Weekend awards: Best goal, save, result and more!

Football writer Adrian Kajumba looks at the standout players and moments from Matchweek 11.

Best result - Spurs 1-2 Ipswich

At last, Ipswich Town finally claimed their first Premier League win, with a brilliant victory at Tottenham Hotspur to climb out of the bottom three.

And, even more encouragingly for the remainder of their season, Kieran McKenna’s men bucked a trend and proved they could see out a match to earn a priceless triumph.

The damage was done by Ipswich in the first half when they overran sluggish Spurs to establish a 2-0 lead through goals from Sam Szmodics and Liam Delap - the latter's sixth of the season.

Szmodics' goal v Spurs

A concern at that stage would have been that Ipswich had dropped the second-most points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, with 12. Also, they were facing a Spurs side with the third-best tally of points gained from losing positions this season (nine).

Inevitably there was a second-half Spurs fightback, with Rodrigo Bentancur halving the deficit in the 69th minute. 

But this was ultimately Ipswich’s day as they successfully managed the game to claim a historic first win since their return to the top flight.

McKenna, who led Ipswich's hard-earned full-time celebrations, said: “It’s a really significant moment and a day to cherish in the recent history of this football club.” 

Best team goal - Yoane Wissa's second

Along with goals galore at both ends of the Gtech Community Stadium, Yoane Wissa finding the net is another common sight there.

He has scored in all four of his Premier League home matches this season, netting six times in total and adding an assist too. 

His record of netting in 100 per cent of his home matches is only equalled by Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Matt O’Riley, who has only played once.

Wissa’s second strike of the match, to seal Brentford’s 3-2 win against AFC Bournemouth, is among the best of the division-high 29 goals scored in Bees home games this season.

It was the standout team effort of the weekend, just pipping Alejandro Garnacho’s glorious one for Manchester United. 

Wissa's second goal v Bournemouth

Nathan Collins, Ethan Pinnock, Vitaly Janelt and Keane Lewis-Potter were all involved as Brentford worked the ball in slick fashion from back to front before Wissa coolly chipped Bournemouth goalkeeper Kepa to win the match.

“It was a perfect Brentford team goal,” said Wissa, who described Janelt’s inch-perfect assist as “delicious.” 

It was also one that showcased the variety in Brentford’s play. Meanwhile, their first goal was the eighth they have scored from a throw-in - that's more than twice as many as any other side - since their debut Premier League season in 2021/22.

Best individual goal - Matheus Cunha 

Another starring performance from Matheus Cunha, in which he underlined his importance to Wolverhampton Wanderers, was capped by the best individual goal of the weekend.

Dropping cleverly into a pocket of space, Cunha received the ball, turned towards goal and smashed a long-range effort that flew past Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.

Cunha's stunner v Saints

Coupled with his first-half assist for Pablo Sarabia’s opener, Cunha proved again how central he is to Wolves’ safety hopes as he inspired them to their first Premier League win of this campaign. 

He now has 26 goal involvements since the start of last season, more than a number of players who have enjoyed impressive runs of form in that time such as Arsenal’s Kai Havertz, Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood, Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon, Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo and Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta.

Cunha's goal against Southampton was his fifth from open play this season, the fourth-best total in the Premier League, while no player has scored more right-footed goals than him.

Only Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer have created more big chances than Cunha’s nine, while his tally of seven through-balls - his method for setting up Sarabia's goal - is third-highest in the Premier League.

Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil has been working on getting “maverick” Cunha in the right positions, in both an attacking and defensive sense, and explained there is still work to do on that front following the win over Southampton. 

But while that process is ongoing, Cunha continues to be a vital difference-maker for Wolves. 

Best save - Jordan Pickford

West Ham United and Everton could not be separated at the London Stadium and Jordan Pickford was a major reason why the match ended goalless.

The Everton goalkeeper was in inspired form, making six saves - the most he has pulled off in a Premier League encounter since the Toffees’ 2-0 win against Liverpool last April.

No goalkeeper made more than Pickford’s half-dozen saves in Matchweek 11 and he recorded his best goals-prevented figure this season of 1.21, which was only topped this week by Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen with 1.98. 

Pickford saved the very best of his stops until last, reacting brilliantly to acrobatically tip over Danny Ings’ deflected shot in the third minute of time added on. 

See: Pickford's incredible save to deny Ings

That secured a third clean sheet of the season for England’s first-choice goalkeeper.

He produced 13 shutouts to finish as runner-up to Arsenal’s David Raya for the 2023/24 Golden Glove award; currently joint-third in the chart, he is well-placed to be in contention again this season.

Best comeback - Matt O’Riley 

What a moment the winning goal against Manchester City was for Brighton and especially scorer O’Riley.

After joining Brighton from Celtic for a reported £25million, the midfielder had his debut in the EFL Cup against Crawley in August cut short after just nine minutes, when he suffered an ankle injury which left him needing surgery and sidelined him for over two months.

But against Man City, he enjoyed a moment on his Premier League debut that nobody would surely begrudge him - coming off the bench to score a late winning goal and earn Brighton a famous victory over the champions. 

O'Riley's winner v Man City

O’Riley became the first player to score against Man City on his Premier League debut since Steven Bergwijn did the same for Spurs in February 2020.

“It wasn’t the start [to my Brighton career] I could have hoped for but I tried to stay positive during my rehab, focus on the things I could control, and here I am,” said O’Riley, after announcing himself in the Premier League.

Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler added: “In life you get what you deserve and work for. I have never seen a player have [such a] positive mindset during an injury. That’s exactly what he worked for, this moment.” 

Best reaction - Mikel Arteta 

The potential importance of every single moment in a title race was perfectly encapsulated by Mikel Arteta’s dramatic reaction to Leandro Trossard’s late miss at Chelsea.

The Arsenal manager fell to the ground and beat the turf in frustration, reflecting the same agony displayed by his players on the Stamford Bridge pitch.

Arteta's reaction to Trossard's late miss

It had echoes of another defining and knife-edge moment in last season’s title race.

On that occasion it was Man City manager Pep Guardiola who was briefly floored and fearing the worst as Son Heung-min ran through, before goalkeeper Stefan Ortega’s heroic save prevented Spurs’ captain handing Arsenal the title initiative heading into the final weekend of the season.  

The 2024/25 season is only 11 matches old but Arteta’s reaction was understandable. The margins are so tight in a title race and Arsenal have little - if any - room for error. 

They would have been seven points behind leaders Liverpool had Trossard scored with the last kick of the game.

Instead, they are now nine behind Arne Slot’s side and no team in Premier League history has clawed back a gap that big after 11 games to win the league.