The Wrap: What happened in Matchweek 7

As the Premier League pauses for the second international break of 2025, it does so with a new team top of the table.

After five wins from their opening five games, Liverpool have now suffered consecutive league defeats to Crystal Palace and Chelsea, causing the reigning champions to relinquish their lead.

Arsenal’s win over West Ham United means they climb to the summit, while wins for Tottenham Hotspur, AFC Bournemouth and Manchester City ensure a congested top five.

Elsewhere, Manchester United continued to move up the table with victory against Sunderland, Palace’s record 19-match unbeaten run ended at Everton, and dreadful runs for Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers show no sign of stopping.

Here is all you need to know from Matchweek 7.

If the last two seasons saw Antoine Semenyo start to make a name for himself at Bournemouth, the opening exchanges of this campaign have ensured everyone is now fully aware of the Ghanaian.

Semenyo struck twice in this game – including a sublime, jinking solo effort for the hosts’ first – and also assisted Bournemouth’s other, to take his goal involvement tally to nine for the season. Only Erling Haaland has scored more, while only Jack Grealish and Mohammed Kudus have provided more assists.

Semenyo's first goal v Fulham

“He is incredible,” said Justin Kluivert, who scored a wonderful long-range goal himself. “He shows it every game now. He is just world class.”

It had, in fact, been an uneventful game until Ryan Sessegnon gave Fulham the lead after 70 minutes.

The two sides had combined to create just 0.22 Expected Goals (xG) in the first half – the lowest in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game.

But Semenyo’s brilliance meant the hosts departed happy. Bournemouth have not lost since the opening day of the season at Liverpool, and sit fourth in the table.

“It was about time, wasn’t it?” said Thomas Frank. “We’ve got big expectations.”

If the Spurs head coach’s verdict on Kudus’ first goal for the club sounded harsh, it was not intended. Frank insisted he was “so happy” for the Ghanaian, who he called “our best offensive player so far” this season.

With a goal and an assist against Leeds United, Kudus took his goal involvements in the Premier League to five this season – below only Haaland and Semenyo.

He also tops the chart for the number of dribbles, with 57, which is almost 20 more than any other player.

Kudus’ goal secured victory for the visitors after Noah Okafor had cancelled out Mathys Tel’s opener.

It means Spurs have now won three of their opening four away Premier League matches this season – as many as they managed in their final 13 last season.

Leeds might have taken a point had Guglielmo Vicario not made a fine save to deny substitute Joel Piroe’s effort in stoppage time. The hosts had more efforts, shots on target, possession, big chances, and touches in the opposition box than their opponents.

“We have to take our chances and hope the goalkeeper is not the Man of the Match, but we should have hit the target with a few of our chances,” said Daniel Farke.

“Still, we played one of the country’s top sides and were the better side. That’s encouraging and I’m proud of how far we have come.”

Without the injuries suffered, this would have been the perfect afternoon for Arsenal, who moved top of the table and remain there after Liverpool’s failure to take anything home from Stamford Bridge.

Goals from Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice were sufficient to brush aside a struggling West Ham outfit, but the sight of Rice and Martin Odegaard departing early will concern Arsenal supporters.

Gunners captain Odegaard became the first player in Premier League history to be substituted off before half-time in three consecutive top-flight starts, suffering a knee injury here after twice previously feeling the impact of a shoulder problem.

“We’ll find solutions, but obviously he’s our captain and is a player that gives us a completely different dimension with the things that he can do, especially attacking,” said Mikel Arteta.

West Ham’s plight deepens. Four points from their opening seven games make this their joint-worst ever start to a Premier League campaign.

They did not hit the target once in this match, and have conceded 34 shots on target, more than any other Premier League side this season.

“All the aspects of the game we have to address, a lot of work on the basics," said West Ham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo.

Before the start of the season, this 2-0 scoreline might have seemed entirely predictable. But, given the two clubs’ respective starts to the campaign, the manner of Man Utd’s simple win contained a tinge of surprise.

Sunderland remain above their vanquishers even after this victory, but the three points will come as a huge relief to Ruben Amorim, who has now secured three victories in Man Utd's last five league games.

Debutant goalkeeper Senne Lammens was scarcely tested, with Mason Mount scoring an early opener and Benjamin Sesko doubling the lead after 31 minutes for his second goal in as many Premier League outings.

“We’ve had some results that hurt us – the team, the staff and the fans – but that was important today,” said Mount.

“We want to get back-to-back wins, then three in a row and push on for the top four.”

Liverpool are league leaders no more. Following defeats against Palace, and Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League, this result means Arne Slot has now lost three games in a row for the first time in his managerial career. It will be an important international break for the Liverpool head coach.

Slot made the big call of dropping Florian Wirtz to the bench and restoring last season’s familiar midfield trio of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai at Stamford Bridge, but to no avail.

“It’s clear that we had our changes in the summer,” said Slot. “Players came in different moments.

“Last week there’s hardly been any training time. Still we need to try to bring these players in. If the result would have been better today with a draw or a win then we would have had a great start to the season if you take into account everything that happened in the summer to Liverpool.”

Chelsea took an early lead through a wonderful Moises Caicedo strike. The Ecuadorian was outstanding, winning 100 per cent of his aerial duels and four of his five attempted tackles. He now also has three goals in his last six Premier League games.

Caicedo's stunner v Liverpool

Cody Gakpo’s equaliser was rendered meaningless when Estevao Willian struck deep in stoppage time, becoming the second-youngest Brazilian (aged 18 years 163 days) to score in the Premier League, after Rafael for Man Utd in 2008.

From being unable to win to unable to stop winning. Aston Villa did not manage a victory in their opening six matches of the season, but have now gone four games without dropping a point across all competitions.

Their hero on this occasion was Donyell Malen, who opened his account for the season by scoring twice in a simple victory over Burnley.

“The last month has been very good – draws against Everton, Brentford and Sunderland and now we have won four matches,” said Unai Emery. “We have to make Villa Park a fortress again.”

The visitors pulled a goal back through Lesley Ugochukwu with 12 minutes remaining, but never really threatened to leave Villa Park with anything to show for their performance.

They remain in the relegation zone having conceded 15 Premier League goals already this season – just one fewer than they let in during their whole last promotion-winning campaign.

“It’s another brand-new team, it is a brand-new defensive line and we are working tirelessly with that,” said Scott Parker. “We looked a bit young.”

Oliver Glasner admitted “it hurts” to see Palace relinquish their club-record 19-match unbeaten run across all competitions, when suffering their first loss since April.

For so much of this game, it looked a near-certainty that the visitors would extend the streak to 20.

Such was Palace’s dominance that even David Moyes acknowledged “they should have been out of sight. They should have been 3-0 up.”

Daniel Munoz had put Glasner’s side ahead soon before half-time, notching goals in back-to-back appearances for the first time in his 74th Palace appearance.

But Everton hit back through Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty before Jack Grealish scored his first Everton goal in stoppage time.

Since Moyes’ first game in charge in January, only six teams have won more points in the Premier League than Everton.

“I told my players they can be really proud of the next chapter they wrote in the Palace history book after winning two trophies,” said Glasner.

“The longest unbeaten run in over 120 years is a huge achievement, but on the other side it feels like it should be at least 20 now.

“Maybe we need to feel this pain again. We don’t want it, but we need it to make the next step forward.”

Ange Postecoglou has not even been at the Forest helm for a month, but already the Australian is defending his managerial credentials after seeing a seventh match in charge pass without a win.

Add in the back end of his time at Spurs and Postecoglou has taken just two points from a possible 33 in an 11-game winless Premier League run.

“You have to be up for the fight and the struggle,” he insisted. “I’d be silly to be sitting here at the age of 60 if I lacked self-belief or fight. Even in the schoolyard I picked fights with people that beat me up.

“What I have seen and felt in this period is that we are heading in the direction I want us to. The results will come. In the meantime it is a struggle and a fight and there is nothing wrong with that.”

His side head into the international break one point above the relegation zone after a Bruno Guimaraes strike and a Nick Woltemade penalty for Newcastle United consigned Forest to yet another defeat.

Woltemade became only the third player to score in each of his first three home Premier League appearances for Newcastle, after Les Ferdinand in 1995 and Alan Shearer in 1996.

For the second week running, Wolves saw victory slip away in the late stages of a Premier League match.

Last time out it was Spurs who struck in stoppage time to deny Wolves a first league win of the season; on this occasion it was Brighton & Hove Albion who left it late to equalise at Molineux.

The hosts had appeared on track to triumph thanks to an unfortunate first-half Bart Verbruggen own goal, when Marshall Munetsi’s powerful strike smashed down off the bar and into the net via the goalkeeper’s glove.

However, Brighton have won more points (30) from losing positions under Fabian Hurzeler in the Premier League than any other side since the start of last season. And they pulled a goal back with four minutes remaining when Jan Paul van Hecke scored a header.

In a bid to find the answer to their problems, Wolves have already made 25 changes to their starting XI in the Premier League this season – through the first seven games of a single campaign, only two sides have ever made more (29 for Man Utd in 2001/02 and 26 for Man City in 2012/13).

Last season, Wolves avoided relegation despite taking just one point from their opening eight games. They have two points from seven this season.

So much for Man City’s early-season troubles when you have a player like Erling Haaland in your team.

This Haaland-inspired win means Pep Guardiola’s side are now just three points off the top of the table. And they have a goalscoring machine.

It took less than 10 minutes for Haaland to score for the ninth consecutive match for club and country; he has 18 in total this season, including nine in the Premier League.

“I have never felt better than I do now,” said the Norwegian.

Victory means Guardiola has now reached 250 Premier League wins 55 games quicker than any other manager.

For the first time in their 159 Premier League outings, Brentford failed to record a single touch in the opponent’s penalty area in the first half.

They improved after the break – Keith Andrews said “the second half was our half” – but could find no equaliser.

“What we’re trying to do is bring a team together, a club together, after so many changes,” said Andrews. “I think it’s growing. I think you could see that in the second-half performance today against top-level opposition.”