Our chief football writer reviews the main talking points from the weekend's action
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Everyone connected to Arsenal will have watched Super Sunday with wide grins. Not only did Tottenham slip up to miss out a chance to go second, Liverpool then also lost at home to hand Arsenal – and their miserly defence – a huge advantage in the title race.
Nottingham Forest are always in the headlines and will now be searching for their third “permanent” manager of the season after Ange Postecoglou was put out of his misery following a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea. Wolves stay bottom after a miserable defeat at Sunderland which keeps the Black Cats firmly in the top half.
Are Manchester City now Arsenal’s closest challengers? Erling Haaland is setting record goalscoring pace as Pep Guardiola seeks one of those runs that make every other team in the league wince.
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
Saturday
Nottingham Forest 0-3 Chelsea
Sunderland 2-0 Wolves
Burnley 2-0 Leeds
Crystal Palace 3-3 Bournemouth
Brighton 2-1 Newcastle
Man City 2-0 Everton
Fulham 0-1 Arsenal
Sunday
Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa
Liverpool 1-2 Man Utd
Monday
West Ham vs Brentford (8pm)
Is this the end of Wolves’ Premier League dream?
“We must win, score goals and not concede goals,” said Vitor Pereira after Wolves lost at Sunderland, which is proof that he at least knows how bad his team are. After recent signs of improvement, this was the worst of Wolves again and it is an extremely low floor.
Pereira’s team are desperate in both boxes: the worst in the league at turning shots into goals (the Jorge Strand Larsen of last season has not reappeared) and the second worst at allowing opponents to turn shots into goals. If that wasn’t bad enough, Pereira doesn’t seem to know what to do in midfield: he’s picked five different combinations or shapes in the last seven league matches.
West Ham
Play Brentford on Monday evening.
Ange gone but the Nottingham Forest mess remains
Nottingham Forest head coach Ange Postecoglou during the Premier League match at the City Ground, Nottingham. Picture date: Saturday October 18, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Mike Egerton/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.
Postecoglou was sacked minutes after full time against Chelsea (Photo: PA)
There is a real mess at Nottingham Forest and it will take some cleaning up. In six months the structure has changed, the sporting director has changed, the manager has changed (twice), half the team has changed, the style of play the club wants to utilise has changed and the formation has changed (repeatedly, under Postecoglou). On the pitch, Forest have lost the things they were good at and replaced them only with infuriating habits.
Make no mistake: nobody can know what happens at Forest next. Clubs inside the financial elite are insured against repeated mistakes. Those outside can create their own soft landings through continuity and stability.
Read more: Postecoglou’s parody reign was only one symptom of Forest’s utter mess
Burnley’s under-the-radar super signing
Scott Parker was visibly delighted when Burnley finally managed to get the signing of Florentino Luis over the line, detailing that he had wanted the midfielder in his team since his time in charge of Fulham.
You can see why. Florentino started nine Champions League games for Benfica (including three times against Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) last season; his arrival is proof of the Premier League’s financial pull.
Florentino has only started four league games, but he already leads his Burnley teammates for tackles and has the ability to play line-breaking passes when he wins it. He and captain Josh Cullen can give Parker the midfield platform that allows Lesley Ugochukwu to push forward and Jaidon Anthony to stay high up the pitch.
Brentford
Play West Ham on Monday evening.
Farke strikes the wrong chord at Leeds
“You can’t have better statistics than we did today in an away game in the Premier League,” Daniel Farke said after defeat at Burnley “When Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City travel here even they won’t have better statistics.”
Farke’s point is about dominant xG (and he clearly has a point), but Leeds supporters really didn’t want to hear it. They would ask two questions, polite or otherwise:
Does putting 47 crosses into the box represent a viable plan or simply desperation?
Is your team not more likely to miss chances when the manager insists on starting Brendan Aaronson and Jack Harrison in the front three and is leaving out Ao Tanaka, who sets the tempo of passing so well in midfield?
Silva links come at difficult time for Fulham
Marco Silva understandably played the question with a straight bat – “I will concentrate on myself and not worry about that”, or words to the same effect – but there is an interesting dynamic here as Forest search for a new manager and are pretty clear that Silva is their first choice.
The two clubs are basically opposite: lavish spending vs make-do, up and down since promotion vs stability (10th, 13th, 11th). Most may think that leaving Fulham, where you have done a brilliant job, for the Forest chaos would be deeply foolish, but then you factor in European competition and the water becomes muddied.
Make no mistake: Silva leaving – or making it clear that he’s open to leaving – would be nightmarish for Fulham given the manager’s work. It probably comes down to this: does Silva feel suitably backed by Fulham’s hierarchy?
Read more: Fulham are one of the biggest victims of Premier League’s unfair spending rules
Are Newcastle too defensive away from home?
Newcastle United’s record of 3.5 xG in their four away league games this season isn’t awful – it ranks them in midtable, none of the away games have been easy and they have had to cope with the loss of Alexander Isak and absence of Yoane Wissa.
But there is a pattern emerging and it’s a lack of attacking returns in the first halves of those games. Against Leeds, Newcastle had two shots in the first 40 minutes. Against Bournemouth, one shot closer than 25 yards out in the first half. Against Brighton on Saturday, two shots before first-half stoppage time.
Maybe this all changes seamlessly when Wissa comes back in, but Eddie Howe does need to release the shackles a bit away from home. Newcastle’s next four trips are to West Ham, Brentford, Everton and Sunderland and they should look to seize the initiative and win them all. It’s now three goals in their last seven away league matches either side of the summer.
Read more: Three ways Newcastle’s new director of football will change transfer plans
Cunha keeps his head to give Man Utd new hope
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 19: Matheus Cunha of Manchester United and Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield on October 19, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Cunha starred in United’s win at Anfield (Photo: Getty)
Ruben Amorim is the coach who simply refuses to accept that all is lost. Who knows if this was the breakout victory of his tenure – we have said it before. But there was resolve, grit and smartness to keep their heads and expose Liverpool’s failings.
If Amorim got his moment, so too did Matheus Cunha – his slow start is also over. When United needed to keep the ball, drive forward counter attacks and frustrate Liverpool after both United goals, Cunha was magnificent at retaining possession in tight spaces and relieving all pressure. He, and his teammates, were fabulous.
Read more: I never thought I’d say it, but Ruben Amorim got every call right at Liverpool
Toney to Everton?
Iliman Ndiaye was unplayable for most of Saturday’s game at the Etihad. Add Jack Grealish back in and Tyler Dibling and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and you potentially have one of the best creative units outside the Big Six.
But it falls down in the penalty area. Beto missed a huge chance at 0-0 and was lucky to see another flagged for offside. He can be a handful but misses chances, whereas Thierno Barry is struggling to acclimatise to Premier League football. It is placing such an obvious ceiling on Everton’s potential.
The answer – what about Ivan Toney in January? West Ham are very keen, but if I were Toney I’d be very enthused about having chances created by Grealish et al and giving me an outside run at a World Cup place next summer.
A wonderful comeback story at Aston Villa
Prior to Villa’s home win against Fulham at the end of September, Emi Buendia had scored one Aston Villa goal since March 2023, against Wycombe in the EFL Cup. His career had stalled first through serious injury and then finding himself out of the picture and loaned out.
Now Buendia feels loved and important and has scored three goals in his last four matches. The winner against Spurs was magnificent, expertly curled into the far corner after a wonderful pass and touch from two teammates. Watch the reaction from his teammates as they mobbed him in celebration to understand the journey Buendia has been on.
Welbeck’s extraordinary time at Brighton
When Danny Welbeck scores five more goals – and on current evidence that will happen before the turn of the year – he will have matched his entire Premier League goals total from his 20s in his 30s; he’s still only 34. This is an extraordinary Indian summer.
Brighton have tried so, so many different strikers over the last four seasons: Neal Maupay, Percy Tau, Aaron Connolly, Leandro Trossard, Denis Undav, Evan Ferguson, Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter plus the two new Greek signings still to be bedded in. None have stayed long enough, or stayed prolific long enough, to usurp Welbeck. There is good evidence that his finishing is actually still improving.
The Crystal Palace star keeping Haaland company
Erling Haaland is the best striker in the country, no doubt. But no central defender can enjoy facing Jean-Philippe Mateta because he is impossible to keep quiet. When you come off the pitch with the match ball but are also annoyed that you haven’t scored more, it suggests that you’re in the thick of the action.
The numbers bear that out. It helps that Oliver Glasner has reinvented Palace as a front-foot team – 14th for shot-creating actions in 2023-24 vs joint-fourth this season), but Mateta is a dominant attacking force because of his own physicality, smart movement and determination to find service in the penalty area.
Only Haaland has more shots. Only Haaland has more shots on target. Only Haaland has a higher xG total. Statement of the obvious: this is quite good company to keep.
Mukiele is Sunderland’s game-changer
Were I picking a Premier League team of the season so far, Nordi Mukiele would be in it. He can play right-back or in central defence. He has played six of Sunderland’s eight league games and yet ranks joint-third for shot-creating actions – he is happy overlapping on the right but never seems to get caught out.
And he is a defensive pillar. Mukiele (six of eight games, remember) has won five more tackles than any other Sunderland player and ranks first for tackles plus interceptions, ranks first for tackling dribblers, first for clearances, has had the most touches in his own box of all outfield players and wins more of his aerial duels than any other regular. He is Regis le Bris’ game-changer in defence.
Tottenham have to get Simons more involved
Tottenham probably didn’t deserve to lose to Aston Villa, but even a point would have masked their deficiencies. A midfield pairing of Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha may well have combined for their opening goal, but it’s the manner of their passing patterns that were the problem.
Spurs shuffled a lot of passes down both wings, but they bought Xavi Simons presumably to be a creative force. It is not possible that he can play for 79 minutes, Spurs have so much of the ball and yet Simons have only 36 touches and none of them in the opposition penalty area. He also failed to have a shot or complete a dribble. Frank cannot afford for games to pass Simons by.
Chelsea’s disciplinary record is a problem
Enzo Maresca will be delighted at changing the course of the game at half-time, but he also watched his side get a fifth red card (if you include the manager’s own) in their last six matches. It is a bizarre record.
Maresca rightly pointed out that only once has this really had an impact upon the result (2-1 defeat at Manchester United) and that the dismissals have come in various guises (manager, players, straight red card, two yellows), but this pattern isn’t going away.
Do Chelsea play a little too close to the edge? They have more yellow cards than any other Premier League team over the last three years, but they also have a young squad and so players may make poor decisions in the heat of the moment. It is an issue the manager must look to address, because it will cost Chelsea more points if it continues.
Have Bournemouth unearthed another gem?
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 18: Eli Junior Kroupi of Bournemouth celebrate with Alex Scott after he scores a goal to make it 2-0 during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Bournemouth at Selhurst Park on October 18, 2025 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/Getty Images)
Kroupi celebrates one of his two goals at Selhurst Park (Photo: Getty)
Talk about a fast start to life in the Premier League. Eli Junior Kroupi, still a teenager until next June, has played 98 minutes in England’s top flight and has already scored three times from just five shots.
What I really like about Kroupi during these nascent displays – this was his first Premier League start – is how he seems to be in the right place at the right time. He reacted to a flick header to find space at the back post and then timed his run to the edge of the box to volley past Dean Henderson. Managers adore this innate ability and long may it continue.
Read more: The sad reality of watching Antoine Semenyo shine for Bournemouth
Slot’s chaos theory costs Liverpool again
Against Chelsea, Liverpool scored a late equaliser, tried to win the game and lost it. Against Manchester United, the same. They have now lost a home league game for the first time in 400 days and lost four on the spin for the first time since the Brendan Rodgers era.
You can admire Arne Slot for going for broke – a midfield pair of Florian Wirtz and Curtis Jones made for mad, playground football. But the truth is that this Liverpool team is no longer secure enough defensively to make an all-out attack strategy feasible. It’s all very well throwing on strikers but if it gives up all control then your games become slugfests. That is not how champions usually behave.
And then there is Mohammed Salah, eventually withdrawn for Jeremie Frimpong who did more than Salah in only a brief time on the pitch. Liverpool are carrying their best attacker from last season and that does not help either.
Read more: Liverpool dealt Marc Guehi blow as Crystal Palace plan transfer abroad
Man City’s RobotPoacher
As one Manchester City fansite phrased it in their post-match ratings: “No words needed. Stupidly good.”
What I find interesting about this new Erling Haaland record-breaking attempt – 11 goals in eight games, one every 62 minutes on the pitch – is how much more effective City’s players have been at finding him in the box (and the runs he is making are definitely better than last year too).
Haaland only ranked fifth for shots taken in the league last season, shocking by his usual standards. Now he’s had 16 more shots already than the player third on that list and his xG is 3.7 higher than the player in third (at the end of Saturday’s action). Haaland is having fewer touches in the final third than last season but more in the penalty area than at any stage since moving to Borussia Dortmund. The RobotPoacher has been created.
If defences win titles, Arsenal are favourites
The greatest Premier League defensive record of all time was set by Chelsea in 2004-05, when they conceded 15 goals in a 38-game league season. I will be stunned if any team ever breaks that record, but Arsenal are the latest pretenders to the crown: three conceded goals in eight games. They are on track.
Neutrals may find Arsenal’s primary strategy (score from set pieces and keep clean sheets) a little tough to watch at times, but why on earth should they care? From the moment they took the lead at Fulham, the home team managed a single shot. They close out matches with brutal efficiency.
Defences win you titles, so the phrase goes. Arsenal have allowed 65 shots in eight matches and an xG against of just 4.8. And with Bukayo Saka back they have enough attacking brilliance to make it work.