As Michael Carrick continues to demonstrate, numbers can point in any direction you choose. However, when the metrics correlate with the way supporters feel, then Manchester United really are in trouble.
The Stretford Paddock’s uber-partial, five-man, YouTube panel was universally on the floor following the dismal draw at Fulham. And this august body did not include malcontent No 1, Gary Neville.
Any bright spots that did emerge were ultimately subsumed into the overwhelming pattern of United’s unrewarding start to the season, their worst in more than a decade.
“Shite again,” was Macca’s final thought. Ronnie agreed. “That second half was some scary stuff. Slow, flat, devoid of any sort of enthusiasm, passion… On the face of it we rescued a point but it still feels like a defeat.”
What about you Tom? “Didn’t turn up in the second half. Allowed the game to go very flat…” And on it went.
Michael Carrick faces calls to be sacked amid a poor run of form (Photo: Getty)
“I’ve watched Man United since the age of five and that’s the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen,” Neville said.
“I was purely referring to the fact that they walked around the pitch. I have never seen Manchester United walk as much as that.
“”Michael has got to stop defending them. I get why he’s defending them, he is loyal and wants his players to work for him. There is a long way left in the season.
“I called them mannequins. I have never seen a Manchester United team, for 15 minutes, walk around as much as that. No alerts, not on your toes, you should always be on your toes, there was no shifting up two or three yards. Just walking when Fulham were in possession.”
The stats are powerfully miserable. Next to bottom in high speed runs, 16th in total distance covered, 17th in percentage time spent walking when out of possession. Being crap is bad enough. Not running is unforgivable.
Though Manchester City sit below United in distance covered, their station at the top of the Premier League on maximum points suggests this might be because City’s players are more often than not in the right position.
Carrick’s upbeat bluster naturally contrasts with the panel’s grim reflections. What he cannot vibe away, however, is the wider mood on the terraces. The devastating reflections of the Stretford Paddock are echoed across myriad platforms on social media as well as Carrick’s increasingly fraught former teammates.
And, of course, they are in line with results. While Carrick would have outcomes to be the consequence of freak episodes, the illegal goal in the Manchester derby, the ricochet off Lisandro Martinez at Fulham, the worldie conceded at Everton in the sixth-minute of added time, etc, he conveniently ignores the factors that led to these moments, ie a consistent lack of urgency in possession coupled with the ease with which opponents flood through midfield.
These are linked factors underpinned by key differences with last year. Bruno Fernandes has always been a stress point defensively, hopeless in duels and frequently the wrong side of the ball. However, Ipswich Town apart, his output offensively has dropped off remarkably.
Marcus Rashford’s rehabilitation has not only flattered to deceive the metrics, it has flicked Matheus Cunha from his most effective left-sided attacking role, the very part of the pitch from which he landed the late equaliser at Craven Cottage following Rashford’s withdrawal. Combined, that amounts to a three-dimensional assault on attacking potential and output.
Carrick can do little about a defensive structure left untreated in successive transfer windows. His reliance on the experience of Harry Maguire, Martinez and Luke Shaw is understandable if costly, since none have pace. And on both flanks, the full-backs fall below industry standards.
Carrick’s promise of a rebound after the international break will depend on how honest he is with himself and his coaching group. He can say whatever he likes, but the fans are not buying his team. How long before they are not buying him either?
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Andy Howe has left his role as senior footall executive at Newcastle United, The i Paper can reveal.
Howe, the nephew of Newcastle’s former boss Eddie, has decided to pursue new challenges two months after Matthias Jaissle took over as head coach.
He spent part of the summer on the FA’s technical directors course in New York.
The i Paper understands the departure is amicable and he leaves with the best wishes of the club, where he worked for five years as part of the scouting department before being part of the overhaul of their recruitment operations under sporting director Ross Wilson.
Andy continued to work for Newcastle after Eddie’s exit in July and was influential in many of the early signings in a summer which saw unprecedented change.
Andy Howe was head of technical scouting (Photo: Getty)
He was highly-rated by many in the hierarchy and was handed a promotion earlier this year but his departure in search of fresh opportunities feels like a natural conclusion to his time there.
His exit cuts the last of the ties to his uncle Eddie’s tremendously successful stint at St James’ Park, which ended in July.
He was hired as head of first-team technical scouting before moving to become assistant head of first-team recruitment.
But that title only tells part of the story of an eventful period at the club.
Andy took a major role in Newcastle’s summer business in 2025, effectively leading from the front as the club hurtled into a difficult window in which Alexander Isak forced his exit to Liverpool.
Newcastle ended up selling Isak on the final day of the transfer window and finishing 12th the following season, but Howe was also critical in signing in a number of the club’s big names.
He is credited with a major role in recruiting Sandro Tonali and he also played a big part in bringing current stand-in captain Malick Thiaw to the club, having recommended his signing last summer.
News of Andy’s exit comes a few days after the Magpies gathered all of their scouts in the north-East for a post-summer debrief and to set out future objectives.
The mood was described by sources as “very upbeat” as Newcastle prepare to double down on the new project which has seen them focus on younger talent and developing a player trading model that will enable them to be – in the words of one insider – “competitive and challenging for major honours for years to come”.
In a sign of the times, the club recently advertised for a lead data recruitment analyst who will lead the “application of data-informed intelligence within the recruitment department, identifying, evaluating and ranking player targets”.
The Magpies have already begun work towards the January transfer window and beyond, with the club prioritising youthful centre-half targets and a right-sided forward over the next 12 months.
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Tottenham Hotspur prop up the Premier League table heading into the bumper-edition international break, taking a measly two points from their opening five fixtures and scoring only twice. This is a rather unbelievable situation, and yet totally believable when you really examine it.
Spurs’ lavish summer transfer window, which cost over £320m, was designed to propel them back up the standings as quickly as possible. Internally, the message coming from Roberto De Zerbi and co, be that behind closed doors or when talking to media, was the aim should always be to finish in first. At this rate, Tottenham would do well to rank above the drop zone again.
There were various factors behind Spurs finishing 17th in back-to-back seasons, though the common thread linking the two campaigns was a crippling injury list that left four different managers – Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank, Igor Tudor and De Zerbi – all hamstrung in some way. Part of the rationale behind the club’s summer spend was they needed to rebuild a team that wasn’t physically capable of dealing with the modern Premier League. Now, there’s nowhere to hide.
The Tottenham hierarchy seemed more than happy to hand the keys to their transfer activity over to De Zerbi, who had only overseen the final seven games of 2025-26. The Italian squeezed what he could out of a freefalling team to survive, but that wasn’t a just-enough excuse to give a combustible character with almost zero experience in long-term management total autonomy.
De Zerbi has assembled a football team that is borderline useless in both boxes, and has even had the nerve to say financial restrictions held him back in his recruitment drive. Every other team in the top flight has looked more threatening than them so far this term. Perhaps the great irony of this all is that Tottenham winning their first trophy in 17 years came at the cost of becoming way, way too passive with losing games domestically and they are yet to kick that bad habit. Now that is “Spursy”.
De Zerbi has had much more say in transfers (Photo: Reuters)
To boot, there is a mentality hurdle which is proving impossible to overcome – Tottenham are now winless in their last 49 games when going behind, a run which stretches back to November 2024.
“It’s difficult to explain because, in my career, 14 years as a coach, I’ve never seen one team like us. So fragile, so inconsistent,” De Zerbi told the press after Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at home to Aston Villa.
De Zerbi has to be held accountable given he signed most of these players and is the one who picks the team, but the rot ultimately goes beyond him.
When the final whistle sounded on the last day of 2025-26, that should have kicked off the inquest in the boardroom. How both CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange lasted the summer, let alone remain in post today, spoke of a club that was not serious about righting the wrongs of the recent past.
Instead, they tried to spend their way out of trouble, though without putting too much thought into where these funds should be allocated. Hey, paying big money directly correlates with success, right guys?
It borders on arrogance that Spurs thought this was their golden ticket back to the top table. It was merely another instance of faux-ambition, acting on impulse first and thinking later (if ever at all). For all the talk of culture and the need for character, they are still severely lacking in those departments.
Tottenham didn’t truly believe they were in a relegation scrap last season until February, when they finally sacked Frank and brought in Tudor as interim. To then fire the brooding Croat was the final panic-station move they could make. The alarm bells should already be ringing again with De Zerbi, even if he is not the sole party to blame.
How long will it take the club to accept they could be dragged into another serious situation this time around? That the Premier League’s middle class is more predatorial than ever and will eat up this Spurs like the vulnerable prey they are? Why would the team who just came 17th (twice) be safe from relegation conversations when they look worse than ever?
To paraphrase Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean, you best start believing in relegation battles, Tottenham Hotspur – you’re in one.
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Hello and welcome back to The Score, my weekly column on the biggest talking points of the Premier League weekend. For the new season, we’ve given it a little revamp – with a new structure and some shiny bells and whistles at the end.Please let me know your (positive) thoughts on social media: @danielstorey85
If the quality of opposition – and Brighton were magnificent to a man – disallows this from entering the pantheon of great Premier League shocks, the manner in which Arsenal capitulated under serious pressure caught us all off guard. Anybody who tells you that they saw this defeat, in this way, coming is lying to your face.
Arsenal could not cope with Brighton’s energy. There is no other explanation. Fabian Hurzeler’s team give the impression of a whirlwind when at their best, swarming you out of possession and then ducking and diving and swapping positions when they win the ball.
That’s evidently slightly misleading: what looks like chaos is actually organised and pre-planned. It’s similar to how Eddie Howe’s Newcastle occasionally got into Arsenal’s face at St James’ Park. You whip up a storm on the pitch and in the stands and you take your chance that you will unnerve a champion team. It was instructive how Arsenal’s senior players (David Raya, Gabriel and Martin Odegaard in particular) were incapable of instilling calm in the rest.
One explanation is that, after a year of a very settled team, there was some unfamiliarity in this Arsenal XI. Ezri Konsa is a new partner for Gabriel, who looks a lesser central defender without William Saliba and seemed unsure of whether to engage or fall back. Jurrien Timber was making his first start after injury and looked rusty.
Arsenal lost the game in midfield because Bruno Guimaraes was wretched and he should have been substituted at half-time. It’s reasonable that the demands of Mikel Arteta’s football takes some time to acclimatise to, but Bruno looked heistant in possession and too easy to pass through without it.
Arsenal are not used to being bullied (Photo: PA)
With Odegaard further forward and ineffective, it left Declan Rice as effectively a one-man midfield. That’s never going to be enough with Brighton’s high energy. Rice’s frustrations was epitomised by his kick out that could easily have prompted a red card.
The other theory is that Arsenal are simply not used to this happening and so struggled to adapt with Brighton running riot (an observation that was made about Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City from time to time). In the Premier League, they had trailed in only two away games in 2026 (Manchester City and Bournemouth). They are just not used to getting flustered.
Conceding three goals in a match for the first time since 2023 is stronger evidence for Arsenal’s general relentless excellence more than it is a reason to panic now the streak has ended. Their closest title rivals are not going to be perfect, although we should welcome any handbrake at all placed upon a procession season. This is probably only a blip and, to paraphrase what Arteta said to open his post-match press conference, Brighton are a damn good football team.
Still, we have a faint blueprint, even if it is never a guarantee and requires a double dose of bravery. This Arsenal team has proven that it is too good for you if you simply try to survive. The only hope is to bring the noise, use 60 per cent of your energy in the first 30 per cent of the match and try to firmly shove them off their stride.
We need to talk about Forest’s home record
The most baffling football team in the Premier League (and yes I’m almost certainly so emotionally invested that I can never think anything else). Forest have been really very good away from home over the last couple of years, but they will forever have a lower ceiling upon their performance than anybody involved would like if they remain incapable of improving their home record.
In 2026, Forest have won one home league game (against Burnley, who are now bottom of the Championship). It is the main reason Sean Dyche was sacked, the main reason Vitor Pereira is no longer here and the main reason Oliver Glasner has not made his mark yet.
Forest have played Leeds, Tottenham and Coventry at home and failed to score a single goal. Until that improves, they will remain in the relegation conversation simply because it has been so long since they used the City Ground to generate any meaningful momentum.
Spurs fan mood dictates what happens next
Tottenham fans are losing patience fast (Photo: Getty)
For now, Roberto De Zerbi will retain the trust and faith of Tottenham Hotspur’s hierarchy. As my colleague Michael Hincks wrote on Saturday, Spurs are pretty good in 81.5 per cent of the pitch – it’s the incompetence in both penalty areas that is costing them (and is quite a big deal).
The complication is that De Zerbi is reportedly the highest-paid manager in world football, his win percentage currently stands at 29 and his only victory this season – after that lavish spend – came against Charlton Athletic of the Championship in the League Cup. If the mood of “we’re actually playing OK” stands up to scrutiny, it becomes meaningless if you then crumple into a ball and only start playing again when the contest is over.
The mood of the fanbase is instructive now. De Zerbi will stress the importance of time on the training pitch over the international break. Spurs’ next four home opponents are Coventry, Crystal Palace, Ipswich and Fulham. Supporters who left early on Saturday are waiting for something to cheer. It has been too long.
That run is the chance – probably their last one. Even if Spurs are beaten at Manchester United, Chelsea and Leeds around the four home games. De Zerbi has to claw some goodwill with 10 points in those fixtures. Take seven or fewer and this quickly becomes another stagnation season.
Manchester United are caught between two gears
Watching Manchester United is a deeply infuriating experience, even for a neutral observer. Their basic problem under Michael Carrick is that they are at their most potent when the game is open and quick. Bruno Fernandes can drop into space. Marcus Rashford and Bryan Mbeumo can run beyond full-backs and Matheus Cunha can play more like an attacking midfielder than a nominal centre forward.
The problem with that? United are incapable of playing a match in this gear without leaving themselves exposed in central midfield and defence. That is why they were so ponderous in the Manchester derby. Even with an extra player on the pitch, Carrick was still worried about the threat on the counter. He thus ceded territory to a team who hurt them anyway.
For more on the very many reasons why I don’t think this is going to work out for Carrick, read more here.
Gameweek 5 highlights
Goal of the weekend – Manchester City vs Sunderland
I’m not doing it and you can’t make me. I’m not picking one goal when what you must do is go and watch all eight goals from the Etihad. Antonio Semenyo, Jeremy Doku, Brian Brobbey and Enzo Le Fee were all brilliant and that barely covers half of it. One of the most entertaining and highest-quality attacking Premier League matches I’ve ever watched.
Brobbey is the fourth player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick against the side starting the day top of the table, after Robbie Fowler vs Aston Villa in November 1998, Dirk Kuyt vs Man Utd in March 2011, and Romelu Lukaku vs Man Utd in May 2013 (Opta). He really is very good indeed.
Villain of the weekend – Emiliano Martinez (Chelsea)
It’s not that Martinez is a bad goalkeeper. It’s that he has been promoted (and self-promoted) as the best in the world when he’s nowhere near it. He parries shots into dangerous areas, can make shots into the bottom corner better than they are and his kicking is often erratic. And we’ve seen all of that at Chelsea and under the brighter spotlight.
Player of the weekend – Pascal Gross (Brighton)
With apologies to Brobbey, Gross has run two magnificent Brighton wins in four days through his majestic positional sense, composure under pressure and frankly disturbing energy levels given his age. I thought Brighton were guilty of romanticism when bringing Gross back at the age of 35. I am an idiot.
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CRAVEN COTTAGE – Michael Carrick’s position might not be without possible salvation, but he was staring over the edge of a familiar cliff. The manager had a substitution booed by the away end. Sir Alex Ferguson was in attendance. Gary Neville called it “absolutely pathetic”. These are the typical signs of doom. A measly deflected goal, sure. Sometimes they are most valuable.
Watching Manchester United is a deeply infuriating experience, even for a neutral observer. Their basic problem under Carrick is that they are at their most potent when the game is open and quick. Bruno Fernandes can drop into space. Marcus Rashford and Bryan Mbeumo can run beyond full-backs and Matheus Cunha can play more like an attacking midfielder than a nominal centre forward.
The problem with that? United are incapable of playing a match in this gear without leaving themselves exposed in central midfield and defence. That is why they were so ponderous in the Manchester derby. Even with an extra player on the pitch, Carrick was still worried about the threat on the counter. He thus ceded territory to a team who hurt them anyway.
In the first half at Craven Cottage, United hit the woodwork twice, Rashford should have scored and Lisandro Martinez forced Bernd Leno into a smart stop. They had 24 penalty-box touches to Fulham’s 10 – this is good. But Fulham had the better chances and created more xG.
Cunha may have kept Carrick in a job (Photo: Getty)
United can’t cope with midfielders on the loose or overlapping full-backs. On the left, Antonee Robinson and Alex Iwobi overwhelmed Diogo Dalot. On the right, Josh King drifted inside to give Martinez a headache and swapped positions with Oscar Bobb. Fulham runners repeatedly found ludicrous amounts of space at the back post, which can only be a concentration issue. They thrashed at those chances, but then that is why they haven’t won a league game yet.
Managers don’t like their football teams relying upon opposition profligacy and a goalkeeper making four decent saves in a half. So what then happens is that Manchester United slow down in possession: safe passes across defence and midfield to bait their opponents out, waiting for a moment to seize.
That makes complete sense, but arrives with two issues for Carrick: 1) as explained, his forwards are better with space rather than receiving the ball to feet, and 2) only Fernandes in this team produces enough regular moments of magic to break open this type of match.
The result is that you either get the Manchester United that looks stodgy – no goals against Hull, no goals against 10-man Manchester City, one late goal against Fulham – or the chaotic Manchester United that beat Ipswich 5-2, drew 2-2 with Everton and lost 3-2 at home to Brighton.
The fascinating element of Sunday you could replace everything Manchester United-related in this piece, replace it with a Fulham equivalent and it would ring true. That is why they have lost 3-2 twice at home this season and had got their only previous point in a 0-0. The difference is that finishing 14th would be fine for only one of these two clubs.
At that point, matches are decided by which team creates the moment of brilliance to win the game or moment of abject incompetence. Step forward Martinez and the first touch of a distracted toddler in the garden. Step forward Senne Lammens, who could surely have used his hands because it was not a backpass. And step forward the unfortunate David Affengruber and his misguided block.
Add calamity to tactical confusion and you get Carrick’s Manchester United. The bright signs are quickly dulled, diamonds trodden deep into the dust. The manager has been let down by the club and their lack of ambition, but he’s also doing nothing to suggest he deserved much more.
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It is not criticism of any team to rely on their central striker for the majority of their goals. As Roy Keane would be at pains to opine, it’s his job.
Yet if there was one running theme from Pep Guardiola’s final few years, something that would have pained the forefather of tiki-taka himself: Manchester City have been a little too dependent on Erling Haaland.
Others weighed in with their share of the goals, but every attack still felt geared around getting a forward into position to find Haaland.
This season, with a new-look squad shaping up nicely, eerily quickly after losing so many stellar names in recent years, the potency levels around the Etihad feel an altogether more daunting proposition.
City’s thrilling 5-3 victory over Sunderland means they go into the first international break, after their most tumultuous close season in a decade, having won five out of five league games for the first time since 2017.
Trying to match Arsenal for physicality and sheer resilience at the back is almost futile. Instead, Enzo Maresca has created an attack with goals coming from all angles. And with Haaland still at the forefront of everything, a division that thinks it has worked City out better think again.
City’s attack is more multi-pronged than ever (Photo: Getty)
From the outset, despite Sunderland coming into the match with a xG performance only slightly better than Tottenham’s, it was clear this was going to be fun.
Nilson Angulo had already missed a golden chance to put Sunderland in front before Enzo Fernandez arrowed in a sublime, cloak-and-dagger free-kick into the net from the tightest of angles. Quite the way to open his City account.
That lead lasted three minutes as Brian Brobbey started an afternoon he will never forget, levelling on the end of a sumptuous Enzo Le Fee pass, before Rayan Cherki slammed the hosts back in front.
Le Fee was instrumental in another quick-fire Brobbey equaliser, but City again remained undeterred down the other end, the Etihad juggernaut breathing fire at every opportunity, storming into a 4-2 lead through a double from Antoine Semenyo, either side of the break.
Haaland continued to toil in the second half against the only Premier League team he was yet to score against since the Norse phenom arrived on our shores. Brobbey had no such struggles, sealing Sunderland’s first Premier League hat-trick in a decade and setting up a nervy finish for a City backline with some long, hard thinking to do over the international break.
What will be weighing heavily on Maresca’s mind in his City Football Academy office in the coming weeks is how he is going to restructure his new-look midfield.
His gung-ho attacking approach serves great purpose down one end, but leaving Elliot Anderson as the only remotely defensive-minded midfield option to protect the City rearguard is churlish in the extreme.
Maresca started the season more conservatively, with Nico O’Reilly alongside Anderson, but has since deployed Fernandez in a two, with Cherki in behind Haaland. Fernandez is not a long-term solution in the double pivot.
The question is, when you have that much firepower going forward, does it really matter? Haaland finished off the thrilling victory to complete his Premier League set late on, on the end of a pinpoint cross from Jeremy Doku. Another example of City’s frightening strength in depth.
Semenyo, Jeremy Doku, Ilman Ndiaye, Cherki and Fernandez. All behind Erling Haaland at one point or another in one match. Phwoar.
If Arsenal wrestled the rest into submission with their attritional football last year, should City go all the way this time around, it will be in a more swashbuckling manner altogether.
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If the quality of opposition – and Brighton were magnificent to a man – disallows this from entering the pantheon of great Premier League shocks, the manner in which Arsenal capitulated under serious pressure caught us all off guard. Anybody who tells you that they saw this defeat, in this way, coming is lying to your face.
Arsenal could not cope with Brighton’s energy; there is no other explanation. Fabian Hurzeler’s team give the impression of a whirlwind when at their best, swarming you out of possession and then ducking and diving and swapping positions when they win the ball.
That’s evidently slightly misleading: what looks like chaos is actually organised and pre-planned. It’s similar to how Eddie Howe’s Newcastle occasionally got into Arsenal’s face at St James’ Park. You whip up a storm on the pitch and in the stands and you take your chance that you will unnerve a champion team. It was instructive how Arsenal’s senior players (David Raya, Gabriel and Martin Odegaard in particular) were incapable of instilling calm in the rest.
One explanation is that, after a year of a very settled team, there was some unfamiliarity in this Arsenal XI. Ezri Konsa is a new partner for Gabriel, who looks a lesser central defender without William Saliba and seemed unsure of whether to engage or fall back. Jurrien Timber was making his first start after injury and looked rusty.
Arsenal lost the game in midfield because Bruno Guimaraes was wretched and he should have been substituted at half-time. It’s reasonable that the demands of Mikel Arteta’s football takes some time to acclimatise to, but Bruno looked heistant in possession and too easy to pass through without it.
Arsenal do not usually make this many errors (Photo: PA)
With Odegaard further forward and ineffective, it left Rice as effectively a one-man midfield. That’s never going to be enough with Brighton’s high energy. Rice’s frustrations was epitomised by his kick out that could easily have prompted a red card.
The other theory is that Arsenal are simply not used to this happening and so struggled to adapt with Brighton running riot (an observation that was made about Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City from time to time). In the Premier League, they had trailed in only two away games in 2026 (Manchester City and Bournemouth). They are just not used to getting flustered.
Conceding three goals in a match for the first time since 2023 is stronger evidence for Arsenal’s general relentless excellence more than it is a reason to panic now the streak has ended. Their closest title rivals are not going to be perfect, although we should welcome any handbrake at all placed upon a procession season. This is probably only a blip and, to paraphrase what Arteta said to open his post-match press conference, Brighton are a damn good football team.
Still, we have a faint blueprint, even if it is never a guarantee and requires a double dose of bravery. This Arsenal team has proven that it is too good for you if you simply try to survive. The only hope is to bring the noise, use 60 per cent of your energy in the first 30 per cent of the match and try to firmly shove them off their stride.
