We’re back with our weekly dose of knee-jerk reactions to the weekend’s Premier League action.
Every week here on Opta Analyst, we do something we don’t normally do and come to a load of conclusions based on just a single round of Premier League matches.
We usually rely on large data sets to make our judgements, but in this weekly column we react quickly and maybe a little too hastily.
It’s all a bit of fun, and many of our five reactions for this week will swiftly prove to be nothing more than exactly what we called them: knee-jerk.
But some might just hold up in the weeks to come. Read on to see which way you think these week’s conclusions will eventually go.
Arsenal’s Weaknesses Have Been Revealed
Coming into Matchday 5, it felt like there was no stopping Arsenal. They’d won all four Premier League games, as well as three more in other competitions, and few of their opponents had caused them any real problems at all.
Then, this weekend, along came Brighton.
Fabian Hürzeler’s side had produced some impressive results early in the season, but nobody expected them to blow Arsenal away quite like they did on Saturday.
They pressed the champions with a vicious and suffocating relentlessness that meant Arsenal just could not get any kind of grip on the game. En route to a resounding 3-0 victory, Brighton forced a colossal 15 high turnovers (winning possession within 40 metres of the opposition’s goal line), which is the second most by any team in the Premier League this season, behind only Brighton against an Aston Villa side who played most of that game with just 10 men (19).
They also recognised how difficult it is to carve out clear-cut chances against this Arsenal side, so shot on sight, often from distance. They scored twice from range to take Arsenal’s total to a league-high three goals conceded from outside the box this season.
Was this the blueprint for how to take the champions down, or a mere – and very natural – day off for the best team in the world right now? We’ll see if anyone else can do this to them after they’ve gathered their thoughts during the international break.
This is the Year Spurs’ Luck Runs Out
Some say you make your own luck, but there’s no denying that Spurs have been incredibly fortunate not to be relegated in the last two utterly dismal seasons.
In 2024-25, they were entirely reliant on the dreadful form of the promoted sides, who were so bad that there was never really a relegation battle of any sort. Then, last season, they escaped by the skin of their teeth after failing to address their myriad of problems in either transfer window.
Now, five games into 2026-27 and after a summer of upheaval, they are bottom of the table and staring at the very real possibility of another flirtation with the drop despite spending more than £300 million.
They have a lot of talent in their squad now, and certainly appear to have more potential, particularly in attack, than they did last term. Against Aston Villa on Saturday, they created more than enough, notably when the game was still level, to take control of the game, but failed to take their chances and were punished in brutal fashion. They won on xG but remain winless in actuality, with just two points from five games and a goal difference of -6.
It is now their worst ever start to a Premier League season and has left them with a lot of improving to do to avoid the possibility of another 17th-place finish – or worse.
We’ve learned over the last two years that nothing can be taken for granted with this club, and with no other team looking anything like as hopeless so far this season, there is every chance they get themselves into yet more trouble.
Brobbey Is Up There With the Best
Brian Brobbey isn’t the most fashionable of footballers, and his physical approach to the game may mean he never gets the chance to play for a big-six club.
But even if he doesn’t play for a Champions League club that never lifts the ball off the floor and always has more than 60% possession, there is absolutely no denying what a handful he is. He deserves far more respect than many give him.
In Sunderland’s 5-3 defeat to Manchester City this weekend, he scored three times from just five shots and became only 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 Manchester United in March 2011, and Romelu Lukaku vs United in May 2013.
He was extremely unfortunate to also end up on the losing side, too, becoming the sixth player ever to score a hat-trick and lose a Premier League game, and the first since Roque Santa Cruz for Blackburn vs Wigan in December 2007.
It followed his brilliant performance in rustling the feathers of the Arsenal defence last week, when Sunderland, again, very nearly got a result against a league-leading side.
Brobbey may be the best back-to-goal forward in the Premier League right now, and on Sunday, he showed how much of a goal threat he can be, too.
Liverpool Have Found Their New Van Dijk
For all of Liverpool’s problems of late, they deserve credit for their resilience in defence, which is a new trait for this season after an all-too leaky time of things in 2025-26.
And in beating Bournemouth 1-0 on Sunday, they achieved something few other teams manage. In fact, this was only Bournemouth’s second league defeat in 23 games, stretching back to 7 January, while it was their first without scoring since December last year.
It means that Liverpool have now kept three consecutive Premier League cleans sheets for the first time since September 2024, the start of their last title-winning season.
They haven’t had the toughest run of games in which to achieve that feat, but they have done it while going through a period of regeneration, with a new manager in the dugout and new players all over the pitch.
And despite all the additions in attack over the past year or so, it is arguably centre-back Jérémy Jacquet who has had the most profound impact. The French youngster has started every league game this season, and played 90 minutes in all three of those clean sheets.
He is only 21 years old but is already an elite individual defender. Of all players to contest at least 20 duels this season, only James Tarkowski (83.0%) has a better success rate than Jacquet (76.3%).
And as our very own OptaJoe pointed out on X, that figure will only increase comparisons with the Liverpool legend he has been playing alongside.
76.3% – Jérémy Jacquet has won 76.3% of his duels in the Premier League this season (29/38).
76.3% is also Virgil Van Dijk’s highest duel success rate in a single Premier League campaign for Liverpool (achieved in 2018-19).
Protégé. https://t.co/gueM7ON69H
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 20, 2026
Have Liverpool found Virgil van Dijk’s long-term heir?
Hürzeler Will Be Managing a Champions League Club Next Season
One way or another, Fabian Hürzeler is destined for the top.
On the evidence of this weekend, he may well be heading for a bigger European competition than Brighton are already in with his current club, as the Seagulls tore Arsenal to shreds with an aggressive press that worked wonders. It left Brighton third in the table heading into the international break, just two points behind the reigning champions.
The reality is, however, that Brighton will almost certainly fall away, particularly given they have to manage a Conference League campaign alongside their Premier League games. Challenging for the Champions League may even be beyond them.
But Hürzeler is continuing to prove he belongs among the elite, with his Brighton side excelling despite having major injury problems while also dealing with their usual and expected exodus of key players in the summer. They have forced more high turnovers (56) than any other team in the Premier League this season, playing an eye-catching and hugely effective brand of football.
There are big clubs struggling everywhere you look, and every single one of them will have noticed what the German is doing at Brighton. He is still just 33 (!) years old, so there’s no need for him to rush into jumping ship, but he may well be tempted to if a big gun comes calling, and they might do soon enough.
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