Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim feels no shame and Fabian Hurzeler feels like a bad Brighton fit. Everton, Forest and big-game Arsenal are brilliant.
Premier League winners
Sean Dyche’s successors
Mike Jackson followed a draw with three consecutive wins as Burnley caretaker following the “shock” sacking of Dyche in April 2022.
David Moyes started with a narrow defeat before racking up as many Everton league victories in four matches as Dyche managed in his last 19.
The lesson? Follow Dyche, lift the ban on snoods and hats, introduce a couple of training drills which don’t involve taking corners for eight straight hours and watch the results roll in.
Everton
There is obviously slightly more to this Everton renaissance and Moyes has been quick to credit his predecessor for the foundations he helped lay. Managerial courtesy demands such deference and humility.
Shorter memories might even have forgotten the win Dyche secured by the same scoreline against Wolves two months ago, but even in those 4-0 victories the differences were stark.
Leicester were shredded in open play, not dismantled at set-pieces. Goals from corners or free-kicks are worth no less but excellence and overreliance in dead-ball situations does feel less stable, less dependable and, trivial as it may be, simply less exciting.
Everton rank dead last for through balls played in the Premier League this season, lagging nine behind the closest teams to them in Wolves and Fulham. Before Saturday they had played precisely zero through balls in as many games as they had played at least one (11 each). The most they had managed in a match under Dyche was three. They made that many against Leicester and both of Beto’s goals were created by such defence-splitting passes from James Tarkowski and James Garner.
Dyche frequently spoke of his desire to move the ball forward as quickly as possible but too often Everton lacked either the quality or confidence to do it. Moyes has already turned their biggest weakness into a clear strength.
Nottingham Forest
“The second half against Southampton was a warning,” Nuno Espirito Santo said last week. “It is a 7-0 that we have in 135 minutes, that’s the reality.”
Perhaps the most predictable outcome of all to a “warning” Nottingham Forest failed to heed was a 7-0 win in 90 minutes. They turned the tide, restored their goal difference and put their season back on this phenomenal track at the startling expense of a team who did the double over them last campaign.
Afternoons like these allow supporters to take their pick of talking points: Chris Wood’s hat-trick making this his career-best top-flight return with 14 games remaining; Anthony Elanga’s three assists prompting some awkward questions of whoever valued him at £15m; the continued brilliance of Morgan Gibbs-White; Danilo shining on his first start since the opening weekend; Jota Silva’s first Premier League goal; a Willy Boly substitute cameo being the only infallible guarantee of a routine win in 2025.
It is an unfathomably far cry from last season, when the background noise of points deductions, imagined conspiracies and Mark Clattenburg became a deafening embodiment of a club which seemed to have no plan or direction.
While that has long since proven to be entirely false, momentum had shifted enough in the Southampton and Bournemouth games for an inevitable dread fear to set in and that impostor syndrome which afflicts any club punching so far above their weight to undo all that hard work.
Forest are no pretenders and a Champions League qualification place remains theirs on current merit. Those on the outside looking in knew that already; this was a timely reminder to themselves of what they are capable when certain standards are met.
Big-game Arsenal
Long gone are the days when, in the words of Gary Neville – for there is always a Gary Neville quote about Arsenal – the Gunners “prepared for a big game like it was a game in the park”. They were always involved in these elite shellackings, but on the other side.
Since losing 4-1 to Manchester City at the Etihad in April 2023, Arsenal have played Pep Guardiola’s side, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs for a combined Premier League record of P18 W11 D7 L0 F39 A17.
Across his first two-and-a-half seasons, Arteta’s record in those games was P27 W9 D2 L16 F30 A52.
It is often worth remembering the extent to which Mikel Arteta has transformed Arsenal. That evolution might be the most astonishing of all.
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Southampton’s disastrous January 2023 transfer window
The point has been made before but it might genuinely have been one of the single worst transfer windows ever overseen by a Premier League side.
In short, Southampton spent more than £60m on Mislav Orsic, Carlos Alcaraz, James Bree, Kamaldeen Sulemana and Paul Onuachu in the hope of staving off relegation and it did not work. Orsic played six Premier League minutes and was sold at less than half-price that summer while Alcaraz was decent but has also long since left.
Bree, a vanity signing for Nathan Jones, might finally have found a consistent home on the right of a back three, and Sulemana’s shot forced the save from which Onuachu scored the winner against Ipswich.
Sulemana has never really been out of the Southampton picture, still playing regularly enough in the Championship, but Onuachu’s story in England is one of perseverance and character. Those first months could easily have broken him long before he lost his shirt number to a reserve defender who has since been sent out on loan. The fresh start offered by Ivan Juric has breathed life into his Premier League career and the supporters have identified a new cult hero to love.
Crystal Palace (a)
Eight teams have accrued more Premier League points away than at home so far this season but none have done so as judiciously as Palace, who have earned eight more outside of Selhurst Park than they have in it. The last opposition player to score at home to the Eagles was Ross Barkley in November.
Victory at Old Trafford pushed them closer on points to Champions League qualification than the bottom three and while neither is a realistic prospect, there is an inherent solidity in what Oliver Glasner is building.
“We encouraged the players to stick to the plan and to keep the belief, we will get our moments and situations,” he said after the game and ultimately that trust in the coach comes easier when the idea is so demonstrably effective: Palace have won their last three away matches 2-0 after going in 0-0 at half-time.
Liverpool
It is really quite boringly efficient but when the teams from fourth down to eighth who played all lose, the one in third lurches from a 5-0 defeat to a 7-0 win and second place is still scurrying around trying to sign a striker, Arne Slot won’t particularly mind the serenity.
But it shouldn’t be underestimated. Liverpool are 19 games unbeaten in the Premier League, longer than the club-record runs of Newcastle (17), Tottenham, Aston Villa (both 14), Everton (11) and all but six teams in the competition’s history since football began when Brian Deane was born in 1992. They are the only reliable and consistent club going and there is much to be said for it.
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Fulham
A first Premier League win at St James’ Park since 2009, secured so soon after the Cottagers ransacked Stamford Bridge for the first time in almost half a century. Fulham are seventh in an away table and second only to Liverpool in an overall table against the current top half.
Combine the two and their story is even more remarkable: Fulham have at least four more points than any other side in away games against the current top half. They have gone to five of the toughest venues as a visiting team in Anfield, the City Ground, the Etihad, Stamford Bridge and St James’ Park, scored nine goals, conceded seven and lost only once, that by a single goal having led.
And not one of those positive results have been in any way fortunate or undeserved. Marco Silva was right to be thrilled with that second-half performance in particular but no longer is Fulham’s quiet competence and quality at all surprising.
Vitor Pereira
A necessary pause to four straight defeats, each of which it must be said came against sides in the top six. But Pereira has now surpassed predecessor Gary O’Neil for both points and wins this season despite managing exactly half as many games.
The bad news is that Wolves round out the rest of that Champions League-chasing pack with Liverpool and Bournemouth in their next two matches. The good news is that Toti Gomes is fit again and incapable of not keeping a clean sheet.
Spurs
It is intended as a compliment to point out that was Tottenham’s most modest win to nil of the Premier League season and indeed the past year. Their last six dating back to a Steve Cooper sack-inducing 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest in December 2023 were all by three, four or five goals.
More control and discipline was welcome with the injury crisis easing and Ange Postecoglou’s transfer market “help” arriving in the sad, solitary form of Kevin Danso.
It was funny how reticent Postecoglou was to characterise the approach against Brentford as an example of his adaptability and willingness to adjust to the situation.
“It’s very difficult for a group of players to play Thursday and Sunday and maintain energy and levels. What they’re doing is giving maximum effort and maximum effort in a game like today means that you can’t be sharp and really dynamic with and without the ball, it’s just impossible. They’re human beings and not robots. People want to dismiss it, they want to talk about excuses, but that’s the reality, I know the reality,” he said, perennially defensively and almost apologetically.
But really it was a triumph of flexible management, and irrefutable proof Ben Davies fixes most problems.
Premier League losers
Fabian Hurzeler
“Let’s go for it and people can tell me I’m wrong afterwards,” said Hurzeler pre-match in a masterful case of setting oneself up for either a fall or the Tottenham job.
He was wrong, although that much could have been safely assumed before kick-off. These were almost parodical levels of a 31-year-old foreign manager failing to understand Our League. Perhaps it was naivety. Maybe it was inexperience. But quite what part of Hurzeler’s analysis of Nottingham Forest’s season suggested they might be susceptible to a one-man central midfield of Jack Hinshelwood with nominal support from Georginio Rutter playing in the position for the first time in his career is a mystery.
The injuries are a caveat and the problems were especially evident in midfield and at left-back. Yet Hurzeler exacerbated any and all issues with his tactical approach instead of alleviating them.
Only Bournemouth and Liverpool have conceded fewer goals at home in the Premier League this season (both nine) than Forest (10). It was a specifically bad idea to “go for it” and take it to that particular opponent but also no evidence Brighton themselves have provided this campaign indicates it works consistently enough against anyone: they have won none of the six games in which they have had their highest share of possession in 2024/25, and only one of the ten in which they have had more than 55% – and that was on the opening weekend against Sean Dyche’s Everton.
It is not nearly good enough considering the foundations Hurzeler inherited even before Brighton spent a further £200m this season building on them.
“I chose to go with a very offensive starting XI and I take responsibility for that,” was one admission of post-match guilt, although the first arguably came with that half-time triple substitution.
But coaches are not flawless and fans accept that; the thing they might have found most “offensive” was Hurzeler failing to come over and acknowledge the travelling support at full-time. Those small wins may seem meaningless but they matter and when Brighton haven’t strung together more than two actual victories all season, it is worth wondering whether the signs of a fundamentally poor fit are becoming more uncomfortable and unavoidable.
Pep Guardiola
When Guardiola vowed to “learn” from Russell Martin earlier this season, a) it was unclear precisely what positive lesson would be gleaned from a Southampton team with one point in nine games and b) Manchester City were top of the Premier League table.
Since then, Manchester City have fewer points than West Ham and have conceded more goals than all but six teams. But Stefan Ortega and Manuel Akanji are providing particularly convincing caricatures of Southampton players uncomfortably passing it out from the back, with a handful of teammates pushing them close.
Martin humbly added back in October that Phil Foden had personally sought him out to offer praise, too. Going by that second Arsenal goal, he took a similar path to Guardiola in vowing to absorb all he could from such coaching greatness.
Manchester City have made eight Opta-defined errors leading to goals this season, more than all bar Manchester United, Chelsea, Ipswich, Brighton, Aston Villa and those plucky Saints. It makes for an excruciating but revealing comparison with Liverpool (three), Nottingham Forest (two) and Arsenal (zero).
Do be a dear and read those 16 Conclusions on another sorry Manchester City defeat.
Ruben Amorim
The Manchester United manager would find it neither “humiliating” nor “embarrassing” if Marcus Rashford were to rediscover his form and self at Aston Villa. After losing five of his nine home games so far it could be safely assumed that Amorim can simply no longer feel shame of any kind.
A Rashford renaissance would at the very least make for an unpleasant juxtaposition with his biggest of myriad problems. Only Leicester, Everton, Ipswich and Southampton have scored fewer Premier League goals than Manchester United this season and just Everton can be added to that number if looking specifically since Amorim’s appointment; he has done nothing to address their most glaring issue, and arguably exacerbated it.
He has tried to rectify things. On Sunday alone he sanctioned the exit of the 13th-highest scorer in the club’s history on the same day he named a midfielder as centre-forward for another goalless defeat after dropping almost £110m of centre-forward signings to the bench, all while a player purchased for £82m put in a man-of-the-match debut for his new club.
Amorim did not bring these conundrums to Old Trafford but he absolutely inherited the Rashford, Hojlund, Zirkzee and Antony situations and has inspired precious little confidence he has a suitable answer for any of them.
But perhaps most damning of all were the post-match words of Glasner, who spoke candidly of how he told his players “there will be five, ten, 15 minutes to survive, where we will be struggling, because every team has this at Old Trafford,” but to retain trust in his plan after weathering that mild quarter-hour storm.
It was yet more stark proof of what everyone already knows: the only team who play with fear at Old Trafford in the modern day are the hosts.
Newcastle
The pride and pleasure derived from not only avoiding defeat but putting in their seasonal best performances against the four teams above them in the table is undermined by the disappointment of posting some of their worst against the sides directly below. Newcastle stood up to Liverpool and Manchester City, humbled Nottingham Forest in November and have beaten Arsenal twice this campaign but those miserable losses to Chelsea, Bournemouth, Fulham, Brighton and Brentford have prevented anything consistent being built.
It comes against the awkward backdrop of their transfer failings and that frustration is absolutely understandable. It would undoubtedly help Eddie Howe to have more options, while hitting the woodwork twice suggests things could have gone rather differently with a touch more accuracy.
But again that sense has crept in that while Newcastle can get themselves up for certain games, a slight disconnect remains especially at home when they cannot play the underdog role. When they encounter an opponent they cannot physically overpower, the technical aspect is lacking in just too many players.
Aston Villa
The Champions League curse is extended to P8 W1 D3 L4 F6 A12, and as easy as it is to explain away such slips against Liverpool, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, being second-best in drawing at home to West Ham before deservedly losing to Wolves cannot be excused.
With plenty of movement on the transfer front there is hope that an injection of fresh blood can help turn things around but unless Marcus Rashford or Marco Asensio can help plug gaps at the back the defensive issues will remain. Only the three promoted teams currently occupying the relegation zone have kept fewer clean sheets than this horribly unconvincing version of Emi Martinez and Boubacar Kamara’s spell as the answer in central defence was painfully short-lived.
It is notable that Villa have not been hammered in games like last season, when only Sheffield United lost more often by four or more goals. Half of the league have done so at least once in 2024/25 and Villa are not among them. It hints at them leaning more towards control than chaos, or at least an improved ability to theoretically stay in matches more often rather than capitulating.
Whatever it is, it has made them a fair bit worse.
Leicester’s centre-halves
Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard, Conor Coady and Caleb Okoli were signed for a combined £50m or so across four successive summer transfer windows and might well be the worst collection of Premier League centre-halves ever assembled at great expense with such apparent care.
The midfield might be even more inadequate and costly and the isolated 38-year-old centre-forward looks every inch like an isolated 38-year-old centre-forward. It would be tough to deliberately build a less optimal squad.
Ipswich
The best piece of advice any side promoted to the Premier League this summer can heed is not to answer the phone when Aro Muric’s agent calls. But ultimately that result was symptomatic of a failure which will take Ipswich down regardless of who is in net.
In six home games against the current bottom half, they have accrued a meagre two points: against Leicester and Manchester United in November. It is an atrocious record, the worst in the division and far more than the “opportunity missed” Kieran McKenna classified it as after the game. Against one of the worst top-flight sides ever it was damn near unforgivably poor.
Brentford
Still without consecutive Premier League wins this season. The same can be said far more damningly of West Ham and Manchester United and Brentford are the highest of the five clubs for whom it is the case but still.
They also appear to have completely switched competence levels at home and away.
Whichever Bournemouth player follows up when Marcus Tavernier cuts inside and hits the post
Some long overdue homework for Andoni Iraola: work on that moment the ball falls to an unmarked player just right of the six-yard box with an open net after Tavernier has cut inside to hit the post from just outside the area. It is one of vanishingly few weak points in this Bournemouth team.
