There is no better way to show the absolute madness and sheer unpredictability of the Premier League this season than to show you what the top four teams on the league table are after gameweek 9.

So, without further ado, here are the winners and the losers from a weekend of twists and turns.

Aston Villa's manager needed a great result against Manchester City badly. His team had gone on a five game winning run and seemed to be putting their shaky start to the season behind them, then they lost unexpectedly to Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League. It's one of those moments, you lose a game against a weaker opponent and suddenly old doubts begin to resurface, and you have to play Manchester City next, with Erling Haaland in frightening form. A heavy loss at the hands of Manchester City would have severely set back everything Emery has worked hard to build in the last few weeks after a shaky start to the season for Villa. However, a lone Matty Cash goal was enough to seal the win and ensure that Villa go into their next game against a struggling Liverpool brimming with confidence. Few managers will sleep as peacefully as Unai Emery this week after that result.

It's becoming something of a theme isn't it? As Ash said after the Chelsea game, Liverpool fans can't even laugh at anyone at the moment when their team hasn't played.

I don't even need to tell you how they lost to Brentford, you already know the script against Liverpool. Long, direct balls in behind the defence, fast vertical passing, long throw-ins, and set pieces generally — the idea is quite simple, if you get the ball in behind their midfield quickly, they're in trouble. There's something almost amusing about this if you think about it, this used to be the Liverpool approach under Jurgen Klopp after all. They were the masters of quick, direct, vertical football, and now they are being taken apart by the tools they used to great efficiency.

The Brentford loss makes it four losses in a row in the league and their next four games will see them face Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Real Madrid, and Manchester City. Someone said Slot might be the first manager to be sacked before Christmas the season after winning the league. Depending on how those fixtures go, it suddenly doesn't seem like such a far fetched possibility anymore.

Here's a tweet that kind of sums up the impressive work Andoni Iraola is doing at Bournemouth this season.

One could argue that Tyler Adams should be included because he played somewhat more regularly in the second half of last season. However, the point remains — this is a completely different Bournemouth team. And yet, a 2-0 win over Notthingham Forest on Sunday saw them move up to 2nd place, four points behind Arsenal. I'm beginning to run out of words to praise Andoni Iraola and Bournemouth for navigating such a difficult transition so well, and just on a side note, Iraola is going to get a statue at the Vitality at some point isn't he?

For long portions of the second half on Saturday, Fulham looked to be back to something like their best. Young Brazilian winger Kevin came on to great effect, and that also allowed Iwobi to move centrally where he is better suited and provided more threat than the misfiring Smith-Rowe. For most of the second half they troubled and harried Newcastle, albeit at the cost of leaving themselves defensively vulnerable on the break. They were direct, quick on the break, and should have maybe taken the lead a few times. In light of all that, the goal by Bruno Guimarães must have been a dagger to Silva's heart. All that second half momentum was suddenly dissipated by a last minute goal that came on account of the Fulham defence going to sleep for a few seconds.

Had they come away with a point at Saint James Park, it might have been a platform for Silva to build on going forward. However, it's back to square one for Marco Silva and his boys as they navigate a very difficult start to the season and suddenly find themselves in 17th with the other relegation candidates.

What a charmed return to the Premier League Sunderland are having. The Black Cats finished the gameweek in 4th place, just five points off league leaders Arsenal. Sunderland's manager Regis Le Bris may say that his team are still focused on survival amidst all the talk about a potential European push, but it's wins like this that make that kind of talk possible. Playing away against a Chelsea team that was widely expected to be in a title challenge this season, there was no panic, no fuss, just Sunderland going about their business as they've done all season and bagging three points. Consistency, discipline, and a complete lack of fear of the opponent, these are all the qualities that make for a shock European contender, and Sunderland have these in abundance.

With each passing game it becomes clear that the magnitude of the task facing Nuno at West Ham is more massive than it might have seemed at first. The loss to Leeds United was embarrassing enough, but the nature of it was even worse. Leeds rolled over them in the first half and suffocated the middle of the pitch leaving Andy Irving and Tomas Soucek in no man's land frequently. All this while Nuno is still trying to figure out who fits into his style of play and who doesn't, on the night he played Paqueta in a false nine position that many would argue isn't the best for him. Quite simply put this West Ham team lacks quality players in almost every position especially for a manager like Nuno and his emphasis on three central defenders and counter attacking football. Think about it, Kilman and Mavropanos already look so bad in a back four, what would happen if you put them in a different system and ask them to cover even more ground and take up even more responsibility?

Nuno needs to find solutions and find them fast because West Ham have a painful run of fixtures coming up. Their next ten games are against: Newcastle, Burnley, Bournemouth, Liverpool, Manchester United, Brighton, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Fulham, and Brighton. If things don't change they could very well be in a relegation battle when these games are done.