After three straight runner-up finishes, the title might finally be Arsenal’s to lose with the reigning champions “in crisis time”.
The Gunners are now four points clear on top after several big clubs stumbled on the weekend, while a shock contender has emerged despite a transfer window that was supposed to render them obsolete.
A newly promoted team continues to defy the odds and Manchester United chalked up a third straight victory, taking the heat off manager Ruben Amorim.
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Here are the biggest talking points from the weekend’s English Premier League action!
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Back to earth after Ange swipe; ugly fan clash as besieged boss loses plot — PL Wrap
Utd break hoodoo to climb into top four; VAR drama rocks Liverpool as freefall continues – PL Wrap
Man utd power to 3rd straight win | 02:31
LIVERPOOL CRISIS
Liverpool have now lost four league matches in a row after they went down to Brentford 3-2 in London.
The Reds are now seven points behind league leaders Arsenal.
That sentence seemed inconceivable a little more than a month ago when Liverpool won the Merseyside Derby 2-1 to seal a fifth straight victory to start the season.
There were doubts a plenty about Arne Slot’s side as they conceded goals and failed to hit the heights of last season in their wins early in the campaign, but no one expected a drop off like this.
They have not banked a point since that win against Everton, losing to Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Manchester United and Brentford.
In sixth, United are the highest on the table out of that quartet at present, and Liverpool great Jamie Carragher has pushed the panic button.
“Losing four games in a row for Brentford would be a disaster. To see the champions do it with the expenditure in the summer means we’re in crisis time for Liverpool right now,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
“There will be a lot of serious questions asked in the dressing room between the players and the coaching staff and the people above the manager. When they’ve looked at what they’ve spent, they’ll be looking for a lot more.
“Liverpool have to look at the physicality and height within their team because, right now, I don’t think they have enough.”
Much has been made of Liverpool’s spending spree during the summer transfer window, in which they splurged £446 million ($909m) – the most ever spent by a Premier League club in a single window – to bring in the likes of Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez.
The new-look line-up simply has not clicked, and Manchester United great Gary Neville said on his podcast that Liverpool’s current side “remind me a bit of my old Man Utd team”.
“We went through mad periods where we always looked capable of scoring, but we were all over the place,” Neville continued
“One thing you can guarantee with Salah, Ekitike, Wirtz, Isak, Gakpo and others, they will score goals. But the others are responsible for being solid and not open all the time, and exposed.
“It sounds like starting from scratch, but sometimes you have to do that. When everything is crazy and chaotic, which it is for Liverpool right now, you just have to find a strong foundation.”
Where will Ange go to next? | 01:52
ARSENAL’S TO LOSE
“1-0 to the Arsenal” rang out around the Emirates once again as the Gunners overcame FA Cup champions Crystal Palace courtesy of Eberechi Eze’s goal against his former side.
Arsenal now have a handy buffer of more than one game at the top of the table, and look the most likely of the contenders to run away the title.
That is mainly thanks to their set piece brilliance.
If the table was done off open play goals, the Gunners would be fifth with seven less points than the 22 they have after nine games.
The 11 goals they have scored via set pieces is more than eight other teams in the league has scored in total this season.
Meanwhile at the other end of the pitch, they have conceded just three goals so far this campaign.
On average, Mikel Arteta’s men are letting in a goal once every three matches.
They have also kept six clean sheets.
The numbers show why Sky Sports’ Gary Neville is very optimistic on their title chances.
“This has got to be their year,” Neville said. “I’ve had Arsenal to win the league the last three years – now four.
“They aren’t miles better than last year but are repeating levels of consistency and that’s all they are going to have to do this year to win the league. They aren’t going to have to get 100 points, or even 90.
“High 80s will win the title – they can do that.”
“Arsenal are reliable, you can trust them. They don’t concede goals,” he added.
“They don’t have a sensational forward, but they’ve got a battering ram who is as honest as the day is long and that can work for them.
“This is your title, Arsenal. I’ve never really felt that sure before, it’s so early in the season, but it really is. That’s not being overconfident, or placing pressure, they must feel it themselves. This is the moment Arsenal can get back on top.
“The chance is there for them; they have to take it.”
West Ham facing relegation threat | 00:59
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHERRIES?
No one would have believed that almost a quarter of the way through the season, Bournemouth would be sitting second.
The Cherries were gallant last campaign finishing ninth, but they lost three of their back four with Ilya Zabarnyi leaving for PSG, Milos Kerkez for Liverpool and Dean Huijsen for Real Madrid.
Dango Ouattara also left, the winger is now at Brentford, and those departures coupled with expected bounce back seasons from the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham were supposed to seem the slide into the bottom half of the table.
Now, Andoni Iraola’s side are dreaming of a Champions League place.
The comfortable saw off last season’s surprise packet, and this season’s soap opera, Nottingham Forest 2-0 at home on the weekend.
That result took their points tally to 18, boasting five wins, three draws and just one loss, which came on the opening night of the season at Anfield.
Up front, Antoine Semenyo, who is second to Erling Haaland in the golden boot race, and Eli Kroupi have been outstanding with six and four goals respectively.
Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher said Bournemouth should be daring to dream of European nights on the English south coast next season.
“There were lot of teams last season, Nottingham Forest being one of them, where you’d expect the drop off. We haven’t seen that from Bournemouth,” Carragher said.
“When you talk about the players they lost, you have to look at the clubs they went to – giants of European football. That shows how good they are.
“To replace them and to find themselves in the position they do now is something special.
“Over the two-year period since Bournemouth got that first win under Iraola, I think that is the best coaching performance over that time.
“We’re not in the days where the best teams win every week like we were four or five years ago [in the Premier League].
“If that’s the case, like it was a lot last season, it gives other teams a chance of European football. Bournemouth just missed out last season, so did Nottingham Forest in the Champions League.
“This could be the season where one of those teams gets a Champions League position and why can’t it be them?”
Kerr 1st Matildas appearance in 725 days | 02:38
SUNDERLAND REFUSE TO DIE
Sunderland were the most surprising winners of the weekend as they defeated Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
Chemsdine Talbi’s stoppage time winner was the latest remarkable moment in Sunderland’s dream return to the Premier League after an eight-year absence.
Black Cats fans, who watched their club in the third tier of English football as recently as three years ago, must be pinching themselves that their team is in the top four.
Sunderland’s tally of 17 points is the most by a promoted team in 17 years.
Former Arsenal and England forward Paul Merson was full of praise for them on Sky Sports.
“They are brilliant on the counterattack. They defend well, and the goalkeeper is good. They have legs all over the pitch,” Merson said.
“In the second half, l can’t remember the Chelsea goalkeeper making a save.
“They were outstanding. There is no chance they are getting relegated. They will cause teams problems.”
One of the key cornerstones of their early success has been experienced defensive midfielder Granit Xhaka.
The 33-year-old former Arsenal captain, who was signed from German outfit Bayer Leverkusen during the summer transfer window, has made an excellent return to the Premier League with Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris hailing Xhaka in his post-match press conference on the weekend.
“It’s vital, crucial because the balance is really positive and Granit is the captain, so he sets the standards every day,” Le Bris said.
“It’s so important when you start a new career, you can be really talented, really skilled, but you don’t know what the standards are to succeed at the best level, so he sets this example every day.
“On the pitch, he’s a really good footballer and he likes and enjoys driving the behaviour of the squad.
“He’s like a second coach on the pitch, and I think he’s really well connected with the young lads as well.”
Sydney FC triumphant return to Leichardt | 00:59
‘BEST WEEK IN THE JOB’: UTD MANAGER TURNING THE CORNER
Manchester United picked up a third straight win to briefly climb into the top four.
Brighton had been a bogey team for United in recent times, but Ruben Amorim’s side prevailed 4-2 at Old Trafford to perhaps show that they have turned a corner.
Once other matches were played, they ended the weekend in sixth.
The Red Devils’ £200 million attacking trio ($408 million) of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko are starting to gel with only five teams having scored more goals than the 15 United have scored across nine games.
Club great Gary Neville was worried about Amorim’s future before the most recent international break, but has been impressed by United’s turnaround in recent weeks.
“I think that it feels like his best week in the job,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I think where we’ve all been with it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we talked about him losing his job. I was thinking he was under massive pressure after going into the international break in October. I felt as though that change could be imminent.
“But the victory at Anfield shows you how things can turn around and then obviously this was so important today.
“He’s not out of the woods yet and it’s certainly not time to get carried away but I think Manchester United are now where they thought they probably would be.
“They’ll slip down a couple of places after the rest of the teams play and they’ll end up in sixth or seventh but that’s where I think everyone thought they would be.
“So, look, this has been a very important week for the manager and for the club and you can see the celebration at the end there was more than just a little bit of relief that, yeah, we needed this badly.”
Young gun scores hat-trick for Jets | 00:54
NO HAALAND, NO CITY
Manchester City slipped up away at Aston Villa with a 1-0 defeat as Erling Haaland’s streak of scoring for club and country ended at 12 games.
City now sit in fifth, six points behind Arsenal, as a long-held fear about their form came to fruition in Birmingham.
Haaland’s dominance has paper over several cracks, with the remainder of Pep Guardiola’s attacking options failing to fire.
“Haaland has been brilliant; pretty much unstoppable. He already has 11 league goals. City’s next highest scorer? Own goals,” The Telegraph’s chief football correspondent Jason Burt wrote.
“Two of them by Burnley’s Maxime Estève. Then Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki and Matheus Nunes all have just one. It has been more than three matches since someone not named Erling Haaland scored for Guardiola’s side.”
Guardiola stayed upbeat post-game, saying that they played well despite the disappointing result.
Bernardo Silva meanwhile said that they were poor defensively, and highlighted that as a great issue than their attacking headaches.
Those combination of factors led Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher to issue a harrowing verdict on their season.
“Villa just looked too powerful and quick for them. Manchester City have always been the most technical team in the division, but it looks like they lack physicality,” he said.
“Of course they’re missing a little bit of quality as well – they don’t have the wide players they once did.
“Just like Liverpool, I don’t see them having enough to go on and win the Premier League.”