Gameweek 9: Saturday Premier League Review
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Gameweek 9: Saturday Premier League Review

Gameweek 9: Saturday Premier League Review

An otherwise rather tame 90 minutes of action both of the Premier League’s 3pm kick-offs ended spectacularly with fans of both the Tyne-wear sides in jubilation at the end of the matches as their teams struck late to earn three valuable points.

Just the two fixtures played during the Saturday blackout period today, with a majority of the weekend’s action coming to screens throughout Sunday.

According to the BBC Sport’s Premier League page and live blogs covering both matches, there were just three minutes between Newcastle’s winner and Sunderland’s. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into this afternoon’s action.


The Black Cats Stun the Lions

A remarkable encounter at Stamford Bridge ended with a late sucker punch for the Blues as Chemsdine Talbi’s late strike sent Sunderland flying into dreamland as they jump into second place in the Premier League table.

Chelsea flew out the gates, striking in just the fourth minute with Alejandro Garnacho opening his account for the Blues.

The goal almost came out of nowhere, with Pedro Neto’s well-timed ball across to the Argentine who took a touch or two out of his feet and slammed it home – although questions may be asked of goalkeeper Robin Roefs, who could have done better.

The match seemed to calm down after an exciting back-and-forth for the opening 20 minutes – until the visitors long-throw ploy proved fatal. An excellent throw from Nordi Mukiele deep into Chelsea’s 18-yard box found Dan Ballard who flicked on to find ex-Aston Villa man Bertrand Traoré. His shot got deflected off a blue shirt, finding Wilson Isidor who slotted home his fourth goal of the 2025/26 campaign.

Following this equaliser the game slowly grumbled towards the interval, with Sunderland looking in an excellent position to take an exceptional point back to Wearside from the World Champions.

A rather unexciting 20 minute-start to the second half brought arguably the most crucial decision to change the tide, with Traoré departing for Talbi. Aside from a chance from range which looked to have surprised Roefs, Chelsea lacked that creative outlet throughout the match to really make some quality chances from the 69% possession.

It would soon come back to bite them when a ball over the top found its way to Brian Brobbey, who held the play up well before finding Talbi who picked out the bottom-right corner to cause limbs amongst the travelling supporters.



The defeat leaves Chelsea in seventh, with the hosts blowing their opportunity to close the gap to Arsenal and also leaving them behind Spurs ahead of their clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend.

Meanwhile, the visitors pick up their fifth win of the season and look to be challenging for a top 10 finish rather than worrying about relegation.

Catch the highlights here.


Newcastle Strike Late to Continue Good Run

A late strike from the ever-reliable Bruno Guimaraes earns another victory for the Magpies as they record their fifth win in the last seven, jumping up 11th in the table. Meanwhile, Fulham are inflicted with their fourth defeat in a row, leaving them in a precarious position ahead of the rest of this weekend’s action.

The hosts headed into this fixture looking to build on their classy victory over Benfica in Europe on Tuesday, while Fulham looked to gain something as they looked to stop their poor run of form.

Newcastle earned a few early chances which came close, with Nick Woltemade hitting the woodwork early on. Their breakthrough came in the 18th minute when Calvin Bassey was completely caught out, allowing Jacob Murphy to run freely on goal.

His shot was placed just well enough to squeeze it in off the left-hand post after nicking the glove of Bernd Leno, who definitely will be disappointed with his effort.

Both sides then had their chances throughout the rest of the first period, with Fulham having a cross sent straight across the box with no forward in sight of getting near it. That was the best they had, with the Toon Army recording many efforts on their way to gaining a 2.05xG.

Kevin entered the fray for the visitors at half-time, and he paid back the faith Marco Silva installed in him almost immediately. Just 10 minutes after the interval, his superb, whipped cross found Raul Jimenez, who struck the crossbar before the fell to Sasa Lukic to thump home the leveller.

The hosts looked like the better side throughout the game, accumulating constant chances and threatening the Fulham goal. Their efforts did eventually pay off, with captain Guimaraes pouncing on a parried save by Leno to William Osula’s initial shot to leave Fulham heading back down to the capital pointless for the fourth game running.



Both sides will now return to EFL Cup action in the last 16 stage as Newcastle host Tottenham, while Fulham stay on the road, travelling to League One’s Wycombe Wanderers where they will look to end their losing run.

Catch the highlights here.

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