Following a weekend of Premier League drama, Alex Keble looks at the key talking points and tactical lessons including:
- Goals continue to flow for in-form Newcastle
- Alvarez and Doku help Man City unlock Brighton
- O'Neil haunts former club as pressure mounts on Iraola
- Brentford outmuscle Burnley
- How Klopp's changes broke down Everton
- Douglas Luiz is Villa's very own Rodri
Newcastle’s free-scoring form continues
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The most impressive aspect of Newcastle United’s 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace was that, with top goalscorer Alexander Isak left on the bench, three of the four goals came from players who were at the club prior to the takeover.
Newcastle and Eddie Howe have, of course, benefited enormously from their takeover, but the head coach has still done remarkably well with what he’s got – and that includes getting the best out of Callum Wilson, Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff, all goalscorers on Saturday.
Wilson's goal v Crystal Palace
From the gloves of Nick Pope to the back of the Palace net in a matter of seconds! ⏩️@CallumWilson 🫡 pic.twitter.com/bUh7iiH1m9
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 22, 2023
Early signs suggest Howe has taken Newcastle to another level this season. In 2022/23 they were reliant on their defensive record, conceding the joint-fewest goals in the Premier League, with 33, but scoring one or zero goals in 20 of their 38 matches.
By contrast, this season they have scored two or more goals on five occasions domestically. They are also top of the Premier League charts for goals (24), Expected Goals (19.7), percentage of shots on target (44 per cent) and shot conversion rate (18.9 per cent).
🎯 @NUFC's attacking numbers this season are something else... pic.twitter.com/BlPSTjzwuI
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 23, 2023
The last time Newcastle scored this many goals nine matches into a season was 1994/95, when Kevin Keegan’s entertainers were in full swing.
At the start of 2023/24, nobody thought we would be comparing that side to Howe’s, but since an 8-0 victory over Sheffield United, the Magpies' form has been irrepressible.
Next up is a trip to Molineux, where Wolves beat Man City 2-1 and held a rampant Villa to a 1-1 draw in their last two matches. Newcastle’s attacking prowess will be tested on Saturday.
Alvarez and Doku unlock Brighton
Considering that Brighton & Hove Albion had gone 12 Premier League matches without a clean sheet and Manchester City had won 20 in a row at the Etihad Stadium, it always seemed likely that Pep Guardiola’s side would enjoy facing such an open and expansive team.
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But in the end, after an Ansu Fati goal sparked a late Brighton surge, Man City relied upon their fast start to get the job done. The opening 20 minutes – in which Guardiola’s tactical tweaks unlocked the visitors – ultimately defined the contest.
Julian Alvarez’s goal, his eighth in his 11 Premier League starts at home, grabbed the headlines, yet it was his movement into deeper areas of the pitch that made the telling difference.
Guardiola instructed the Argentinian to drop into midfield alongside Rodri, which gave Man City an extra body in the build-up, allowing them to bypass the Brighton pressers and arrive into the final third.
The below images show how much deeper Alvarez played against Brighton compared to the 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Throughout the opening exchanges Alvarez repeatedly got on the ball in deeper positions as Brighton struggled to cope, leading directly to the deer-in-the-headlights defending from the visitors.
In a classic example from the early stages, note the space Alvarez is in. It meant that Brighton, with their press broken, were forced into an uncomfortable shape deep in their own half.
Pushed back and chasing shadows, Brighton couldn’t get to grips with Guardiola’s instruction to play through Alvarez and then to feed Jeremy Doku as often as possible.
Facing James Milner in a clear mismatch made worse by the lack of defensive support the 37-year-old received, Doku was a consistent threat, assisting the all-important opening goal for Alvarez.
Doku's assist for Alvarez
On the scoresheet for the opener! 🙌@julianalvarezzz 🕷️ pic.twitter.com/3rLfd6Wu5p
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 21, 2023
O’Neil reminds Bournemouth what they lost
The walls are closing in on AFC Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola, with the Cherries failing to win a single one of their opening nine matches for the first time in their entire history.
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It’s bad enough to begin a run of easier matches with two defeats – first at Everton, and now at home to Wolves – but to lose against the manager he replaced, Gary O’Neil, is likely to hasten Iraola’s demise.
The Wolves performance was a palpable reminder of what Bournemouth were missing: a tenacious, hard-working display and a plucky late winner are hallmarks of the way O’Neil masterminded Premier League safety in 2022/23.
Maximising resources is another of O’Neil’s traits, and after Wolves’ lean summer, the Wolves head coach deserves credit for squeezing the most out of Pedro Neto, whose assist for Matheus Cunha’s goal was his sixth of the season – putting him level with Kieran Trippier for the most in the Premier League.
And more classic O’Neil, Sasa Kalajdzic’s late winner secured Wolves’ first victory after conceding the opening goal since February 2023, having lost 10 of the previous 11 such matches. Four of Bournemouth’s 11 league wins last season (36 per cent) came after conceding the first goal.
Iraola’s Bournemouth are the exact opposite. No Premier League side has dropped more points from winning positions than the Cherries, with 11.
Their problems are fairly easy to diagnose, given that Iraola’s tactical preference for high pressing and for passing out from the back led directly to the two concessions on Saturday.
For the equaliser, a disorganised press allowed Tommy Doyle to thread a pass clean through the middle of the pitch and then in the 88th minute, Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto’s risky pass from a quickly taken goal-kick led to Philip being dispossessed on the edge of his own penalty area.
Should Iraola adapt his methods? Four Premier League defeats in a row might suggest he should, and yet Burnley at home next weekend is arguably the perfect opportunity for his system to work…
Burnley outmuscled by Brentford
A clash of styles at the Gtech Community Stadium as Brentford’s hard tackling, direct football and fast breaks dominated a possession-centric Burnley.
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The first two goals were scored from counter-attacks of the sort that kept coming throughout the 90 minutes, leading to Brentford racking up 23 shots, with 10 on target – their joint-most ever in a Premier League match.
Brentford were simply more physical, winning the 50-50s and exposing the soft underbelly of this Burnley team.
Despite holding 50 per cent possession each, Brentford made more than twice as many tackles (16-7), won more aerial duels (16-13) and had almost four times as many shots (23-6).
Blue = tackles won; red = tackles lost
It leaves Burnley with seven defeats from their opening nine league matches for the first time since 1888/89, surely putting Vincent Kompany under pressure.
His tactical set-up seems too brittle at the moment, not unlike the silky but naive football we are used to seeing from Norwich City sides at this level.
Only Bournemouth have made more errors leading to shots than Burnley’s six. Their head-to-head this weekend has an awful lot riding on it.
Klopp tweaks help Liverpool overcome Everton
Not for the first time this season, Jurgen Klopp used his deep bench to change the dynamic of a Premier League match to get Liverpool over the line.
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Up until Ashley Young’s red card, which, implausibly, was the first time a player has received two yellow cards against Liverpool since October 2015, Everton had been competitive, albeit their surprising recent commitment to attack was giving Liverpool too many opportunities to break at speed.
In fact, it was Everton’s willingness to let the match become stretched that led to Young’s second yellow, as Luis Diaz ran directly at the right-back for the umpteenth time.
Diaz would have just as big an impact in the second half.
After the sending off, Sean Dyche moved to a 5-3-1 formation and sat Everton a lot deeper, closing off those spaces and shutting things down in the hope of seeing out a goalless draw.
It was working for a while, until Klopp made an ambitious substitution, bringing on Darwin Nunez for Kostas Tsimikas and moving to a 4-2-4 – or 2-4-4 - with Dominik Szoboszlai a nominal left-back.
This wasn’t just about getting an extra forward onto the pitch. Klopp’s recalibration gave Liverpool extra width, stretching the Everton shell and providing a path around Dyche’s formation.
Szoboszlai’s presence in what was effectively a four-man midfield overwhelmed the Everton three, allowing Liverpool to shuttle the ball quickly into Diaz or Mohamed Salah to go round the outside – as we saw for the Diaz cross that won Liverpool the game-breaking penalty.
Douglas Luiz is Villa's own Rodri
Surely the most surprising statistic from the Premier League weekend is that Douglas Luiz has become the first Aston Villa player to score in six consecutive matches at Villa Park, surpassing Dwight Yorke's mark set in 1995.
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Douglas Luiz scored twice in the 4-1 defeat of West Ham United, and yet it is not his goalscoring prowess that most catches the eye.
Rather it is that Villa’s No 6 is fast-becoming one of the best central midfielders in the Premier League.
He possesses a Rodri-like ability to control the match from the base of midfield, almost flawlessly keeping hold of possession under pressure and moving his team through the thirds. And just like Rodri, he is quietly efficient on the defensive side, too.
On Sunday, Douglas Luiz topped the charts for shots (three), touches (89), carries (57), passes (80) and ball recoveries (nine); an array of different skills that reflects how the Brazilian has become an all-action leader.
Man City’s three consecutive domestic defeats during Rodri’s suspension were clear evidence they could use a back-up to the Spaniard.
Douglas Luiz’s elegance in possession, his calm press-evading passing and his growing impact in the final third suggests the player they allowed to depart for Villa in 2019 would ironically be the perfect fit.
