The international break is over, and the Premier League is back and better than ever. The best league in the world once again showed why it has been given that name, as every match was laden with drama and interest, no matter where you looked.

These lists are always tricky to do, and it could feasibly be a ‘50 moments you might have missed’, but I’d be here until Christmas. So without further ado, here are five things you may have missed in the Premier League this weekend.

5. Fulham’s Infinite Woodwork Glitch

While some may look at Fulham’s 4-1 defeat to Wolves and think it was a one-sided affair, it is typical of the English top flight that the final score line doesn’t reflect the pattern of the game.

Prior to Wolves visit, Fulham had only beaten twice at Craven Cottage so far this season, with those coming against Man United and Aston Villa. Marco Silva’s side had impressed more often than not on their home turf, and many saw that pattern continuing here.

Everything seemed on track when Alex Iwobi curled in a beauty from 20 or so yards less than a quarter of the way through the match, but the lead should have been more, as on 17 minutes Raul Jimenez hit the crossbar from six yards out, a chance that if given 100 times, he would have converted on the other 99 occasions.

HT 1-1 | Two quality goals, one scored by either side has the game level at the break. Jimenez's chance may go down as Fulham's miss of the season. Fulham have been the better side, but were caught out by a brilliant bit of play from Wolves. #FFC

— Jack Kelly (@jackellyffc) November 23, 2024

Wolves responded well, as Matheus Cunha brought down a lovely Mario Lemina long pass and chipped it deftly over the onrushing Bernd Leno to level the scores.

Half time came and went, and suddenly Fulham found themselves trailing 8 minutes into the second period thanks to a superbly worked goal from Joao Gomes. Even so, Fulham would have been optimistic, as Wolves had already dropped 11 points from winning positions prior to kick-off, and they kept taking the game to their opponents.

Three minutes after Wolves took the lead, Fulham, as well as most of the fans in the ground, thought they had drawn level, after Antonee Robinson’s dangerous low cross looked to have been diverted into the net by Rayan Ait-Nouri. However, cheers turned to groans as the ball bounced down the touchline for a corner.

In reality, what had happened is that Ait-Nouri had got his knee to the ball before the arriving Iwobi, and the deflection had caught the outside of the post before ricocheting off the stanchion which holds up the net. For much of the ground, the ball looked to have travelled into the corner, but instead Fulham had hit the woodwork for the second time.

Still trailing in the 70th minute, Marco Silva brought on Harry Wilson, who had bagged three goals in his last two games. Fulham almost reaped immediate reward, as Wilson sent a curling effort towards the top corner, only to agonisingly see it bounce off the top of the crossbar.

Fulham had hit the woodwork for a third and final time, a number that would come back to haunt them. With 13 minutes remaining, Joachim Andersen went down off the ball with an injury, and with all of his substitutions made, Marco Silva had to make peace with the fact that his side would play the remainder of the game with 10 men. For Fulham, the alarm bells had finally started ringing.

Wolves clinically put the game out of reach with their one man advantage; Matheus Cunha scored the best goal of the game as he curled in from 25 yards, before Goncalo Guedes added gloss to the score in added time.

Matheus Cunha is him.

🇧🇷🎯 pic.twitter.com/RYAWQbwFzx

— Wolves (@Wolves) November 23, 2024

For Fulham however, it was a case of what could have been. Had their three woodwork shaking attempts drifted to the other side of the posts, they would have bagged four, and at the very worst, would have picked up a point.

Marco Silva will certainly reconsider using all of his subs by the 71st minute in future.

4. Pinpoint Muric Wakes up Linesman

A long ball comes over the top, and an opposing striker is bearing down on the loose ball, in a foot race with the on-rushing goalkeeper. The goalkeeper just gets there first, and boots the ball into row-z for a throw-in.

We see it a lot, particularly with promoted clubs, and more broadly, with clubs in the bottom half of the table. Ipswich Town are a team that fall into both categories, and they had the unenviable task of facing Manchester United for new manager Ruben Amorim’s first game in charge.

Falling behind after two minutes to a well-worked Marcus Rashford goal, it seemed Ipswich would be hard-pressed to keep up with the Red Devils after their electric start. However, United lost their momentum, and Ipswich slowly grew into the game, at times even looking in charge against what is still a United team bereft of significant confidence.

They got their just reward two minutes before half time, as Omari Hutchinson, Ipswich’s young player of the season in 2023/24, cut onto his left foot, and sent a stunning, swerving effort into the top corner past the despairing Andre Onana. It took the faintest of flicks off the head of Noussair Mazraoui on its way, but the effort was so well struck it would likely have gone in anyway.

The teams emerged from the break level, and during a stop-start half, neither looked likely to go ahead. However, Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric did need to intervene in an unconventional way.

In the 75th minute, left back Leif Davis was caught on the ball by Joshua Zirkzee, who had been brought on just seven minutes earlier. The loose ball rolled towards the corner flag, and Muric got moving quickly, reaching the ball a few yards before Zirkzee.

Naturally, his first thought was to put the ball out off a throw-in, and punting the ball with the outside of his foot, sent a low strike towards the stands. However, the linesman, sprinting to keep up with play, inadvertently found himself in the way of the ball, and with almost no time to react, the ball struck him on the arm.

Murić w końcu z udanym zagraniem na poziomie Premier League pic.twitter.com/VrFjzCM7cI

— Łukasz Maciejewski (@lukimaciejewski) November 24, 2024

The linesman remained standing, and promptly flagged for a throw-in. Meanwhile, on Sky Sport commentary, the quick thinking Peter Drury emerged with the perfect line for the unusual interaction. As the strike on the linesman was replayed, Drury rhetorically asked “Was that arm in a natural position”, taking a dig at VAR and the lack of clarity around handballs in the modern game.

Muric only needed to make three saves throughout the game, and his pinpoint ‘pass’ to the linesman is far more memorable than any of them. In fairness, the linesman had been given little to do throughout the game, and likely needed something to wake them up.

I almost included a delighted Ed Sheeran crashing Ruben Amorims first Premier League post-match interview in this list as well, but given that there is only space for five moments in this list, one instance from each match is the self-imposed limit. However, it was a hilarious moment, and deserves a mention. Welcome to the Premier League Ruben.

3. Noni Madueke’s Goal-line Clearance

Goal-line interventions are a fairly frequent occurrence, and can result in memorable moments of heroic defending. Just think of James Milner’s spectacular volley off the line against Man City, or John Stones’ vital intervention against Liverpool that would famously end up winning the Cityzens the 2018/19 league title.

However, a goal-line clearance by a team mate on your own shot is a considerably rarer occurrence, one which Chelsea became familiar with during their 2-1 win over Leicester on Saturday.

Leading 1-0 after half time thanks to a flawless finish from Nicolas Jackson, Chelsea were pushing for a second, and eight minutes into the second half came ever so close to finding it.

Working the ball out from the back in the 53rd minute, and a line splitting pass from a reborn Enzo Fernandez sent Joao Felix sprinting towards the Leicester back line. With Jackson, Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke in support, it was a 4 vs 2 situation.

Felix poked it through for Jackson to his left, and the in-form Senegalese striker saw the opportunity to double his tally for the day. Sprinting onto the moving ball, Jackson ran around in order to bend it low into the corner on his right foot.

It was a fine effort, and it would have been a fine finish had Mads Hermansen not got a finger tip to the ball, pushing it back out into the danger zone. Waiting there were Palmer and Madueke, with the goal looming large.

Madueke, after initially going for the loose ball, saw it roll past him, and he instead attempted to move out of the way for Palmer to slot home. With the ball all of four yards out, a goal seemed guaranteed. And yet somehow, Leicester earned a seemingly impossible goal-kick.

Palmer walked onto the ball and side footed it goalwards with Hermansen nowhere to be seen. Madueke, knowing he was in Palmer’s line of sight, jumped in order for the ball to travel under him. However, his standing leg was too slow, and the ball struck his shin full on, deflecting the ball behind for a Leicester goal kick.

Madueke stops Palmer from scoringpic.twitter.com/OpnwFVOuyv

— Total Football (@TotalFootbol) November 23, 2024

Palmer and Madueke shared a smile with each other, knowing there was not much either could have done about the horror miss, and resumed their positions.

It was the sort of miss that could well have come back to bite them against another side, but on the day, Leicester were exceptionally poor, so bad that they fired manager Steve Cooper two days later.

Enzo Fernandez did bag the crucial second goal with a 75th minute header, and a stoppage time Leicester penalty can only be counted as a consolation given how late it arrived.

While Chelsea fans will be happy with a win that cements their third placed position in the league, FPL players are considerably less joyous. With many captaining Palmer for what was perceived as a guaranteed points scoring game for him, many will be fuming with Madueke’s unintended goal-line block that robbed them of so many points.

Why Madueke, why ? pic.twitter.com/hZBSdSLTj8

— Troll Fantasy Football (@FPL_Trolls) November 23, 2024

2. Spurs Goal Scorers and their Social Media Posts

Spurs win at the Etihad itself cannot be classed as ‘something you may have missed’. The biggest shock of the weekend was covered everywhere on TV and social media.

Winning 4-0 at the Etihad, Spurs handed Man City their fifth consecutive defeat, and arguably even more notably, ending the Sky Blue’s 35 game unbeaten home streak in the league. James Maddison flourished in midfield and bagged two goals, while Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson punished uncharacteristically sloppy defending in the second half to bury their opponents, in a game that will go down in Tottenham folklore.

After a performance such as the one they put out on Saturday evening many would expect the Tottenham players celebrations to involve loud music, some alcohol and more than a bit of chaos. Many would imagine the team coach journey home to be absolute bedlam. However, goal scorer Porro brought an unusual twist to things.

Instead of getting wild on the team bus, Porro organised a Mario Kart competition with some of his team mates, including fellow goalscorers Maddison and Johnson. Posting the final leaderboard on his Instagram story, Porro seemingly wiped the floor with his colleagues in the friendly competition, topping off his night with another win.

Maddison also posted a post-match story the following day. It was a somewhat hilariously photoshopped, fan-made image of Ben Davies’ head on top of Italy legend Paolo Maldini’s body, and was captioned with “you lot are too fast man. All joking aside, what a shift from Mr Reliable yesterday.”

It seems that the Spurs team spirit runs deep under Ange Postecoglou, to such an extent they post fan-made memes of each other. It is a good sign for the London club, as with the busy, challenging festive period about to kick-off, the side will need all the squad togetherness and unity they can muster.

1. Wan-Bissaka eases Lopetegui Pressure

I bet that's a sentence you thought you'd never hear. Aaron Wan Bissaka, who hadn’t scored a league goal since 2021, may have saved his managers job. After what has been a dire start to his time in charge of West Ham, Julen Lopetegui finally appears to have his team playing the way he wants.

The Hammers’ overall performance against Newcastle at St. James’ Park was unrecognisable compared to the aimless side that had failed to win eight of their first 11 games of the league campaign, and it seems Lopetegui’s vision is starting to take hold.

Outstanding from the first whistle to the last, they took an early lead through the always dangerous Tomas Soucek, who thumped a bullet header into the bottom corner in the 10th minute, totally unmarked. While West Ham celebrated, Newcastle looked lost at how the biggest man in the West Ham lineup could have a free header.

Tomáš Souček is the first midfielder to score 30 non-penalty goals for West Ham in the Premier League ⚒️

Mark Noble (47) is the only midfielder with more total goals, however only 19 were non-peanlty goals 🤓 pic.twitter.com/PkuGFaVQuK

— Hammers Hub (@HammersHubWHUFC) November 25, 2024

However, the Magpies responded well, and almost equalised after errors from West Ham defenders Wan-Bissaka and Jean Claire Todibo almost gifted two easy goals, but West Ham survived.

An away game at St, James’ Park is a difficult fixture for any team, and naturally, the Hammers’ found themselves on the back foot the majority of the time, but their defence on this occasion looked solid, and dare I say confident.

And they were rewarded for their backline stubbornness, as in the 53rd minute, Bowen collected the ball on the right flank, while Wan-Bissaka strained every sinew to make a line breaking underlap.

Bowen threaded a pass through two defenders perfectly into the stride of the right-back, who took one touch and lashed a low, rolling effort across goal that was tucked neatly into the far corner.

Omg how the hell has Wan Bissaka scored a goal 😂😂 #SkySports #newcastlewestham pic.twitter.com/GWWS6UVI2m

— Lloyd (@lloydallred) November 25, 2024

Wan-Bissaka is famously a very defensive right back, and unaccustomed to finding himself in and around the opposition penalty area, but the touch and finish was that of a seasoned striking veteran who had been there hundreds of times before. With his first goal for the Hammers', he may have just found his goal scoring touch.

His goal was crucial, as Newcastle kept ramping up the pressure, and had a seemingly clear cut penalty call controversially turned away by referee Craig Pawson. Had the tug on Callum Wilson's shoulder resulted in a spot kick, the Wan-Bissaka goal would have proved even more critical.

It was the perfect away performance from West Ham, who have not impressed for much of the season. Prior to the game, the pressure had been starting to build on Lopetegui. Good results were needed in their next few games if he wanted to stay on as coach, and he started the beginning of the hectic Christmas schedule with a superb response to the speculation over his future.

West Ham managers when they have a finite amount of games to save their job pic.twitter.com/WEks5eL4Hc

— greatest window ever 😮‍💨 (@whugl6) November 25, 2024

The result takes West Ham up to 14th in the league, and importantly, six points clear of Ipswich Town in 18th, moving them away from a potential relegation fight. However, their next game, a home fixture against title chasers Arsenal will answer a lot of questions. Was the result at Newcastle a flash in the pan, or are the Hammers starting to make progress?