Manchester City’s 3-0 win at Liverpool was, depending on where you stood, an exercise in either vindication or vilification. In the Anfield away end, City supporters wielded inflatable bananas and thumbed their noses at the hostility around them; on the pitch, their players were at last able to concentrate on football rather than legal argument and uncertain futures.
The football itself, though, came wrapped in something far less comfortable. City passed the ball around with the game already won to a soundtrack of “cheat” chants, a reaction that is bound to be repeated at other stadiums. For a club found guilty of more than 100 charges to lay waste to a rival of Liverpool’s stature sits badly with the competition as a whole: the Premier League season and its product are badly damaged until the matter is somehow resolved, and what happened at Anfield should double the haste for that resolution.
Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool reboot will require patience. There was drive and determination against City, but the edges were uneven and the polish missing. Iraola’s aim was to get his players in his opponents’ faces and deepen any doubts circulating among City’s players; that mission was mostly accomplished in the first half, and a flurry of chances at the start of the second had City rocking until Ryan Gravenberch’s dismissal pulled the rug from under the home side. With Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo missing, Liverpool lacked the quality to inflict the necessary damage, though Lewis Koumas played well as an emergency centre-forward and agitator and Víctor Muñoz was full of buzz. Bradley Barcola and Florian Wirtz, both £100m-plus signings, are supposed to supply the cutting edge; Barcola has the mitigation of being a new arrival, while the scrutiny on Wirtz only intensified once Gravenberch departed and Trey Nyoni was required in midfield.
Crystal Palace’s 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest was the second time this season that Pierre Sage has watched his side take three points without being at their best, and the Frenchman was honest enough to admit they had been slightly fortunate. “It’s not normal to concede as many chances as we conceded,” he said of the opening 40 minutes, during which Walter Benítez made a string of fine saves. Sage now faces a reunion with Lyon in the Europa League on Thursday, with Oliver Glasner having returned to Selhurst Park on the losing side. Axel Disasi will be available again after his suspension, though he will miss next weekend’s trip to Brighton, and Sage knows his side must improve defensively. “We need to be consistent but after the international break it’s a good result that can help us in our future games,” he added.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles has some apologising to do after two errors cost Everton a first away win in the league since February in a 2-2 draw at Hull City. The former Arsenal right-back botched what should have been an easy interception, gifting Sorba Thomas the chance to tee up Joe Gelhardt for Hull’s opener, and then got too cute defending against Elliot Stroud in the corner, allowing the Swede to find Mohamed Belloumi for the equaliser. With a squad short on attacking options, Everton cannot afford to score twice away from home and come away with only a point.
Tottenham’s visit to Old Trafford was a cluttered contest full of mistakes, and with Michael Carrick’s Manchester United so sluggish and shapeless it served as only a limited barometer of Roberto De Zerbi’s work. Even so, the 1-1 draw offered Spurs something. “From a long time Tottenham played without this blood, this character, and I want it,” said De Zerbi, whose prescription for improvement is for his squad to work together, stay together, have dinner together and get to know each other better. Dominic Solanke wore the captain’s armband and got the late equaliser that his team’s efforts with 10 men had threatened. Progress, then, but slower than desirable.
Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Leeds turned on Mikel Arteta’s choice on the left in the absence of the injured Christos Tzolis. Noni Madueke got the nod and proved a point, having been dropped from the latest England squad. “He deserved the chance and he took it,” said Arteta of the winger, who played out of position but whose pace was too explosive for James Justin and Jayden Bogle. Madueke created the most chances in the game (three) and had the most touches in the box (eight). It was welcome news for a player who had looked to be receding from view at club and international level, but it also cast a dim light on Arteta’s attacking options after a summer in which Tzolis was the only addition to the forward line. Arsenal took a gamble on Madueke; how many more they must take over a long season is another question.
Chelsea’s 5-1 win over Bournemouth was built on a habit that has become a feature of their campaign: they have now scored inside the first 10 minutes in five of their six games this season. Xabi Alonso says the fast starts are nothing to do with him, but Morgan Rogers disagreed. “I put it down to the manager’s team talks,” Rogers said. “He gets us firing, gets us going. We always want to start off on the front foot.”
Aston Villa are still waiting for a home league win, Brentford’s late equaliser through Kristoffer Ajer making it 2-2 at Villa Park. Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Fenerbahce offers another chance to get off the mark, and Unai Emery knows the value of a fortress — though the ground itself looks different this season, the North Stand being rebuilt to take capacity north of 50,000. “I certainly hated it as a player,” said Brentford head coach Keith Andrews, whose side remain unbeaten this campaign. “It just feels wrong, doesn’t it?”
Ipswich are well ahead of the run rate required for survival after six games under Gary O’Neil, who has brought a doggedness the club lacked when Kieran McKenna took them up. O’Neil has been ruthless too, dropping summer signing Kjell Scherpen for Christian Walton after the win at Palace; the veteran goalkeeper looks a more assured presence even if a first clean sheet is still missing. The goals-against column will concern him, with only two sides in the division having conceded more, but three winners after the 90-minute mark point to a team with the stomach for a fight.
Sunderland’s failure to sign a specialist right winger in the summer is arguably costing Régis Le Bris dear. They started the 2-0 home defeat by Brighton with two natural right-backs, the second of them, Thomas Meunier, operating in an advanced role before injuring a hamstring. Nilson Angulo was then shifted from his preferred left wing to the right, industrious but ineffective, and a Sunderland side missing the hamstrung Brian Brobbey at centre-forward failed to threaten. The moment may have come for Le Bris to hand starting spots to Chris Rigg or Chemsdine Talbi at Bournemouth next Sunday, with a heavy rotation likely for Thursday’s Europa League trip to Torreense in Portugal given the four Premier League points collected so far.
At the top of the table, City lead the way on 18 points from six games, ahead of Arsenal on 15 and Brighton on 13.