The Score is Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up here to receive the newsletter every Monday morning
At what point do we consider Arsenal as the closest challengers to Manchester City for the title this season? While City motor on with ease against the Premier League’s rest, Arsenal have now beaten Tottenham and Liverpool in consecutive home games despite being pegged back multiple times; there is something growing at the Emirates.
Elsewhere, Leeds and Leicester are this weekend’s crisis clubs after both losing 2-1 away from home despite taking the lead. Brendan Rodgers is hanging onto his job again, while Jesse Marsch believes Leeds deserve more than two points from their last five games – we’ll agree to disagree.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 700th goal of a ludicrous career, but more important was Manchester United’s recovery from their heavy Manchester derby defeat with a win at Goodison. They move a point away from the top four after Brighton lost at home to Spurs.
This weekend’s results
Saturday 8 October
- Bournemouth 2-1 Leicester
- Chelsea 3-0 Wolves
- Man City 4-0 Southampton
- Newcastle 5-1 Brentford
- Brighton 0-1 Tottenham
Sunday 9 October
Monday 10 October
- Nottingham Forest vs Aston Villa
Arsenal
To use a phrase from the other side of north London, it was important for Arsenal to suffer. If we are to truly judge where their potential ceiling lies in a season that has already taken several steps beyond impressive, we need to know how they would react to pressure. Against Tottenham, they were handed the initiative by their opponents’ mistakes. Against Liverpool, they forced the issue.
Arsenal had a terrible record against Liverpool, winning once in all competitions against them since April 2015. Jurgen Klopp opted for chaos, which meant there were often times when Arsenal’s defenders were left one on one with their opponents and occasionally outnumbered. There were panicky clearances that provoked deep groans. They were twice pegged back, which could so easily have caused panic to set in. They spent the last five minutes of normal time and at least five minutes of added time defending their honour and their position on top of the league.
And they came through it. The final whistle, when it finally came, was met with a roar that can rarely have been beaten in this stadium. Its throatiness, its volume and its length reflected not just the magnitude of the victory and the unpricked bubble of hope that now encases the Emirates; it reflected the cuts and bruises that Arsenal had suffered to make it happen.
Every supporter of every club loves their team, but few in the country feel quite so connected to theirs as Arsenal. The age helps, it being a group of young bucks who have been brought together under a popular manager and are experiencing this rise to prominence at exactly the same pace as the supporters are. If this all feels vaguely ethereal, magical even, several of those young players will feed off that magic and use it as fuel.
After each of Liverpool’s goals, a hush went around the Emirates, pierced only by the thrashing in the away end. In previous years at the Emirates, that hush would be broken by the sound of someone screaming abuse at a player or manager, questioning their commitment or ability or both. Those shouts may or may not have been sountracked by boos, depending on the time of the season or severity of the result.
On Sunday, the same hush. But then, in a dozen different areas of the stadium (and therefore we have to assume completely independent of each other) groups of people roared as if to re-energise the players – “You can do this” rather than “Why can you not do this?”. The decision-makers, the manager, the senior players, the younger players and the supporters are all on the same page. It has been so long since that was true that we have no idea of its power.
Aston Villa
Play on Monday evening.
Bournemouth
We are almost a quarter of the way through this season and the pre-season favourites to finish bottom of the league have sacked their manager, lost 9-0 and are still in the top half. Gary O’Neil, only appointed on an emergency basis while Bournemouth searched for Scott Parker’s replacement, now merits the job on a full-time basis.
That still looks like a stretch. This week, Bournemouth became the 11th Premier League club to welcome American owners or stakeholders. Las Vegas businessman and billionaire Bill Foley has completed a £150m takeover from Maxim Denim, who has been looking to sell for some time. He will reportedly make himself the chairman. O’Neil will be acutely aware that Foley may want to make a statement with his first big decision.
On the pitch, Bournemouth’s latest surprise win came after they conceded first against Leicester. That is important because it follows what they did against Nottingham Forest last month. As O’Neil said after the game, responding to adversity and coming out stronger proves that Bournemouth’s team spirit is high.
Throughout Bournemouth’s Premier League history, their performance has roughly been proportional to their ability to collect league points after trailing. In 2017-18, when they finished 12th, Eddie Howe’s team gained a remarkable 21 points from losing positions, six more than any other team. Then they lost that ability: 12 points in total from losing positions over the next two full seasons as Bournemouth first slipped down the table and then were relegated. Winning twice when trailing against Leicester and Forest is a strong indicator of their health.
Brentford
A defensive shambles, one that Thomas Frank admitted left him and his players “fuming”. David Raya passed the ball straight to Callum Wilson for one goal. Brentford were robbed in midfield for a second. Ethan Pinnock’s pass was intercepted for a third and there was still time for Pinnock to score an own goal.
Newcastle have improved as a pressing team under Eddie Howe – they now rank in the top four for pressures in the final third per game – but it should still worry Frank just how easily Newcastle were able to disrupt his side’s rhythm and force critical lapses of decision-making and technique. Only four teams have conceded a higher expected goals total than Brentford from open play; too many of those chances are coming from losses of possession in their own half.
Given Brentford’s own high-pressing style (no team has scored more goals from winning possession high up the pitch), it dictates that their matches are becoming chaotic and decided by their ability, or otherwise, to press successfully and beat the press themselves.
Against Manchester United, they won the turnovers and won 4-0. Against Newcastle, they made the mistakes and lost 5-1. This season, they have won 5-2 and lost 3-0 the next week, won 4-0 and lost 3-2 the next week. They are the only team to both score and concede more than 15 goals so far this season. Frank may prefer a little less mania and a little more control.
Brighton
Yes, we are going to do the whole “Brighton need a new striker” thing. I fully understand that Danny Welbeck works his socks off and I’m prepared to accept that what he offers off the ball both when Brighton are in and out of possession is crucial to how this team operates. But his finishing also holds Brighton back.
The measurement of G-xG roughly indicates a striker’s efficiency with his finishing. It calculates the difference between the number of goals scored and the number of goals we would expect a striker to score, given the quality of the chances. And so far this season, Danny Welbeck ranks 437th out of 439 Premier League players for that difference. One of the two players worse than him is Brighton’s Solly March.
This is an issue again. Brighton really could, should have taken a point against Tottenham. They brought Julio Enciso and Denis Undav (whose initial loan spell in Belgium ended) into the club this summer and they have played 17 league minutes between them. Nobody doubts Welbeck’s impact, but it will be fascinating to see if Roberto de Zerbi tries to change things to accommodate a second striker or perseveres with Graham Potter’s Welbeck plan and just accepts that the team will miss chances.
Chelsea
Since making his league debut on New Year’s Day 2015, Ruben Loftus-Cheek has never started more than six Premier League matches in a season for Chelsea. Even his two loans over the last two years, at Crystal Palace and Fulham, were tepid; Loftus-Cheek was named as a substitute in 28 games across those two seasons.
He is now enjoying an unexpected renaissance. Despite Chelsea having a large collection of central midfielders – N’Golo Kante, Conor Gallagher, Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho, Mason Mount, Denis Zakaria, Carney Chukwuemeka – Loftus-Cheek has already equalled his previous high of six league starts. We’ve been waiting for far too long for this breakout season – he’s now 26.
At his best, Loftus-Cheek does offer something different to any of his teammates because he can do a bit of everything. He has dynamism that Jorginho and Kovacic lack and a physical and aerial presence that Kante lacks. He can control the tempo of the game from a deeper position than Gallagher and Mount. He also had a deep connection to Chelsea, which matters to supporters.
Until now, that multifunctionality has counted against Loftus-Cheek. As a loanee, not having a defined position or role can make you appear like a luxury player whatever your skill set. That’s still relevant at Chelsea. On Saturday, Loftus-Cheek didn’t make a tackle or interception, missed the target with his only shot and only had 42 touches of the ball. But somehow he still managed the pace of the game and set an example.
Crystal Palace
Eberechi Eze is just happy to be playing football again. The Achilles injury he suffered in May 2021 can kill potential, especially in someone who is still growing physically and finding his feet in the Premier League. After a breakout season, he would miss almost all of 2021-22.
The potential remains enormous. There is a directness to Eze’s running that combines with a freedom that makes him fantastically watchable. He is a street footballer, all shoulder drops and feints and darts. He can beat you by quickening up the pace or slowing it down.
There was a six-month period when Eze was working on his match fitness when he fully admits that he got impatient, banging on the manager’s door to ask why he wasn’t back in the team. He concedes too that that period was harder than the injury recovery.
We’re now seeing the best of Eze again. The number of dribbles he attempts and shots he takes all on the up. The swagger is back too; Eze drives forward and doesn’t always take the first passing option. Expect more goals now he’s back amongst them.
Everton
For all the improvement of late (and this does not undo the work of a seven-match unbeaten run), this was a bump back to earth for Everton. They did rally in the final 20 minutes of the match and briefly threatened an equaliser, but it would have been entirely undeserved.
Everton’s ability to cope with all but the worst teams in the league is going to come down to their ability to pass the ball through midfield, and they were wholly unable to do it against Manchester United. Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gueye both struggled badly in possession. Onana gave the ball away eight times; Gueye didn’t make a single tackle to break up United’s rhythm when they got on top. Alex Iwobi was excellent once again, but he can’t do it by himself.
The impact of that is obvious: it leaves Everton’s forward players isolated. Anthony Gordon only touched the ball 23 times and only one of those touches was in United’s penalty area. Demarai Gray only had two penalty box touches and was forced to drop deep to get involved. Neal Maupay was left feeding off scraps. He didn’t have a single shot.
Fulham
In every season that they have been relegated, Fulham’s defence has been inept at stopping their opponents from taking a high volume of shots. Initial signs this season were promising: Fulham allowed only 31 shots and nine shots on target in their first three league games.
But over the last few weeks, things have taken a turn for the worse, even while Fulham have continued to pick up points thanks to the three goals in quick succession against Nottingham Forest. In five of their last six games (ignoring the 2-1 win against Brighton when they defended really well), Fulham have allowed an average of 19 shots per game and eight shots on target.
You might be able to get away with that if Aleksandar Mitrovic is in the team and scoring goals. With the greatest of respect, you won’t get away with it when Carlos Vinicius is your centre-forward.
Leeds
There are no hard and fast rules for what makes a struggling club, but there are three fairly universal things that most of those clubs share:
- 1) Failing to make the most of dominance – Immediately after Leeds scored their opening goal at Selhurst Park, they enjoyed a spell of total control. Crystal Palace were unable to pass out of their own final third, their attacking midfielders were having to help out in defence and Leeds relentlessly pushed forward. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn that into a second goal.
- 2) Exposing your own weaknesses – Only Everton and Leicester have conceded more goals from set pieces than Leeds since the start of last season – it’s clear a problem. But every team has weaknesses; the key is to protect your flaws as much as possible. And that’s where Leeds really have been foolish. Leeds commit more fouls per game than any other team in the league. They repeatedly commit foolish, minor offences in their final third, thus allowing their opponents to test out Leeds’ weakness. Cut to Liam Cooper doing something dim out wide, Leeds failing to pick up Palace players in the box and therefore them losing the ascendancy.
- 3) Dead periods – Every team has spells of games where everything goes a little limp, both in possession and out of it – it is impossible to maintain relentlessness over an entire match. But for those teams who struggle, those spells appear like gaping holes into which they fall and are then unable to climb out of.
It was frustrating watching Leeds in the second half against Palace as a neutral, let alone as a supporter. The squad isn’t deep enough to bring game changers off the bench, there is a chronic lack of fit and firing strikers (Patrick Bamford is still rusty and Wilfried Gnonto isn’t ready) and they lose their heads a little when things go wrong. That 3-0 win over Chelsea feels light years ago.
Leicester
For all the swell of positivity after Monday evening’s emphatic victory over Forest, what if that was the exception? Leicester won 4-0 thanks to a struggling opposition and goals from low-percentage chances. That’s not to take anything away from the quality of the finishing, but three goals from outside the penalty area and one outrageous flick might not be sustainable. Nor is playing a defence like Forest’s every week.
This was back to the worst of Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester. They took an early lead and were relatively comfortable for the next 20 minutes. Then they completely stopped playing, were pitiful in protecting the ball and keeping possession to relieve pressure and weren’t good enough defensively to deal with that pressure. From the 32nd minute to Bournemouth’s equaliser in the 68th minute, Leicester had one shot saved and one more blocked. That’s not good enough.
In his post-match interview with the BBC, Rodgers blamed the second-half issues on his team being “too comfortable”. If that is true, it’s damning on his own management. How can a team who have struggled so much this season, and who have now lost four matches after taking the lead this season, become complacent when they have a one-goal advantage away from home? Surely the one thing Leicester should be is determined – and prepared – to avoid the same mistakes that have got them into this mess?
So far this season, there have been 18 occasions on which a team has taken a lead and gone on to lose the match; Leicester account for four of those. If Rodgers cannot solve that deep-rooted issue, Leicester will never fully escape trouble. And if they fail to escape trouble soon, he will lose his job. Their next three opponents are Wolves, Leeds and Crystal Palace. Nothing less than seven points will do.
More on Premier League
Arsenal and Liverpool face FA investigation after clash involving Henderson and Gabriel10 October, 2022
Bad luck, bad planning, bad execution – Liverpool’s slump is one of their own making10 October, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo will accept bit-part role at Man Utd if he wants a happy ending to his career10 October, 2022Liverpool
You can see the logic in Jurgen Klopp going for an all-out attack policy. If his team were going to concede at some point, they might as well pick four forwards and resort to chaos theory, pressing high up the pitch to force mistakes and make the Emirates worry. They had some success with that exact strategy.
But there are a number of issues with Liverpool’s approach on Sunday; none of them reflect well on Klopp. Firstly, resorting to chaos is itself an admission of defeat. It suggests that at least some of the parts of your system are so broken that you cannot trust them to function as normal. It concedes too that you are a little frightened of your opponent – with good reason, as it happens.
The obvious problem was what would happen if the four-man frontline were unsuccessful when they pressed high up the pitch. It left Liverpool short-handed in midfield – neither Thiago nor Jordan Henderson are blessed with pace. It hoped to protect Trent Alexander-Arnold by requiring him less in the attacking third, but that didn’t work because Gabriel Martinelli drove at him and gave him twisted blood.
It also didn’t work because Liverpool continued their pattern of conceding first and conceding early, thus forcing them to chase games and then get ragged in the final 15 minutes because they are shattered. For as long as they start so poorly, inviting pressure and individual mistakes through poor positioning and decision-making, Liverpool will not improve.
Klopp may blame misfortune and this was no calamity. There was a debatable penalty that Liverpool didn’t get and a debatable penalty that Arsenal did. Luis Diaz was injured at the point when he was establishing himself as the most influential attacking player in the match.
But Klopp also knows that it doesn’t really matter if Liverpool lost because of bad luck, bad planning, bad execution or a mix of all three, because their start to the season has reduced all margin for error. They’re 10th in the table, sit behind two of the three promoted clubs and play Manchester City next week. This is unravelling quite quickly.
Man City
This week, reports suggested that Phil Foden is close to signing a new contract at Manchester City. Four years ago, when he signed a six-year deal, the nagging question was whether any academy graduate, particularly an attacking midfielder, could stay at City and break into the first team. Now we know that staying here was the best decision Foden could ever have made.
Forget the potential disadvantages of being surrounded by phenom talents and the competition for places. Foden has flourished in this environment because of that talent. When he’s gone through sticky patches (and we’re talking in relative terms here), he could be used as a substitute or start in cup competitions to rebuild form. When he was flying, Pep Guardiola could pick him every week around spectacular players and let him dip into space and link play.
The other benefit is that those superstars tend to hog the limelight; Foden has no issue with that. While everyone falls over themselves (with good reason) over Erling Haaland’s start to life in England, Foden is the third top-scorer in the division and has nine goal contributions, five behind his record in a league season. They’re both 22 and they seem to revel in creating chances for each other; their partnership might be the perfect relief to reduce the onus on Kevin de Bruyne’s creativity.
Man Utd
He may not have a long-term future at Manchester United. He may be thoroughly fed up with life and be using friendly faces in the media to express his reservations over Erik ten Haag’s management. There are off-field questions about his character that we cannot really go into now. But you cannot doubt Cristiano Ronaldo’s longevity or his historical greatness.
For a man who seems absolutely obsessed about personal milestones, scoring your 700th career goal is a landmark achievement. There was a statistic doing the rounds on Saturday that helped to put his on-field magnitude into 2022 perspective. If Ronaldo never scores another goal (and he promptly scored on Saturday), and Erling Braut Haaland also plays to the age of 38, Haaland would need to score 43 goals a season for the next 16 years just to level Ronaldo’s career total goals.
In terms of consistency, longevity and sheer professionalism, we may never see the like again.
Newcastle
Given the Financial Fair Play constraints upon Newcastle following their Saudi takeover, it became crucial that any expensive signings they did make hit the ground running. Newcastle were linked with dozens of big names with bigger price tags, the perfect storm for agents looking to raise some publicity. They stayed quiet and then moved quickly to sign Bruno Guimaraes for £38m. It was a masterstroke.
Bruno is an infectious midfielder. He loves to drive forward from deep and is perfectly prepared to get physical. He also has more licence to attack than he did at Lyon, as proved by the goal record: three in 56 league games in Ligue 1, seven in 23 games in the Premier League. No Newcastle player has scored more since his debut.
That attacking drive is particularly important at the moment, given Allan Saint-Maximin has been injured since August and new club record signing Alexander Isak got injured on international duty with Sweden. At its worst, Newcastle can become a little lethargic and sluggish without Saint-Maximin; Bruno alleviates that problem. He has missed four league games since signing – Newcastle have taken two points and scored three goals in those matches.
More than all of that, Bruno is a firestarter. His personality and demeanour on and off the pitch has given everyone at Newcastle a boost, as described by Eddie Howe: “He’s absolutely a bargain because he’s had a huge effect on the team and the club. It’s an amazing thing for us to have him, it’s not just the player, it’s the person as well. I can’t say how good a person he is. He’s a pleasure to coach and be around. He’s a really positive person, an energiser and someone I love to coach and be with.”
Nottingham Forest
Play on Monday evening.
Southampton
There’s not much point criticising Southampton for losing 4-0 to Manchester City, even if they were a little limp in midfield. But Ralph Hasenhuttl does have a problem that was exposed on Saturday but extends far beyond it: Southampton have stopped creating clear chances.
In three of their last four matches (against Wolves, Aston Villa and Manchester City), Southampton had a combined one shot on target – one against Wolves, none against City or Villa. Before that, Southampton were averaging almost four shots on target per league game, including fixtures against Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea.
This downturn has come out of nowhere. Southampton have been inefficient finishers ever since Danny Ings left, but before the last four matches they had failed to have a shot on target in one of their last 183 Premier League matches; they have done it twice since. Hasenhuttl doesn’t need me to tell him that he can ill afford his team’s attacking numbers to fall off a cliff.
Tottenham
Moving from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2 might seem like more of a tactical tweak than a change of formation, but you’d be surprised. You might also assume that taking out one of your three attackers for a defensive midfielder when you are struggling to service the attack would be a backwards step. Again, the reality was a little different.
With three central midfielders rather than two, Antonio Conte had clearly instructed his team to be more aggressive out of possession. Rodrigo Bentancur had the most obvious change of role, pushing high up the pitch to try and force Brighton to go long. Bentancur had attempted to press opponents in the final third three times across his last four Premier League appearances. Against Brighton, he did so seven times in 90 minutes. Bentancur covered more ground than any other player on the pitch.
Ryan Sessegnon was also asked to do the same, asked to both press high on the full-backs and still be in possession defensively if Brighton broke through the press. In both cases, it was only partially successful. Spurs did indeed knock Brighton off their stride in the first 30 minutes, but they also looked a little short defensively when De Zerbi’s side were successful. The game was probably a little chaotic for Conte’s liking.
Still, winning away at Brighton with the new shape is not to be sniffed at, particularly given Yves Bissouma was making only his second start and Tottenham were playing second-choice wing-backs. There is a chance that increasing the intensity higher up the pitch may be exactly what Spurs needed.
West Ham
A final 30 minutes that could not have gone any better for David Moyes. First, his new Italian signing scored again to offer more evidence that he might just be a perfect fit for the Premier League. Gianluca Scamacca is physical, an absolute nuisance off the ball and absolutely loves scoring goals.
Then came the fun bit, because Michail Antonio scored a goal, albeit one aided by some horrific defending and general Fulham clumsiness. Its significance? Antonio was a substitute. This was only the second goal scored by a West Ham substitute in the Premier League this year.
The accusation by Moyes before now is that he doesn’t have the squad depth to change the game. The accusation against Moyes is that he doesn’t use his substitutions particularly well and is not proactive enough with them in general. An answer on both points on Sunday.
Wolves
A performance that contained no reason for positivity and had no redeeming features of any kind. If Julen Loptegui is to be Bruno Lage’s replacement, he better bring his “good cop” attitude with him because these Wolves players look half-broken by their start to the season.
Part of the reason for Wolves’ decline – and the end of Bruno Lage – is that Wolves’ record in the transfer market has declined badly. Some reliable members of the team remain: Ruben Neves, Joao Mourinho, Max Kilman. But around them, the recent arrivals have left Wolves floundering.
Last summer, they signed Rayan Ait-Nouri, Jose Sa, Francisco Trincao, Yerson Mosquera and Chiquito. Ait-Nouri started well but tailed off and Sa has been excellent; the others barely left a fingerprint on the first team. This summer, Wolves realised that they needed to increase the investment to try and halt the decline. They spent £120m on Nathan Collins, Goncalo Guedes, Matheus Nunes, Sasa Kalajdzic and Hee-chan Hwang, whose loan deal was made permanent.
Collins is a fine defender, but was sent off against Manchester City and subsequently suspended for three games. Kalajdzic suffered a serious injury that may rule him out for the whole season. Hwang was booed by a section of the crowd when he was brought on as a substitute last month and is firmly behind a barely half-fit Diego Costa in the queue. Nunes is clearly an excellent technical player, but is struggling to find time on the ball with Wolves too often being overrun. Guedes was hauled off at half-time for an academy kid on Saturday after a wholly dismal 45 minutes.
Wolves are picking players out of positions to fill gaps. They are using half-fit players through necessity. Their best players are central midfielders who are being broken by the mess behind and in front of them. Pedro Neto now has a serious injury. Buena suerte, Julen.
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