“It is a critical humanitarian platform to keep international attention on Ukraine and provide positive emotions for the people of Ukraine and our fans,” says Palkin. “People living in Ukraine, 90% of all news is negative. Every day, morning, evening, daytime. Emotionally, it is a very big pressure on our people. When we play European competitions and we win, it brings positive emotions.

“All our coaches who stayed during the four years, every time when they prepare a team for Ukrainian or European competitions, in all their speeches, they have words about the people living in Ukraine.”

Srna puts it in even starker terms. “When you play in Europe, you beat someone, the people feel happy because you are sending a message to the whole world: we are here, we fight until the end,” he says.

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Vitali Klitschko honored to receive Arthur Ashe Courage Award

Vitali Klitschko is appreciative to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award and stresses the importance of bringing peace to Ukraine.

Shakhtar continue to feel left behind by FIFA. The row over Article 7 — an annex to the game’s regulations that allowed foreign players in Russia and Ukraine to unilaterally suspend their contracts following the outbreak of war in the region. The club estimates this cost around €60m in lost income. And, earlier this month, FIFA president Gianni Infantino claimed that he favours the lifting of a ban preventing Russia from competing in international sport.

“I suggest Infantino visits Ukraine to witness the destruction first hand rather than making this kind of irresponsible statement from a distance,” says Palkin. “Reintegrating Russia while Ukraine suffers from this war, it is a betrayal of the sport’s ‘one family’ claim.

“He should not think about reintegrating Russia: he should think how to create a fund that will finance a rebuild of sport infrastructure in Ukraine. We have unbelievable conditions. Our football is in a very, very critical situation. Infantino should think about this, and not about integrating a country that fully invaded Ukraine and tried to kill our people, our children.”

Shakhtar, like the rest of Ukraine, just keep going. Akhmetov has donated more than $300m to the government since the beginning of the war. He has provided 13 million food kits since 2014 and 700,000 units of medicine to Ukrainians affected. The club provides treatment and rehabilitation of severely injured soldiers, started an amputee team for veterans and opened a shelter for refugees. Shakhtar matches are 90 minutes of escapism.

“Each time we have a domestic game, we are happy to see people in the stand enjoying the game,” says Gomes. “That’s a chance for them to be distracted for those two hours from the cruel reality that they are currently surrounded by.

“If I leave Ukraine, either to another club or back to my homeland, I will keep all the experiences and lessons I have learned here. I will always keep them in my heart and bring them everywhere I go in my future.”

A commanding batting effort from Mitchell Santner and Cole McConchie propelled New Zealand to a competitive 168-run total against Sri Lanka in the Super Eight clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at R Premadasa Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Batting first, New Zealand scored 168-7 in their allotted 20 overs, getting off to a steady start as openers Tim Seifert and Finn Allen looked positive from the outset, finding boundaries early in their 30-run partnership.

However, Maheesh Theekshana provided the breakthrough by dismissing Allen, who scored 23 off 13 deliveries, including three fours and a six. The wicket ended the opening stand and shifted momentum towards the hosts.

New Zealand suffered another blow in the following over when Dushmantha Chameera removed Seifert for eight off nine balls, which featured a single boundary. The visitors were reduced to 34-2 in 4.2 overs.

Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra then attempted to rebuild the innings, rotating the strike effectively and accelerating the scoring to take the total past 50.

Chameera struck again to claim his second wicket, dismissing Phillips for 18 off 18 balls, an innings that included one four. At 75-3 in 9.3 overs, New Zealand were once again under pressure.

The situation worsened when Ravindra, who had looked well set, fell to Theekshana for a brisk 32 off 21 deliveries, laced with three fours and a six.

Theekshana struck again in the same over to remove Mark Chapman for a second-ball duck, leaving New Zealand struggling at 84-5 after 11.4 overs.

Sri Lanka’s spinners continued to tighten their grip as Dunith Wellalage dismissed Daryl Mitchell for a modest three off seven balls, deepening the visitors’ troubles.

Cole McConchie and captain Mitchell Santner then attempted to stabilise the innings.

The pair guided the total beyond the 100-run mark in the 17th over and brought up a valuable half-century partnership in the closing stages, providing some late impetus after a middle-order collapse.

Santner and McConchie eased the pressure and accelerated in the closing overs, attacking the bowlers to pile on runs and guide New Zealand past the 150-run mark in the 19th over.

The Blackcaps concluded their innings with Santner dismissed on the final delivery for 47 off 26 balls, comprising two fours and four sixes, while McConchie notched up 31 off 23 deliveries, hitting three boundaries and two sixes.