The Wrap: What happened in Matchweek 10

Another week, another Arsenal win and another clean sheet; the league leaders continue to look imperious at the Premier League summit after victory at Burnley.

Wins for Manchester City and Liverpool give the top of the table a familiar look, putting the two most recent champions second and third respectively. City’s triumph over AFC Bournemouth saw the losers slip to fifth, Chelsea brushed aside a toothless Tottenham Hotspur, while Sunderland fought back to draw against Everton to stay unbeaten at home and remain in the top four.

At the other end of the table, West Ham United edged closer to escaping the relegation zone with victory over Newcastle United, and Nottingham Forest drew an entertaining encounter with Manchester United. But another Wolverhampton Wanderers defeat prompted the end of Vitor Pereira’s managerial tenure, with the club still yet to win a league game this season.

Here is all you need to know about Matchweek 10.

Is it too late for Danny Welbeck to resurrect his England career? The Brighton & Hove Albion striker began this routine victory over Leeds United with a goal to take his recent tally to six in his last five Premier League appearances. No English player in the league has more this season, leaving Thomas Tuchel short of obvious back-up options for Harry Kane.

Welbeck last played for England in September 2018 and will be 35 by the time the World Cup begins next June. But, having scored a career-high 10 top-flight goals last season, he is in the form of his life.

Watch Welbeck's goal v Leeds

His early opener - volleying home from close range - started a Brighton victory cruise, with Diego Gomez adding two more goals in six second-half minutes to kill off the game.

It extended Brighton’s unbeaten home run to nine Premier League matches, with this their first clean sheet of the season.

That was aided by an entirely unthreatening Leeds attack, who did not manage a shot on target until the 85th minute. The visitors’ only away goals this season came against bottom club Wolves. How Daniel Farke would love a Welbeck to call upon.

A clean sheet, a set-piece goal, and further injuries to key players brushed aside with a minimum of fuss. Everything Arsenal do at the moment suggests they have all the attributes required to win the title.

This win was their ninth in a row in all competitions – their longest run since 2018. It was also a remarkable seventh successive triumph without conceding. One more shutout will equal the club’s record for consecutive clean sheets, set in 1903.

The opener came through a familiar route. Anticipation was high every time the visitors had a set-piece, and they took the lead when Viktor Gyokeres converted from a Declan Rice corner. No side have scored more than Arsenal’s 12 Premier League goals from dead-ball situations this season. Rice then doubled the lead before half-time.

Although they saw more of the ball in the second half, Burnley never came close to making it a contest. There have only been five instances of a side failing to have a shot on target in a Premier League game this season – three of those have come against Arsenal, including this Burnley blank.

“They’re just a very, very good team,” said Scott Parker. “They are a team that I believe have every single ingredient to go and win the league this year.”

Of most concern for Arsenal were injuries to Gyokeres, who had to depart at half-time, and Martin Zubimendi.

Crystal Palace had not won in three Premier League outings prior to this, but victory means they are now unbeaten in 11 top-flight matches at Selhurst Park – their longest such run since 2012/13, when they were in the second tier.

The architect of both goals was Jefferson Lerma, making only his second Premier League start of the season after Adam Wharton had been ruled out through illness. The Colombian nodded across the box for Jean-Philippe Mateta to score the opener, and took the long throw that flicked off Brentford defender Nathan Collins’ head for Palace’s second.

Mateta now has eight goals in all competitions this season, including six in the Premier League. Since Oliver Glasner took charge in February 2024, the French striker has more home Premier League goals (22) than anyone other than Erling Haaland (25).

“In terms of our performance, did we reach the heights of recent weeks individually, collectively? No,” said Brentford boss Keith Andrews. “But, having said that, I felt like there wasn’t a lot in the game.”

It has happened again. For the second season running, Wolves have not won any of their opening 10 Premier League games, conceding 20+ goals in the process.

Last year, the catalyst for their unlikely subsequent survival was a six-match winning run after Vitor Pereira eventually replaced Gary O’Neil at the helm. This time around, Pereira has followed out of the exit door and it will be up to a new manager to see if they can somehow repeat the escape act.

Crucial to their previous turnaround was the poor quality of the three promoted sides. But this year’s Championship crop seem a different prospect, making Wolves’ task significantly more difficult.

Pereira lost his job less than 24 hours after his team were totally dominated by a Fulham side delighted to end their run of four straight league defeats.

Ryan Sessegnon, Harry Wilson and a Yerson Mosquera own goal provided a facile win that was made all the easier when Emmanuel Agbadou was sent off after just 36 minutes for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

A late Amad thunderbolt denied Nottingham Forest what would have been a second Premier League win of the season, having not tasted success since the opening weekend.

The hosts scored twice in quick succession after half-time through Morgan Gibbs-White and Nicolo Savona to put them 2-1 up following Casemiro’s opener. Yet Amad struck a beautiful volley to share the points.

Both of United’s goals came from corners, taking Forest’s tally of set-piece goals conceded in the Premier League to 16 this calendar year – the most of any team. Sean Dyche was unhappy about the awarding of the first, however, after replays showed Savona may have kept the ball in play.

United came close to an stoppage-time winner, only for Murillo to pull off a brilliant goalline stop to keep out another Amad effort.

Watch Murillo's superb goalline clearance

“In the past, if we had this kind of bad five minutes and suffered two goals, we didn’t recover,” said Ruben Amorim, who named an unchanged side for the first time in his 37-game Premier League managerial career.

“Today it is a different feeling. You can sense that. We could not win this game but we were not going to lose. That is a feeling that a big team sometimes has to have. We had a big opportunity to win in the end and my feeling is we dropped two points here and should have done better.”

It was not just the fact that Spurs slipped to yet another home defeat which so angered their exasperated fans, but the manner in which they did so.

Since the tracking of Expected Goals (xG) began in 2012/13, Spurs have never recorded a lower figure than the 0.05 they managed here. Bereft of any attacking threat, the hosts were simply left to weather Chelsea wave after wave.

Spurs have now claimed just 13 points from their past 19 home games – the worst haul of any team to have been in the Premier League throughout that whole period. Meanwhile, Chelsea have lost just one of their last 18 encounters against Spurs. 

Asked about his side’s dismal attacking statistics, Spurs boss Thomas Frank said: “I would say that hurts massively. I’ve never been in charge of a team that created that little. Never. I will look into what we can do to make it better.”

The game’s only goal came courtesy of Joao Pedro, who ended a personal barren streak that had stretched 705 minutes across all competitions since last scoring in August. He could – and perhaps should – have added to his tally, with Chelsea finishing with an xG of 2.92.

The victory puts Chelsea level on points with Spurs, who remain above them on goal difference alone.

Liverpool boss Arne Slot did not try to deny the good fortune that helped his side end their four-game Premier League losing streak with a much-needed victory over Aston Villa.

Mohamed Salah was gifted the opener after a dreadful mistake from Emiliano Martinez left an unguarded goal at his mercy. Ryan Gravenberch then doubled the lead with a shot that took a big deflection off Pau Torres.

Villa hit the woodwork twice in the first half as they unsuccessfully sought a fifth consecutive league victory after failing to win any of their opening five games.

“Maybe we were a bit more on the lucky side than we have been in the last few weeks,” said Slot. “A mistake of their goalkeeper and a deflection led to two of our goals but these are the margins we are talking about.

“In other games, we have created more in open play than we did today, but football is about results, not the chances you create from open play.”

Salah’s goal saw him become just the third player in Liverpool’s history to reach 250 for the club, after Ian Rush (346 goals) and Roger Hunt (285).

Villa are now winless in their last 10 meetings with Liverpool in the Premier League, their longest current run without a win against an opponent in the competition.

Eddie Howe was at a loss to explain his Newcastle side’s abject display as the visitors continued their dreadful form on their travels. Newcastle have not won in eight Premier League away games, but London Stadium was the last place anyone expected such a meek performance from the visitors, given how poor their home form has been there of late.

In securing victory, West Ham picked up a first Premier League home win since February, ending a run of nine winless games; before Sunday, only the Football League’s bottom club Newport County were on a longer winless run at their home stadium in England’s top four tiers.

Newcastle did take a fourth-minute lead through Jacob Murphy. But a Lucas Paqueta equaliser and Sven Botman own goal prompted Howe to haul off Emil Krafth, Anthony Gordon and Nick Woltemade at half-time in a desperate bid to spark some life into his team.

It did not work, and substitute Tomas Soucek added a third in stoppage time to give Nuno Espirito Santo a first win of his West Ham tenure.

Howe said: “The dynamism wasn’t there today. The physicality, the energy was missing in our performance. It was hugely frustrating and a poor performance. We were not ourselves.”

Is Man City’s over-reliance on Haaland a problem or should they just revel in having the benefit of the world’s most lethal striker?

“Without him, it would be tough,” said Pep Guardiola, after the Norwegian scored his 12th and 13th Premier League goals of the campaign, taking his overall tally to 26 in all competitions for club and country.

Only once before has a player scored more Premier League goals after 10 games of a season: Haaland himself in 2022/23, with 15. He now has scored at least two goals in each of his last four home league appearances.

The issue - if it is an issue - is that City’s next highest league goalscorer is Burnley’s Maxime Esteve, with two own goals. Five City players have scored once in the league.

One of those is Nico O’Reilly, who wrapped things up with City’s third here after Haaland had scored twice in a first half that also featured Bournemouth’s only goal through Tyler Adams.

The win pushes City up to second place, as they attempt to keep pace with leaders Arsenal.

Sunderland’s unbeaten start at the Stadium of Light continued as Granit Xhaka’s deflected strike earned a 1-1 draw with Everton on Monday.

The Black Cats’ captain got the equaliser just 42 seconds after half-time, with a big deflection off James Tarkowski helping it in off the underside of the bar.

Everton started the match strongly and took the lead in the 15th minute, as the in-form Iliman Ndiaye finished superbly at the end of a sensational run.

He has now scored six goals in his last 12 Premier League appearances, as many as he netted in his previous 26 matches in the competition. 

Jack Grealish struck the post and Thierno Barry squandered a golden chance to double Everton’s lead, and that miss ultimately proved costly for the Toffees as Sunderland fought back.

Regis Le Bris’ side would have gone second with a win, but instead stay in fourth place on 18 points, while Everton remain 14th on 12 points.