With notable victories at the top and bottom of the table, Matchweek 11 brought us two days of incredible action, analysed here by Ben Bloom.
The Premier League headed into the final international break of 2024 with a bang, as Liverpool strengthened their grip on top spot and the final two winless clubs ended their drought.
Arne Slot’s side were the only team in the top five to sign off with victory when they beat Aston Villa.
That 2-0 win put Liverpool five points clear at the summit after reigning champions Manchester City lost 2-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion; City have now suffered four consecutive defeats across all competitions for the first time in 18 years.
At the other end of the table, there were significant first wins of the season for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town to ensure every side has now tasted victory at least once this campaign.
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Brentford maintained the Premier League’s best home record as they twice came from behind to beat AFC Bournemouth.
Yoane Wissa, who has expertly filled the void left by Ivan Toney's summer departure, struck twice to add to his growing haul. He has now scored in each of Brentford’s last five Premier League home matches.
Wissa's winner v Bournemouth
Pure Poetry. Wissa with today's winner 🔥🇨🇩 pic.twitter.com/23PrZcA4z0
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) November 9, 2024
Only Erling Haaland, with 19, has more non-penalty league goals in 2024 than Wissa's 15, while Brentford have accumulated more points at home than any other team this season, with 16.
Bournemouth twice took the lead through Evanilson and Justin Kluivert, but their recalled goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga endured a difficult afternoon in west London.
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Summer signing Emile Smith Rowe continued to show his worth for Fulham, scoring his third league goal of the season as they saw off injury-ravaged Crystal Palace. Smith Rowe has only netted more in a single campaign once previously, scoring 10 goals in 2021/22.
In a congested top half of the table, Fulham sit just one point off the top four as Marco Silva yet again reaped the benefits of his squad players. Harry Wilson scored his third goal of the week after coming on as a substitute.
No team has netted more goals from the bench this season than Fulham's tally of five.
With Eddie Nketiah, Adam Wharton, Eberechi Eze and Jefferson Lerma all unavailable, Palace had two goalkeepers and three teenagers on their bench, while Marc Guehi and debutant Justin Devenny formed an unfamiliar central midfield pairing.
To compound Palace’s misery, Daichi Kamada was sent off in the 76th minute for a high challenge on Kenny Tete.
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Plenty of boos were heard at the London Stadium as West Ham United fans expressed their frustration at not finding a route past Everton.
That the Hammers kept their first home clean sheet in 15 Premier League matches provided little solace for a side that took 44 minutes to even register a shot.
Visiting goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was asked greater questions after the break, but West Ham’s 78 per cent passing accuracy was their lowest in a home league match this season.
Everton have failed to score in a division-high five matches this season, although Sean Dyche’s side have now avoided defeat in all but one of their past seven league outings, having lost their first four of the campaign.
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A huge encounter between the Premier League’s bottom two sides provided Gary O’Neil a much-needed boost as the Wolves head coach took the pragmatic approach to earn a first league win of the season.
O’Neil’s side have conceded a competition-high 27 goals in 2024/25, but he spoke of “being humble enough about defending low” against Southampton.
That approach resulted in the hosts seeing only 29 per cent of the ball, but Southampton created little, with an Expected Goals (xG) of just 0.60 leaving manager Russell Martin frustrated. “It is not good enough,” he said, of their attacking woes.
Wolves kept their first clean sheet in 23 Premier League matches, while Matheus Cunha was the star at the other end, scoring and assisting to take his combined goals and assists tally to 23 in his last 28 Premier League starts.
Cunha's cracker v Southampton
A @mathcunha20 🚀 to seal victory at Molineux! pic.twitter.com/zfjEwG7f2o
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 9, 2024
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For the first time (excluding penalty shootouts) in his managerial career, Pep Guardiola knows what it is like to lose four consecutive matches.
The Premier League champions deservedly led at half-time through Haaland, but Brighton dominated a City structure that is, unsurprisingly, struggling to cope with the absence of the injured Rodri.
Brighton created eight big chances - the most City have ever conceded under Guardiola - with goals from Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley earning a huge win that leaves City five points off the pace at the top of the table.
The match highlighted Guardiola’s problems at both ends of the pitch.
Man City are finding it difficult to prevent counter-attacks and have conceded a competition-high 26 shots from fast breaks this season.
Despite his goal, Haaland continues to prove profligate of late, with his xG underperformance of -4.07 since 28 September being the worst among Premier League strikers.
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Now in his eighth season at Liverpool, Mohamed Salah is proving himself to be as important as ever, scoring and assisting to give the league leaders breathing space over the chasing pack.
Both goals came from lethal counter-attacks, taking Liverpool’s total goals scored from fast breaks to five this season, a tally only bettered by Tottenham Hotspur.
Salah was heavily involved in both - one in each half - becoming the first player in all competitions across Europe’s big five leagues this season to reach double figures for both goals (10) and assists (10).
Salah's goal v Aston Villa
Salah secures the three points 👑 pic.twitter.com/E4cKwmvKVo
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 10, 2024
It took Liverpool’s points tally to 28 - higher than their opening 11 matches in any Premier League season other than 2019/20, when they had collected 31 by this stage and went on to win the title.
Defeat for Villa saw them slip to ninth after losing four successive fixtures in all competitions for the first time in more than two years.
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Manchester United required only three shots on target against Leicester City to ensure Ruud van Nistelrooy’s tenure as interim head coach ended with joy.
On his 250th appearance for the club, captain Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring with his fourth goal in as many matches, and was also involved in Victor Kristiansen's own goal as well as providing the assist for Alejandro Garnacho’s brilliant strike.
It means Fernandes has now been directly involved in 100 goals (56 goals, 44 assists) in 170 Premier League appearances, needing just one more match than Cristiano Ronaldo to reach the milestone.
The visitors threatened at times in the first half, but ended up playing damage limitation as they suffered their heaviest defeat of the season.
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Alexander Isak, who scored 21 league goals last season, has had a slow, injury-interrupted start to the current campaign, but was on target against Nottingham Forest to extend his recent haul to four goals in as many matches across all competitions.
Isak’s goal was Newcastle’s equaliser after high-flying Forest had earned a half-time lead through Murillo.
But further efforts from Joelinton and Harvey Barnes meant the hosts suffered defeat for the first time in 14 Premier League matches.
Joelinton's goal v Forest
Simply stunning. 😍🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/ukBhoivvAa
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) November 11, 2024
Defeat saw Forest slip from third place to fifth going into the international break, and they will face Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd and Villa on their return in a tough run before Christmas.
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There was little surprise when Sam Szmodics scored an overhead kick to give Ipswich the lead at Spurs on Sunday.
Kieran McKenna’s side had opened the scoring in five of their previous 10 league matches since promotion, but they lost two of those and drew the other three, having managed to maintain leads for a league-low 86 minutes in total this season.
Szmodics’s goal also meant Spurs conceded first for the 13th time in 15 home league matches in 2024. So nothing new there.
But Ipswich unexpectedly held on to win. Liam Delap’s goal ensured a first Premier League victory for the club since April 2002, with Rodrigo Bentancur’s header proving to be in vain.
The triumph took Ipswich out of the relegation zone, as they leapfrogged Palace to move up to 17th spot.
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Level on points in third and fourth respectively, Chelsea and Arsenal might both wonder whether they can still overhaul a nine-point deficit to Liverpool after their draw at Stamford Bridge.
Returning Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard provided the cross for Gabriel Martinelli’s opener on the hour, before Pedro Neto equalised 10 minutes later to leave the Gunners without a win in four successive Premier League matches for the first time since April 2023.
Mikel Arteta’s side have not triumphed in the league since 5 October and they have now faced 15+ shots in four different matches this season, having only done so twice during the entire 2023/24 campaign.
The point ensured that Chelsea ended a day in the Premier League top three for the first time since the final weekend of the 2021/22 season.
