Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 8, including:
- Amorim has his Man Utd lift-off moment as Liverpool flirt with crisis
- No Ange-ball costs Postecoglou his job at Forest
- Emery’s super-subs inflict damaging defeat on Spurs
- Arsenal loss might leave Fulham looking over their shoulders
- Brighton’s control of No 10 space is a real concern for Howe
- Sunderland’s home form replicates 1999/00 peak
- Haaland edge sees Man City quietly rise towards the summit of the table
- "Crazy talent" Kroupi only increases Bournemouth’s chances of best-ever season
- Burnley need to carry Championship-style win into Wolves match
- Brentford show total dominance at West Ham
Amorim has his Man Utd lift-off moment as Liverpool flirt with crisis
If Manchester United find success under Ruben Amorim there is no question that Sunday’s victory over Liverpool will be looked back upon as the moment things clicked.
Man Utd's first league win at Anfield since January 2016, securing back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time under Amorim, provided a psychological boost that should increase belief in the project inside and outside the club; the visitors are now just two points behind the hosts and six points off the top.
The result was as significant for Liverpool as it was for Man Utd.
Arne Slot has a serious problem. The new signings are not bedding in, the defence is leakier than at any point since Jurgen Klopp’s first match in charge (Liverpool have conceded two or more goals in eight of their last 12 league games), and three defeats in a row has made those late winners in August and September look like lucky escapes.
Liverpool have lost four consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since November 2014.
What was a blip is developing into something close to a crisis, and one that appears self-inflicted following a huge summer restructuring of a title-winning team.
Slot now faces the biggest challenge of his career. As for Amorim, he might have found the solution to his.
No Ange-ball costs Postecoglou his job at Forest
Ange Postecoglou has been sacked by Nottingham Forest after just 39 days in the job, making his the second-shortest tenure in Premier League history.
His record reads: played eight, drawn two, lost six. It is an ignominious period of Forest’s history that would have been forgettable were it not for the record-breaking numbers attached to it.
Much has been made of Postecoglou’s sharp left turn from the reactive football of Nuno Espirito Santo to an expansive philosophy, but the truth is that Forest never really went on that journey.
The 3-0 defeat to Chelsea exemplified the problem. Forest were competitive until two quick-fire second-half goals enabled the visitors to accelerate away, but they did so in a 3-4-3 formation and with a low block.
Forest were defensive in this game, not only dropping deep but regularly punting long balls up to the target man Taiwo Awoniyi. It was anything but Ange-ball.
What cost Postecoglou his job was bad results and confused, shapeless performances, as opposed to anything tactically radical.
He departs as the first manager to see his team score only one goal in his first five Premier League matches since 2014 when Sean Dyche did the same with Burnley.
Dyche needs to reinstate order and clarity at Forest. And he needs to hit the ground running.
Emery’s super-subs inflict damaging defeat on Spurs
A relatively scrappy match in north London was defined by a brilliant double substitution from Unai Emery, who turned the game in Aston Villa’s favour by bringing on Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Buendia.
Watkins looked sharp as the focal point of attack, helping move Villa up the pitch and push Spurs back, while everything went through the No 10 Buendia, who scored a brilliant winning goal.
Thomas Frank might consider his team unlucky – Villa scored two unstoppable shots from outside the box, winning despite an Expected Goals (xG) of just 0.37 – but nevertheless his Tottenham Hotspur side are left in an unenviable position after eight games of the season.
Four points from four home matches is Spurs’ worst start to a league campaign since 2008/09, a stat that undermines their supposedly strong start to life under Frank.
Not for the first time, the issue was a lack of technicality in a workmanlike central midfield that was unable to successfully build through the visitors.
Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur started at the base of midfield, as they did in the 1-1 draw at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers and as a result, there was too much creative pressure on the dribbling of Mohammed Kudus.
Spurs’ next two home fixtures are against Chelsea and Man Utd. If Frank is to improve on that home record, he needs to be more adventurous in his team selection.
Arsenal loss might leave Fulham looking over their shoulders
The league leaders won at Craven Cottage for the first time in three attempts, and such has been their poor form on this ground, Mikel Arteta will have zero concerns with a slightly sluggish performance or the reliance on a set-piece goal to get over the line.
Nor should he. Arsenal are winning in a variety of ways this season and appear newly confident in their pursuit of a first Premier League title in over 20 years.
Fulham, however, should be worried. They have lost three successive Premier League games for the first time since Boxing Day 2023 and on Saturday evening, they failed to record a single shot on target.
Marco Silva’s side are three points above the relegation zone, but it’s noteworthy that both of their Premier League wins this season have been at home against Leeds United and Brentford.
Fulham are bottom of the Premier League for shots on target (19) and nobody in their squad has scored more than one league goal this season. Wolves at home, in a fortnight’s time, is starting to look like a six-pointer.
Brighton’s control of No 10 space is a real concern for Howe
One thing that is usually guaranteed under Eddie Howe is smart compression of space between the lines, so it is particularly concerning that as confidence wanes among the Newcastle United players, gaps are appearing in new places.
Both of Brighton & Hove Albion’s goals on Saturday – and numerous other chances – were created by feeding passes into the No 10 space, between the Newcastle back four and midfield five:
Brighton's first goal v Newcastle
Brighton's second goal v Newcastle
Danny Welbeck, who has now scored four goals in his last three Premier League games, was the beneficiary of Georginio Rutter’s powerful command of central attacking midfield.
It leaves Newcastle winless in seven away matches in the competition and stuck on nine points, fewer than all of their rivals for the European places.
We are beginning to reach that point in the season when we understand each team’s real level, and can therefore reassess earlier results in the campaign. Newcastle come out of that pretty badly, having only won matches against Wolves and Forest, the teams 20th and 18th in the table.
Luckily for Howe, Newcastle have Fulham (H), West Ham United (A), and Brentford (A) in their next three. They need maximum points to restore order.
Sunderland’s home form replicates 1999/00 peak
Regis Le Bris’s side are seventh in the table, above Spurs, Man Utd, and Aston Villa, and just two points behind second-placed Manchester City with 21 per cent of the campaign gone.
Sunderland supporters could not have dreamed of such a strong start. Well, none under the age of 30, anyway.
Their record of 14 points from eight Premier League matches is the same as in the 1999/2000 season, when Sunderland were also newly promoted and caused a huge shock by finishing the campaign in seventh.
Peter Reid’s team was led by Kevin Phillips, who scored 30 Premier League goals and Niall Quinn, whose 14 goals were a significant part of an iconic little-and-large strike partnership.
The 2025/26 season is shaping up to be just as memorable. Sunderland have won the joint-most home points (10) and conceded the second-fewest home goals.
It’s memorable for Wolves, too, but for all the wrong reasons. They are still winless and still rock bottom.
Their home game against Burnley next Sunday is huge.
Haaland edge sees Man City quietly rise towards the summit of the table
What stands out about Man City’s victory over Everton is the fact that nothing stands out.
There is no drama at the Etihad Stadium this season, and weekends appear to pass with Pep Guardiola’s side walking through Saturday 15:00 matches with so little fuss you almost don’t notice them happen.
That’s the Man City we have been used to over the last eight years, not the one that huffed and puffed through 2024/25.
Look a little closer and this match could have gone differently. Everton had a few decent chances at 0-0, but in the end the power and ruthlessness of Erling Haaland gave Man City the edge.
Again, that is Guardiola and City back to their old selves.
Haaland has scored 11 goals in eight Premier League matches this season, the third-earliest anyone has reached double figures in the competition’s history. Haaland was also responsible for the other two, in 2022/23 and 2024/25.
He alone can power Man City to the wins required to stay close to Arsenal and, in the spring, begin to accelerate away as they have done so often in the Guardiola era.
“Crazy talent” Kroupi only increases Bournemouth’s chances of best-ever season
Had Jean-Philippe Mateta put away a simple chance to win the game in injury time, had he scored his fourth of the match to move Crystal Palace into third place, then we would be writing a different story.
But that miss allows us to focus on the other No 9 at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon, Eli Kroupi.
“He is amazing,” AFC Bournemouth’s Amine Adli told BBC Sport after the match. “From what I have seen since joining, when he is on the pitch he is going to score.
“He has flare and is a crazy talent at 19.”
Before the weekend not a lot of Premier League fans will have heard of Kroupi, but the teenager took full advantage of his first league start for Bournemouth by scoring a brace.
He has three Premier League goals in just 70 minutes of football, picking up from where he left off in France after scoring 22 league goals in 2024/25 for Ligue 2 Lorient.
Already, Andoni Iraola’s side looked well-placed or their best-ever season and European qualification. A steady goalscoring No 9 would take them up yet another level.
Burnley need to carry Championship-style win into Wolves match
It might be a tad harsh to focus only on the future after a vital 2-0 win against Leeds, but as much as Burnley deserve credit for winning these six-pointers, Scott Parker’s side need to make sure they can build on the win next weekend.
Burnley are 17th, which is good going, but both of their Premier League wins this season have been against fellow promoted clubs at Turf Moor, which represents 86 per cent of their total points.
Those wins came in what are effectively Championship matches, if the promoted-club record of the last couple of seasons is anything to go by.
To show they truly belong, Burnley need to beat an established side, and the fixture computer has thrown them a bone here. Up next is Wolves, the only PL side without a victory this season, at Molineux.
Parker’s side have to win it.
Brentford show total dominance at West Ham
Brentford had lost all three of their away games before Monday, but having won more Premier League matches against West Ham United than any other team, they would have been confident ahead of this derby.
The Bees took time to grow into the contest and led 1-0 at the break, but it could easily have been more.
Kevin Schade saw two shots go to waste in the first 10 minutes, while Igor Thiago refused to let up the pressure, as he contributed heavily to Brentford’s 15 first-half shots – their most in a Premier League away match – and proved a thorn in West Ham’s side, getting a stroke of luck with his goal.
Having lost out on a second by the offside flag in the first half, Thiago kept Alphonse Areola busy in the second, with the goalkeeper getting down sharply to deny him from a tight angle late on.
West Ham were reduced to 10 men in the closing stages after Konstantinos Mavropanos sustained an injury, and having made five substitutions, they took advantage as Mathias Jensen showed excellent composure to wrap up the three points.
Brentford could hand Keith Andrews his first back-to-back wins as head coach when they host Liverpool on Saturday. West Ham travel to fellow strugglers Leeds the same day.