Last season’s top three all won in very different fashions: Manchester City rolling Wolves over, Liverpool victorious but flawed and Arsenal uninspiring but defensively excellent.
Given that nobody else in the top six from 2024-25 won, they will take it and move on.
Sunderland were the big winners after powering past an insipid West Ham in a bouncing Stadium of Light, while West Ham, Brentford and Wolves, the three Premier League staples about whom we were most concerned, lost by an aggregate scoreline of 10-1.
We pick out a piece of analysis on each club below (in reverse table order)…
This weekend’s results
Friday
Liverpool 4-2 Bournemouth
Saturday
Aston Villa 0-0 Newcastle
Brighton 1-1 Fulham
Sunderland 3-0 West Ham
Tottenham 3-0 Burnley
Wolves 0-4 Man City
Sunday
Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace
Nott’m Forest 3-1 Brentford
Man Utd 0-1 Arsenal
Wolves fans are rightly worried
Losing on the opening day to Manchester City is no reason for panic in itself, but Wolves’ starting XI might just be. Supporters have been angry all summer at the lack of signings, and – even with Fer Lopez and Jhon Arias on the bench – you can see why.
Marshall Munetsi is an impact substitute at best (although he was bright against City). Ki-Jana Hoever has had three years out on loan and should also be a fringe player. At almost 34, there are doubts about Matt Doherty as a starting central defender in a back three. And remember: Munetsi, Emmanuel Agbadou and Tawanda Chirewa are all likely to go to Afcon in December.
West Ham were abysmal all over
In a 3-5-2 formation, the attacking output of the wing-backs is absolutely key. That was West Ham’s biggest problem: Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf had 63 touches in the final third but put in only nine crosses (Sunderland right-back Trai Hume did six by himself) and created an xG of just 0.22.
That creative failure – Jarrod Bowen effectively became a one-man attack – was then exacerbated by an abysmal lack of concentration and marking by the three central defenders, for which there is no excuse. These are all defenders that Graham Potter worked with last season and they cost a combined £102m to sign.
Burnley are going to try to be boring
Last season, Scott Parker used a back four in 45 of Burnley’s 46 league games and the team conceded only 16 league goals. The step up in class – and loss of James Trafford and CJ Egan-Riley – has persuaded Burnley’s manager to focus even more on his defence; Burnley set up in a 5-2-2-1 formation at Tottenham.
Parker’s team were effective between Spurs’ first and second goals, a 50-minute period, but Burnley are going to have to guard against the central striker becoming isolated if they are to create enough chances in open play. In 135 combined minutes, Lyle Foster and Hannibal touched the ball once every 3.5 minutes between them. You are asking for some extreme attacking efficiency to make that work regularly.
Read more: Can ‘boring’ Burnley can stay up against the odds?
Brentford’s youth is a risk given the uncertainty
Brentford looked spooked in the first half, a novice manager in Keith Andrews whose team struggled to cope with pressing and pressure and were second best in every position. But there is one particular aspect that I think the club needs to address in the next two weeks: attacking experience.
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Keith Andrews has his work cut out at Brentford (Photo: Reuters)
The Bees’ four most attacking starters were aged 20, 22, 24 and 24. They shared 65 Premier League starts before Sunday and Keane Lewis-Potter accounts for 54 of those. Inexperienced managers losing key playing personnel need disciples on the pitch. Their job is made infinitely harder when their attackers are as raw as they are.
Bournemouth’s counterattacking standard
Last year, Andoni Iraola seemed keen on increasing Bournemouth’s possession as the season developed. Of their nine league games with more than 55 per cent of the ball, all but one (Ipswich away in December) came in the second half of the campaign.
But here is the thing: Bournemouth were better without the ball. They took 21 points from the 10 games in which they had the least possession but only 13 points from the 10 games in which they had their highest possession. The four wins were against the bottom three and Everton.
Watching Antoine Semenyo at Anfield on Friday night demonstrates why the counter can be so effective for Bournemouth. In fact – and given the defensive departures – I think it should be their Plan A all season.
Signs of life at Man Utd (but there’s always a but)
This was definitely promising. Bryan Mbeumo repeatedly found pockets of space in the first half and Matheus Cunha was excellent in retaining the ball in the final third after half-time. Manchester United were better than Arsenal; that can mean something.
But I am still worried about the chance creation. With Bruno Fernandes operating from deep and he and Casemiro playing direct passes to the front three, too often United left the forward line to do everything in the final third and the team looked compartmentalised. The figures lay that out: United had 22 shots and 36 touches in the opposition box for 1.6 xG in total and didn’t create a single big chance. Benjamin Sesko’s job is to change that simply by being a presence.
Leeds
Play Everton on Monday evening. It is really not easy to see how Leeds are going to score 40 league goals this season without significantly adding the squad in the second half of August. Daniel Farke has recruited several giants to play in midfield and defence, but Leeds basically have their Championship forward line.
Joel Piroe did score 19 league goals last season, but supporters are less than convinced he can make the step up. The next two highest scorers were Manor Solomon and Daniel James, both of whom have had a crack at the Premier League (including at big clubs) and one of whom has returned to his parent club.
Leeds had 755 shots in the league last season, 95 more than any other Championship team. They scored 23 times more than any other club. They were irrepressible. And I am still worried about the goalscoring. That is the gap between English football’s top two tiers.
Read more: Leeds hope for a ‘Goldilocks’ season – and their tactics might surprise you
Everton
Play Leeds on Monday evening. David Moyes immediately led Everton away from their nightmare scenario: relegation in their final Goodison Park season and Championship football at Hill Dickinson Stadium. But in March and April, over a seven-game period, they scored four goals and there were signs of why some supporters were not convinced Moyes could do more than fight fire.
Jack Grealish has joined Everton on loan from Man City (Photo: Reuters)
That could now change. The major signings this summer are Thierno Barry, Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, three attacking arrivals that can support the brilliant Iliman Ndiaye, the improved Beto and Dwight McNeil. The creative players are now the strongest element of this squad.
Moyes must allow that creativity to shine because those players are at their best in an environment of quick passing and space to run into. If Everton get stodgy again, the whole team suffers.
Read more: Jack Grealish and Everton are perfect for each other
Newcastle’s Isak-shaped hole
Over the course of this season, The Score will aim to provide over 750 individual pieces of club-focused analysis. But sometimes you have to go all Roy Walker on it and “say what you see”: Newcastle really need a striker.
The energy in midfield was excellent. Fabian Schar and Dan Burn were probably the two best players in the match. Nick Pope had little to do but justified his selection over Aaron Ramsdale. But you win away Premier League matches by all of the above and taking your chances.
The last time Newcastle had more shots in an away league game without scoring was March 2022 against Everton. They had Chris Wood up front and some lad named Alexander Isak joined five months later.
Read more: Alexander Isak has already cost Newcastle two points
Sorry Palace, them’s the rules
You can probably find examples of it not being enforced (although there was a clampdown last season), but the rules are pretty clear: an attacking player influencing play and being within a metre of the defensive wall will be deemed to be committing an offence. As soon as the referee is told to have a look, he has to disallow the goal.
Does it feel like slight overkill? Maybe. Are Crystal Palace having a rotten time of this sort of thing at the moment? Yes, although they would have taken it all for Dean Henderson not being sent off at Wembley. Was it a correct, if infuriating, call? Also yes.
Read more: Crystal Palace’s disallowed goal was everything that is wrong with VAR
Chelsea pay for their summer of love
The absentees told their own story. When you ask a squad of players to perform in competitive action until mid-July, do not be surprised if you start to pick up injuries in training. Chelsea’s starting XI was not of title-challenging quality – I think that is an uncontroversial statement.
All of the talk about the impact of the Club World Cup has focused on likely fatigue from February onwards; perfectly reasonable. But it is also true that the Blues have had at least a week less in pre-season than their opponents. Enzo Maresca’s side are fortunate that they open with four league games in London – travel is tiring too – but you rarely get to give title contenders a headstart and not live to regret it. They look sluggish and must snap out of it.
Aston Villa had too many midfielders
Aston Villa recorded their lowest xG (expected goals) in a home Premier League game since that data became available in 2016. You can point to Ezri Konsa’s 66th-minute red card as a part-explanation, but Villa also had no shots in the first half of a Premier League home game for the first time since March 2022.
In fact, I think Unai Emery got it wrong. By picking one too many central midfielders – John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana – and leaving Donyell Malen on the bench, Newcastle were able to stymie Morgan Rogers and stop the service to Ollie Watkins. Villa stretched the game more in the final 10 minutes with Malen on (even with 10 men) than they could beforehand.
Muniz has to be Fulham’s starting striker
All summer, Rodrigo Muniz has been linked with a move away from Fulham. Does he really want to leave, or does he simply want a pay rise and to play more than 1,000 league minutes having lost his place to Raul Jimenez last season? See the emotion in the late goal celebration for persuasive evidence.
I think it is time for Muniz to get his wish and be Fulham’s starting central striker. Jimenez does offer more in build-up play – Muniz is more of a pure finisher – but Fulham only have two centre forwards and it would be better to prioritise the 24-year-old over the guy 10 years his senior who can still be a very good impact substitute. Otherwise, Fulham risk Muniz getting itchy and finishers of his kind are hard to come by cheaply.
Brighton go back to bad habits
Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, Brighton consistently underperformed their xG (so fewer goals than you would expect given the quality of their chances): -10.4 , -11.9, -6.2, -5.3, -6.8. The great success of last season under Fabian Hurzeler, largely aided by Danny Welbeck’s fabulous run, was that they became overachievers on that measurement.
But with Welbeck on the bench and neither of the two Greek youngsters in the matchday squad, Brighton went back to bad habits. It is instructive that, if you take away the penalty, they had eight shots before the 89th minute with xG of 0.1 or lower. There is a lot of creativity in that starting XI, but without the striker they become too easy to defend against and thus rely upon wingers and midfielders taking a high number of low-percentage shots.
Read more: Inside Brighton’s talent machine – and why Viktor Gyokeres dropped out
Gyokeres a no-show on Arsenal debut
Mikel Arteta’s team had to rely upon all of their defensive might in a tale of two goalkeepers – one superb, the other at fault for the only goal. That is worthy of praise given the resilience.
But for the first few weeks the focus will be on Viktor Gyokeres and he was wretched (albeit with little service) at Old Trafford. No goals, no chances created, four completed passes and twice running with the ball and looking surprised at not leaving a defender behind. Add in a cross that was overhit from a promising position by fully 30 yards and it is clear that this will not be a plug-in-and-play situation.
Nottingham Forest’s new trick
All pre-season, Nottingham Forest have been working on having more of the ball as an alternative to their counter-attacking success in 2024-25. Nuno set the team up with two up front and it didn’t really work, but this was more about having more possession and being quick to create chances.
It worked. Forest dominated Brentford all over the pitch but also had 55 per cent possession. To put that into perspective: they haven’t had more than that in a league game since April 2024 and the last time they won a league game with more was against West Bromwich Albion in the Championship in April 2022.
Liverpool’s defensive balance is not right
Liverpool’s defensive balance, with two very attacking full-backs, is not right. Ibrahima Konate’s positioning was all over the place against Bournemouth and Virgil van Dijk struggled as a result.
Here is a stat to show it perfectly: between August and April last season (when the title was won and Liverpool clearly eased off), Arne Slot’s team played 17 league games at Anfield. In those 17 matches, they allowed 17 chances with an xG of greater than 0.2. On Friday night against Bournemouth, they allowed four in the space of 70 minutes.
Diarra carries Sunderland forward
A dream first day back in the Premier League for Sunderland, and one that was underpinned by two factors. Firstly, the two full-backs were able to get forward (28 final-third touches between Hume and Reinildo) to allow the wingers to drift centrally.
Secondly, that was made far easier by the direct threat of Habib Diarra. Last season in the Championship, Jobe Bellingham carried the ball towards goal at an average of 172m per 90 minutes. Replicating those numbers in the Premier League will be impossible, but Diarra managed 124m against West Ham and was the only midfielder in the match who repeatedly broke through the lines. It bodes very well.
Richarlison’s fresh start at Tottenham
If you had given up on Richarlison becoming a success at Tottenham, many supporters shared your view. But with Dominic Solanke not quite match fit, the Brazilian has produced two performances in a week to suggest that he can offer genuine competition for the No 9 role.
Against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek, we saw the benefit of Richarlison’s work off the ball. Against Burnley, we saw what the confidence in believing that you are needed can bring.
The second goal, with every outfield player touching the ball and Richarlison ending the move with a stunning scissor kick, demonstrated why he might stick around. Solanke is very good, but does he offer that?
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Man City’s strength in depth is alarming
Did some of us *raises hand* sleep a little on Manchester City? On Saturday, Tijjani Reijnders produced one of the most complete Premier League debuts I can remember and his link-up play with Erling Haaland will be devastating if it sustains.
More pertinently, look at the squad depth. Manchester City’s substitutes were Rayan Cherki, Omar Marmoush, Nico O’Reilly, Matheus Nunes and Abdukodir Khusanov – four big-money signings and an academy graduate. Ilkay Gundogan, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji all stayed on the bench.
If that didn’t make you gulp hard enough, Rodri, Mateo Kovacic, Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Claudio Echeverri were all missing from the matchday squad at Molineux. This is a deeper squad than any other in Europe.