Premier League wrap-up: Heated draws abound as title race continues

The Premier League takes a brief hiatus now after a hectic period of games that started last month and went straight through the Festive Fixtures and into the second week of January.

Matchweek 21 saw some big changes at a couple of big clubs, while the race at the top of the table continued to enthrall.

Here are some of the bigger talking points from the midweek matches in Matchweek 21.

Arsenal squander opportunity to extend lead

The Gunners entered Thursday's match against Liverpool five points clear of Manchester City and Aston Villa, who each drew their respective games a day earlier.

That gave Arsenal the opportunity to end Matchweek 21 with an eight-point cushion at the top of the standings, but they knew getting a win would be a difficult task against one of the only two teams that have beaten them in any competition this season.

Liverpool entered the match on a nine-game unbeaten run across all competitions, although their last two outings resulted in draws. Despite beating Arsenal earlier in the campaign, the Reds still had a monumental challenge ahead of them as they looked to become the second team to take points from Emirates Stadium in 2025-26, and after a stout first half in which they spent most of their team defending, they flipped the script on their hosts and looked the better side in the second half.

Ultimately, neither team was good enough to find a breakthrough, even with Arsenal registering four shots on target to Liverpool's zero.

The Gunners will be the more disappointed of the two sides, but they didn't harm their title chase.

Igor Thiago elevating Brentford

The Bees have moved up to fifth place amid a six-game unbeaten streak, with their last result a 3-0 victory over Sunderland.

Headlining that win was Igor Thiago, the 24-year-old striker who has been unplayable across the past two matches. Thiago scored twice to pace Brentford to victory over the Black Cats, with the brace coming just three days after the Brazilian notched a hat-trick in a 4-2 win against Everton.

Brentford's rise in the standings mirrors that of Thiago's own climb in the Premier League goalscoring charts, as the former Club Brugge standout now sits at 16 goals for the season. That puts him four back of Erling Haaland in the Golden Boot race, but more notably it gives him the most goals in a single season by a Brazilian in the Premier League with 17 more games to add to his account.

How high can Igor Thiago and Brentford go? Stay tuned.

New managers in the Big 6

It was a week of change for Chelsea and Manchester United, who both went into their Matchweek 21 fixtures with interim managers in the dugout.

The Blues parted ways with Enzo Maresca on New Year's Day and the Red Devils did the same with Ruben Amorim four days later as both clubs are nowhere near where they hoped they'd be at this stage of the season. 

Maresca's sacking comes as a shock in light on the highly successful 2025 he had, leading Chelsea to two major trophies and guiding the London club to a good start to 2025-26 as the Blues were as high as second in the league at the end of November. However, things unravelled in the time since then, and Chelsea slumped out of the title race by the end of Maresca's tenure.

Meanwhile, Amorim never experienced the same success at Old Trafford, as Man United continued to be the same rudderless mess the team was before he signed on. Despite flashes of competence, it became apparent that Amorim's relationship with the club's higher-ups had devolved and his days became numbered.

• Read next | Bizarre press conferences, benching promising youngsters and lack of results - What went wrong for Amorim at Man Utd?

And while both clubs will look to make a fresh start after moving on from their former bench bosses, the same problems that plagued each side at the end of Maresca's and Amorim's reigns were apparent in Matchweek 21, with Chelsea once again losing a player to a red card before falling 2-1 to neighbouring Fulham, while Man United failed to impress in a 2-2 draw with relegation-threatened Burnley despite a pair of goals from Benjamin Sesko.

Either way, two of the biggest clubs in England were decisive in cutting their managers loose amid troublesome results. Could Tottenham's Thomas Frank be far behind?

How to watch the Premier League in Canada

Soccer fans in Canada can watch every Premier League match during the 2025-26 season on DAZN.

With Fubo Sports on DAZN, Canadians can catch Premier League action as well as Serie A. Additionally, DAZN is the home of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Bundesliga, and more.

For pricing information and to sign up to watch, click here.