Forest and Villa add to Champions League drama as Leicester finally score (twice!)

As will be the case for the rest of this Premier League season, Saturday’s fixtures were all about the race for Champions League football.

After Manchester City came from behind to beat Crystal Palace in sensational fashion, Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Aston Villa all had favourable fixtures at 3pm. Here is the F365 Blackout…

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton: Deserved Doucoure dagger drags Forest into Champions League mire

Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest have been one of the most difficult teams to play against in this season’s Premier League, frequently defying the numbers in their victories and grinding out wins through their outstanding organisation, shape and well, a little bit of luck.

David Moyes’ Everton came to the City Ground this time and were significantly more adventurous and were eventually rewarded by a 94th-minute Abdoulaye Doucoure winner.

The Toffees had more possession, three times Forest’s expected goals, seven corners to one, more shots, big chances and won 29-8 in the touches in the attacking penalty area metric.

The way Forest’s season has gone, we expected a winning goal to come from them but with a returning Chris Wood up front, they looked toothless.

Forest would end up being punished in injury time when Doucoure finished a swift counter attack, which funnily enough came from their only corner…

It was an off day for Nuno’s side, which could be crucial come the end of the season. Man City’s victory v Crystal Palace earlier on Saturday clearly put pressure on and only two points now separate them, while Aston Villa’s win at Southampton means they are only three points behind, Chelsea can make it a one-point gap at home to Ipswich and Newcastle United have two games in hand, with wins in both enough to put them above Forest.

The complexion of the Champions League race is changing every week and having held a handsome lead over the rest of the top half, they have been dragged into the mire. An incredible season so far will still end a fantastic season if Forest only qualify for the Europa Conference League but they really don’t want it to be a case of “what if?”.

Everton, meanwhile, have been bloody brilliant under David Moyes. What a win that was. They are now above Spurs and level on points with Manchester United.

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Southampton 0-3 Aston Villa: One eye clearly on PSG for Villa starters but not their substitutes

After a very underwhelming opening 70 minutes for Aston Villa at Southampton, their super substitutions took charge to earn three crucial points.

They might have been well beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday but Arsenal’s fantastic 3-0 win against Real Madrid the night before meant the Premier League has secured five places in next season’s competition. This is obviously huge news for Unai Emery’s side and it increases their odds of qualifying for Europe’s premier competition again next term.

Villa were always going to have one eye on their quarter-final second leg against PSG and that much was evident from Emery’s team selection, especially when you consider how important every remaining league fixture is. Thankfully having 50% focus is enough when you are playing against one of the worst teams in top-flight history.

Marcus Rashford was given the nod up front, with Marco Asensio and Jacob Ramsey in the three behind him with Wednesday’s goalscorer Morgan Rogers. Rashford’s last kick of the ball was an awful free-kick and he failed to make an impact but the players that came on for him and Ramsey, Ollie Watkins and Donyell Malen, made an immediate difference and proved to Emery they were focused on the task at hand.

Watkins won a penalty two minutes after coming on but Marco Asensio had his effort saved by Aaron Ramsdale, which was not ideal. In the 73rd minute it was 1-0 when Watkins scored a succulent stretching dinked volley over Ramsdale and six minutes later Malen made it two.

Club captain John McGinn came on in the 85th minute and lo and behold, he got in on the action to make it three substitute goals on the day. His penalty was also saved by Ramsdale but the Scot was there to dispatch the rebound.

Southampton still need a point to equal Derby County’s record low points total. We genuinely have no idea where that point is coming from.

Brighton 2-2 Leicester: Leicester scored a goal so nothing else matters

Having accumulated zero goals from 2.81 expected goals in over 12 hours of Premier League football, Leicester City have finally scored a goal. It came away to Brighton in the 38th minute through Stephy Mavididi. Although that was their first since the 50th minute of their comeback win away to Tottenham Hotspur on January 26, the Foxes are still without a home goal since December 8 against Saturday’s opponents.

Four whole months without a goal at home is wild and with relegation all but confirmed, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men are playing for pride between now and the end of the season. Ending their goal drought by scoring their first goal with the beautiful hooped Nike football is the start of regaining some form of pride.

Mavididi’s goal was an equaliser after going 1-0 down to a Joao Pedro penalty, won for a handball against Conor Coady. The Brazilian sent Mads Hermansen the wrong way, exactly as he did in the 55th minute to give European chasers Brighton a second lead of the afternoon.

Leicester never gave up and found another equaliser through Caleb Okoli. It was an awesome free-kick delivery from Bilal El Khannouss and lovely diving header from the big defender, whose goal was not ruled out for offside after a wonderfully short check from the semi-automated technology making its debut this weekend. We already love you so, so much.

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