Premier League weekend review: What we learned

Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 13 including:

- Man City's title defence faltering fast
- Saka's stunning form moves up another level
- Chelsea stake claim as genuine title contenders
- Dibling's a rising star for Southampton
- Formation gamble backfires for Leicester
- Munoz takes advantage of new Newcastle setup
- Amorim's debut delight against misfiring Everton
- How Forest's defensive duo offer solid foundation
- Bournemouth's double history-makers
- Injury-hit Spurs relying on in-form Johnson

Man City require unprecedented recovery to win the title

As Pep Guardiola looks back on his side’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield, he may be relieved it was not a bigger and more psychologically damaging scoreline.

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Manchester City did well to recover their composure in the second half after a bewildering first 45 minutes, but Guardiola’s players are unlikely to gain much consolation from this.

City are now 11 points behind Liverpool, on a four-match losing streak in the Premier League, and fifth in the table with one third of the season gone.

The prospect of a fifth consecutive title is increasingly small.

Even if Man City were to win their next six league matches in a row, they would have 41 points at the halfway stage. Matching that in the second half of the season would take them to 82 points, a final tally which hasn’t been enough to win the title since 2015/16.

In fact, if from Wednesday, Man City began to gain points at the same rate as their 100-point season (average 2.6 per match) they would end up with 89.

For Liverpool to reach that total, they need 55 points from their remaining 25 matches, an average of 2.2 per match - much lower than their current 2.6.

In other words, Man City must be all-but perfect while needing Liverpool to collapse.

Incredible Saka sparks hope of a City-like run to the title

Bukayo Saka playing a crucial role in all five of Arsenal’s goals at the London Stadium. The England international assisted two goals, scored one, and won two penalties.

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He has now provided 10 assists in the opening 13 Premier League matches of the season, with only Harry Kane (11 matches in 2020/21), Cesc Fabregas (12 in 2014/15) and Mesut Ozil (12 in 2015/16) reaching that figure faster.

More impressive still, Saka has 15 goal involvements already (five goals, 10 assists), second only to Mohamed Salah (18), and is on track for his best-ever return.

Saka's goal involvements by season

Saka has gone to a whole new level this season – and has stepped up again since Martin Odegaard came back into the team.

Arsenal have scored 13 goals in three matches since Odegaard’s return, giving hope that Mikel Arteta’s side can put together the sort of 10-game winning run that has defined Man City title charges in recent years.

They will probably need something like that to catch Liverpool, but with Saka better than ever and Odegaard in full flow, there’s really nothing stopping them.

Chelsea enter title race with victory over Villa

It wouldn’t be right to talk up Arsenal’s title chances without also suggesting that Chelsea, who are level on points with the Gunners, can catch Liverpool.

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Most pundits have written Chelsea off because of their lack of experience compared to Arsenal and Liverpool, but 13 matches into the season, it’s clear their key players - Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, and Moises Caicedo - are beyond their years.

Enzo Maresca’s side made Sunday’s win look easy, condemning Aston Villa to a fifth consecutive Premier League match without victory for the first time since August 2022 when they were managed by Steven Gerrard.

In what’s becoming a clear pattern, Chelsea were ruthless and scored early through Jackson, who looks more like the complete striker with each passing week.

Jackson nets Chelsea's opener

Chelsea remain nine points off the top, but closer analysis of their results suggests they can close that gap.

Maresca’s side have lost only twice all season, at home to Man City and away to Liverpool, while their draws have come against Man Utd, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.

One could reasonably argue the draw with Palace is the only "bad" result of Chelsea’s season so far.

Keep this up through Christmas, and Chelsea will be in with a chance.

Title race

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
1	Liverpool LIV	13	+18	34
2	Arsenal ARS	13	+12	25
3	Chelsea CHE	13	+12	25
4	Brighton BHA	13	+5	23
5	Man City MCI	13	+3	23

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Dibling’s dribbling is a crucial counterpoint to Martin's tactics

Tyler Dibling has arrived. The 18-year-old has made an explosive start to the 2024/25 season but until now, we have resisted the temptation to jump on the bandwagon and put pressure on a teenager still learning the game.

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But Dibling looks fearless, and has shown a consistent quality deserving of the hype.

He was the best player on the pitch at Brighton & Hove Albion, weaving through the lines and riding challenges with startling similarity to how Jack Grealish made his name in the early days at Villa.

Dibling's highlights v Brighton

Dibling's dribbling broke the Brighton team open to create space for Southampton's equaliser, before a similar run led directly to what would have been a winner, had Adam Armstrong not flicked a heel at the cross for Cameron Archer, causing his goal to be disallowed for offside.

Dibling ranks eighth in the Premier League for attempted take-ons (44) and second for fouls drawn (29).

Crucially, he is by far Southampton’s best performer for these two metrics.

He averages 6.87 take-ons per 90 minutes, more than double that of his Southampton team-mate Kyle Walker-Peters (3.3 per 90). Similarly he draws 3.49 fouls per 90, more than next-best Adam Lallana’s 2.0.

This highlights Dibling’s crucial role as a counterpoint to Russell Martin's slow possession style; by going against the grain, the teenager’s verticality prevents the Saints’ football from being too predictable.

At only 18, Dibling is already Southampton’s most important player.

Dawson’s back-three experiment backfires at Brentford

In his sole match as interim head coach, Ben Dawson, originally Leicester City's first-team coach, decided to make dramatic changes to the way the Foxes play.

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Based on Saturday's 4-1 loss at Brentford, we can safely assume newly-appointed manager Ruud van Nistelrooy - who was watching from the stands - won’t keep the 3-4-2-1 formation.

Leicester lined up with a back three for the first time this season but never looked comfortable, conceding three times from through-balls as Brentford consistently carved up a confused defence that was more in a zig-zag than a line.

In these two examples below, Brentford’s second and third goals indicate how Leicester’s defence lost its shape when the hosts broke forward.

Brentford have won a competition-high 19 points at home this season, scoring 22 goals, more than any team in the division. This probably wasn’t the best time, then, for their visitors to try a brand new defensive setup - and so it proved.

If he didn’t know it already, Van Nistelrooy now realises the scale of the task he faces.

Munoz (eventually) takes advantage of Howe’s surprise formation change

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner will wonder how his team were held to a home draw by Newcastle United. 

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Newcastle did not have a single shot on target in the entire match, while Palace had a vastly superior number of shots (16 v 1) and recorded an xG of 1.76 to their visitors' unbelievably low 0.04.

A reason for Palace’s dominance was Eddie Howe’s surprise decision to move to a hybrid 5-4-1/4-3-3 formation with Joelinton moving between left wing-back and left wing to switch the formation around.

Joelinton struggled with the two roles and Palace consistently found space to create chances down that side.

From Newcastle’s left-back area, Daniel Munoz created a good first-half chance for Ismaili Sarr, Sarr gave Munoz a tap-in that he missed, and Munoz had a shot cleared off the line by Dan Burn. In all three instances, Joelinton was caught out of position.

Marc Guehi's own goal in the 53rd minute gave Newcastle a lead that lasted until deep into stoppage time, when Munoz finally headed home Palace's equaliser, after losing Joelinton at the back post.

Munoz's equaliser v Newcastle 

Howe is unlikely to keep this formation moving forward.

Man Utd “far from perfect” but Everton’s goalscoring problems help them out

Ruben Amorim did not give the post-match press conference you might expect of a man who had just won 4-0 against Everton in his first home Premier League match as Manchester United head coach.

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Describing the performance as "far from perfect," Amorim told BBC Sport: "Rather than trying to convince the fans about this performance, we have a lot to do. It will take time. Sometimes we are not playing well but we defended together.

"Our fans just ask for hard work and then in time they will ask for better football."

This tells us how demanding Amorim will be and how much he will push his players. It also tells us he is honest, because for the opening 45 minutes on Sunday, Man Utd's shape in and out of possession was almost as wayward as the final days of Erik ten Hag.

Man Utd had a total xG of 1.07 compared to Everton’s 0.58 - and the latter was only so low because Sean Dyche’s goal-shy side struggled to make the final pass even when striding through a wide-open Man Utd midfield.

Man Utd v Everton xG timeline

Everton have failed to score in each of their last four Premier League matches, their longest goalless run since October 2005. A more confident opponent might have punished Amorim’s side.

For Man Utd fans, it’s a positive sign that Amorim saw so many negatives in a 4-0 win defined by Everton mistakes that his team gladly exploited on the counter.

Milenkovic-Murillo partnership among league's best 

Chris Wood was making the headlines again with his ninth league goal of the season and 20th since Nuno Espirito Santo’s appointment in December 2023, but it’s at the other end of the pitch where Nott'm Forest won this match against Ipswich Town.

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Forest have reached five clean Premier League sheets at the earliest stage of a campaign since 1987/88, and for the seventh time this season, they restricted their opponent to an Expected Goals (xG) below 1.0.

Nuno’s side have dropped just two points in those seven matches.

Matches in which Forest have conceded xG below 1.0

The foundation of their success is Murillo’s new centre-back partnership with Nikola Milenkovic, signed from Fiorentina in the summer.

These two have started 12 of the 13 matches together at the heart of defence - the exception being Forest's 1-1 draw at home to AFC Bournemouth - and have quickly become one of the best centre-back partnerships in the Premier League this season.

Kluivert and Evanilson make history

Justin Kluivert is the first Premier League player ever to score a hat-trick of penalties.

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A lesser-known fact: Evanilson is the first Premier League player ever to win a hat-trick of penalties.

Andoni Iraola appears to see the latter record as the more valuable of the two, singling out Evanilson for praise after the match.

"We are trying to put pressure on them, don't let them feel comfortable," said Iraola. "Evanilson has made the difference. He has been fighting with the centre-backs and the keeper. He was phenomenal.

"Evanilson didn't score, but he is [the reason] why we won."

Being difficult and putting the pressure on - these are the traits that define high-pressing Bournemouth under Iraola, and Evanilson leads by example from the front.

Johnson’s form crucial for Spurs as injuries pile up

"I think that everybody should recognise that the team who deserved to win this afternoon was ourselves," Marco Silva told Match of the Day, and it is hard to argue with that after Fulham put Tottenham Hotspur under substantial pressure.

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Ange Postecoglou has insisted that Spurs' infamous yo-yo form is down to injuries and suspensions, and indeed they struggled on Sunday without Dejan Kulusevski available to start.

Thankfully for Spurs, Brennan Johnson has risen from inconsistency to become the most dependable player in the squad.

Johnson has scored 10 goals across all competitions for Spurs this season, with only Erling Haaland (17), Salah (12) and Christopher Nkunku (11) bettering that among Premier League players.

Spurs' No 22 has netted in all three of their matches over the last week. Including his appearances for Wales, he has scored or assisted in 13 of his last 19 in all competitions.