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We have a new title favourite, and boy has the top of the Premier League changed quickly. With Liverpool continuing to labour (and Crystal Palace losing their first game), Arsenal are top because they are mighty effective and that is enough for now.
Manchester City were probably the other big winners. They don’t win 1-0 that often, but Erling Haaland is back in beast mode and that is enough to keep them fighting.
The two most under-pressure Premier League managers had different weekends, Ruben Amorim relieving some pressure (and picking their new goalkeeper) in beating Sunderland. Ange Postecoglou may or may not make the end of the international break because he has drawn two and lost five of his seven games in charge. It’s not pretty.
Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…
This weekend’s results
- Bournemouth 3-1 Fulham
- Leeds 1-2 Tottenham
- Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
- Man Utd 2-0 Sunderland
- Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool
- Aston Villa 2-1 Burnley
- Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace
- Newcastle 2-0 Nott’m Forest
- Wolves 1-1 Brighton
- Brentford 0-1 Man City
West Ham desperately need the international break
Obviously no shame in being comfortably beaten at the Emirates. Nuno Espirito Santo will now have the international break to spend two weeks on the training ground with his non-international players. I wonder if that might persuade him to revisit the three-man central defence that worked so well at Wolves but was rarely seen at Forest?
The theory is this: El Hadji Malick Diouf is better going forward than back. Kyle Walker-Peters can definitely play right wing-back, which would allow Aaron Wan Bissaka to play as the right-sided centre-back – West Ham are certainly short of in-form central defenders.
It would also leave only two of Matheus Fernandes, Soungoutou Magassa and Lucas Paqueta to start, creating greater competition there, and let Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville to play on the counter and get closer to the centre-forward with the wing-backs overlapping.
Pereira creates more problems for Wolves
For the second weekend in a row, Wolves conceded a late, late equaliser. They would probably have taken two points from those fixtures before kick off, but you cannot afford to be generous at the bottom of the league. Add in going 1-0 up on Leeds before losing 3-1 and you have a sorry situation. When leads come along, you must take advantage.
How much of this is down to Vitor Pereira? Wolves were excellent in the first half against Brighton, frequently pinning back their opponents and spooking them into turning over possession. Then he took off one forward for a central defender and another for a central midfielder, sat deep, conceded an equaliser and then had to rush to bring on a substitute striker to (unsuccessfully) try to change the game.
It is a fine balance between holding onto what you have and allowing pressure to build that your team cannot repel. Pereira looks to have sorted his starting XIs; next it is the mid-game changes.
Burnley are guilty of inviting too much pressure
We have had seven gameweeks of this Premier League season and Burnley have faced 32 more shots than any other team. Continue at the current rate and they will face 700 shots in the league in 2025-26. Southampton’s extraordinarily bad defence last season only faced 672 shots.
Some of this is by design, Scott Parker happy to face shots but lower their quality by defending deep. But when he is picking a back five to face Villa, leaving Lesley Ugochukwu on the bench and allowing his team to fall two goals behind before making significant changes, it all just feels a little too passive.
Lesley Ugochukwu pulls one back for Burnley!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 5, 2025pic.twitter.com/6IJhgHdANf
Parker might have to be a little more brave to avoid Burnley simply succumbing to their fate.
The end is nigh for Postecoglou at Forest
This might be the end already. Nottingham Forest were different against Newcastle United: they looked to sacrifice possession, not push the defensive line too high and instead soak up pressure. But a) they still lost anyway and b) if you are going to go back to Nuno’s style of football, wouldn’t it be worth appointing a manager for whom that is their expertise?
This has all been a terrible mistake. The supporters aren’t having him, Forest are bang in relegation trouble and their greatest strength – defenders looking composed under pressure – has become their weakness. Every time the ball goes near Forest’s penalty area you panic and they appear to panic too. Rash decisions and bad touches have become the new natural occurrence.
Postecoglou has now lost 30 of his last 49 Premier League matches. Anyone who thinks this is going to be turned around quickly makes me jealous, because it must be glorious to go through life with such rampant optimism.
Read more: This feels like the end for Postecoglou at Nottingham Forest
Kayode could be a gem for Brentford
Including penalties, 35 per cent of all Premier League goals this season have come from set-piece situations and the year of the long throw shows no sign of abating. Brentford may have lost to Manchester City, but they were able to push pressure on a far better team through launching the ball into the penalty area from the touchline.
Which makes Michael Kayode one of the most useful wing-backs in the league, not necessarily because he is good going forwards and back (although, at just 21, he is) but because he can throw the ball into the box more like Rory Delap than anyone else in the division. At this rate, he will get a move to a massive club based purely upon this.
For starters, Leeds must score goals a lot quicker
Leeds United have done many things well this season: competing in midfield, high energy, defensive resilience. But one very obvious flaw that Daniel Farke has to solve is the club’s slow starts because they are giving opposition teams a distinct advantage.
In the first 30 minutes of their seven league games, Leeds have an aggregate scoreline of 0-3. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goal at Molineux last week in the 31st minute (when Leeds were already behind) is their earliest goal of the season.
No team in the Premier League has a worse record in the first third of the match and this team – particularly at Elland Road – will be far better if it gets its tail up early.
Fulham’s vulnerabilities come to the fore
With both Rodrigo Muniz and Raul Jimenez out through injury, Marco Silva chose to use a strikerless formation with 18-year-old Josh King usually the furthest player forward. That was hardly their biggest issue after a 1-0 lead became a 3-1 defeat; the inability to guard against Bournemouth’s dribbling did for them.
But it will be interesting to see how Silva is able to bring Fulham’s two new attacking signings (Kevin and Samuel Chukwueze) into the team over the next month. At Bournemouth, Silva started 11 players who were at the club last season. When Sasa Lukic got injured early on, Tom Cairney was introduced.
Chukwueze and Kevin added directness and unpredictability when they finally came on (and Chukwueze assisted Ryan Sessegnon’s goal), but the extra attackers did make Fulham a little more vulnerable because both look quite raw and will need to be coached into their role in defensive work and pressing.
Malens seizes his chance at Aston Villa
February 2024, for Borussia Dortmund, was the last time that Donyell Malen scored more than once in a game, but his breakout match as a Villa player came at the perfect time. It will take Evan Guessand a while to fully acclimatise to the Premier League and, in the meantime, Malen can work as the support act to Ollie Watkins.
What I really liked about Malen was how he became slightly positionless against Burnley and thus hard for Burnley to pick up. Sometimes he made runs through the middle, sometimes out wide. Sometimes he dropped deeper to link play and sometimes he was on the last shoulder of the defender.
Aston Villa SLICE Burnley open and Donyell Malen bags his first of the season!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 5, 2025pic.twitter.com/YyRKhpDDcX
It is exactly that unpredictability that Villa lacked before the win over Fulham last weekend.
Brighton must find a way to be better than the ‘rest’
Brighton being a frustratingly weird Premier League team has basically been the one running theme of this weekly column for a couple of years, and that reputation absolutely stands so far in 2025-26.
The Seagulls have won only two league matches this season. Their vanquished opponents? Chelsea and Manchester City.
This is mostly about possession, or at least there is a clear pattern. In the four league games in which Brighton have recorded their highest possession they have taken two points (Wolves and Fulham). In the other three (41 per cent vs Chelsea, 37 vs City and 36 vs Tottenham) they have taken seven points. Fabian Hurzeler has to improve upon his ability to create a tactical plan to exploit deeper-lying defences.
Thiaw adds a new dimension to Newcastle
With Sven Botman (who is brilliant when fit), Fabian Schar and Dan Burn plus club captain Jamaal Lascelles, you could make a reasonable argument that Newcastle United didn’t need to spend £30m on another central defender in the summer.
We are already seeing why Malick Thiaw might be the long-term guaranteed starter. He possesses excellent pace, is massive and has this great trick of making it look like he is dallying on the ball before turning out of trouble and casually passing the ball forward.
Nick Woltemade converts from the spot to double Newcastle's advantage!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 5, 2025pic.twitter.com/xsUa51lgRO
Thiaw looks made for the Premier League and has settled in remarkably quickly.
Why Lammens should be first choice at Man Utd
Talk about a low bar. There was a moment on Saturday when Senne Lammens, on his Premier League debut, came out to claim a cross without dropping it and most of Old Trafford cheered as if he had tipped a penalty around the post.
Andre Onana will never play for the club again. Altay Bayindir was considered less effective than Onana last season, when the No 1 was routinely awful.
Lammens may be inexperienced, his development will not be linear and having a settled goalkeeper does not solve the myriad other issues, but he should be first choice now and for the rest of the season.
Read more: Mason Mount is Man Utd’s teacher’s pet – and I finally understand why
Sunderland stumble on a decent plan B
Before the second half at Old Trafford, Regis Le Bris had used a flat back four in every league game this season. But with Manchester United rampant and the full-backs struggling, Le Bris ripped up his match plan after just 37 minutes. Despite the defeat, it was promising to see a manager prepared to be so proactive (albeit when his team was 2-0 down).
I wonder if that shift could be a decent plan B? Sunderland looked more solid with Dan Ballard in a back three and he can also step out with the ball into midfield. Arthur Masuaku should not be a regular starter in the Premier League, but Reinildo could take on the wing-back role.
A 3-4-3 with Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki in central midfield has enough bite and would allow for rotation of the wingers (the one place Sunderland haven’t quite got things sorted is directly behind the striker).
Everton and Moyes’s band of merry men
David Moyes might have a centre-forward problem after Thierno Barry followed Beto in being substituted at half-time of a Premier League game this season, but he still has that band of unpredictable attacking midfielders and that was enough to turn around a game that should have been lost. Everton would simply not have won this game in any of the last two years.
The winner was fitting, because the only thing Jack Grealish had been missing was a goal. As The i Paper wrote this week, he is unfortunate not to be in the England squad but that should only spur him on to force the issue.
He has now had more league goal involvements in this season so far than in each of his last two fully completed campaigns.
James excels in his multi-purpose role for Chelsea
It says plenty about Reece James’ versatility that he was listed on the teamsheet as a central midfielder against Liverpool, started the game at right-back and then moved into central defence when needed.
James wasn’t spectacular, but he is always dependable. He had more touches of the ball than any other Chelsea player, making more tackles and more interceptions too.
With him increasingly capable of playing the hybrid inverted full-back, the only thing that will stop James being a crucial leader for club and country is his tendency to pick up frustrating injuries. Please let him catch a break now.
Crystal Palace finally pay the price
The most remarkable aspect of Crystal Palace’s brilliance this season is that they haven’t actually been efficient in the final third. Before this weekend, only Manchester United underperformed their xG total by more than Oliver Glasner’s team. So what would happen if they moved closer to the mean?
Or, what happens if that inefficiency continues? Palace should have been at least two goals clear at the Hill Dickinson Stadium before Everton scored an undue equaliser from a penalty. But if you let your opponents off the hook often enough, you will eventually pay the price.
A first defeat since April is hardly enough to annoy anyone, but it will irk Glasner. Guess who was the least efficient team vs xG in 2024-25 too? It’s an annoying trend that will place a ceiling upon their magnificent overperformance.
Man City have got their bully boy back
Between 4 January and the end of the league season, Erling Haaland scored six Premier League goals. Hardly a chronic drought by any normal striker’s standards, but Manchester City were struggling to service their attacking phenom and their form suffered as a result.
Now Haaland is back at his bullying best, as seen for his winner against Brentford. He has played 11 games for club and country this season and scored at least once in 10 of those matches. He has scored 18 goals in total. One particularly handy recent habit for City is him scoring early to get City ahead: ninth minute against Arsenal, 15th minute against Monaco, ninth minute against Brentford.
And how best to sum up his dominance? According to Opta, Haaland has now scored at 22 of the 23 stadiums he has played at in the Premier League, the highest ratio of any player in Premier League history. City have their cheat code back, whereby they effectively start with a one-goal head start.
Read more: Rodri’s injury heaps pressure on two very different Man City players
Bournemouth’s most important player
Antoine Semenyo is one of the form footballers in Europe, an attacker who has become impossible to stop even though you know what he is going to do. For all that Bournemouth had to rebuild their defence this summer, keeping hold of Semenyo was the golden ticket.
The numbers are getting a little silly. Amongst his teammates, Semenyo ranks first for shots and he has had double the number of shots on target of anyone else. He has contributed 30 shot-creating actions and nobody else has more than 18. He has had the most touches in the opposition penalty area and 38 more final-third touches than the rest. He has dribbled past 15 players and nobody else beats nine.
This is CLASS from Antoine Semenyo!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 3, 2025pic.twitter.com/TAOqu3brC8
If that wasn’t enough, Semenyo’s out-of-possession work is sensational for such an attacking contributor. Only one Bournemouth player has won more tackles in their own third of the pitch. Get you a guy who can do everything.
Tottenham shake off a remnant of last season
Here is a fun fact: between the start of November 2023 and the end of last season, a period covering almost all of Postecoglou’s tenure in charge, Tottenham Hotspur won only one away game in which they conceded (4-1 at Ipswich Town, when they were 2-0 up). The point is this: Tottenham were largely rotten on the road when dealing with adversity or needing to muck in.
Which makes Saturday very important. Mohammed Kudus will take the headlines for his goal and assist (and fair enough), but Spurs also lost control of the game when Xavi Simons was withdrawn with 20 minutes left and were asked to defend set pieces and plenty of crosses into the box.
There is no real way of proving this beyond the evidence presented but I will say it anyway: there is no way that Tottenham win that game under Postecoglou last season.
Liverpool’s cheat code is over
The i Paper has already written a piece this week that detailed six separate issues that Arne Slot is slightly struggling to deal with. Most of those were on display at Stamford Bridge as Liverpool lost their third straight match.
I think it is at full-back where Liverpool are suffering most because that was the peak of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Between 2019-20 and 2021-22, Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold scored or assisted 75 league goals between them in three seasons. For all the question marks over their defending since (and they did drop off a little), Mohamed Salah or the left winger were never expected to muck in significantly to protect attacking full-backs.
All that has been lost. Slot can’t yet work out who the best right-back is to combine with Salah and Milos Kerkez looks like a downgrade on peak Robertson in both attack and defence.
Read more: Liverpool have ripped up everything that won them the title
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Victory comes at a cost to Arsenal
It is probably the perfect time for an international break. Arsenal have gained six points on Liverpool in nine days to go top of the league, but victory over West Ham came at a cost.
Martin Odegaard has now been substituted before half-time in his last three fixtures and was wearing a brace when leaving the stadium. “I just spoke to him and he’s not positive about it. We’ll have to wait and see from the doctors,” Mikel Arteta said after the game.
Declan Rice’s constant availability is genuinely one of his greatest strengths (and that is not damning with faint praise), but he had been clutching his back for a little while before eventually being forced off with 15 minutes remaining against his old club. It is highly unusual for Rice to demand to leave the pitch, so that must also be monitored. Arsenal have the cover these days (Eberechi Eze, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino), but a fortnight off should be celebrated.
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