827 days - that's how long Ajax went without possessing the top spot in the Dutch Eredivisie. This marked Ajax's fourth-longest period without being on top of the league after 858 days between May 2004 and October 2006, 1,016 days between November 1990 and August 1993, and 1,064 days between May 2016 and April 2019.
The Amsterdam side took the top spot from PSV after a scrappy 2-0 win away at Fortuna Sittard. The pitch at the Fortuna Sittard Stadium resembled an ice skating rink more than a football pitch, causing many players to lose their footing in crucial moments.
After surviving several scares, including forward-turned-defender Josip Mitrovic hitting the post and centre-back Syb van Ottele striking the crossbar with a sensational effort from distance, substitute Wout Weghorst broke the deadlock by scrambling in a rebound from a missed Steven Berghuis spot-kick.
Following a by-now classic Francesco Farioli script, Ajax stopped creating any opportunities and let Fortuna Sittard dictate the run of play after going up 1-0. Fortunately for the visitors, Fortuna couldn't endanger Ajax's lead at any given point, and they eventually doubled their lead after Christian Rasmussen slotted home a 1-on-1 after a quick injury-time counter.
Ajax's showing didn't earn them many compliments - critics called Ajax a 'team of fighters' who don't show out with a creative or necessarily beautiful style of play.
Ajax took over as league leaders on the merit of having played fewer games than PSV, even though the two teams are equal on points. Even though Ajax are in a heated battle, Farioli did not want to hear anything about the title.
"Every week, it can change again," said Farioli during the post-match press conference. "We have to stay focused, day to day and match to match. Nothing more than that. The nice thing is that the whole Ajax community, like the fans, understands where we are coming from."
But after the victory in Limburg, it wasn't all joy and fun — Wout Weghorst suffered a toe injury that will keep him sidelined until at least late March.
Ajax were able to retake the spot spot after PSV dropped points for the fourth time in five Eredivisie games the night before when the Eindhoven side drew 1-1 with Willem II. Turkish full-back Mickael Tirpan beat the inexperienced Wessel Kuhn after a deep ball from Dennis Kaygin before putting the visitors alongside PSV in the 83rd minute.
The much-criticised Noa Lang gave PSV the advantage 20 minutes earlier after volleying the ball past Thomas Didillon-Hodl. Lang celebrated this by shushing the home crowd, which he later justified by criticising the fans for not having the players' backs during the team's recent dip in form.
"We played well for a year and a half. We have been playing badly for a month and a half, and we need the crowd's support, but it is mostly negative, and that's a shame," Lang told ESPN after the match.
"There was a moment when we gave away a corner, and the crowd started whistling immediately. Apparently, this is how these fans work.
"I think it was ridiculous. Apparently, they can play better football than us. This is something that lives in the team. We have no use for the public to start whistling immediately at one wrong ball. It doesn't make guys more confident. We deserve more credit."
Earlier in the week, PSV halted the worst defensive streak in recent history when Feyenoord were held to zero goals in the quarter-finals of the KNVB Cup. The streak of seven consecutive games with at least two goals conceded was PSV's worst in the last 32 years.
Further down in the Eredivisie table, FC Utrecht suffered a painful loss at the hands of relegation candidates Almere City. The home side played a more than lacklustre match and paid for this with a 1-0 loss after French winger Junior Kadile scored his second goal in two games, earning Almere City just their third win of the current campaign.
Sunday's loss left FC Utrecht nine points behind the league leaders and put the team in a relatively unexpected fight for a spot in the Top 3 — one the team hasn't given away since week 3 of the Eredivisie season.
A bigger bombshell followed a day later when Feyenoord announced the sacking of Danish manager Brian Priske. The Rotterdam side beat Sparta Rotterdam 3-0 just two days earlier, but "very mixed results and a lack of chemistry" cost Priske his job.
Captain Quinten Timber, Anis Hadj Moussa, and Igor Paixao earned Feyenoord a much-needed win after three consecutive losses and four consecutive Eredivisie games without a win. The gap to the league leaders has grown to 12 points, making the goal of Champions League qualification a mere dream.
Saturday's clean sheet was Feyenoord's first in eight Eredivisie games and just their fourth of the entire campaign. Defensive question marks were staples of Priske's time in Rotterdam — only RKC Waalwijk and Sparta Rotterdam (both 3) have fewer clean sheets than Feyenoord.
At the bottom of the table, minnows RKC are living a relegation candidate's dream after their third win in a row. The team from Waalwijk beat NAC Breda confidently with 5-0 thanks to goals from Richonell Margaret, Yassin Oukili, Chris Lokesa, and a double from Polish ace Oskar Zawada, who scored his third and fourth goals in his last four Eredivisie matches.
Their win put the team just three points behind Sparta and puts RKC at 31 goals - more than any other team in the bottom 11 of the league.
Elsewhere, sixth-placed FC Twente dropped points for the third time running by squandering a 2-0 lead away at sc Heerenveen after conceding a 93rd-minute equaliser. 17-year-old Eser Gurbuz became the fourth-youngest player in Eredivisie history to score in their first two Eredivisie games - only Johan Cruyff, Willy van der Kuijlen, and Jhon van Beukering were younger than Gurbuz.
Daan Rots and Gustav Lagerbielke had put Twente up 2-0 after just 23 minutes before Milos Lukovic got Heerenveen back to within one. Twente left-back Bas Kuipers was sent off two minutes after Lukovic's goal for a foul on Alireza Jahanbakhsh, but referee Jeroen Manschot would cause the next disappointment for Dutch referees after the red card got dismissed less than 24 hours later by the KNVB.
Midfielder Espen van Ee put Heerenveen alongside just eight minutes after the break, after which Ricky van Wolfswinkel put FC Twente back in front in the 62nd minute. However, Twente would lose points after injury time for a second week in a row after Turkish-Dutch youngster Gurbuz tapped in a rebound to make it 3-3.
FC Groningen continued their improved run of form with a 2-1 win over NEC Nijmegen, putting Dick Lukkien's side four points above the relegation zone. Wouter Prins and Thom van Bergen put Groningen up 2-0 after thirty minutes, after which Thijmen Blokzijl's red card put the home side's advantage in jeopardy. Vito van Crooij got NEC back in the game in the 66th minute, but his goal didn't inspire a comeback.
AZ handed PEC Zwolle their first loss in nearly a month after winning 2-0 in Alkmaar. Former Southampton midfielder and current AZ captain Jordy Clasie saw his opening goal get cancelled due to offside, after which David Moller Wolfe and former Spurs striker Tory Parrott decided the game and putting AZ just two points behind third-placed FC Utrecht.
Heracles Almelo capped off a great week in which they reached the semi-finals of the KNVB Cup with a commanding 4-2 win over Go Ahead Eagles. Luka Kulenovic stole the show for the home side with two goals and an assist after Brian De Keersmaecker and Suf Podgoreanu erased Mathis Suray's 31st-minute opener.
Heracles' win meant the Almelo side are now eight games unbeaten and firmly back in the race for the European spots. The race for play-off tickets has never been closer in the Eredivisie - just two points separate eighth-placed Fortuna Sittard and fifteenth-placed FC Groningen.
Winners of the Week
It isn't easy choosing one Winner of the Week. Ajax have symbolically overcome a historic slump—the four-time Champions League winners were in last place less than a year and a half ago - and ended an 827-day wait, while RKC are putting themselves in a prime position to keep their Eredivisie status.
For the sheer in-season turnaround alone, RKC deserve this title. Henk Fraser has implemented an impressive free-flowing style of football at the team from Noord-Brabant and places a lot of trust in former wunderkind Mohammed Ihattaren.
The former PSV, Ajax, and Juventus man has contributed 33 crosses, 15 shots, and 6 shots on target in the last four RKC games. Full-backs Faissal Al-Mazyani and Juan Familia-Castillo have the second and third-most crosses across those four games and have combined for fewer crosses (27) than Ihattaren. Meanwhile, striker Oskar Zawada has been the only player with more shots (18 shots, 7 on target) in that timespan than Ihattaren.
The resurgence of RKC saw them score 12 goals in the last four games, more than half of the amount of goals from their first 18 games of the campaign (19).
Losers of the Week
After beating Feyenoord in the quarter-final, many Eredivisie fans asked whether or not PSV had regained their momentum. The league leaders showed great efficiency in the cup game and kept a clean sheet - their first in eight games across all competitions.
But after PSV dropped more crucial points against Willem II and Noa Lang picked fights with his team's own fans, morale seems to be lower than ever under Peter Bosz. The 25-time champions have been praised endlessly since the 61-year-old former Ajax and Borussia Dortmund boss got hired in the summer of 2023, often getting predicted as the next big dynasty in the Dutch league.
But after a sloppy start to the second half of the season, PSV are in danger of losing this reputation. In the last five league games, PSV only beat NAC Breda and saw rivals Ajax win every single one of them.
Moreover, the defensive instability has not helped PSV's case. PSV conceded 5 goals in the final 15 minutes of the last four games, more than doubling the number of goals the reigning champions conceded after the 75th minute in the first 18 games of the season.
With a home game against third-placed FC Utrecht up next after Tuesday's 2-1 Champions League loss to Juventus, PSV must quickly refind their form.
Goal of the Week
Dutch football fans will know the outspoken Noa Lang as a somewhat controversial figure and saw the flashy winger write a new chapter in his big book of surprises.
His volley against Willem II got largely talked about because of the drama which followed, but the goal itself was a highlight on its own. A fine volley put PSV up 1-0 after over an hour of playing.
Team of the Week
Oskar Zawada leads the line in our Team of the Week after notching two goals in RKC Waalwijk's convincing 5-0 win over NAC Breda and is accompanied by a mere four team-mates after Richonell Margaret (1 goal, 1 assist), Yassin Oukili (1 goal, 1 assist, 3 shots, 2 on target), Juan Familia-Castillo (5 crosses, 3 interceptions, 2 tackles won), and Julian Lelieveld (3 fouls conceded, 3 interceptions, 1 tackle won) also showed up massively.
Following RKC, Heracles Almelo are the biggest contributors to this week's Top XI with Luka Kulenovic's 2 goals and an assist assist, captain Brian De Keersmaecker's all-round display with a goal, 3 conceded fouls, 2 won tackles, 2 crosses and 1 interception, and right-back Jannes Wieckhoff's assist and 7 crosses got them in the team of standout performers.
Feyenoord are in third place with two players in the last week's top eleven performers with captain Quinten Timber (1 goal, 17 passes in final third, 3 duels won) and Timon Wellenreuther (5 saves) contributing to Saturday's 3-0 win over Sparta.
PSV defender Adamo Nagalo is the only player without a team-mate in our Team of the Week. The Burkinese defender appeared in just his sixth game for the reigning champions and recorded 6 clearances, won possession 6 times, 8 won duels, and a passing completion percentage of 95% after completing 76 of 80 passes.