1) Cahill and Ivanovic in the firing line
The moment that summed up the discord in the Chelsea defence came on 64 minutes, when Gary Cahill wanted Thibaut Courtois to come to collect; the goalkeeper stayed on his line and Branislav Ivanovic bludgeoned the ball into touch. Cahill and Courtois argued. But errors had disfigured the performance to leave Chelsea 3-0 down at half-time: it was shocking, for example, to see how easily Mesut Özil accelerated away from the defensive midfielder N’Golo Kanté before he scored Arsenal’s third. Antonio Conte did not cancel his players’ day off on Sunday but they can expect a video inquest when they return to Cobham and the manager will, surely, consider changes. John Terry is almost fit again while Marcos Alonso is pushing for inclusion. Conte, who tried a 5-2-3 formation in the second half, said that he would not sleep for two nights. Cahill and Ivanovic are most obviously in the firing line. David Hytner
• Match report: Arsenal 3-0 Chelsea
• Coquelin injury gives Xhaka chance to stake claim for place
2) Barkley left in the shade by resurgent Wilshere
Ronald Koeman was in no mood to chew the fat after Everton’s disappointing performance in their defeat by Bournemouth. His side were second best throughout, with the presence of Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley hardly felt. “I don’t answer about that question,” said a prickly Koeman, when asked for his thoughts on Barkley’s lacklustre display on the south coast. It was not just Barkley who struggled to stamp his authority on the game although Jack Wilshere’s best performance in a Bournemouth shirt to date did little to remove the spotlight from Barkley, who other than heading wide in the second half was chasing shadows for much of a one-sided affair. “I don’t like that every game I need to explain the performance of Barkley,” the Dutchman said. Everton lacked the attacking midfielder’s impetus, which frankly goes missing far too often. Everton also sorely missed the left-back Leighton Baines, out with a hamstring injury. Bryan Oviedo, who again deputised for the defender, struggled to contend with the goalscorer Junior Stanislas while Idrissa Gueye and Gareth Barry never had a grip on the midfield. A return to Goodison Park is on the horizon, against an in-form Crystal Palace on Friday, where Koeman will doubtless ask for considerably more from Barkley and others who under-performed. Ben Fisher
• Match report: Bournemouth 1-0 Everton
• Wilshere lauded for ‘step back in time’ by Howe
3) Liverpool’s options and flexibility leave Hull on the floor
There was no point pretending Ahmed Elmohamady’s early dismissal changed the context of a one-sided match at Anfield and, to his credit, Mike Phelan made no attempt to do so. “Liverpool are flying at the moment,” said Hull City’s caretaker manager on what was his miserable 54th birthday. “You come to a newish Anfield and there are more supporters, more expectations and a real desire to achieve something. It is difficult to play against a team in that mood with 11 men, or even 12.” Again, Liverpool’s prowess and range of options in front of goal was notable. It is now 24 goals in eight matches for Jürgen Klopp’s team this season compared to six at the corresponding stage of last season. But what also impressed in Liverpool’s latest eye-catching display was the willingness and ability of players to adapt to new demands from their manager – Jordan Henderson as a holding midfielder, James Milner commanding at left-back, for example – and relentless counter‑pressing throughout the team. “The rule is be an option or be protection,” Klopp said. “If you are not involved in offensive situations then protect. The centre-halves can do what they want at set-pieces but otherwise they are always in a protective situation. But for the rest it is about being creative, changing, movements.” Andy Hunter
• Match report: Liverpool 5-1 Hull City
• Lallana being rewarded for hard work, says Klopp
4) Ranieri has work to do on Leicester’s ailing defence
Leicester City’s 4-1 hiding from Manchester United was largely due to the concession of three goals from corners. This is a rare occurrence at the game’s highest level and Danny Simpson conceded the rule change concerning pulling and pushing in the area is affecting the Foxes’ ability to defend as robustly as last term. Then, solidity in defence was the rock on which their championship triumph was founded. The right‑back said: “It is in your mind. It is something we have to learn to adapt to as players. They have changed the rules. The way it was last season, I thought we were very good at defending set pieces and we made it tough for the opponents and you have been doing that for all your career and suddenly you have got to change it, but it’s the same for everyone, it’s something we have got to work on and look at.” Leicester have now lost as many games this term as in all of last year (three). They host Porto on Tuesday in the Champions League, then Southampton on Sunday in the league. Claudio Ranieri has some work to do on the training ground to eradicate his side’s issues in defence or they face losing more games in the same manner. Jamie Jackson
• Match report: Manchester United 4-1 Leicester City
• Paul Wilson: Mourinho scorns expert opinion but is quick to change himself
5) Son’s sparkling run of form timed to perfection
Having scored four Premier League goals this season, as many as during the entire last campaign, Son Heung-min is in blistering form. He was very close to leaving Tottenham in the summer but, after scoring twice in the win against Middlesbrough, Mauricio Pochettino said the South Korean is now far more settled in England. Son not only has ample energy and impressive strength but he seems to have added a decisiveness to his finishing in recent weeks. With Harry Kane out with an ankle injury (an update on which is expected this week), Son’s purple patch has come at an important moment. Pochettino will be hoping the 24‑year‑old can continue to excel during a crucial week, with Spurs potentially depleted for games against CSKA Moscow and Manchester City. There are also fitness questions around Moussa Sissoko, Mousa Dembélé, Eric Dier and Danny Rose. James Riach
• Match report: Middlesbrough 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
6) Rondón still eclipses Bony but Stoke show improvement
- Appearances
- 3
- Goals
- 0
- Shots
- 7
- Shots on target
- 14%
- Offsides
- 1
Mark Hughes says he still expects Stoke to finish in the top half of the table this season, which suggests that he is a glass-half-full kind of manager. In fairness, the performance on Saturday against West Bromwich Albion offered some grounds for optimism despite the concession of a late equaliser, the goal again coming from a set piece. Stoke were generally vibrant and the attacking trio of Marko Arnautovic, the fit-again Xherdan Shaqiri and, in particular, Joe Allen played very well. But still the Stoke attack did not function as well as it needs to and that was because Wilfried Bony still looks short of peak fitness. The Ivorian was good when he got the ball but his relatively limited mobility meant that was not very often. “We’re trying to get him up to speed as quickly as possible,” said Hughes, who can at least take hope from the fact that Bony seems to be progressing, as his fourth appearance for Stoke was his best yet, even if not yet good enough, and certainly not on a par with that of Albion’s Salomón Rondón. The Venezuelan is emerging as one of the best forwards in the league at leading a line on his own. Hughes needs Bony to find Rondón’s dynamism and finishing soon, otherwise his prophecy looks doomed and his future bleak. Paul Doyle
• Match report: Stoke City 1-1 West Bromwich Albion
• Tony Pulis interview: ‘You get pigeonholed. You accept it or fight it’
7) Crystal Palace’s summer signings prove their worth
If Sunderland’s faultlines were highlighted by assorted midfield communication breakdowns involving Lee Cattermole and Didier Ndong (comically, Cattermole had to mime the act of taking a thrown in to his bewildered Gabon counterpart) Crystal Palace look increasingly cohesive. Partly attributable to Alan Pardew’s sometimes underrated coaching nous, this also reflects excellent summer recruitment. Losing Scott Dann and Wilfried Zaha to injury last week proved surmountable with the £10m invested on James Tomkins seemingly money well spent. “Palace have bought so well,” David Moyes said. “They’ve sold Yannick Bolasie to fund buying Christian Benteke and Andros Townsend but you’ve got to say ‘good on them’.” Palace’s net summer spend was almost £8m, Sunderland’s nearly £21m. Yet while Pardew would surely recover his money on Benteke and Townsend, will Moyes sell Ndong for his £13.5m cost, let alone recoup the £8m invested in Papy Djilobodji? Louise Taylor
• Match report: Sunderland 2-3 Crystal Palace
8) Swansea’s Van der Hoorn complains of big-club ‘bias’
Do bigger clubs really get the rub of the green? That was the viewpoint of Swansea City’s Mike van der Hoorn, after he conceded the penalty that helped Manchester City maintain their winning start to the Premier League season. The Dutch defender insisted he had done nothing wrong when he challenged Kevin de Bruyne, even if the referee, Neil Swarbrick, saw it differently. “I have watched it back and I did hit him but I do not think it was a penalty,” Van der Hoorn said. “It is a natural movement for a defender who wants to make himself big and use his body, he is a lot smaller than me so when we battle like that his head is around the height of my elbow. He fell because he had nowhere to go and he thought he would fall and hope for a penalty, and the ref gave it.”
Asked if decisions like that go for big clubs, he said: “They do. I played for Ajax in Holland and as a top club those things go for you. That is how you can become champions, those little things. The big clubs get the big decisions. Ajax are a big club and we would get the benefit of the doubt.” Swansea could count themselves unlucky to lose after a spirited performance, particularly from Leroy Fer and Fernando Llorente. That will be of little solace to manager Francesco Guidolin, who nonetheless insisted afterwards he is not feeling the pressure. Van der Hoorn hopes the Italian is given more time, amid speculation that he could be on his way should they lose to Liverpool next week. “No one is happy when you have bad results but respect for the manager has never been a problem,” he said. Ed Aarons
• Match report: Swansea City 1-3 Manchester City
• Guardiola wants Sterling to fill gap with De Bruyne sidelined
9) Names change but Saints’ formula is still working
- Appearances
- 4
- Goals
- 2
- Shots
- 8
- Shots on target
- 50%
- Offsides
- 3
Southampton sell their best players and change their manager more often than Paul Pogba gets his hair cut, but the system largely remains the same. Since getting back into the Premier League under Nigel Adkins, the Saints have, at times, played 4-4-2 and with three centre‑backs, but generally they are a 4-3-3 side and the challenge so far for Claude Puel, the latest manager, has been to find the right pieces to fit in the holes – on Sunday it worked effectively. Oriel Romeu was at the base of the three, and was efficient enough, without ever causing anyone to mistake him for Morgan Schneiderlin. But Cédric Soares and, especially, Ryan Bertrand provided great width from full-back, just like Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne. Further inside, the front three of Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond and Charlie Austin interchanged at will. Austin may not stretch defences (there is Redmond for that) but there is no doubting he can finish and Puel’s decision to opt for the former QPR forward over Shane Long looks like a telling one. Paul MacInnes
• Match report: West Ham United 0-3 Southampton
• Noble attacks ‘laughable’ defending in defeat to Southampton
10) Bamford must seize his chance for Burnley
For a squad as relatively thin as Burnley’s, any unnecessary absences will hit them harder than most. Particularly when it is Andre Gray, the man who scored 23 goals on their way to promotion last season, who will serve the first of a four-game ban on Monday night for homophobic tweets. Options are limited for Sean Dyche, but one available to him is Patrick Bamford, the young forward on loan from Chelsea. This is a huge opportunity for Bamford, and perhaps the last he will have for a while if he does not take it. Bamford’s reputation currently rests on a good season with Middlesbrough in the Championship two years ago, but after two spells with Crystal Palace and Norwich in which he scored zero goals and made only two starts, how much longer will that stretch? Bamford has not scored a competitive goal since April 2015, and a Burnley side who have only three from their five games so far need him to end that run. Nick Miller
• Burnley’s Gray given four-match ban for Twitter posts
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 6 | 13 | 18 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 6 | 7 | 14 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 6 | 8 | 13 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| 5 | Everton | 6 | 6 | 13 |
| 6 | Man Utd | 6 | 5 | 12 |
| 7 | Crystal Palace | 6 | 3 | 10 |
| 8 | Chelsea | 6 | 1 | 10 |
| 9 | Southampton | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| 10 | West Brom | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| 11 | Watford | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| 12 | Leicester | 6 | -3 | 7 |
| 13 | Hull | 6 | -5 | 7 |
| 14 | AFC Bournemouth | 6 | -5 | 7 |
| 15 | Middlesbrough | 6 | -3 | 5 |
| 16 | Swansea | 6 | -5 | 4 |
| 17 | Burnley | 5 | -5 | 4 |
| 18 | West Ham | 6 | -9 | 3 |
| 19 | Stoke | 6 | -11 | 2 |
| 20 | Sunderland | 6 | -7 | 1 |
