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Welcome back to The Score. It’s a new season, but the same old Premier League: Manchester City winning games without conceding, Brighton freewheeling their way to wins, Manchester United struggling away from home, Everton in apparent crisis (because Dominic Calvert-Lewin is injured), Brentford greater than the sum of their parts and Chelsea buying players to no obvious positive effect.
It’s the bottom quarter of the Premier League that is most intriguing, because the teams we expected to struggle are already forming a collective. Luton and Burnley may only have played once, but them, Wolves, Everton and Sheffield United are all pointless.
Six different sides got their first league win of the season, but it was Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham who made the biggest leap forward with victory over Manchester United. They might fall head over heels in love with him, y’know…
This weekend’s results
Friday
- Nottingham Forest 2-1 Sheff Utd
Saturday
- Fulham 0-3 Brentford
- Liverpool 3-1 Bournemouth
- Luton P-P Burnley
- Wolves 1-4 Brighton
- Tottenham 2-0 Man Utd
- Man City 1-0 Newcastle
Sunday
- Aston Villa 4-0 Everton
- West Ham 3-1 Chelsea
Monday
- Crystal Palace vs Arsenal (8pm)
Brighton
This is not sustainable. Brighton have scored eight goals in their opening two league fixtures for the second time in their history (and the other time was in the fourth tier) because they have faced two opponents who weren’t quite ready for this season to begin and who foolishly committed players forward and allowed Brighton to counter attack them at will.
Nor is this team perfect yet. Although Luton did not have a stream of high-value chances last weekend, Wolves did. A better opponent with better – or at least more confident – strikers would have at least been level at half-time. Roberto De Zerbi started Billy Gilmour in central midfield over Mahmoud Dahoud, but he also admits that he needs at least one signing to account for the loss of Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo.
But those who suspected Brighton’s form may fall off a cliff following the loss of their first-choice central midfielders overstepped the mark because the sheer variety of attacking options, and the manner in which all of those options contribute in turn, makes them incredibly potent.
On Saturday, De Zerbi left Evan Ferguson (a potential £60m striker before long) and Joao Pedro (a £30m summer signing) on the bench. They were joined by Simon Adingra, who may well be the next eye-catching winger off the conveyor belt. All three of those players scored in Brighton’s opening match and yet were not needed here until the game was won.
Brighton have played two league fixtures. Six different players have scored goals. Three different players have two or more assists. Seven different players have taken three or more shots. Brighton have the first, fifth and sixth highest chance creators in the division. There is too much that goes right in this team for this to go wrong quickly.
Premier League table
Man City
With the greatest of respect to Kevin De Bruyne, we know what he can do when given a freer role in midfield with the licence to roam and create. With Phil Foden, we have endured 18 months of him producing brilliant moments but usually as a left winger and often flitting in and out of Manchester City’s first team. We already suspected that Foden may be used deeper and more centrally before De Bruyne’s injury. Now, this is his duty.
So it was wonderful to watch him torment Newcastle as we know that he can. There’s something about his slight frame (and a lot more about his exceptional sense of timing and movement) that allows him to pop up unguarded in space. Then the dribbling and weight of passing takes over.
Starting from that deeper position allows that dribbling excellence to be demonstrated better than when he’s out wide, turning back to play a pass infield. In Saturday’s 1-0 win over Newcastle, Foden completed six progressive carries (when a player takes the ball 10 yards closer to the opponent’s goal). He only beat that total twice in the whole of last season.
Foden might also be the difference-maker this season because, on early evidence, Pep Guardiola is going to try and win the league with solidity over flair (at least until a new attacking reinforcement or two arrives). In both of their opening two league fixtures and in the Uefa Super Cup, City have seemed happy to sit on a lead and concentrate on clean sheets. They have allowed only two shots on target in their first two league games combined.
Brentford
In my Brentford season preview, I dismissed some of the deepest concerns about them coping without Ivan Toney. It isn’t that Toney is not a fine striker nor that he wouldn’t be missed, but Thomas Frank had proved last season that they could change their approach when their centre forward was missing.
That is why, when Brentford began shopping for forwards this summer, Kevin Schade (who plays off the left) was signed and Brennan Johnson (a speedy wide forward) was targeted. No Toney means more fluidity and position-swapping.
Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo are also the most under-rated pair of forwards in the Premier League who had far too much for Fulham on Saturday. Their record in full since the start of season, when starting together without Toney in the team:
- Nottingham Forest (a): Wissa scored, Mbeumo scored
- Liverpool (h): Wissa scored, Mbeumo scored
- West Ham (h): Wissa scored, Mbeumo scored
- Tottenham (a): Wissa scored, Mbeumo scored twice
- Manchester City (h): Neither scored, but Brentford did beat the champions and Mbeumo assisted the only goal
- Tottenham (h): Wissa scored, Mbeumo scored
- Fulham (a): Wissa scored, Mbeumo scored twice
This is not normal.
Liverpool
My most serious concern about Liverpool this season was not how long it would take for their new midfielders to acclimatise to each other’s games (because that is inescapable reality), but how that uncertainty in the middle of the pitch might impact upon the established players. Last season, Liverpool struggled because everything was too stale. This season, they might start slowly because things are too fresh.
Perhaps it is mere coincidence, but in the first 20 minutes against Bournemouth, it was indeed the existing players who were having problems. Alisson had a mix-up with Virgil van Dijk and another with Trent Alexander-Arnold. Alexander-Arnold got caught on the ball and Liverpool were lucky not to concede. Were these just isolated mistakes by individuals, or are the defenders struggling slightly because they are still learning about their new colleagues in real time?
First things first: Jurgen Klopp knows that he has a problem. He watched the first quarter of the victory over Bournemouth with a haunted look, as if wondering whether his players had bumped their heads together and forgotten anything they had worked on in pre-season. Liverpool will get better and they have four points from their first two league fixtures – this is not a reason for panic.
But Klopp will also know that the acclimatisation process for his new midfielders will take longer if his defence is making life hard for themselves. Liverpool have faced nine shots on target in their first two matches and 23 shots in total (Bournemouth alone had 13 at Anfield). In 2022-23, Liverpool allowed only 38 shots in their first five league games. They could easily have been punished more in each of their two league fixtures.
Tottenham
It seems improper to dredge up an unhappy past when the positive energy coursing through the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium could light every home in N17, but with each passing week it becomes increasingly unfathomable that Antonio Conte could find no place for Yves Bissouma in a midfield that was consistently overworked and overwhelmed. He was right there, Antonio.
The Italian singled Bissouma out for struggling with the “tactical aspect” of his instructions, which considering the 26-year-old’s comfort in possession is unsurprising when the principal role of Tottenham’s midfielders last season was to hurry around plugging gaps, like two 10-year-old’s playing whack-a-mole at a seafront arcade. What a difference a new manager makes.
Only Manchester City pass-master Rodri and Brighton line-breaker Lewis Dunk have attempted more passes than Bissouma so far this season. Both statistics paint a picture of the tactical evolution taking place.
Bissouma had to get through plenty of defensive work against United, making a team-leading seven tackles, but it is his dribbling qualities that have most caught the eye. According to Opta, he has attempted more ball carries (moving with the ball for more than five metres) than any other player in the division over the first two games. By Oliver Young-Myles
West Ham
As West Ham continue to come to terms with life after Declan Rice, signing James Ward-Prowse looks like a smart move. While the former Southampton captain has a very different profile to his predecessor, less a muscular box-to-box warrior and more a nimble deep-lying playmaker, his specialist skills could prove enormously useful.
Having already caused chaos in the box with his first corner, drawing Robert Sanchez into a flap at the far post with Jarrod Bowen unable to capitalise, it took him seven minutes on debut to nab his first assist at a set piece. His inviting ball to the back post was a carbon copy of the delivery he had sent in moments earlier, but this time Nayef Aguerd clambered above Conor Gallagher to nod in the opener.
WHAT A START FOR WEST HAM!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 20, 2023
Aguerd heads home!pic.twitter.com/D9PxPZSrqa
While Gallagher’s flat-footed defending left much to be desired, the goal was a reminder of why Ward-Prowse is considered one of the best dead-ball technicians in English football.
West Ham were joint-fourth in the Premier League for goals from corners last season with 10 and, with Ward-Prowse in the side, they can be confident of bettering that figure this time around. While he didn’t get a chance to show off his marksmanship, his 17 Premier League goals direct from free kicks put him behind only David Beckham and that could make a big difference to a team which scored a disappointing 42 league goals last term.
Ward-Prowse’s performance was about more than set pieces, mind: it was his searching long ball over the top which sent away Michail Antonio to score West Ham’s second, setting them on the path to a well-deserved victory. There may still be a Rice-shaped hole in the Hammers’ midfield, but Ward-Prowse has already done enough to suggest he can bring his own touch of excellence to the side. By Will Magee
Newcastle
Well it’s normally worse than this. Newcastle United have never won at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League and have not even taken a point there since November 2006. Their last four meetings in Manchester had been lost by an aggregate of 14-0. Losing 1-0 to this opposition is never a reason for staunch criticism.
And yet… and yet. One the same weekend last season at St James’ Park, Newcastle troubled Pep Guardiola’s team during a 3-3 draw by hassling and panicking them in possession and forcing turnovers high up the pitch. That was surely the plan on Saturday against a side that had played in the Super Cup in the Athens heat in midweek.
But Newcastle were unable to make an impression during the first half. A year ago, eight shots in the first 45 minutes and five on target. This year just two shots, neither of which were on target. Even when they did build up some pressure when 1-0 down, the final ball was wasteful.
Finally (and, to repeat, after losing to Manchester City is probably not the time to bring it up), Eddie Howe will be getting a little irked about Newcastle’s defensive record. Between the start of last season and the end of January 2023, Howe’s side conceded 11 goals in 20 matches, kept 12 clean sheets and possessed the best defence in the division by a distance. Since then, Newcastle have played 21 more games in all competitions and kept two clean sheets.
Arsenal
Arsenal travel to Crystal Palace on Monday evening. You can read my colleague Oliver’s analysis on why Arsenal’s new signings have created new problems here.
Crystal Palace
Host Arsenal on Monday evening. In case you missed it last week, you can read my analysis on the shrewd new Palace signing who will make Eberechi Eze even more influential this season here.
Aston Villa
Well that’s one way of recovering from a 5-1 thumping in your season-opener. Villa applied the schoolchild’s mantra of “take one, pass it on” to Premier League batterings to recover from their harrowing evening at St James’ Park with nonchalant ease against Everton.
Leon Bailey, Moussa Diaby and John McGinn, Unai Emery’s newly elected creative trio, were at the core of Villa’s dominance. Yet while Bailey and McGinn both scored, their record summer signing was perhaps the real star.
Diaby didn’t get his flowers after scoring on his debut last week, but should get them today despite not. He drifted between Everton’s defence and midfield like an alluring smell, something you can chase but not touch, becoming stronger the closer you get to it. He was at different times solid, fluid and gas, seeping through holes, floating past unmoving midfielders and smashing into rogue weakness. In short, he looks very, very good.
Fellow new boy Jhon Duran enjoyed perhaps the dream opening minute to steal in and score, while Pau Torres also had an afternoon of relative relaxation against Championship-level opposition. Despite Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia’s long-term absences, the rapid acclimatisation of Emery’s new cohort in such an exceedingly dominant performance will settle stomachs and nerves in Birmingham. By George Simms
Nottingham Forest
It gives you some indication of the mania around Nottingham Forest that their first home league game of the season was considered to be a must-win by the majority of supporters. That’s partly because Forest have a dreadful run of away games to start the campaign, but it also reflects the emphatic ambition of an owner who twice sounded out replacements for Steve Cooper last season. Cooper needs to start well (and supporters of other clubs will probably not believe that he can be under such extreme pressure).
Win Forest did, albeit with a double dose of panic. They let Sheffield United back into the game and Cooper expressed his frustration with that after the match. It took a late goal from a low-percentage chance by Chris Wood, a striker who many fans had given up on despite his expensive move only being made permanent this summer.
That said, are we not guilty of being a little negative here? Forest already have a host of injuries, a nasty late-summer fixture list and a clutch of players who missed most or all of pre-season. And if Forest have the same number of points from their opening two league games, they gained them in completely different circumstances.
In 2022-23, Forest allowed an expected goals total of 3.8 across their first two matches and had an xG for total of 1.6. They were highly fortunate to beat West Ham and barely threatened at all against Newcastle. This season, their xG for and against figure is 2.33 vs 1.09. They have scored three goals in the first two games; last season it was two in their first five.
The defending does still look panicky (especially when dealing with long balls against Sheffield United). The midfield is still coming together and looks flimsy when Ryan Yates is missing. They do still have periods in matches when a lack of cohesion allows their opponent to build momentum. But in two games they have conceded goals to two brilliant strikes from outside the penalty area and one magic assist. Cooper deserves a lot more credit.
Man Utd
Nobody is panicking yet (who are we kidding: supporters are always panicking) but Manchester United have started the season appallingly. They were highly fortunate to beat Wolves after facing a high volume of shots and then were outplayed by Tottenham after missing their own. There is no element of this team that is working as it should. Last season United also started slowly, but that was Erik ten Hag’s first campaign. This time was supposed to be more calm.
It isn’t that hard to compose a theoretical explanation. Bournemouth are the only team in the Premier League to have allowed more shots than Manchester United in the first two gameweeks. They have played Wolves at home and Tottenham away, two teams with new managers still working out what works. That’s not good enough.
This must be a midfield problem. In my preview of United’s season, I wrote the following: “If Ten Hag is intending to start all four of Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Fernandes, Mount and a winger, he’s going to need an effective holding midfielder. Casemiro turns 32 midway through this season and United will hope to play at least 60 matches in all competitions. With Scott McTominay repeatedly linked with a move away, it’s asking an awful lot of Casemiro’s reserves of energy to do this by himself.”
It’s also asking a lot of Casemiro if Ten Hag is going to play Mason Mount as one of the two central midfielders, because that surely doesn’t get the best out of his new signing and leaves Casemiro with way too much to cover. Mount’s best position would surely be in that advanced central midfield role, but then Bruno Fernandes seemingly wants to be there with two regulation wingers starting and Marcus Rashford up front. Right now, United are vulnerable to counter attacks and pressing in midfield.
Fulham
The Aleksandar Mitrovic era ends, not with the montages and videos and fond farewells that his record merited, but with a blunt, bland statement posted on a club website because that is how he made it happen. Deep down, Fulham supporters knew that Mitrovic was ambitious. But leaving for the big-money move, and being so blatant in his engineering of that move, leaves a very sour taste.
The positive spin is that Fulham have received a huge transfer fee, 50 per cent higher than when they sold Ryan Sessegnon to Tottenham. If Marco Silva is permitted to reinvest – and he says that he will be – they could buy two forwards, add depth to the squad and get over the loss of a striker who missed a third of last season anyway.
The more negative assessment – and it’s one that some Fulham supporters are edging closer towards: Mitrovic was the difference-maker. He wasn’t just a goalscorer – he was a presence and a mood and without him Fulham lose a large part of the identity over the last two seasons. Those same fans have an uneasy relationship with their club over issues of ticket pricing and supporter engagement. They will believe that all the Mitrovic money will be reinvested when they see it.
Fulham must move quickly. Right now, their first-choice centre forward is Raul Jimenez, a 32-year-old with six goals in his last 55 Premier League appearances. Mitrovic was not perfect, but at his best he won Fulham points on his own. They lost eight league games last season without him in the team and seven of those defeats were by a single goal. The fear is that, in his absence, Fulham will once again fall on the wrong side of those fine margins.
Chelsea
While every team feels like a known unknown at this stage of the season, Chelsea are more of a mystery than most. It has been another summer of Boehly Transfer Bingo, with Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Lesley Ugochukwu, Axel Disasi, Robert Sanchez, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia joining almost £1bn worth of signings under the club’s new ownership.
Mauricio Pochettino only started three new faces here in Jackson, Disasi and Sanchez, but focusing on that would underplay just how unfamiliar his line-up was. Raheem Sterling, who started out wide, feels relatively well-established, having joined last summer and played 40 games in all competitions. Enzo Fernandez, Malo Gusto, Carney Chukwuemeka and Levi Colwill began the game with 45 appearances for Chelsea between them. The majority of those belonged to Fernandez, who joined from Benfica six months ago.
Chelsea were disjointed from the beginning, seeing plenty of possession without ever really knowing what to do with it. Sanchez looked uncomfortable under high balls and soon conceded as Aguerd exploited Gallagher’s hesitation to head home. Jackson had some bright moments up front but fewer high-quality chances than he did against Liverpool, his ability to get into dangerous areas failing to translate into something more tangible. It was telling that Chelsea’s only goal of the game came from a moment of individual genius, Chukwuemeka showing lovely footwork to gather a half-clearance, dance into space and thrash a shot into the far corner.
Fernandez moved the ball about deftly in midfield, but his squandered penalty just before half-time – a tame effort well-saved by Alphonse Areola – only added to Chelsea’s air of skittishness. Disasi was caught backpedalling as Michail Antonio restored West Ham’s lead in the second half. As Pochettino turned to his bench he brought on three more of Chelsea’s class of 2023 in Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke and Caicedo. In a cruel twist of fate, it was Caicedo, Chelsea’s £115m glamour signing, who gave away the penalty which sealed their defeat.
More than anything, Chelsea’s performance was summed up by the fact that, when Aguerd was sent off midway through the second half, they hardly looked any more likely to score. This is now a team of signings thrown together under four permanent managers, leaving Pochettino with a tangled knot of threads to unpick. By Will Magee
Bournemouth
Last week, I wrote that Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth was very much in its infancy due to absentees and a degree of early-season pragmatism. At Anfield on Saturday, we saw glimpses of the Iraola methodology that helped Rayo Vallecano beat Real Madrid and Barcelona last season.
Bournemouth pressed high and hard from the off and surprised Liverpool with their intensity. Their one-goal lead could at least have been doubled and Liverpool were fairly fortunate to keep 10 men on the pitch (although that luck ran out later). They played far more directly away at Liverpool than at home to West Ham, something Iraola alluded to after the game. They also attempted to play quicker.
The fly in the ointment is that Bournemouth have allowed a lot of shots, plenty of them from high-value positions. Last season, they allowed 619 shots in the league, the most in the division by almost 50. It’s a tiny sample size, but Bournemouth are currently on course to concede 800 shots this season. If we’re expecting them to become more manic and more high-pressing, how is this defence going to be adequately protected?
Sheff Utd
Gustavo Hamer’s finish was sublime, but that only re-emphasises that Sheffield United need more Premier League quality. The defence may well struggle through, given the defensive record last season and the cohesion that comes with keeping the same group together. In the final third, that’s just not going to be the case.
Last year, Paul Heckingbottom’s team scored 73 goals in the Championship; 36 of those goals have since left the club. The only player left who scored more than six in the league is Oliver McBurnie, who scored once in 23 games during his last Premier League season. And he’s injured.
On Friday, William Osula started – he’s a 19-year-old academy striker who has never scored for Sheffield United. Osula was replaced by Antwoine Hackford – he’s a 19-year-old academy striker who had made one senior league appearance before this season. Heckingbottom’s chances of keeping this team up are being undermined by a lack of investment. He is not asking for lavish spending; a senior centre forward would do.
Luton
Game postponed due to building work at Kenilworth Road. Read the story of Luton’s “betrayal” and their 31-year fight to reach the Premier League here.
Burnley
Game postponed due to building work at Kenilworth Road. You can read why I think Vincent Kompany’s Premier League experience will keep the Clarets up this season here.
Wolves
If ever you thought that an impromptu change of manager might somehow change Wolves’ astonishing ability to be a parody of themselves, here was the emphatic answer. Wolves missed good chances. Wolves were then defensively loose. Wolves then conceded just after half-time. Wolves were then caught on the counter to make the scoreline far worse than the performance.
The profligacy has been a problem for longer than anyone cares to remember. In two post-match press conferences, Gary O’Neil has talked up the standard of chances created, but Wolves managers before him have learnt this lesson the hard way. The usual xG rules do not apply to this club.
On Saturday, Fabio Silva started up front after an absence of a year – he now has four goals in 56 Premier League appearances. But again, what’s new? Wolves have had 39 shots so far this season; only Brighton have had more. Brighton have scored eight goals, Wolves just one (and that a consolation when 4-0 down at home).
O’Neil is also going to have to learn that this team cannot push more players forward in search of goals without leaving themselves painfully open. Rayan AĂŻt-Nouri is struggling defensively. Craig Dawson is committed but lacks the pace to be asked to play a high defensive line.
Then, as if to sum up the whole mess, Matheus Nunes got the stupidest red card that any Premier League player will receive this season. It’s one thing pushing a defender over his own goalkeeper and another thing entirely to push another opponent onto the floor three seconds later. But to do both of those things when you are already on a yellow card (and face a trip to Everton next weekend that already feels significant) is an act of spectacular dimness. It never rains…
Everton
You know what Mike Tyson said – everyone has a plan until Dominic Calvert-Lewin looks like he’s been punched in the face. Everton were poor even with their first-choice striker on the pitch, but utterly dire once Arnaut Danjuma had replaced him.
Sean Dyche’s managerial raison d’etre is to tighten teams up defensively, to limit goals at one end and hopefully nab one at the other. Yet as Jhon Duran pounced on Ashley Young’s pathetically sloppy throw-in to score his first Villa goal within a minute of coming on, the question unavoidably emerged: what is this team trying to do? What’s the point of only starting with one attacking player if you’re still going to exhibit such fundamental weakness at the back? What is Dycheball without defensive stability and with such simple stupidity?
Michael Keane and Young stand out for particular denigration thanks to their direct roles in the third and fourth goals respectively, but even Jordan Pickford, normally the last bastion of responsibility, got involved. Flying through Villa Park like the superhero every non-Everton fan wants but absolutely no one really needs, he cleared out both Ollie Watkins and his side’s chances in one fell swoop. Penalty Villa, alarm bells Everton. Only Fulham and Brighton have now conceded more spot-kicks than Everton’s six since the start of last season.
The Toffees are now guaranteed to end the second week of the season bottom of the table having racked up an equally non-existent number of goals and points. Running past Nathan Patterson ruthlessly and repeatedly, Lucas Digne also acted as a reminder of the incompetence in both player and manager selection over the past few years which has got Everton here. Sold at Rafa Benitez’s behest having been one of the club’s best players for some time, the Spaniard was then sacked the following week. The 38-year-old Young is now failing to stave off both opposition wingers and questions of potential retirement and relegation in Digne’s old spot, while the Frenchman will enjoy European football this season with Villa.
And of course, spare what’s become an almost weekly thought for Calvert-Lewin, who looked like he’d done 12 rounds with a hornet by the time he finally left the pitch. He has now scored seven goals in his past two seasons and the likelihood of him reigniting his Carlo Ancelotti-era form seems to dissipate every time he takes to, and then rapidly leaves, the pitch. By George Simms
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