Premier League season review: What we've learned so far

Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from the new Premier League season so far, including:

- Liverpool even stronger with Isak – but there are flaws to fix
- Arsenal and Chelsea look to be Liverpool's main challengers
- Guardiola’s Man City rebuild isn’t going quite as smoothly as he hoped
- Villa and Newcastle have struggled to maintain 2024/25 form
- Promoted clubs look considerably stronger this season
- Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall make Everton the new entertainers
- Bournemouth and Palace show power of tactics after losing key players
- Frank's Spurs will be refreshingly flexible 
- Man Utd make big changes but some problems remain
- Wolves, West Ham and Brentford may be the teams for promoted clubs to target
- Fulham, Brighton and Forest show they can all build on 2024/25

Liverpool even stronger with Isak – but there are flaws to fix

The only team with a 100-per-cent record after three matches are the reigning champions and the club who have just broken the British transfer record to sign one of the best strikers in Europe.

Oh, and their best player, Mohamed Salah, hasn’t even hit form yet.

On the surface, Liverpool are ready to ride into the sunset and dominate the Premier League for the second season running. But football is rarely that straightforward.

It took an 88th-minute goal and a winner in the 10th minute of stoppage time to beat AFC Bournemouth and Newcastle United respectively, in matches where Liverpool’s shaky defence was repeatedly exposed.

Then it was only a Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick that overcame Arsenal in an even match at Anfield.

Szoboszlai's spectacular free-kick against Arsenal

There is work to do. Liverpool have been too attack-minded so far this season, due to Florian Wirtz’s addition to central midfield unbalancing the set-up.

Too often they look vulnerable to counter-attacks, while the decrease in their core defensive numbers points to a softening through the centre.

Liverpool stats comparison

Add to that Milos Kerkez struggling to adapt at left-back, Jeremie Frimpong’s overlapping runs exposing the right flank against Bournemouth, and the reported deal of Marc Guehi collapsing, and it’s fair to say Arne Slot has defensive problems to solve.

Liverpool are undoubtedly favourites. But there will be a title race.

Arsenal and Chelsea look to be Liverpool's main challengers

Mikel Arteta has faced some criticism for the conservatism of his set-up at Anfield, but you cannot legislate for Szoboszlai’s goal - and Arsenal nearly entered the break unbeaten, without conceding a single goal.

It’s been a tough start for Arsenal, too, with their Old Trafford and Anfield visits already out of the way.

What’s immediately clear is that Arsenal have not lost any momentum; have not sagged after five years under Arteta, which is something a few pundits predicted before a ball had been kicked.

We will know more about their new attacking versatility when they start playing mid-table sides. Until then, all we can say is that Arsenal are effectively on course – and ready to challenge Liverpool.

Chelsea are likeliest to make it a three-horse race, at least that’s the conclusion we draw from Joao Pedro’s very impressive start to life at Stamford Bridge.

The Brazilian has scored five goals and provided a further two assists in six competitive matches for Chelsea across the Premier League and FIFA Club World Cup.

More impressive still, he has at times successfully upgraded on Nicolas Jackson and at others filled in for the injured Cole Palmer.

On the other hand, not much has changed in the way Enzo Maresca’s side play, and that includes football that can appear a little too slow and structured.

Had Fulham’s early opener not been incorrectly ruled out by VAR, Chelsea may well be feeling a lot less optimistic this week.

Guardiola’s Man City rebuild isn’t going quite as smoothly as he hoped

Dramatic rebuilds take time, and anyone who thought Pep Guardiola would be able to reshape Manchester City in a single Club World Cup-interrupted summer has been sharply corrected at the beginning of 2025/26.

Defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion make this the worst start to a league season in Guardiola’s entire managerial career.

There is no need to panic, but rejigging that midfield has produced some disjointed possession football and a team shape too stretched to stay in control.

It is worryingly similar to how Man City looked for large parts of 2024/25, although of course there is plenty of time for Guardiola to find the right set-up.

It helps that Erling Haaland, the league’s top scorer with three goals, is back in form.

Nevertheless, City will need to put together a string of wins this autumn if they are to keep up with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Villa and Newcastle have struggled to maintain 2024/25 form

Fans of Aston Villa and Newcastle have spent most of the summer feeling deeply frustrated with their clubs' restricted spending, and there is little doubt the uncertainty – and a little staleness – has impacted results over the first three weekends.

Neither side have won a Premier League match this season. They have collected just three points between them (zero wins, three draws, three losses).

Thankfully, the cavalry arrived on Transfer Deadline Day – and both clubs can expect a significant upturn in form this month.

Newcastle have put the Alexander Isak saga behind them by signing Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade, which ought to stabilise the club psychologically as well as improve an attack weakened by Anthony Gordon’s suspension.

How Isak and Wissa compare 24/25

Villa badly needed pace and width, as well as an injection of fresh creative energy to support Morgan Rogers, making Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliot good signings.

Victor Lindelof’s ability to play across the defence is another big plus for Unai Emery, who will be hoping the boost to Villa’s fortunes is similar to the one enjoyed after the January loans of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio.

Promoted clubs look considerably stronger this season

Sunderland, Leeds United, and Burnley have 13 points between them after a collective nine Premier League matches, enough to ensure not a single one of them is in the bottom six.

It wasn’t until 19 October, and eight matches in, that the three promoted clubs hit the 13-point mark in 2024/25 (14).

The 13 already accrued by this year’s trio is more than the 12 Southampton managed in the whole of last season.

After two consecutive seasons in which the three promoted clubs went straight back down, the hopes was that one club would somehow stay up. But now we can start having a different conversation: only four times ever have all three promoted clubs stayed in the division.

The last time it happened, in 2022/23, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, and Fulham stayed up and thrived. All three are still here, all three have high hopes of a top 10 finish.

We are getting ahead of ourselves, of course, but the early signs are good.

Sunderland in particular have spent heavily and signed some excellent players, while the atmosphere at the Stadium of Light has helped Regis Le Bris to a 100 per cent record so far.

Leeds are an imposing physical side who held their own against Everton and Spurs, while Burnley looked competitive even in defeats to Spurs and Man Utd.

Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall make Everton the new entertainers

The surprise story of the season so far is Everton’s renaissance under David Moyes, who has put together a dazzling attacking team ready to settle quickly at their new home.

Jack Grealish is playing with the freedom of his Villa Park days, contributing four assists in two Premier League matches, helped by the movement of Iliman Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Grealish's shot and assist map 25/26

Once Tyler Dibling is added to the mix Everton – supposedly a conservative team under Moyes – will have one of the most entertaining forward lines in the country.

It was always important that Everton began life at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in the right frame of mind. Those who doubted Moyes’s ability to inspire that are already changing their tune.

Bournemouth and Palace show power of tactics after losing key players

Bournemouth sold Illia Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Kerkez this summer but you wouldn’t have noticed watching them win two of their first three matches of the season and pushing Liverpool all the way.

Crystal Palace’s sales weren’t quite so pronounced in the end but Eberechi Eze only played once in August and you hardly noticed.

Their 3-0 victory at Aston Villa before the break is the kind of team performance that makes the component parts seem almost irrelevant.

Oliver Glasner’s role in ensuring Guehi didn’t leave for Liverpool would suggest he doesn’t see it that way, and nor will Andoni Iraola. Nevertheless the performances of these two clubs – three wins from six, and just one defeat between them – shows the power of the tactical system.

Frank's Spurs will be refreshingly flexible

It says a lot about the perils of analysing such a small sample size that the optimism built from three strong performances at the beginning of the season has been flattened by a single defeat to Bournemouth.

We ought to take all of this with a pinch of salt, but suffice to say that after an almost flawless start for Thomas Frank – who showed three very different ways of playing against Paris Saint-Germain, Burnley, and Man City – the Bournemouth defeat tells us the road to recovery will be bumpy.

Which, of course, is to be expected as Spurs try to recover from a 17th-place finish in 2024/25 while radically changing tactical strategy and juggling UEFA Champions League football.

The flexibility shown in Frank’s formation and strategy is a welcome change from the stubbornness of Ange-ball, even if Postecoglou ultimately let go of his principles in the second half of last season.

Breakdown of Spurs' new tactics under Frank

Man Utd make big changes but some problems remain

A 98th-minute Bruno Fernandes penalty is the only thing that prevented an unprecedented crisis at such an early stage of a Premier League season.

Ruben Amorim has not been able to inspire the strong start to the campaign that he needed, not from a results perspective at least, although in all three Premier League matches so far United have raced out of the blocks and dominated for periods.

That is encouraging. Reportedly, over £200 million has been spent on the forward line and it will inevitably take time for Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko to gel.

Perhaps of greater concern are the familiar issues in central midfield. It is too early in the season to judge Amorim’s rebuild, but it’s safe to say everyone associated with Man Utd had hoped for a better start.

Wolves, West Ham and Brentford may be the teams for promoted clubs to target

With the promoted clubs looking sharper than we’ve seen for three years, all of a sudden the teams bobbing around in the bottom half of the table are starting to feel the heat.

So far, it’s Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Ham United, and Brentford who seem likeliest to be sucked into a relegation battle.

The loss of Frank, Christian Norgaard, Mbeumo and Wissa is bound to affect Brentford, whose only points came against an unusually woeful Villa a fortnight ago.

West Ham’s 3-0 victory at Nottingham Forest last weekend shifts the narrative somewhat, although Graham Potter’s side still look short in defence following a quiet summer.

Wolves have held onto Jorgen Strand Larsen, which comes as a huge relief following their pointless start to the campaign. Vitor Pereira was a feel-good story in the second half of last season, but that seems a long time ago now.

Fulham, Brighton and Forest show they can all build on 24/25

There are three mid-table clubs who look well-placed to improve on their respective league finishes from 2024/25.

Brighton’s win against Man City has raised hopes that the major changes they made last summer will start to bear fruit in year two, with Fabian Hurzeler also likely to be improved in his second year as a Premier League manager.

Nottingham Forest’s revamped identity under Nuno Espirito Santo has been going well despite off-field problems. Dan Ndoye, James McAtee and Omari Hutchinson are all excellent signings who should help take them to the next level.

Fulham are in the bottom three, but tough opening matches explain that; Marco Silva’s side were the better team against Chelsea and Man Utd.

Josh King has been a revelation as a No 10 while Kevin is an exciting signing who can add much-needed energy to the Fulham attack.