Category: English Premier League

Ipswich’s young English duo catch the eye, Liverpool march on and the brilliance of Brighton’s Carlos Baleba

It took them an hour of huffing and puffing, but Arsenal did something at Stamford Bridge they hadn’t managed since September – they scored an away goal in the Premier League. After toothless performances at Newcastle and Inter in the past week – and last month at Bournemouth – Gabriel Martinelli’s cute finish was itself a moment of relief, but Mikel Arteta was frustrated that his team didn’t find a winner. Their expected goals figure was lower than Chelsea’s (1.27 to 1.69) but that does not account for Leandro Trossard’s costly miskick at the death nor Kai Havertz’s would-be opener, which was just offside. The Gunners will almost always control games, especially now Martin Ødegaard is fit and firing again, but that age-old itch has not been scratched. They are not ruthless enough and they still lack a penalty box killer. Dominic Booth

Match report: Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal

Match report: Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa

Match report: Brighton 2-1 Manchester City

Match report: Manchester United 3-0 Leicester

Match report: Nottingham Forest 1-3 Newcastle

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Ipswich

Match report: Brentford 3-2 Bournemouth

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There were people on the pitch, Chelsea substitutes to be precise, the joy of everyone connected to the club overflowing. Pedro Neto had produced the equaliser with a vicious low drive from distance and if it did not turn out to be the statement victory that Enzo Maresca and his players wanted – a first against a so-called Big Six rival – they could see the merit in a battling draw.

For Arsenal, this was a better performance than some of those of late and yet it was not the result that Mikel Arteta had called for, the one to silence the noise that has built around his club. It was another example of them losing the lead in a big game – after the draws against Manchester City and Liverpool – and it meant they have not won in four Premier League games, a sequence that has yielded two points. They are now nine behind the leaders, Liverpool. Is it too much to recover?

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Ipswich had waited 22 and a half years for this, and how their vibrant support celebrated after nine seemingly interminable minutes of added time. It said plenty that their first Premier League win since April 2002 was entirely deserved, a clever first-half performance seeing them pull clear through goals from Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap before they passed a test of resilience in the second.

Rodrigo Bentancur’s header was all that Tottenham, disjointed throughout and never quite managing a late siege, could manage and the outcome was yet another feather in the cap for Kieran McKenna. The Ipswich manager began as an academy coach at Spurs and his side’s performance was a credit to him here.

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Eleven days after Manchester United routed Leicester under Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Carabao Cup here, the interim manager signed off with another easy-street win over the Foxes and so ends his four-game term unbeaten.

In all the Dutchman has three victories, and for this one he thanks Bruno Fernandes, who graced a 250th United appearance by scoring the first goal and causing enough trouble for the hapless Victor Kristiansen to bundle past his goalkeeper, Mads Hermansen, for the second.

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Villa pushed Liverpool hard, but clinical counter-attacks finished off by Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah were enough to send Arne Slot’s team five points clear at the top

Once the last strains of You’ll Never Walk Alone disappear into the night sky, a lone bugler plays the Last Post, the night before Remembrance Sunday. Exquisitely played, met with perfect silence, then a warm ovation.

The teams are out! Liverpool all red, Aston Villa all white. A bit like Real Madrid have come to town, three weeks early. A cracking few-pints-in atmosphere at Anfield, which reportedly rocked during the second half against Brighton last weekend. It’s usually one louder when the lights are on. The Villa support making their fair contribution to the noise as well. Here’s to everyone keeping it up.

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Yoane Wissa made it seven goals for the season as his double helped Brentford bounce back from Monday’s collapse at Fulham and beat Bournemouth.

The Bees needed a response after Fulham’s Harry Wilson scored twice in second-half added-time to stun them in the Premier League last time out. And after Evanilson took advantage of a Sepp van den Berg error to give the Cherries an early lead, Wissa’s header brought parity in west London.

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Substitutes Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley got the goals as Brighton came from behind to consign Manchester City to their fourth consecutive defeat

• Read Ed Aarons’ match report from the Amex Stadium

Brentford 3-2 Bournemouth

Crystal Palace 0-2 Fulham

West Ham 0-0 Everton

Wolves 2-0 Southampton

Brighton v Manchester City (5.30pm GMT)

Liverpool v Aston Villa (8pm GMT)

View the Premier League table

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Lucas Paquetá is struggling, Ruud van Nistelrooy nears Old Trafford farewell and will Luis Díaz play as a striker again?

Brentford have scored nine and conceded six in their past two Premier League home games. Their leaky defence did not cost them in victories over Wolves and Ipswich but they were shown up by Harry Wilson’s injury-time double on Monday night at Fulham to suggest things need to improve at the back. Wilson’s goals both came from crosses. Brentford allowed Fulham to cross the ball 43 times, although Thomas Frank was not too worried about it and was surprisingly relaxed that they led to two goals. With Ethan Pinnock and Nathan Collins, he does have centre-backs capable of dealing with the majority but it is a dangerous game to play. Bournemouth will have taken note and their fine wingers and full-backs will probably target the space afforded out wide. Will Unwin

Brentford v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Crystal Palace v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Everton, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v Southampton, Saturday 3pm

Brighton v Manchester City, Saturday 5.30pm

Liverpool v Aston Villa, Saturday 8pm

Manchester United v Leicester, Sunday 2pm

Nottingham Forest v Newcastle, Sunday 2pm

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Forest and Bournemouth shine again, Gordon provides Tyneside tonic, while Gomez and Solanke are winning over doubters

If Ruud van Nistelrooy was supposed to wash the nostalgia out of the Manchester United system then perhaps that was achieved, though maybe not as intended. If Rúben Amorim was distracted from preparing Sporting for Manchester City on Tuesday, he will be more aware of a United squad bereft of confidence. United’s first 60 minutes against Chelsea saw them fumble pathetically for creativity. Not even the presence of one of the club’s greatest strikers has lifted the finishing quality in a group low on goals. Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford were both bereft of touch and instinct; substitute Joshua Zirkzee’s signing remains a mystery. There was something of Van Nistelrooy in Rasmus Højlund winning Bruno Fernandes’s penalty, and the goalscorer’s knee slide towards the tunnel at the Stretford End. But there was to be no Ferguson-era ecstatic denouement. This United don’t do them. Van Nistelrooy has two games remaining until United seek the progressive future postponed by mistakenly retaining Erik ten Hag. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea

Match report: Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal

Match report: Tottenham 4-1 Aston Villa

Match report: Liverpool 2-1 Brighton

Match report: Wolves 2-2 Crystal Palace

Match report: Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City

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Manchester United and Chelsea demonstrate that boredom is a key part of the sport and an element of its beauty

Well, something definitely happened there. But what exactly? There is an affectionate joke about good, punchy Australian sports writing, which basically involves saying Here’s The Thing, right, then spelling out exactly what The Thing is in 800 brutally frank words, pounding The Thing into submission, shaking hands with The Thing, then, ideally, going off for a quick drink with The Thing.

What was the thing here? Trapped energy. Drift. Ennui. A good goal by Moisés Caicedo. The death-football of late-stage capitalism. Casemiro lying down a lot, often to surprisingly good defensive effect.

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A poor game came to life in the final quarter, when Bruno Fernandes’s penalty was cancelled out by a cracking volley from Moises Caicedo

Ruud van Nistelrooy’s pre-match thoughts

It’s been a week of mixed emotions – Erik leaving, taking over, Wednesday’s game and how it went.

There’s been no contact [with Ruben Amorim]. It’s been communicated to the players that I’ll be in charge until next Sunday and then the new manager will take over. That means we can focus on trying to win the next three games.

A League Cup meeting, instantly forgettable were it not for one of football’s greatest-ever juxtapositions of beauty and the beast. Ron Harris had many qualities, but subtlety was not one of them.

Here he is heaving into view from way out, belabouring George Best’s ankles with a proper old-school reducer. It’s a textbook piece of uberviolence – a vicious sliding tackle perfectly timed and executed, as graceful as brutality can ever get – but it was all for naught. Best ignored Chopper’s galoot-isms, somehow retained his balance – despite being kicked almost horizontal in mid-air – and continued his run.

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Dominic Solanke’s two goals led a second-half comeback as Spurs ended Villa’s unbeaten run

The teams are in the tunnel, the PA system is revving up and the players hit the field.

A short word on the dropped word from James Maddison from Ange: “It’s just what we need today. But there’s no doubt that Madders will be coming on today.”

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Newcastle beat Arsenal 1-0 at St James' Park thanks to an early header from Alexander Isak, making it six league games since Arsenal kept a clean sheet. Mikel Arteta said: "It's not about the hope of winning the title, it's about being our best version every single week. Today, certainly, we weren't our best version."

• Mystifying culture of entitlement has left Arsenal unable to ride out adversity

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Kieran McKenna branded referee Tim Robinson’s decisions “unacceptable” after Ipswich were denied a penalty and had Kalvin Phillips sent off against Leicester.

The Ipswich manager accused Robinson of taking centre stage when, with Ipswich leading through a fine Leif Davis volley, the official turned down what looked a clear penalty when Conor Chaplin was barged over by Abdul Fatawu.

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Defeat at Newcastle latest example of defensive laxity and attacking bluntness that is undermining title challenge

Is that, then, it? On the first weekend of November, is Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge over for another season? Perhaps not quite, because Rodri’s absence and Arne Slot’s inexperience in the Premier League mean this could be an unusual campaign even before the possible consequences of the charges against Manchester City are taken into account. But if Arsenal are to win the league for the first time in 21 years, it is going to take a monumental improvement and, at the moment, they look a side who have lost their way and self-belief.

As a rule of thumb, in this era it takes a minimum of 90 points to win the Premier League. That means teams can only afford to drop 24; Arsenal have already dropped 12 – which is to say half what they can lose with a quarter of the season played. It’s true that the fixture list has not been kind, that they have already played their away games against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle, but still, their margin for error in the 28 games that remain is extremely limited.

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