Man United’s forgotten man Hannibal could prove useful for Erik ten Hag, Tottenham have shed their ‘Spursy’ status and Chelsea just look lost ahead of tough run – 10 THINGS WE LEARNED from the Premier League weekend
- The Premier League weekend threw up plenty of entertainment and intrigue
- Arsenal and Spurs shared four goals and Man United earned a much-needed win
- Mail Sport’s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here
It was the Premier League weekend that saw four goals shared in a pulsating north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham, Manchester City continue their perfect start and Newcastle smash eight past sorry Sheffield United.
Manchester United ground out a much-needed win at Burnley, Chelsea slumped to 14th after a home loss to Aston Villa, while Liverpool are up to second after beating West Ham.
Elsewhere, Brighton bounced back from their Europa League disappointment, Everton claimed a morale-boosting win at Brentford and Luton picked up their first point in the Premier League.
It’s fair to say Crystal Palace vs Fulham failed to elicit a great deal of excitement.
Mail Sport takes a look at 10 things we learned from the weekend’s top-flight action.
Tottenham Hotspur showed their battling qualities to come from behind twice against Arsenal
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Spurs are ‘Spursy’ no longer
It’s long been a stick used to beat them with and Tottenham never quite seem able to fully shed their unflattering and unwanted ‘Spursy’ tag.
As James Maddison neatly summarised after Sunday’s north London draw at Arsenal, it might be defined in the football lexicon as: ‘Soft, weak, bottling it.’
James Maddison (right), celebrating with Son Heung-min after the second of his goals at Arsenal on Sunday, believes Spurs aren’t as ‘Spursy’ as before
But Maddison was speaking in such terms to make the point that Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs aren’t ‘Spursy’ at all.
The way they twice fought back to draw 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium – in the case of Son Heung-min’s second goal, a mere 23 seconds after the restart after conceding – suggests a greater steel, more backbone.
Under their Australian boss, Spurs have also come from behind at Brentford to draw, come from behind at Burnley to win emphatically and scored twice deep into stoppage time to beat Sheffield United.
‘I think the last couple of weeks shows we might be going in a slightly different direction,’ added Maddison.
‘We go behind twice at arguably one of the best teams in the world, we pull it back and we’re still fighting to the end.’
A bit more of this and ‘Spursy’ Spurs will be the punchline no longer.
Chelsea look lost ahead of unforgiving run
Chelsea averaged just a goal a game in last season’s Premier League and after a third scoreless outing in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at home against Aston Villa, things don’t appear to have improved.
It’s now 13 league games this calendar year in which they’ve failed to find the net – their Premier League record is 14, in 1995 – and the Blues’ overall league record in this annus horribilis is a miserable five wins, nine draws and 13 losses.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side are 14th, which is recoverable given how early we are in the season – especially when they get some injured players back.
Mauricio Pochettino is already under pressure and Chelsea have some tough games ahead
But the lack of potency in front of goal and the lack of any discernible identity is of serious concern. Quite simply, teams such as Villa now expect to go to Stamford Bridge and pick up a result.
Fair enough, Villa owed their keeper Emiliano Martinez for making one-on-one saves to deny Nicolas Jackson and Raheem Sterling prior to Malo Gusto’s sending off, but Villa might have scored more goals too.
Worrying for Pochettino, it isn’t about to get any easier. Before early December, Chelsea have to face Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City, Newcastle, Brighton and Manchester United.
This could easily get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
Hannibal an unlikely saviour for Man United
Like Chelsea, there’s no discernible style about Manchester United, who are also plagued by injuries and seemingly surviving match-to-match.
They did at least pick up a much-needed win at Burnley, but it was a long way from being either comfortable or convincing.
The most surprising aspect of that was the masterclass produced by 35-year-old Jonny Evans, but almost as remarkable was the latest start given to forgotten man Hannibal Mejbri.
The Tunisian came off the bench and scored in the defeat by Brighton, his delight at a first United goal rather out of context given they were 3-1 down, to earn a start at Turf Moor.
Hannibal Mejbri came into the Manchester United line-up and performed well at Burnley
The Tunisian midfielder could well prove useful to Erik ten Hag amid a pile-up of injuries
And Hannibal performed pretty well alongside United’s best performer and match-winner Bruno Fernandes.
The 20-year-old clearly learned a good amount from his loan spell at Birmingham City last season, when he performed consistently enough in an under-performing Championship team.
But nobody expected him to be starting for United this season and it could be seen as a damning indictment of their desperate lack of squad depth and Erik ten Hag running out of ideas.
Or the youngster may be up to the challenge. Time will tell us.
It’s now-or-never for Phillips at Man City
Rodri is an outstanding midfielder but he’s also adept at sweet-talking himself out of second yellow cards. Maybe it’s his puppy-dog eyes or the sincere hand-on-heart routine to referees.
But after he wrapped his hands around Morgan Gibbs-White’s throat in Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest, even the ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ act couldn’t avoid a red and a three-match ban.
This is significant. Rodri will now miss matches against Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup, Wolves in the league and, most significantly, the clash with Arsenal on October 8.
Rodri was sent off for grabbing Morgan Gibbs-White by the throat in Man City’s win over Forest
Kalvin Phillips must take the opportunities that may now come his way in Rodri’s absence
No wonder Pep Guardiola was annoyed with him – City’s win percentage slumps from 74 to 64 when Rodri is absent.
With Mateo Kovacic only just back in training and John Stones also sidelined, Guardiola may be forced to play Kalvin Phillips.
The England man came off the bench on Saturday just after Rodri’s red to take his City game time to a grand total of 645 minutes since he arrived from Leeds for £42million in July 2022.
The opportunity is there for Phillips to finally show Guardiola what he can do and, if he isn’t picked in these circumstances, he really may as well move in January.
No sign Saudi speculation has distracted Salah
You’d forgive Mohamed Salah for starting the season slowly after all that speculation over a £200million-plus move to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.
Instead, the Egyptian is in exceptional form with four goals and four assists in seven outings, as if to prove his commitment to Liverpool.
Salah’s blistering start makes him only the fifth player to either score or assist a goal in his team’s first six Premier League matches in a season.
Mohamed Salah celebrates with Diogo Jota after scoring a penalty against West Ham
He’s in some cracking company, too, alongside David Beckham (Man United 2000-01), Thierry Henry (Arsenal 2004-05), Sergio Aguero (Man City 2019-20) and Erling Haaland (Man City 2022-23).
Salah also scored in Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Austrians LASK in the Europa League last week.
All the focus after Liverpool beat West Ham by that same scoreline on Sunday was on Darwin Nunez after his acrobatic volley but Salah, who converted a first-half penalty, just keeps motoring on.
The Saudi speculation simply swirls around him when there’s a job to be done.
Time surely up for Heckingbottom after 8-0 thrashing
Chris Wilder was being linked with a return to the Sheffield United dug-out even before the Blades were battered 8-0 by Newcastle on Sunday.
Paul Heckingbottom is very much on borrowed time if they’re to make a decent fist of it in the Premier League this season.
He described the performance as ‘unacceptable’ but could only flat bat post-match questions about his future in the job.
United sit bottom of the top-flight table again but let’s not forget they were also in that position when Heckingbottom replaced Wilder to pick up the pieces in March 2021.
The writing is surely on the wall for Paul Heckingbottom after the Blades were thrashed 8-0
When the experiment with Slavisa Jokanovic failed, it was Heckingbottom who turned the 2021-22 season around and took the Blades to the play-offs. Last season, he took them back into the big time.
Heckingbottom is an honest character but after the club’s heaviest-ever league defeat – eclipsing their 10-3 loss to Middlesbrough in November 1933 – he does appear, sadly, to be out of his depth.
Europa nights could easily catch up with Brighton
Brighton may have beaten Bournemouth 3-1 but Roberto De Zerbi described their performance as ‘one of the worst games’ of his tenure.
They had to come from behind after Dominic Solanke scored, relying on the excellence of Kaoru Mitoma after he was introduced from the bench at half-time.
Qualifying for the Europa League is a wonderful achievement for Brighton but the brutal reality is that the Thursday-Sunday routine will push them to the absolute limit.
Brighton beat Bournemouth but Roberto De Zerbi was far from impressed at their display
Far richer clubs such as Manchester United have struggled with the relentless schedule and additional travel when in Europe’s secondary competition.
The post-Europa fixture was kind this time because Bournemouth are struggling but the Seagulls have to play Liverpool after their trip to Marseille next month and must tackle Chelsea and Arsenal straight after continental fixtures in December.
More lethargic displays, even with heavy rotation, are a distinct possibility.
Calvert-Lewin offers timely reminder of his quality
Dominic Calvert-Lewin took Everton’s third goal at Brentford on Saturday night very well, culminating an encouraging all-round display.
Everton’s pressing, which forced the mistake which led to that goal, caused Brentford lots of problems and James Garner impressed alongside Abdoulaye Doucoure in the midfield.
The angst over Calvert-Lewin’s regular injury absences has eased since the £25.8m arrival of Portuguese forward Beto at the end of August.
Indeed, Calvert-Lewin was jeered derisively by Toffees fans when a facial injury forced him off against Aston Villa last month.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin celebrates scoring Everton’s third goal in Saturday’s win at Brentford
So this goal – just his third since the beginning of last season – felt important in reminding everyone he still has something to offer Everton.
‘Football is a funny old game,’ was the striker’s response when asked about the booing. ‘I’ll relish this and take the rest with a pinch of salt’.
If Sean Dyche can get Beto and Calvert-Lewin working in tandem, they may really be in business.
Wolves must clean up their act
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde became the eighth Wolves player to be shown a red card in Premier League football since the beginning of the season – more than twice any other side.
On this occasion, it didn’t prove catastrophic as Gary O’Neil’s side still emerged from Kenilworth Road with a point.
Bellegarde, playing in only his second Wolves game, kicked out at Tom Lockyer to see red six minutes before half-time and may face internal disciplinary action as well as a three-game ban.
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is shown a red card as Wolves once again handicapped themselves
That was the fourth time in the last season-and-a-bit that the Molineux club have been reduced to 10 before the interval.
They really must stop shooting themselves in the foot.
Johnstone’s getting a chance to show his class
Sam Johnstone has needed bucket-loads of patience since he joined Crystal Palace from West Bromwich Albion in June last year.
Vicente Guaita was Patrick Vieira’s favourite and England keeper Johnstone was forced to watch from the bench.
That has changed since Roy Hodgson returned to Selhurst Park, however, and Johnstone showed his class with several important saves in Saturday’s goalless draw with Fulham.
That preserved a very impressive home record for Palace, who lost only one of seven games at Selhurst (to Arsenal) since Hodgson came back in April.
Guaita left in the summer having lost his spot and despite Dean Henderson’s arrival, Johnstone’s No 1 status at Palace looks secure on this evidence.
Crystal Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone saves from Fulham’s Carlos Vinicius at Selhurst Park
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