F365’s 3pm Blackout: Liverpool top but not really, Spurs and Fulham defy description, Hatters blow it

Always looked a cracking batch of 3pm games, this one, with significant potential to reshape the relegation picture in particular. It certainly did that, but perhaps not in the way most expected…

Liverpool 3-1 Burnley: Front three deliver, record for TAA, but a familiar feeling of dread for Reds

Liverpool find themselves in a curious position. We’re almost two-thirds of the way through the Premier League season now and Liverpool have just won 3-1 to go back to the top of the Premier League table. This is by any sane measure a Good Thing. And yet the day ends with Liverpool feeling far less like potential title winners than it started. The increasingly ominous Manchester Citying going on from Manchester City – and especially the returning Erling Haaland – just makes any win that is less than 100 per cent compelling feel like ground lost. At home to the second-worst team in the division, Liverpool really could have done with more than this.

Sounds harsh, is harsh, but it’s the reality of trying to go toe to toe with Manchester City in the second half of a Premier League season. And there is of course no team better acquainted with that near impossible task than Liverpool. They were unconvincing going forward for long periods here, and the sloppy equaliser just before half-time and further chances given up to a team fighting a losing battle against relegation have to be a concern on the back of what was a pretty poor effort at Arsenal last weekend.

This really isn’t meant to sound as gloomy as it does. It’s just better to be realistic at this point. City are now firmly in their “New year is it? Win all the games now” phase and Liverpool are a work in progress who have if anything exceeded expectations this season. Getting back into the Champions League was a far more reasonable season target than a full-on title challenge, and they’re going to achieve that with plenty to spare.

Report: Liverpool 3-1 Burnley: Reds go back top with front three on song in victory over Clarets

Tottenham 2-1 Brighton: Spurs somehow escape early Brighton mauling with three more points

We’re becoming increasingly certain that Angeball has been largely worked out now by the rest of the Premier League. But this isn’t quite yet showing in Tottenham’s results. There are cracks and flaws if you want to find them. One away win since October is a good one, for instance. One clean sheet in 15 games another. But they’ve also now won five home games on the spin, and we’re no longer sure frankly if the often unconvincing nature of each of the last four makes that more or less impressive.

Certainly there can be no more grumbling about the injuries that really did cut them down in the autumn. The starting XI here was only Heung-min Son away from being Ange Postecoglou’s likely first-choice XI, and Son duly returned from Asian Cup duty to assist the winner for Brennan Johnson in the sixth added minute.

Are they playing well? Not really, but they’ve won six and drawn two of their last nine Premier League games since that horror run of one point in five games. For the third game in four they’ve picked up points from a losing position and a season of wild fluctuations between highs and lows is still overall miles ahead of what could reasonably be expected of a new-look team with a new un-Barclays-proven manager on the back of selling their greatest player of certainly the Premier League era and quite possibly ever.

There is plenty about them and when it all clicks it’s a joy to watch, but we’d feel happier if we could just see something approaching a complete 90-minute performance from a side that could do something really quite special over the next few years.

Report: Tottenham 2-1 Brighton: Brennan Johnson saves Spurs with 96th-minute winner to break Seagulls hearts

Brennan Johnson, Richarlison, Tottenham, February 2024

Brennan Johnson and Richarlison celebrate late Tottenham winner

Luton 1-3 Sheffield United: Hatters miss glorious opportunity

That one is going to sting. For Luton’s first two-goal home defeat of the season to come against one of the sides below them is going to be hard to put to one side, especially with upcoming games against Manchester United, Liverpool and Aston Villa before some more pre-interlull six-pointery against Palace and Forest.

It’s only one game, but it’s arguable Luton haven’t had a bigger one this season. Certainly not a bigger opportunity. This really had the potential to be a red-letter day for them, given what they could potentially do to the Blades and what City and Liverpool were always likely to do to nearest Everton and Burnley. The fixture computer had been kind, but the opportunity has been horribly spurned.

Victory today would have all but finished Sheffield United while opening a 10-point cushion over Burnley and most significantly four over Everton. If – and it still very much is if – Luton’s unexpectedly gallant survival bid failed, it’s unlikely there will be too many days more readily pinpointed for responsibility than this one.

Fulham 3-1 Bournemouth: So… are Fulham good, or what?

Can’t work Fulham out at all this season. Are you any good lads, or not? Please make up your minds. This was a thoroughly impressive dismantling of a Bournemouth team that took a while to find its stride this season but has proven notably tricky to dismantle having done so.

Fulham are the first team not called Manchester City, Liverpool or Tottenham – that is, three of the Premier League’s top four – to beat Bournemouth in any competition since October. That they did so with such compelling thrust and style as well only adds to the sense forged in those back-to-back 5-0 wins over Nottingham Forest and West Ham that this is a team that at its best can do quite striking things. Coming back from a goal down to beat Arsenal is another thing Fulham have done this season that doesn’t really happen these days.

And yet they also do things like lose at home to Burnley or, worse, Manchester United. Their five remaining games before the international break are against Villa, Manchester United, Brighton, Wolves and Tottenham. We fully expect them to win at least four of those before promptly losing on their return to action against Sheffield United.

Wolves 0-2 Brentford: Bees *can* hold a lead

For the 17th time in the Premier League this season, Brentford took the lead. For only the seventh – and the first away from home since October – they held that lead and took all three points. They even extended that lead to 2-0, which seems like a strategy they might want to consider using more often, although that did also only come after a VAR offside decision spared the familiar sinking feeling after what appeared to be an all-too predictable equaliser for the home side.

This was a big result, though, in a tricky game on a day that was always going to significantly reshape the relegation picture. A day that began with the very real prospect of being leapfrogged by Luton ends instead with a five-point cushion over the Hatter and six with a game in hand over Everton.