Well, so much happened this weekend that I'm not going to waste a lot of time on introductions. Let's get right into the winners and losers from gameweek eight action.
Well, four defeats in a row is never good in any context. It's even worse when you've just spent half a billion euros improving a squad that won the Premier League. To be sure, there are tactical implications to the issues at hand for Liverpool and Arne Slot, however, the main problem is quite simple: Liverpool are losing games to teams they should be better than. To make matters even worse, none of their summer signings are having the expected impact yet, perhaps with the exception of Ekitike and Mamardashvili. It's back to the drawing board yet again for Arne Slot, he has to figure out a way to put all those expensive signings on the pitch and get the best out of them together.
I'll be honest I don't know if Sunday's victory was a big positive for Manchester United. In Ole and Ten Hag, Manchester United fans should have gotten used to distrusting managers who can pull off a run of results at just the right time to distract from the larger issues surrounding the team. Ten Hag was especially adept at this, when the Euphoria of Sunday wears off, United fans should be questioning Amorim's long-term suitability for the job. However, this weekend was most definitely a win for Ruben Amorim. Back to back wins for the first time, victory over the reigning champions and their much better and more expensive team. And perhaps most importantly, vindication of his team selection which was heavily criticised going into the game. The Portuguese will be having a stellar week as he prepares for the game against Brighton.
Last place on the table, yet to win a game this season, only two points so far, and falling behind by the gameweek, Wolves are not having a great start to the season. This weekend's defeat will have stung particularly because Sunderland is supposed to be one of the teams fighting to avoid relegation this season and not Wolves, but the reverse is the case. One wonders how much more time Vitor Perreira has to change things before he is shown the door, but one thing is clear, things need to change very quickly. Indeed, despite their poor start to the season, Wolves are only five points behind Burnley in 17th which represents safety for them. If they begin now to change things they could very well avoid the drop this season.
While their rivals continue to moan and despair about Arsenal's supposed over reliance on set-pieces to score goals, Arteta's boys beat Fulham 1-0 to cement their spot on top of the Premier League for now. What is really impressive about this run of form is that their last three games have been against Newcastle (A), West Ham (H), and Fulham (A), three teams that have been bogey teams for Arsenal in recent seasons. In fact, they only took one solitary point from these fixtures last season. This season they've not only taken nine points, they've also kept two clean sheets, and restricted two of those teams to a grand total of zero shots on target, scoring five goals in the process. And, four of those five goals have come either directly or indirectly from a set-piece. Rival fans might complain but set-pieces are part of football, and if a team has found away to become almost inevitable from those situations then that's just one more weapon for winning games in their arsenal.
Marinakis finally sacked Ange Postecoglou after only eight games in charge on Saturday following a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea. It was always a match made in hell, a manage who refuses to compromise on his principles regardless of the players he had available, a team built by a manager with the opposite of those principles in mind, and an incredibly temperamental owner. The club and the owner are the biggest losers in all this. They have axed the brilliant manager who guided them into Europe, gone on an eight game winless run losing ground on their fellow European hopefuls, and now they need to find a new manager who can stem the tide and turn things around while dealing with the whims of Mr. Marinakis. No easy feat.
No matter who you are or what team you support, there was excitement aplenty in the Premier League this gameweek. Chelsea welcomed us back from the international break by trashing Nottingham Forest 3-0. Then in the midday fixtures, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth treated us to a scintillating 3-3 draw at Selhurst Park, and even if you missed that game like I did, there was action elsewhere. I watched Brighton put Newcastle under the knife courtesy of two brilliantly taken Danny Welbeck goals.
Midday also saw the relegation teams battling for crucial points. Burnley beat Leeds 2-0 to drag themselves out of relegation places, and Sunderland beat Wolves 3-0 to condemn them to last place with no wins for the time being. And then in the title decider games, Manchester City beat Everton 2-0 thanks to Haaland's imperious form, and Arsenal beat Fulham 1-0 to go top.
Sunday saw Unai Emery's Aston Villa sink Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at home, before Manchester United and Liverpool put on the game of the week resulting in that famous United win. Monday night football saw Brentford dispatch West Ham 2-0 to further increase Nuno's woes since he took over as manager of West Ham.
What a weekend of football it's been, hopefully the next one is even better!
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we're back with a recap of last gameweek's action featuring some possibly controversial takes and a picture of that magnificent harry maguire header. manchester united fans will hate some and love some of this i think. looking forward to your thoughts @bojthegod @pablodey4you https://paragraph.com/@thefalsenine/epl-gw8-winners-and-losers
Fully agreed, also we never really saw the United players crack or panic in this match, thatโs encouraging! Liverpool makes me think of PSG a few years back...
let me take a read, I'm coming
to be honest, you're right that we are all just happy to win our first back to back win after a very long time plus this was against Liverpool - that many had thought will beat us so bad considering their star studded team ๐๐ that first goal in 62 seconds changed the outlook immediately plus I'm sure not everyone is still confident in Amorim despite the win, all eyes are on the Brighton game because we are prone to losing to lower teams that we are expected to beat and performing magnificently against the big teams. Amorim has a job on his hands to prove that he's getting it right, even if slowly. Lammens is making it look different for him, the club as well.
fair fair!