What we learned from Matchweek 6

Football writer Alex Keble highlights hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 6, including:

- Brentford produce perfect strategy to dismantle Man Utd
- Palace breaks produce more evidence Liverpool are vulnerable
- Arsenal’s dramatic comeback could be the making of Arteta’s team
- Maresca is again too defensive following a red card
- Huge victory puts Villa right back on track in Champions League hunt
- Doku is becoming Man City’s most influential player
- Sunderland’s first away win turns good start into magnificent one
- Pereira successfully builds on EFL Cup win that "changed everything"
- Elland Road is becoming one of the toughest places to go
- Nuno makes an instant impact at West Ham

Brentford produce perfect strategy to dismantle Man Utd

What must hurt Manchester United supporters the most is that they have seen it all before.

Brentford’s strategy to fire long balls over the top of the Man Utd defence as early as possible is a tactic many have learnt to use against Ruben Amorim’s team. It led directly to the first two goals.

Map of Brentford passes v Man Utd

Keith Andrews’ decision to employ a 4-2-3-1 formation that morphed into a 5-2-3 system when out of possession, with a very narrow front three blocking the middle, was a version of a tactic pretty much everyone now uses to stop Man Utd from feeding the ball into their two No 10s. It made the visitors flat and inexpressive.

“We played Brentford's game all game,” as Amorim said. “And when you see a game like that it is hard to describe. We never settled on our game and it is different to what we saw today. 

“We knew they use long balls on transition, we worked on that. The second goal is the same. We score, then miss a penalty. These crucial moments can change the game, we lived it against Fulham and we lived it here.”

Man Utd supporters are living it almost every week – although there was one notable difference this time. Usually this season, Amorim's team race out of the blocks, but at the Gtech they were surprisingly sluggish; decompressed between the lines and second to every loose ball.

Man Utd are winless in eight Premier League away fixtures. It will be difficult not to conclude – inside the dressing room and in the stands – that Amorim's side are back to square one.

Palace breaks produce more evidence Liverpool are vulnerable

Crystal Palace are unbeaten in 18 matches across all competitions, the joint-longest run in their history, and have of course won two trophies in that sequence. These are the glory days.

And there is no sign of it slowing down. It took a stoppage-time goal to beat champions Liverpool, but Palace could have sewn this game up in the first half, as Reds head coach Arne Slot admitted afterwards.

“Palace deserved to win,” Slot told the BBC's Match of the Day. “They were much better than us in the first half, [and] could have been 3-0 or 4-0 up maybe.”

Palace did it by targeting the same vulnerable spot we have seen in the Liverpool team all season. Quick counter-attacks were played down Liverpool’s right side, where Ibrahima Konate's poor form continued and Conor Bradley struggled.

Palace's area of attacks v Liverpool

On the opposite side, Milos Kerkez produced another hesitant display. Here was more evidence, indeed the clearest yet, that a game-plan focused on fast breaks down the flanks reveals Liverpool’s soft underbelly.

With that, the Premier League title race is very much on. Liverpool are not without their flaws. There will be no runaway champion in 2025/26.

Arsenal’s dramatic comeback could be the making of Arteta’s team

This wasn’t just the most significant result of the weekend. It was arguably the most significant result of the Mikel Arteta era.

If Arsenal go on to win the Premier League title from here, they will reflect on the late comeback win at Newcastle United on Sunday as the sliding doors moment. 

Had they dropped points, the same old complaints, however unfair, would have been made - Arsenal too often lose their nerve, they cannot rise above tetchy matches and don’t have the creative freedom to win these matches and claim titles.

Instead a late winner from Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal’s second goal from a corner inside 10 minutes, showed that the team has matured. They can cope with adversity, they can win ugly.

Better still, the result emphatically rejects overblown talk about Arteta and the handbrake. Arsenal are only two points off top spot having already ticked off Old Trafford, Anfield, and St James' Park, with their only defeat so far a 1-0 loss at Liverpool that came from an unstoppable 35-yard free-kick.

Premier League table after six matches

It was a deep bench that rescued the points, Martin Odegaard assisting one goal and Mikel Merino scoring the other, following the same theme as last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

It tells us Arsenal have the squad depth to go the distance. They have the mettle, too. It could be their year.

Maresca is again too defensive following a red card

Last weekend, Enzo Maresca’s decision to move sharply to a back five following Robert Sanchez’s red card against Man Utd invited pressure and allowed Amorim’s team to dominate the game.

The same thing happened on Saturday, compounding a problem. Maresca, it seems, is too risk-averse.

Chelsea were well on top at 1-0, the movement of "false nine" Joao Pedro overloading Brighton & Hove Albion in central midfield.

But 10 minutes after Trevoh Chalobah’s red card, Maresca brought on full-back Malo Gusto for winger Estevao Willian and moved to a back five. As at Old Trafford, this sent the players a message, and they duly began to drop deeper and play more hesitantly.

The statistical difference before and after the red card is clear.

Chelsea Expected Goals (xG)/possession before v after sending off

For the Brighton equaliser, Yankuba Minteh squared up to Gusto and then breezed past him to cross for Danny Welbeck, a situation that was not happening when a proactive Chelsea refused Brighton’s wingers time to hover on the ball in the final third.

Going down to 10 men is never easy, but Maresca is making a habit of being too negative in these situations.

It leaves Chelsea on eight points from six matches after back-to-back defeats; that’s a significant under-performance considering the Blues were tipped for a title challenge at the start of August.

Huge victory puts Villa right back on track in Champions League hunt

Aston Villa have finally done it, winning a league match at the sixth attempt, the latest they’ve done so in a season since 1969/70.

Unai Emery will be relieved with the win, but also with the performance. Thanks to a more direct approach than usual, it was a slicker and more confident display as Villa built on the 1-0 victory against Bologna three days earlier, signalling something like a return to form.

Ollie Watkins got on the scoresheet to end a nine-match run without a goal, which was hugely important. Morgan Rogers also registered his first goal involvement of the season, by assisting Emi Buendia's strike to make it 3-1. 

Watch: Watkins' first goal of 25/26

If he can do that at home to Burnley next weekend, then Villa can well and truly put their poor start to the season behind them.

Every year we make the same mistake, overemphasising the importance of form in August and September ahead of a long season that will inevitably have many twists and turns.

Out of nowhere, Villa are level on points with Newcastle, two behind Chelsea, and five behind Tottenham Hotspur. Their hopes of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League have barely taken a dent.

Doku becoming Man City’s most influential player

Once again it was Jeremy Doku dancing into the final third, weaving through the crowd to draw opponents towards him and create space in the box, that helped Man City to a dominant victory.

Doku has three assists in his last three Premier League matches, and is the top performer for Man City in a number of key metrics, including chances created (12), through-balls (five) and successful dribbles (18).

According to FBRef, Doku has also produced 26 shot-creating actions this season, which is more than double the amount of Man City’s next best performer.

In other words, Doku is now Pep Guardiola's most influential player.

“I have the feeling that Jeremy's decision making in the final third improved like, wow,” Guardiola said after Saturday's win.

“Now he is reading, when the opponents send two or three [players against him], who the other man is to be free to create a cross or an extra pass. He has improved a lot and the second goal is an example of that.”

We have a tendency to assume players are static in their development, but now 23, Doku appears to have matured significantly over the summer.

He has gone from a strong dribbler to an all-rounder with the intelligence and cool head to make the right decisions and deliver the final ball.

Sunderland’s first away win turns good start into magnificent one

Not a single Sunderland supporter over the age of 10 would have dreamt their return to the Premier League would be going this well.

Sunderland are fifth. They have lost just once. Only Arsenal and Liverpool have won more Premier League matches.

Their tally of 11 points from six games is their most in a top-flight season since 1967/68, and the highest by a promoted club since 2011.

We are well past asking whether Sunderland have enough to avoid relegation.

Fans have every right to wonder if a finish in the top 10 is on the cards, especially after collecting a first away win of the season to prove it isn’t all about the atmosphere at the Stadium of Light.

Some of it is about Granit Xhaka, who has assisted each of the last three Sunderland goals and was again hugely influential controlling things in central midfield.

Watch: Xhaka's assist for Alderete v Forest

He is a symbol of Sunderland’s brilliant business over the summer and a series of transfers that have made Regis Le Bris’s side instantly Premier League ready.

Pereira successfully builds on EFL Cup win that 'changed everything'

“A good result can change everything,” Vitor Pereira said after Wolverhampton Wanderers' 2-0 EFL Cup win over Everton in midweek.

“It can change the spirit of the team, change the atmosphere. I’ve missed it a lot, the smiles of my players and the supporters, and today I think we have reasons to smile.”

It isn’t just the atmosphere that shifted. Pereira made wholesale changes for the cup and he decided to stick with them for the trip to Spurs, meaning nine changes to their starting XI from their last Premier League match.

Joao Palhinha’s stoppage-time equaliser was a gut punch, extending Wolves’ winless run to 10 in the Premier League, but the visitors will take heart from having led for so long in another much-improved performance.

Despite the result, there is a strong feeling that the tide is turning for Wolves. A first victory cannot be far away.

Elland Road becoming one of the toughest places to go

Half of all Premier League clubs are still unbeaten at home this season and that includes two of the promoted teams, Sunderland and Leeds United.

AFC Bournemouth became the first away side to score at Elland Road this season but Leeds still came back to lead 2-1, right up until a 92nd-minute equaliser from Eli Kroupi.

Daniel Farke’s side were unlucky not to win, having outplayed Bournemouth for long periods, taking 19 shots to the visitors’ 12.

But when the dust settles, Farke will be proud of his team’s efforts – and of Leeds’ position in the table. They are outside the top half on goal difference alone.

Nuno makes an instant impact at West Ham

There may not have been too many upbeat West Ham United supporters at half-time against Everton, as their 19th-placed team trailed 1-0 to Michael Keane's header, but with Nuno Espirito Santo now at the helm, there were some signs that better days lie ahead.

In West Ham's first match since Nuno was appointed as their head coach on Saturday, the Portuguese guided his new side to a positive 1-1 draw at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

As he so often does, captain Jarrod Bowen provided the inspiration in the second half, with his deflected strike bringing the Hammers level.

But the most impressive thing about the match from a West Ham point of view was Nuno's tactical flexibility, having initially set his team in a 4-1-4-1 shape before moving to a five-man defence towards the end to seal a point.

The next match promises to be a much tougher test, with Nuno's team travelling to title-chasing Arsenal, but on the evidence of Monday night's match, there's a lot for Hammers supporters to be positive about.

More reaction from Matchweek 6