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This week Amanda Staveley was announced as director of Ctrl Alt, a financial infrastructure start-up.

It is a first foray into the world of “digital financial assets” for the former Newcastle United co-owner but, to be brutally honest, not nearly as exciting as the sort of deals that have made her one of the most recognisable figures in the intriguing world of football club takeovers.

“Tokenisation of alternative assets” may well end up being a lucrative sphere.

But whatever Staveley’s enthusiasm for her new venture, it does signal an end of her aspiration to get back into the boardrooms of English football.

The i Paper understands that her PCP Capital Partners fund remains keen on “at least” two clubs and, having pulled together two consortiums made up of US private equity funds in the last 12 months, she is monitoring the market for other opportunities.

The first of those is Tottenham Hotspur, where Staveley and a consortium of US-based “big fund money” retain their interest – even if they accept the club, valued in excess of £3.5bn, is not for sale at this time.

Staveley expressed interest in buying the north London club a year ago, but stopped short of making an offer and existing owner Enic said it was not for sale.

It remains “absolutely” committed, with Joe Lewis’ family injecting £120m last week as part of their attempts to shore up control.

“Whatever your aspirations are, things can only move if there’s a willing seller,” a source close to Staveley said.

“At the moment the emphatic message from the Lewis family is that there’s no desire to sell there.”

It is a more complicated picture across the capital at West Ham United, where Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners agreed a deal to buy Vanessa Gold’s 25.1 per cent stake in the club – seemingly with a view to then carving out a majority holding later down the line.

Backed by Chicago-based private equity firm Ashland Forest Capital Partners, Staveley would have paid around £150m for the stake in West Ham, which has a valuation of around £600m.

But the complicated ownership structure means that existing shareholders have “pre-emption rights” which allow them to match any offer made by potential new investors.

Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and controversial co-owner David Sullivan opted to do that, blocking Staveley’s attempts to join the club’s board.

Far from seeing it as the end of the matter, though, PCP Capital is seemingly undeterred.

“Patience” is the watchword for the fund and it is something Staveley knows all about.

It was four years between the first expression of interest in Newcastle and the £350m takeover by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia in 2021.

That saga took plenty of perseverance and provided a roadmap that could potentially be followed at the London Stadium, where her plan for reinvigorating West Ham and track record at Newcastle helped her to find favour with many supporters.

“What it has done is simplify the whole thing,” a source close to Staveley said.

“Before this episode it was a lot more complicated. But now either through Kretinsky and [minority owner] Albert Tripp-Smith or Sullivan and Tripp-Smith, there is a passage to a majority of 51 per cent or more. So the stakes are potentially much higher the next time there is an offer.

“Pre-emption rights would still be there but it forces the issue. They either all fold in and accept a bid or one or the other [of the existing shareholders] ‘pre-empts’ an offer and has the majority shareholding. But to do that you’d be talking about serious amounts of money.”

Funds do not appear to be a problem for her consortium.

Her statement last week spoke of “other opportunities” being presented and Staveley’s profile and track record means that she is frequently approached by clubs and middle men looking to broker takeovers.

While she doesn’t have the personal wealth to do deals, her ability to tap into “big fund money” and utilise contacts in the Middle East and Gulf states means that she is taken seriously in that sphere.

And while maneouvering around Newcastle, West Ham and Spurs all played out in the public arena, there have been other bids for clubs that have not become public knowledge or only emerged after the event.

Indeed, The i Paper understands that Staveley’s PCP Capital group got down to the last two in a bid to buy Everton in December 2024 when Farhad Moshiri eventually sold to current owners the Friedkin Group (TFG).

The deal was so close that Staveley’s group had made detailed plans for transforming the club’s football operations, but ultimately the patchwork of loans and financial obligations confronting them proved too risky and complex for PCP.

With TFG now willing to listen to offers for Everton, would she return to the fray?

While some in senior positions at the club believe interest remains, that was denied “emphatically” by PCP sources earlier this week.

Read more

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• Mark Douglas: How Sean Steur emerged as the Newcastle 2.0 poster boy

They believe that Everton’s owners – or advisors close to them – are engaged in a “fishing exercise” to ascertain what interest there is in buying out TFG, who are seeking fresh investment after pumping in nearly £500m in just under two years.

“Amanda is interested in getting back into football, but it has to be the right opportunity,” a source says.

If previous experience is anything to go by, West Ham fans might be advised to watch this space.

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The only place to start when discussing Southend United is Roots Hall. It is one of the most interesting football grounds in the country because it effectively exists as a 1990s time warp, the reflection of a club that got forcibly stuck in time by its owner. I’m not hyperbolising for effect: this is from 1998 and the aesthetic is unerringly similar.

Things are changing at Roots Hall now – all four sides are at different stages of internal renovation. Work is ongoing in the Gilbert & Rose Stand to refurbish kiosks and create a club shop. Planning permission has been sought for the North Stand.

Opposite in the South Stand, architects have been commissioned. The East Stand is still at the funding stage. You see the keenness to make things happen.

Roots Hall stood still because Ron Martin, the former owner, never really wanted his football club to play here at all. The false promises and dawns over Fossetts Farm eventually dragged Southend United towards the point of no return. Literally and existentially, Southend moved nowhere other than down and everybody grew greyer and more bitter.

It is two years since Justin Rees and his consortium took over and found, to be blunt, an almighty bin fire. Liam Ager, of the Shrimpers Trust, Southend United’s official supporters’ trust, put it best: “Trying to untangle all the mess felt like when you pull some headphones out of your pocket, only the cable was 100m long.”

The last two years involved firefighting, rebuilding foundations and reconnecting with supporters.

But this summer, the owners took their biggest step towards a new future. A new sporting director, Oliver Gage, was appointed in April to oversee football operations. Kevin Maher, a club legend who had been in charge for half a decade and seen Southend through the worst of times, was relieved of his duties.

“One of the things I pitched about taking on this job was the concept of a transparent club, where we talk about how we operate, what we do and not be afraid of talking about who we are,” Gage says.

“We are only two or three years removed from not having a club, so what are we afraid of? Any situation we’re in at the moment is a good situation to be in compared to that. Nobody needs to feel sorry for us now.

“I think there was a slight culture around the place that just because we still had a club, anything else was a bonus. I didn’t have the PTSD of everything that happened. I got dropped into a club that gets over 8,000 fans in the National League, intimidating home atmosphere, top five budget in the league. We should be ambitious.”

Gage’s first big, public-facing decision was to move on from Maher and appoint a replacement.

There were raised eyebrows – and plenty of cynicism – when Southend handed Kieron Dyer his first senior managerial role at the age of 47. Dyer was a former international and a high-profile name. Southend, it appears, were taking a gamble.

“We got the application and I was expecting quite a lot of entitlement and simplification of the game,” Gage freely concedes.

“I left the first interview and texted the owner straight away to say ‘I think it’s gonna be really hard to beat Kieron Dyer – I can’t believe I’m saying this’.

“He’s tenacious, he’s ambitious, he’s passionate and he thinks a lot more deeply about the game than people give him credit for. He’s a modern tactician who has done extensive work in academy football and as a first-team coach.”

Life has certainly started promisingly. Boreham Wood are likely to be the team to stop this season, but Southend have taken 20 points from nine league games, sit second in the National League and on Saturday scored six goals in the first half of a match for the first time in their 120-year history. Sometimes you pick bad times to cover a club – this was not one.

Gage’s general plan for squad-building at Southend is to maximise the club’s advantages to build a young team with potential for growth and resale. The average age has dropped by 1.7 years from last season to this and 16 new players arrived as well as the manager and sporting director.

Southend’s location, successful history and facilities at this level make them an attractive proposition for new players – they signed players from Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Derby County and Bristol City this summer.

The key is not to get overexuberant and hand out long deals that can eventually hang heavy around your neck. And the successes can generate revenue when sold on.

Gage also explained how he uses data as part of his recruitment work (and, quite reasonably, points out that everybody sensible should). If you can get a list of 1,000 potential signings down to 10-15 who you scout in more detail, why wouldn’t you?

That said, change can be unnerving as well as exciting. If there was a little cynicism at Gage’s appointment – not least because he had been working in the US – the sacking of a manager, appointment of a household name and overhaul of a squad – with the mention of data – caused a reaction among some supporters that only increased the pressure on the new faces.

“There was a time in early June when it was really difficult for me,” he says. “We had a legendary former player and coach who did an incredible job under a set of circumstances. We decided to move away from him, which split the fanbase.

“Then some fan favourite, legacy players also left at the same time. We went all in. I don’t check the forums and stuff like that, but some of my mates do and they were sending stuff.

“You’re like ‘Oh shit, have I just gone in way too deep, too quickly?’ But you don’t get many chances to do something special in life and in football. If we’re going to do it then we’re going to do it – there’s no point messing around.”

That pressure is unlikely to subside. If Southend are at the top they will be expected to stay there and if they are not they will be expected to get there quickly.

Last month, Roots Hall – that wonderful timewarp that will now change for the better – hosted 9,155 people for a game against Kidderminster Harriers. The attendance was higher than five League One matches and 11 of the 12 League Two fixtures.

That is the potential here, and when potential has been trodden into the earth for years it only rises stronger when a new era begins. That is what Gage, Dyer and the owners must deal with. It is a privilege and a weight.

“I think it’s unfair to just say we’re the biggest club in the league so we should get promoted, because financially we’re not the biggest club in the league,” Gage says.

“We have the most fans, but we don’t lose the most money.

“That said, I needed to help the club to hit the reset button on ambition so we welcome that. Southend should be in League Two or League One. So I think it’s OK for fans to get frustrated about being trapped in the National League. Because I’m frustrated that Southend are trapped in the National League.”

Everyone here is convinced that they can get this right over time. Gage was appointed on a three-year deal and Dyer on a two-year contract plus an optional third year precisely because of that. There is no point selling long-term visions if everything changes in six months.

As Gage says, his only mandate is to be better than the year before whether the budget moves up or down. Do that and Southend United will get where they want to be.

If there is desperation among the supporters, it is because they have known the best and the worst. Southend United have endured an utterly bizarre modern age. They last finished in the top three of any division 20 years ago, but that division was League One and they won the title to get to the Championship.

How could that, and everything that happened afterwards, not warp your psychology and expectations?

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So for now, let’s just stick with Roots Hall. Southend United are in a steady place. Things are being rebuilt, reopened and refurbished.

The place will soon feel a little less fraying at the edges, without ever losing the elements that make it feel so real and so special. Its home ends are virtually full every week.

If the people in them are expectant, it is only because they have finally been given things to believe in.

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“It makes no sense to nominate three, four, five, No 10s,” was Thomas Tuchel’s explanation for omitting Morgan Gibbs-White from his latest England squad before Cole Palmer withdrew. “It just does not help anyone.”

There are two obvious issues with that assessment from England’s manager. The first is that, as anyone who watched Gibbs-White this year knows, he is not simply a No 10. He drifts left at least as much as Morgan Rogers. He starts from deep at least as much as Eberechi Eze. He scores as much in the league as… well, Erling Haaland in 2026.

The second problem: Tuchel has nominated four No 10s if we reason that Gibbs-White initially sat behind Palmer, Rogers, Eze and Bellingham in the queue. And Gibbs-White has performed better than all of the three English-based players in that list over at least the last nine months. If this were a pure meritocracy, he would be a fixture.

The bad news is that Gibbs-White is no longer the outright top Premier League goalscorer in 2026; Haaland drew level with him this weekend. The good news is that he is still the highest-scoring midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues over the same period. And scoring goals isn’t really in his top two responsibilities at Nottingham Forest.

I think that there is a basic misunderstanding of what Gibbs-White actually is nowadays, one that Tuchel may well be guilty of sharing. He was absolutely bought as a luxury player by Forest in 2022, the creative spark and the landmark signing of a first summer following promotion. You may remember the outcry over a transfer fee that had potential to rise to £40m. Forest have got their money’s worth several times over.

That creativity is clearly still integral. Gibbs-White has an ability to see and play passes that no other club teammate possesses – his flick to Igor Jesus for the winner at Villa Park last weekend is a perfect recent example. Only Pascal Gross has created more chances in this nascent Premier League season, probably a factor of Gibbs-White taking on a new role under Oliver Glasner.

But there is no luxury to be accommodated by the hard work of others. Gibbs-White is now Forest’s captain on the field (club captain Ryan Yates is featuring less and less). Ask anybody within Forest’s coaching staff, under this and previous regimes, and they will tell you that it is Gibbs-White’s work rate that surprised them most.

That is what makes the “How many No 10s?” discussion look derivative. This season, Gibbs-White has covered the most distance of any Forest player. Last season, no player sprinted more in the team. He orchestrates Forest’s pressing and leads by example. Then when Forest win it back, he is expected to be the creative force and the goalscorer. And he enjoys that responsibility too.

The oddity of Gibbs-White’s reputation under Tuchel is that it strikes as entirely backward. He was called into the squad in September and October 2025 when, by his own admission, Gibbs-White was enduring his hardest period since joining the club (not helped by having three managers in as many months, each asking for different things from him). Then, just as he began to produce the best form of his career to drag Forest through their chaos, he went off the England radar.

Gibbs-White is now 26 and has an 88-minute international career. The England absences have stung him personally because he firmly believes he has been overlooked in favour of those who he has outperformed. You would struggle to form a cogent argument in retort to that opinion.

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It is also true that we are likely discussing the 25th or 26th place in a squad of 26 and as such some will call this over-analysis. Who cares who the person is in every England squad who becomes your pointless answer several years on?

To which the right answer is: Gibbs-White cares and we should care. Tuchel picked a World Cup squad on his terms rather than judging purely on club form and he fell short. He picked Palmer this week and Palmer decided he needed to manage his load instead.

Now he has picked an attacking midfielder who is versatile, dependable, has been the highest-performing English Premier League player in his position over the last 12 months and has cut short his own family holiday because he desperately wants to prove his worth. This is Gibbs-White’s chance to show Tuchel that he was wrong for so long and got it right eventually.

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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.

“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.

Read more

• Opinion: Michael Carrick bears all the signs of a manager facing his doom
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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.

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.

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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”.

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.

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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.

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

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.

Antoine Semenyo gets his first goal of the season! pic.twitter.com/1n2W5Cyxz0

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 20, 2026

Statistic of the weekend

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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