EPL Results Week 28: Biggest Winners and Losers After Saturday's Matches

Week 28 of the Premier League season is underway, and Saturday gave us five matches packed with thrilling action, controversy and a major upset.

Here are the biggest winners and losers of Saturday's action.

Winner: Moussa Sissoko and Andre Schurrle

Tony Marshall/Getty Images

Unexpected volume scorers are always winners in my book.

Moussa Sissoko came into Newcastle's tie with Hull City having scored only a single goal all season. Against the Tigers, he bagged himself a pair of fine goals, slotting home a beautiful one-time blast 10 minutes into the game and pouncing on a loose ball early in the second half.

Andre Schurrle's hat-trick against Fulham meanwhile doubled the young German's season total, taking full advantage of some excellent passes courtesy of Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres. With the competition for midfield spots as fierce as Chelsea's, every single performance counts, and Schurrle took full advantage of his opportunity Saturday.

Loser: Alan Pardew

While his stud midfielder was making headlines by scoring unlikely goals, Alan Pardew found a way to make everyone forget about his team's dominant win.

Unable to keep a cool head (pun intended), the Newcastle boss head-butted Hull City's David Meyler during an altercation late in the game.

Pardew was quick to apologise after the game, per BBC.com, understanding he'd crossed a line: "I apologise to everyone. I should not have got involved in it."

The Magpies coach reacted to a shove from Meyler, but he was in no mood to make excuses for his behaviour: "It was a situation where I should not have been there. I will sit down from now on and send [assistant manager] John Carver out there."

Gary Lineker voiced what pretty much everyone was thinking:

Pardew might have apologised immediately, but as a coach, it is simply inexcusable to be involved in any kind of violent encounter with a player from either team. The Daily Telegraph's David Winter seems to think Newcastle might be without their coach for a while:

Winner: Stoke City

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

It's simple: When you're playing games with one eye fixed on the teams behind you, taking any points from a title contender is a bonus.

Stoke's win over Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium is just that: three bonus points that give the team some breathing room going into the final stages of the Premier League season. The home side frustrated the Gunners for the full 90 minutes, not allowing their opponents to build any sort of rhythm while regularly threatening Wojciech Szczesny with swooping cross.

And while the debate on whether Laurent Koscielny's handling of the ball was intentional or not will undoubtedly rage on for a few more days, there's no denying Stoke City deserved this fantastic result against one of the league leaders.

Loser: Arsenal

On the flip side, there's Arsenal. Not only did the Gunners lose to a mid-table team, but with Chelsea's win over neighbours Fulham, the gap between the top two sides has suddenly grown to four points.

Arsenal fans are desperate for silverware as the team has built up a reputation for underperforming year after year, and this latest result will no doubt give critics even more ammo.

The Gunners better regroup fast, because the schedule for the next few weeks looks absolutely brutal:

Winner: Luis Suarez

In case you hadn't heard, Luis Suarez is having quite the season.

The Uruguayan had a goal and two assists in Liverpool's 0-3 win over Southampton, helping his team climb to second place following Arsenal's loss earlier in the day.

With 24 goals and 10 assists already under his belt—stats courtesy of WhoScored.com—it looks like Suarez has a good chance of winning the Player of the Year award. No player this season has had a bigger impact on his team than the Liverpool hitman, and his partnership with Daniel Sturridge is quickly developing into one of the finest in all of football.

Loser: Fulham

There's no shame in losing to the league leaders, even if that team happens to be the neighbours from Chelsea.

But Fulham are in dire need of some points, and with every passing game, demotion is becoming more and more inevitable. Felix Magath hasn't been able to turn the team's luck around, and the outfit that took the field Saturday seemed devoid of all hope and passion.

New signing Kostas Mitroglou was supposed to restore some of that hope, but the Greek striker has so far been unable to make any sort of impact for his new club and didn't even make the bench against Chelsea.

And while it would be unfair to put the blame squarely on his (enormous) shoulders, his club is in serious need of some kind of spark if they are to turn their season around.

A win over fellow bottom feeders Cardiff City is an absolute must next week.

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