There’s still a Monday night game to come, but the weekend review is not lacking for talking points as Nick Miller runs through the highlights and lowlights.
Goal of the weekend
Cases could be made for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s whipped free kick or Josh King finishing off a brilliant counter-attack with the cleanest strike you’ll see. But you can’t look past Son Heung-min’s solo strike against Chelsea, if only because he had no business scoring the goal, from the position he collected the ball in: Way out on the right with nobody to help.
Progress of the weekend
Last season, Liverpool scored three goals at Watford. This season, they also scored three goals at Watford. The key difference is that on Saturday they had the maturity and defensive solidity to close out the game, to ensure that no calamity befell them.
“I couldn’t be happier today,” said Jurgen Klopp after the game. “It was one of the most mature performances we had so far.”
Liverpool are growing up. It might not be enough to catch Manchester City, but at the very least it’s more progress.
Self-awareness deficiency of the weekend
Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace means they’ve now dropped seven points at Old Trafford this season. It was also the fourth time in all competitions they’ve drawn a blank at home: For comparison, the other five teams from the “big six” have only done that five times between them — and three of those were when Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool hosted Manchester City.
But, naturally, this wasn’t Jose Mourinho’s fault. It was those cowardly players, you see?
“[There was] not enough intensity, enough desire,” Mourinho said after the match. “We played a game like it is only one more game but it is a game we really need to win. My feeling is there was not enough from the heart.”
It’s quite an accusation to basically suggest your own players aren’t trying as hard as they could, but let’s humour Mourinho and assume what he says is true. What could be the explanation? Why might a set of players not give absolutely everything for a manager who, after every adverse result, can be relied upon to throw them under the bus? It’s a mystery.
Perfectionists of the weekend (a recurring theme)
“It was not the best performance. I have a feeling we were a little bit lucky today.”
That was Pep Guardiola’s assessment of Manchester City against West Ham on Saturday. Raheem Sterling agreed: “We could’ve done more, and I thought we should’ve done more.”
Just in case you missed the result, City won 4-0. This is how City are attempting to stave off the complacency that might come with being the best team in the Premier League: They’re aiming for perfection, even if they know achieving it is impossible.
Stat of the weekend
Speaking of Sterling, he notched up another goal and another assist — that’s 13 for the season, and nobody in the Premier League has been directly involved in more goals. Any doubt that he’s among the best players in the world should be dismissed with the requisite haste.
Reality check of the weekend
This has been coming. Maurizio Sarri’s warnings have felt like an attempt to manage expectations after his fine start as Chelsea manager, but perhaps he, observing his team at close quarters, could see cracks the rest of us couldn’t. He has warned us that trouble might be ahead, and as it turns out it was, in the form of this collapse against Tottenham.
The key of course is how Chelsea now respond: They have a couple of ticklish games against Fulham and Wolves, before the big one, when Manchester City visit. Then we might have a true idea of what to expect from Chelsea this season.
Damning confirmation of the weekend
When someone is still learning English, as Unai Emery is, it’s always tricky to draw conclusions from his statements, with nuance tough to judge. But there didn’t seem to be much ambiguity in his explanation for Mesut Ozil’s omission from Arsenal’s trip to Bournemouth.
“We thought how we can do better in the match, a very demanding match with physicality and intensity,” said Emery.
Nobody expects Ozil to be a bruiser or a pure grafter, but if a manager thinks he can’t rely on a player for a game against Bournemouth who, with the exception of Jefferson Lerma and some of their defenders, aren’t a massively physical side, there’s a problem.
Promising sign of the weekend — part one
The three points were useful, but the most encouraging things for Claudio Ranieri and Fulham were elsewhere in their win over Southampton, specifically Aleksandar Mitrovic’s brace and the performance of Ryan Sessegnon.
Sessegnon has taken a while to adapt in the Premier League, not helped by the fact he seemed to be playing in a different position every week under Slavisa Jokanovic, but this performance was more reminiscent of his displays last term, supplying two assists and plenty more threat.
Tightening his defence is priority No. 1, but if Ranieri can get the best from Sessegnon and Mitrovic, half the battle is won.
Promising sign of the weekend — part two
Huddersfield beating Fulham at home is one thing. Beating Wolves away is another entirely.
It might turn out to be a false dawn, but with seven points from the last available nine, there are at least signs David Wagner’s team might be on course for a third extraordinary achievement in as many seasons.
Luckiest moment of the weekend
Andrew Robertson insisted he did nothing wrong.
“I think he was looking for it,” he said, about Will Hughes’s penalty claim against the Liverpool left-back. “He went down quite easily and I don’t know why the referee didn’t book him having not given the penalty.”
He would say that, clearly. But replays suggested he did rake his foot down Will Hughes’s shin, and had referee Jon Moss awarded Watford the penalty as he probably should have, with the score at 0-0, who knows how the game might have panned out?
Team of the weekend
