Diallo's saviour, Ismail Sarr's double: Team of the Matchday 16 by Dailysports

From December 14 to 16, matches of the 16th round of the English Premier League season 2024/25 took place. The round was remembered for “Fergie time” by Rúben Amorim in the Manchester derby and Espírito Santo against Aston Villa.

Newcastle scored four unanswered goals against Leicester, and Tottenham – five against Southampton already in the first half. Liverpool and Arsenal could not win their matches. Chelsea climbed to second place, and Nottingham Forest – to fourth.
At the end of the round, the head coaches of the two worst teams in the league were dismissed: Southampton's Russell Martin and Wolverhampton's Gary O'Neil.

Presenting the symbolic team of the 16th round of the Premier League.

Goalkeeper: Jordan Pickford (Everton)

The reliable play of Pickford allowed the “Toffees” to take one point away from the Emirates. In the match against Arsenal, Jordan made 5 saves, blocked 2 shots, and played successfully on crosses.

He became the first goalkeeper who did not concede against the “Gunners” this Premier League season. The last time Arsenal failed to score in the league was on March 30.

Left-back: Antonee Robinson (Fulham)

The 27-year-old American recorded the most in the game against Liverpool: duels won (8), chances created (4), interceptions (4), tackles (5). Also, Antonee made three accurate crosses, cleared the ball once, and blocked a shot. And most importantly, it was from his passes that Pereira and Muniz scored.

Centre-back: Nikola Milenković (Nottingham Forest)

In the match against Aston Villa, the Serb cleared the ball 6 times, made one interception and one tackle. Of his 36 passes, 34 were accurate. Nikola won all his duels, both on the ground and in the air. In the 87th minute, he headed in a cross, scoring Forest’s first goal against Emiliano Martínez.

Right-back: Trevoh Chalobah (Crystal Palace)

Trevoh made 8 clearances, blocked 2 shots, intercepted and tackled the ball twice. 81% of his passes found their target, and Chalobah won 4 duels on the ground and in the air.

Trevoh had only one shot on goal, but it was decisive. In the 27th minute, he capitalized on chaos following a corner and opened the scoring with a header against Brighton.

Left midfielder: Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest)

The Scot delivered 4 key passes, one shot on target, 3 successful dribbles, and won 12 duels, both on the ground and in the air. In the final seconds of the match, Anderson took the ball from a Villa defender and assisted Elanga, who gave Nottingham 3 points.

Right midfielder: Jacob Murphy (Newcastle)

If in the last round Murphy distinguished himself with two assists, this time he scored a brace. Murphy also had two off-target shots, two key passes, and delivered one accurate cross and a long ball.

Central midfielder: Amad Diallo (Manchester United)

In the central match of the 16th round, the Ivorian became the hero of the ending of the Manchester derby. In the 86th minute, he earned a penalty, which Bruno converted, and in the 90th minute, after a pass from Lisandro, he brought the “Red Devils” victory. Despite an overall lackluster performance by United, they had a player who helped change the course of a difficult match.

Attacking midfielder: James Maddison (Tottenham)

The 28-year-old Englishman scored a brace, finding the net in the first and last minutes of the first half against Southampton. The last time Maddison scored twice was on November 23 in a match against Manchester City, when Spurs also routed their opponent on its field (4:0).

In addition to goals, James completed 3 successful dribbles, won 7 out of 9 duels, and achieved 85% pass accuracy.

Left winger: Son Heung-min (Tottenham)

The captain of the “Spurs” scored himself and provided two assists in the first half. Thanks to these assists, Son became one of the two best assist providers in Tottenham's history in the Premier League (68 assists).
The Korean completed 15 out of 16 accurate passes and had four more goal-scoring chances.

Right winger: Ismaïla Sarr (Crystal Palace)

The Senegalese contributed to all three goals against Brighton. In the 27th minute, during chaos after a corner, Chalobah scored, and the assist was credited to Sarr. Five minutes later, he scored himself, and in the 82nd minute, he netted another goal past Bart Verbruggen.

Centre forward: Diogo Jota (Liverpool)

The Portuguese became Arne Slot’s game-changer. Jota came on in the 79th minute, and 7 minutes later, he scored the equalizing goal in the match against Fulham.
In 11 minutes on the pitch, Diogo completed 3 successful dribbles, had 77% pass accuracy, and blocked and tackled the ball once each.

Head coach: Nuno Espírito Santo (Nottingham Forest)

As in the previous round, the best manager can be recognized as the Portuguese specialist.

Aston Villa was beaten in the last seconds, despite Forest trailing earlier in the match. This was not a fluke victory but a well-deserved one, considering Forest dictated the game’s conditions almost the entire time. After 16 rounds, Nottingham unexpectedly climbed to fourth place, overtaking Manchester City.