Milner Makes History and Stach Scores Stunner - Premier League Round 27 in Review: Saturday's Matches As They Happened
Milner Makes History and Stach Scores Stunner - Premier League Round 27 in Review: Saturday's Matches As They Happened
It was another entertaining day of play in the English topflight, with 10 teams in action across Saturday with many fascinating stories occurring throughout.
James Milner made his record-breaking 654th appearance in the Premier League, Chelsea suffered their seventh red card of the season, and Anton Stach scored an absolute worldie for Leeds United.
From the nine goals scored across five games, Football Park is on hand to provide with all the important storylines and events that occurred throughout Saturday's Premier League action and what impact the results may have on the league standings.
Leeds Miss Out on Win Despite Stach Wonder Strike
Aston Villa 1-1 Leeds Abraham (88'); Stach (31').
We dive straight into the 3pm matches here, with no 12:30 matches available on TNT Sports this weekend. At Villa Park, Unai Emery's side hoped to get back to winning ways after suffering a fourth round exit in the FA Cup last weekend to Newcastle United, where they locked horns with a confident Leeds United outfit.
The hosts came out the blocks slowly, allowing Leeds to get on the ball early and test the Aston Villa defence. A big opportunity came to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who was played in on goal with just Emiliano Martinez standing between him and a 1-0 lead - a heavy first touch, however, enabled the Argentine to get out quick enough and put a stop to the attack.
Shortly after, the visitors won a free-kick from around 30 yards out, and Anton Stach stepped to strike the ball into the top left corner, catching the slightly out of position Martinez off guard. Ilia Gruev had a chance to double the Leeds lead too, but his edge of the box effort flew over the bar.
Anton Stach with a SUBLIME goal against Aston Villa! 😱🍿 pic.twitter.com/EVn0wIoQ58
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 21, 2026
The Villans tried to bite back before the break, as they quickly looked to find a foothold in proceedings. Ollie Watkins had an excellent chance but couldn't convert, before a Douglas Luiz cross found Amadou Onana - the Belgian forcing a superb reflex save from Karl Darlow meant the score remianed 0-1 heading into the interval.
Villa came into the second half much stronger, and were soon piling on the pressure to Daniel Farke's side. Emiliano Buendia let rip from outside the box, and his shot diverted off the post into the Watkins' feet to slot into the empty net, but the flag was soon raised for offside.
As Villa began to push more and more for the equaliser, they eventually found their goal, as Jadon Sancho's corner met Ezri Konsa's head before Tammy Abraham kneed the ball into the roof of the Leeds goal to rescue a point as Villa move within seven points of Arsenal.
Seagulls Victorious as Milner Breaks Appearance Record
Brentford 0-2 Brighton Gomez (30'), Welbeck (45'+1).
James Milner was named in the Brighton starting lineup for the first time in 2026, as he was set to make his 654th Premier League appearance to break Gareth Barry's long-stnading record. His Brighton side made the trip to London to take on Brentford, with the visitors hoping to earn their first win since January 3rd.
The Bees struggled to get straight into the match, and the Seagulls caused many early problems for Keith Andrews's side. Kaoru Mitoma had the first opportunity, but he failed to test Caoimhin Kelleher.
Soon, however, Ferdi Kadioglu had his tremendous effort from outside the box hit the crossbar before it fell to Diego Gomez, who was on hand to give Fabian Hurzeler's side the lead as Brighton finally scored in February at the fourth attempt.
It didn't take long for them to double their lead either, as a ball was played tamely across the box, which substitute Nathan Collins failed to clear, with Danny Welbeck positioned strongly to put the visitors 2-0 up at half-time.
As the game progressed into the second period, Brentford began creating more chances but onthing clearcut as Bart Verbruggen remained largely untested, with his own defender being the only player to force him to dive throughout the game.
The result means Brentofrd fail to close the gap on the top four while Brighton fly up into 12th, nine points above the drop zone.
Burnley Frustrate Chelsea as Blues Suffer Another Red
Chelsea 1-1 Burnley Pedro (4'); Flemming (90'+3).
For the last of the blackout kick-offs in this roundup, we head to Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea looked to continue their unbeaten start in the league under Liam Rosenior as they welcomed a struggling and relegation threatened Burnley side to west London, looking for a win to propel them clear of Manchester United and Liverpool.
The game started very nicely for the Londoners, as Moises Caicedo received the ball in his own half before finding Pedro Neto with a beautifully-timed through pass down the left side, before the Portuguese international squared it to Joao Pedro to scramble home to finish a very clean play from the Blues.
Key chances were few and far between after this, but Cole Palmer had a golden chance to make it 2-0 before half-time, but he failed to take advantage of a Kyle Walker howler on the halway line to give his side a two-goal cushion.
Wesley Fofana then gave the hosts a nervy final 20 minutes after he lunged in late on substitute James Ward-Prowse to leave Chelsea with 10-men. Scott Parker's men left it late but struck in injury time of the second half, after Ward-Prowse's corner found Zian Flemming, who lost his marker to run in towards the near post and glance home to rescue a point, with Rosenior left fuming at a certain Blues player.
Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior on the Burnley goal: “There was a player we assigned that duty who marked the wrong player.”
— ChelsTransfer (@ChelsTransfer) February 21, 2026
pic.twitter.com/WiSq7lo5Y1
Chances to win for both sides were to come, as Jacob Bruun Larsen first headed over from almost an identical position to Flemming's equaliser just moments before. Liam Delap then had a late chance to strike, but sent his effort into row Z.
Chelsea missed out on a great opportunity to go three points clear of United, but the point sees Burnley moves them to within eight points of Nottingham Forest in 17th.
Hammers Settle For Tought Point
West Ham 0-0 Bournemouth
Later on in the day, two of the topflight's form sides met at the London Stadium, as relegation threatened West Ham welcomed an in-form Bournemouth side to east London, with the hosts hoping for a win to move level on points with Forest.
Both sides struggled to find much to create in the rainy conditions, and quality was sadly very much lacking throughout the game, leading to very few good chances to see a goal in the clash.
Ex-Cherries forward Callum Wilson came off the bench to test Djordje Petrovic with 20 minutes to go, with both sides starting to get into the game more in its closing stages. Jarrod Bowen came very close to snatching a late winner, before Bournemouth's Rayan hit the woodwork as 19-year-old missed out on his third goal in successive matches.
The Cherries' point means they move ahead of Everton and into eighth momentarily, while the Hammers move within one win of safety.
O'Reilly Double Sees City Close in on Arsenal
Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle United O'Reilly (14', 27'); Hall (22').
After just six goals across the opening four matches, the last match of the day certainly made up for it, when Manchester City welcomed Newcastle United to the Etihad Stadium, with the hosts hoping to capitalise on league leaders Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Wolves on Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola's side started the game superbly, hungry to move within touching distance of the Gunners, and soon found the opening goal courtesy Nico O'Reilly, who received the ball from an unselfish Omar Marmoush following his solo run, to then squeeze it through opposing goalkeeper Nick Pope.
The lead only lasted eight minutes, however, as a corner led to an equaliser. Initially cleared, the ball fell to Lewis Hall on the edge of the box, who struck gold as his effort took a heavy deflection off Rayan Ait-Nouri to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to level the clash as the Etihad fell to silence.
🚨🏴 LEWIS HALL HAS EQUALIZED FOR NEWCASTLE!
— Tekkers Foot (@tekkersfoot) February 21, 2026
Manchester City 1-1 Newcastle.pic.twitter.com/VKm0KpcMM0
City then immediately bounced back from this set-back, and O'Reilly came up trumps once more to restore the lead for the Citizens. This wasn't all for the first-half action either, as a Ruben Dias yellow card was followed by a Sandro Tonali corner which found Dan Burn who scored before the offside flag was raised.
It was a very nervy second period for the Mancunians, who had to endure an open 45 minutes with chances for both sides to add to their tally - Erling Haaland particularly put in a good shift on the defensive end, with the Norwegian tracking back well and clearing when needed.
Every supporter of Man City probably took a deep sigh of relief as the whistle was blown and the hosts moved within two points of Arsenal, while Newcastle remain in 10th.
Join our newsletter
Become a part of our community and never miss an update from Football Park.
Contact Sales