Premier League round-up: Game week 5
Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth
After last weekends shock defeat at home to Forest, Liverpool responded during mid-week with an impressive performance and result, beating AC Milan 3-1 at the San Siro. Bournemouth were given a blueprint on how to stifle and frustrate Liverpool by Nuno Espirito Santo a week earlier, however they chose to ignore that blueprint and instead looked to press Liverpool, which played right into their hands. Liverpool were able to play through the press easily and on many occasions.
Winger Luis Diaz had an excellent first half and ran through the Bournemouth defenders like a knife through butter, his individual skill on show for all to see. Diaz has had an incredible start to the season and his 2 first half goals in this game mean that he now has 5 goals and 1 assist in just 5 games in the Premier League. He is on fire at the minute and it looks like he may be ready to take the reigns from Mo Salah as Liverpool’s new star man.
For Bournemouth it was always going to be a tough fixture which they wouldn’t have been expecting to win, however the approach from Iraola seemed naive. They lacked the intensity to press Liverpool effectively which meant that they were essentially commiting too many players forward but were unable to win the ball in the final third. This left them far too exposed and basically led to them just lying down and letting Liverpool tickle their bellies. You can see the average positions below, which shows us how Bournemouth’s midfield pairing of Lewis Cook (4) and Ryan Christie (10) were pushing higher up the pitch to press compared to that of Forest’s midfield pairing of Yates (22) and Ward-Prowse (18) who won at Anfield on the previous Saturday, and the cherries had no one really sitting in behind Cook and Christie to cover that space.
Source: https://www.whoscored.com/
The first goal ironically came from a long ball, a fantastic ball from Konate to pick out Diaz who made a clever run in between the defenders and his subsequent touch and finish was sublime. For the second goal Trent exposed the chasm of space left by Bournemouth in the midfield as he strode forward gracefully, played in Diaz who slotted it past Kepa calmly. Darwin Nunez was the scorer of a brilliant third goal after linking up nicely with Salah down the right hand side and producing a curling left footed finish which cannoned off the post and into the far corner of the net. Bournemouth created some decent chances in the second half but were unable to get past Alisson who impressively kept his 4th clean sheet of the season after just 5 games.
For Liverpool this win resembled a bounce back to normality and Slot will be pleased to get back to winning ways in the League in a game where they were heavy favourites. For Bournemouth it has maybe shown some signs of Iraola’s stubbornness to stick to a tactical game plan where it didn’t seem well suited, but they will be looking to pick up some vital points in much more favourable looking games coming up against newly promoted Southampton and Leicester.
Tottenham 3-1 Brentford
As always after a defeat to your bitter rivals, there was a lot of negative noise surrounding Spurs which included a tetchy post-match interview from Ange Postecoglu where he claimed that he ‘always wins a trophy in his second season’ which is I guess, factually true. It also saw Brennan Johnson deactivate his instagram account after receiving abuse from Spurs fans for his performance and he also looked very subdued in the aftermath of the EFL cup win against Coventry where he scored the winner. That negative feeling may have been impounded by an emphatic early Mbeumo volley on the turn to put Brentford 1-0 up, and a sense of trepidation will have been emanating throughout the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at that point.
The mood will have changed dramatically though thanks mainly to James Maddison, who put in a vintage performance to lead his team to victory and suddenly Ange-ball was back in full swing. Maddison played a part in all three of the goals, for the first goal he won the ball back in the final third following a sloppy mistake at the back from Ethan Pinnock who was trying to play out of defence, Maddison’s shot was saved by Vicario but Solanke was in the right position to score the rebound and get his first goal for the club which should give him a boost of confidence. Maddison picked up the ball again in a deeper position this time following a stray pass from Vitaly Janelt and played a neat ball to Son, who then played it onto Johnson to burst into the box and score from a tight angle on the right hand side. An important goal for Johnson which would have hopefully gone some way in helping to silence his critics.
For Brentford, they will feel aggrieved following two instances in the second half featuring the Spurs keeper Vicario. The first instance came when Vicario rushed out to punch a cross clear, but ended up making a mess of it and handled the ball outside of the area, no action was taken by the referee. The second instance came not long after as another cross from the right hand side was headed this time by Kevin Schade, only for the keeper to produce an outstanding save to retain the lead for his side.
Tottenham’s third goal again involved James Maddison, as Brentford started to push forward for an equaliser and pressed Tottenham high up the pitch, they sprung a devastating counter attack which saw Son use his pace to get in behind the backline and set up Maddison who produced a lovely chip over Flekken in goal to make it 3-1 and to secure all 3 points for Tottenham.
For Brentford, they’ve had a tough start to the season having played Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham all away from home already. Despite this they've still managed to get 6 points thanks to wins against Crystal Palace and Southampton which Thomas Frank will be pleased with. They should look forward to another comfortable season, but they may feel slightly disappointed after going 1-0 up so early on in both games against Tottenham and Man City and then fading away to lose both of them, it’s clear that Brentford are strong starters but do they have the mentality to maintain that level over 90 minutes? It does show that the levels required to be able to get a result against one of the top 6 clubs are so high, especially away from home. Putting it into perspective, it wasn’t a bad performance from the Bees but some sloppy errors ultimately cost them.
Aston Villa 3-1 Wolves
Aston Villa defied the odds last season by finishing in the top 4 and qualifying for the champions league and Unai Emery looks set to bring more success to Villa park in 2024/25. They have impressed me more than any side this season in terms of their stylistic approach and early signs are showing that they seem to have the perfect blend of defensive prowess and attacking threat.
A player who has been key to Aston Villa’s success this season is one that didn’t feature a whole lot last season, Morgan Rogers. Rogers signed from Middlesbrough on deadline day in the 2024 January transfer window for an initial fee of £8 million. That fee is starting to look like a bargain, his performances so far this season have really caught the eye and suddenly he has become an integral part of Emery’s plans. This points to Villa’s excellent recruitment strategy which has seen them build such a strong squad over the course of the past 4 years.
Rogers has been influential in all of Villa’s performance so far this season, but it wasn’t until the game against Wolves where we saw him finally get some fruits for all his labour. The first half was underwhelming to say the least for Emery’s men as they found themselves 1-0 down to their West Midlands rivals. A poor giveaway from Diego Carlos led to Matheus Cunha picking up the ball in the inside left channel and producing a deadly strike in off the post.
What is so impressive about Aston Villa this season in particular though, is their ability to stay calm when they go behind, they don’t panic and always remain fully committed to the gameplan. You can tell that there is an inherent trust between the players and the manager, and they got their rewards in the second half as Rogers fed Watkins with an incisive pass in the 73rd minute which the striker finished with a slight aide off the boot of Craig Dawson to equalise. From then on there was only ever going to be one winner, Villa looked stronger and far more effective in their midfield duels than they did in the first half and they scored a second as Konsa showed more desire than anyone on the pitch in a gold shirt to get onto the end of a delicious Tielemans cross.
Ian Maatsen and Jhon Duran came on as substitutes just after half time and they both played a role in the third goal. Yuri Tielemans produced a midfield masterclass, with an 8.0 rating (Source: https://www.whoscored.com/) and he started off the move for the third goal with a piece of excellent work in the middle. The belgian midfielder found Maatsen down the left who produced a well timed ball for Morgan Rogers. His ball for Duran was on the money and left the colombian striker with the simple task of scoring a tap in. A lovely team move from Villa which really highlights the strong team cohesion and strength in depth that Emery has built. The signs are looking great so far for the Villains and I would not at all be surprised to see them battle it out for the top 4 once again.
For Wolves on the other hand, things are looking bleak. They only have 1 point so far from 5 games and are yet to win, Gary O’Neill did a great job with them last season but early signs are showing that it looks like he may have an uphill task on his hands this season to keep them adrift of the bottom 3. The main differential from last season has been their lack of defensive solidity, as they ranked 8th last season for the amount of goals conceded in the Premier League, so far this season they find themselves joint top of that table having conceded 14 goals already in only 5 games. Things need to change quickly for Wolves for their fans to start believing that they can have a positive season.
Fulham 3-1 Newcastle
Newcastle United visited Craven Cottage to find a Fulham side in a buoyant mood and the home side were positive from the get go. Marco Silva has made Fulham an exciting team to watch, with attacking talents such as Emile Smith-Rowe and Alex Iwobi already forming a good understanding of how each other plays and striker Raul Jimenez finding his best form once again in the Premier League.
For Newcastle, it was a slow and laboured performance for the most part and Eddie Howe’s men looked like their heads were still on the team bus as Fulham flew out the traps and took a 1-0 lead, Jimenez finding space in the box to turn and finish to grab his 2nd goal in 2 games. Despite Newcastle having 61.7% of the ball in the first half, Fulham were the side making things happen when they won it back. The home side had 13 shots to Newcastle’s 6 at the break, and also 9 tackles compared to Newcastle’s 4 showing how they were more aggressive and proactive than the opposition.
The chemistry between Iwobi and Smith-Rowe played a role in Fulham’s second goal, with some fantastic play down the left hand side between the two leading to a shot from Smith-Rowe which slithered under Nick Pope. The Newcastle keeper really should have done a lot better and should be blamed for the goal, as well as the Newcastle backline who just watched as Smith-Rowe scored his 2nd goal since joining the club from Arsenal. Fulham looked confident and assured in attack and Newcastle’s near perfect record so far this season was in jeopardy.
Early in the second half Newcastle were handed a way back into the game after Harvey Barnes produced a cool finish following some good work from Jacob Murphy in the middle to drive forward and lay it off. It was an improved second half from the magpies who created more chances, taking 11 shots, but still looked vulnerable to Fulham’s counter-attacks who offered a real threat with Adama Traore and Alex Iwobi’s pace causing Newcastle problems. It was those two who linked up well as Adama Traore drove into the box on the right hand side and stood a great ball up for Iwobi to attack at the far post. His volley was well saved by Nick Pope though which went a little way in amending for his first half error.
Newcastle missed a huge chance in the 72nd minute as Fabian Schar pounced on a lapse in concentration from Bernd Leno who played a short goal kick to Emile Smith-Rowe who clearly had Schar breathing down his neck before the ball was even played. He won the ball in a great position inside the box but for some reason chose to shoot early when a pass across to Isak would’ve given him a tap in. The shot itself was off target and had that gone in we would have been talking about a totally different end to the game.
There was still time for one more crucial error in a game seemingly full of them, as Bruno Guimarães uncharacteristically played a suicide ball across the face of his own goal which landed at the feet of Reiss Nelson, who accepted the gift and scored past Nick Pope to make it 3-1 deep into injury time.
This win resembles a fantastic result for Fulham who have only lost once in the league this season, that loss coming on opening day against Manchester United. Silva will be hoping to lead his side to a top-half finish this season following some smart business over the summer. Interestingly, they haven’t seemed to have missed Joao Palhinha so far as much as people thought that they would as he left for Bayern Munich over the summer. Sasa Lukic and Andreas Pereira have formed a solid pairing in the middle of the park in his absence, whether they will be able to keep that up remains to be seen. For Newcastle, this result felt like it was coming as despite getting good results so far this season, the performances haven’t been amazing and they have riden their luck to some degree up to this point.
West Ham United 0-3 Chelsea
Throughout the summer and into the early weeks of the season, there was endless talk off the pitch surrounding Chelsea Football club. However, on the pitch Maresca has managed to find the right blend of players while dealing with his bloated squad. There is no doubt that Chelsea have a great deal of talent at their disposal, as they should have considering they spent £219.6 million in the summer window. So far, Maresca is putting that talent to good use, gaining 4 wins, 1 draw and the only loss coming on opening day against Manchester City.
Nicolas Jackson has also faced an enormity of criticism during his Chelsea career to date but at the London stadium he was able to get himself on the scoresheet twice. Julien Lopetegui made the decision to ask Edson Alvarez to man mark Jackson. His plan failed miserably however, as the striker found space time and time again in the first half, escaping Alvarez by using his pace to make runs into the mass of space in behind the West Ham defence. Both of his goals came in the first half and both were a product of Lopetegui getting the tactics all wrong, as Jackson was allowed a clear run at goal on two occasions.
Jadon Sancho is looking like a good asset for Chelsea on the left flank and that will certainly frustrate Manchester United fans after they bought him for £73 million for him in 2021 and never saw anything close to his best form in his appearances for the club. Cole Palmer added a third goal at the end of the first half following more good work from Nicolas Jackson as they exploited West Ham’s poor defensive structure once again.
West Ham gained many plaudits for their recruitment over the summer as it looked like they had bought in some good players who would fit the squad. The start of the season however has been a car crash so far for West Ham and their new manager. The club are currently lacking identity and if this form continues it could force another change in management so soon after they sent David Moyes packing. Their next two fixtures are against Brentford away and Ipswich at home where they will be desperate to turn things around after a poor start.
Leicester 1-1 Everton
At the king power stadium, we saw a battle of two strugglers in the early stages of this Premier League campaign. Many people were looking at this game as a ‘must win’ for both teams, with Everton bottling two consecutive 2-0 leads to lose both games 3-2 against Bournemouth and Aston Villa respectively, and Leicester winless after their first 5 games under new manager Steve Cooper.
The game itself was played through a dramatic hailstorm which really added to the ‘scrappy relegation 6 pointer’ ambience. Iliman Ndiaye put in a storming performance in fitting with the weather, and really lit up the game with his dazzling skill and confidence to get into dangerous positions and take on defenders with no fear. Something that would have been much welcomed by the tortured Everton faithful.
Everton were the better team in the first half and looked like they would be the team to break their winless run. They outshot Leicester by 11 shots to 4 in the first half, with 4 of them being on target. The most important statistic was the score line though, and thanks to Iliman Ndiaye’s forward thinking, they went into the break with a 1 goal lead after he linked up nicely with Ashley Young to break through the Leicester back 4 and produce a good finish past Hermansen.
Once again though Everton faded in the second half, letting Leicester back into it. In the second 45 minutes, Leicester controlled possession having 63.4% of the ball and had an 83% pass success rate. They made that possession count when they eventually scored an equaliser in the 73rd minute after Mavididi scrambled the ball in from a corner.
Another lead blown for Everton and the mentality of the squad has to come into question, it is out of character for a Sean Dyche team to show a weak mentality and that must be the biggest concern for Everton fans. The manager insisted though in a post-match interview that his side showed ‘confidence in the performance and belief’ which he said ‘shows that the mentality is right’ (Source: https://www.heraldscotland.com/). Whether that is true or not is yet to be seen, and Everton’s mentality will continue to be tested over the next two weeks with home matches coming up against Crystal Palace and Newcastle.
Southampton 1-1 Ipswich
The last meeting between Southampton and Ipswich finished 3-2 as Jeremy Sarmiento scored a dramatic late goal back in April securing a crucial 3 points for Ipswich, leading to automatic promotion. There was more late drama in this game as Sam Morsy, with the help of a big deflection, blasted home in the 94th minute to rescue a point.
It was a fairly even game, with Southampton trying to control possession and play through the defence, and Ipswich the more physically superior team, posing a threat from set pieces. 18 year old star boy Tyler Dibling was the stand out player for the home side, the 18 year old impressed in game week 4 against Manchester United showing flair and exuberance and continued to shine against Ipswich.
He scored after just 5 minutes following a pass from Adam Lallana, showing great balance to send Muric the wrong way as he shaped to shoot and found the back of the net to score his first ever senior goal. He is the next one up on the production line of outstanding talents to be produced by the Saints academy and it will be an exciting journey to follow him throughout this season and beyond.
Ipswich have drawn their last three matches and Sam Morsy’s late equaliser embodied the strength of character that they have shown over those games. This is a trend that Ipswich set last season as they picked up more points than anyone in the Championship from losing positions, and that might set them in good stead to battle against relegation this season. They will however need to find a win soon as they are still winless after 5 games and face in-form Aston Villa at home in the next outing which won’t be easy at all.
Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester United
The only goalless game of the weekend came at Selhurst Park as Ten Haag’s men came to London, fresh off the back of an emphatic 7-0 EFL cup win against League one opposition Barnsley. Palace haven’t got off to the electric start that some people thought that they might do after finishing last season so strongly following Oliver Glasner’s appointment.
In this game, Palace owed a lot to the performance of Dean Henderson who made a string of brilliant saves in the first half including a point blank save from De Ligt’s header. United also hit the bar twice in a matter of seconds after Garnacho curled an effort from the inside left channel after being played through and Bruno Fernandes couldn’t control the rebound on the volley.
The second half saw Henderson’s opposite number, Andre Onana, make an outstanding double save to first deny Nketiah his first Premier League goal for Palace, and then Mateta who came charging in on the rebound. Eze missed the chance of the game late on after being fed the ball by Nketiah to find him in space 10 yards out infront of the goal. Eze somehow put his shot wide, missing a huge opportunity to steal 3 points for Palace late on, and you could see every single fan in the Holmesdale Road stand collectively put their hands on their head in disbelief as his shot went wide.
Manchester United still haven’t got going yet this season and as always the spotlight is on Ten Haag to produce results, it will be an intriguing watch as they take on Tottenham at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon in a game that will test them and is a crucial fixture for both sides.
Brighton 2-2 Nottingham Forest
Super sunday started off with a cracking game down on the south coast featuring two unbeaten teams. As a Forest fan, I was watching this game with keen interest hoping for another positive result following our earth shattering win last week at Anfield. Nuno Espirito Santo has been allowed to have his own pre-season after keeping Forest in the Premier League last season and so far it looks like he’s really been able to implement his philosophy onto this group of players.
The signings that we have made, particularly Serbian centre back Nikola Milenkovic have directly addressed the issues we faced last season, namely our lack of defensive solidity. This points to a much more well thought out summer transfer window where it seems that we had a clear strategy and our other summer signings such as Elliott Anderson, James Ward-Prowse & Alex Moreno have all shown positive signs in the early stages of the season.
The gameplan for Forest had some similarities to the one we deployed at Anfield last week where we looked to stifle and frustrate the home side in the first half, which worked for the first 30 minutes at least as we limited Brighton to few chances and offered a real threat on the counter. A penalty to Forest was awarded by referee Rob Jones (more on him later) after Baleba fouled Hudson-Odoi on 13 minutes. Chris Wood made no mistake with the spot kick, smashing it low into the corner to put us 1-0 ahead.
A mad 5 minutes before half time span the game on its head however, as Brighton scored after a well worked move led to Jack Hinshelwood heading home from Jan Paul Van Hecke’s stunning cross. 4 minutes later, Brighton were 2-1 ahead after Ola Aina gave away a free kick which was scored by Danny Welbeck. Roy Keane heavily criticised Matz Sels in the Sky studios at half time for not covering the left hand side of his goal, and I feel that Sels’ complete lack of movement, watching the free kick sail past him, did him absolutely no favours.
The half time substitutions from Nuno were somewhat baffling, and I have to say I was very surprised to see Alex Moreno, Anthony Elanga and James Ward-Prowse all get taken off the pitch following what was a pretty good first half performance despite the score line. My thinking was that James Ward-Prowse would offer us quality from set-pieces that we all know about, and that would be key for us to try and get back into the game.
Neco Williams was the player to replace Moreno and he got an early booking which was far from ideal, facing Kaoru Mitoma which didn’t look like a good match up even before the caution. Predictably, Mitoma spent the next 10-15 minutes absolutely terrorising us down our right hand side, Brighton were well on top and Danny Welbeck agonisingly saw his shot saved after wriggling through about 3 defenders. That would have put the game to bed.
Forest stayed in the game though and showed strong character to get back on level terms. The second goal was a tactical masterpiece as we exploited Brighton’s high line and lack of pace at the back, which has been a weak spot for Hürzeler’s team since game week 1. Murillo, Chris Wood and Gibbs-White linked up brilliantly with 3 neat one touch passes to send livewire Jota Silva running through with Ramon Sosa in support, Jota Silva squared it to Sosa and the rest as they say… is history.
Brighton's high line being exposed
(Source: Sky Sports)
Gibbs-White’s tackle in the 83rd minute sparked a heap of controversy. In the moment, I shouted at the TV ‘great tackle’ and it did look clean in real time. An important caveat being that Forest fans have seen Gibbs-White make that type of tackle on several occasions and have always seen it judged as clean. Rob Jones didn’t cover himself in glory whatsoever though as he initially indicated that Gibbs-White had won the ball, but then proceeded to send him off just seconds later. I assume it must have been on advise of fourth official Anthony Taylor, but the whole situation could have been dealt with a lot better. After seeing the tackle again away from the heat of the moment and after seeing it analysed further, I can probably admit it was a foul and a second yellow as he did take a lot of the player as well as the ball. Knowing how Morgan Gibbs-White plays though, Forest fans know that it came from a place of pure desire and he would have meant no intention to harm his opponent.
Gibbs-White see's red
(Source: Sky Sports)
Overall, it was another great result for Forest in a game which we definitely would have lost last season, we have more depth in the squad now and that it a testiment to the recruitment team and the manager for integrating them so well this early on. Despite a lot of questions being asked to Nuno regarding the half time substitutions from myself included, it all worked well in the end and the two attacking changes were the ones who eventually linked up to get us the equaliser. We now face Fulham which is game I will be attending and will be writing a piece on, focusing on the club and my connection to it, as well as a matchday experience and some analysis of the match.
Man City 2-2 Arsenal
Finally to round off, we have the big one. Super Sunday really lived up to its billing this week as Brighton vs Nottingham Forest produced a cracker, and City and Arsenal didn’t disappoint either. In a game that would likely play a big role in helping to decide the title race, the master took on his apprentice in what was a fiery match between these two heavyweights.
Erling Haaland is inevitable. He scored again after just 9 minutes and I think everyone at that moment thought that were about to see an Arsenal drubbing, with City’s tails up and Haaland on fire. That didn’t happen though as it was Arteta’s men who started to grow into the game, and after a quick free kick was taken to the displeasure of the City players, Martinelli played it back for Riccardo Calafiori who caressed the ball with his left foot into the far corner, curling agonisingly out of reach for Ederson in goal.
Arsenal look deadly from set-pieces this season, having scored one against Tottenham in the North London derby they looked just as threatening from them at the Etihad. The warning signs were there for City as Gabriel headed just over from Saka’s trademark inswinging corner from the right. Arsenal then scored from an almost identical situation, Gabriel’s header nearly busting the net this time. Clearly Arsenal’s set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover, has been a massive influence in the early stages of this season and it shows how much attention to detail there is at the highest end of the Premier League where so much is at stake.
Just before half time there was more Sunday controversy as Leondro Trossard was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away after Man City were awarded a free kick. It was a stupid decision from Trossard, but Arsenal fans felt incensed following the incident that saw Declan Rice sent off against Brighton before the international break for a similar situation, and also point to an incident earlier in the game where Doku seemed to kick the ball away which went unpunished. It is clear that referee’s are clamping down on the dark arts much more this season, and my take on it is that players just need to learn to stop doing it.
The second half was an intriguing tactical battle, with Arteta playing a 5-4 formation with no outlet upfront. They went into total park the bus mode and it was a real throwback reminiscent of Jose Mourinho’s 2004 Chelsea team, which ironically Arsenal hated so much. Whatever your opinion on Arteta’s tactics, he felt that it was the best way to get a result after going down to 10 men against the best team in the world, and it so nearly worked with Man City seemingly running out of ideas and resorting to endless sideways passing around the edge of the box.
Arsenal's average positions vs Man City
(Source: https://www.whoscored.com/)
John Stones’ 98th minute equaliser sent a dagger into the hearts of Arsenal fans across the country and a sense of relief poured out from the home fans. It was a pitoval moment which we may look back on as a title defining moment come what may. It was a dramatic conclusion to an incredible game week in the Premier League, and we can look forward with real intrigue as to what’s to come next.
Written by Joe Horne
