Category: Football (Soccer)

Arsenal’s title tilt is built on solid defence, Chelsea miss Cole Palmer and what happened to clampdown on shirt-pulling?

“One-nil to the Arsenal” may not be thrilling but it is certainly effective. Sunday’s victory over Crystal Palace was Mikel Arteta’s side’s third by that margin in nine Premier League games. Last season, Arsenal managed that result five times in the league, while also drawing 1-1 in seven matches. Clean sheets in just half of those might have made for an intriguing title race. For all the noise surrounding Arsenal’s attacking talent, their defence is just as vital. It is their solidity at that end of the pitch that will probably lead them to glory, with three goals conceded in nine top-flight games so far. Sunday also marked a century of games across all competitions since they have conceded more than twice. The last to put three past David Raya? Luton – remember them? – back in December 2023. Sam Dalling

Match report: Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace

Match report: Aston Villa 1-0 Man City

Match report: Brentford 3-2 Liverpool

Match report: Manchester United 4-2 Brighton

Match report: Everton 0-3 Tottenham

Micky van der Ven scored twice and led Tottenham’s effective rearguard action at Everton to maintain Thomas Frank side’s excellent away record

3 min Chance! Grealish and Mykolenko combine to push Everton into the box, but nobody can get a shot in. Then Ndiaye wriggles down the right, past Spence, and cuts back to Beto – who can only deflect it to Grealish. His shot is well blocked by … someone.

2 min Everton go long and for one mad moment it looks as if two of their players are through, but the ball bounces kindly for Vicario.

Vítor Pereira had to be escorted away from the touchline after an angry post-match exchange with the supporters with whom he was sharing pints and fist bumps when steering Wolves away from relegation with six successive wins last season.

Six months to the day since they last won in the Premier League, 3-0 against Leicester, the Wolves manager’s frustrations appeared to boil over after his team’s fightback from 2-0 down was ended with Lyle ­Foster’s 95th-minute winner.

A Ruben Amorim pirouette and revolving fist-pump greeted Bryan Mbeumo putting Manchester United 3-0 up and told the tale of how precious this third consecutive league victory is.

Yet the goal came on 61 minutes and still United found themselves clinging on at 3-2 deep into added time before Mbeumo smashed home his second. Almost instantly Anthony Taylor blew for time and “Glory, Glory Man United” blared out at Old Trafford.

Bryan Mbeumo scored twice as United survived a spirited Brighton comeback to make it three wins in a row

35 secs: Mbeumo loops a cross in from the right. Fernandes wafts a header wide right. A bit more pace on either and United were off to a flyer.

Everyone takes a knee to send out the message that there’s No Room For Racism … then the hosts kick off. Brighton are kicking towards the Stretford End in this first half.

Mo Salah’s spectacular late goal couldn’t rescue Liverpool from a fourth consecutive league defeat

2 min Ajer stabs a long pass down the left towards Schade, forcing Mamardashvili to come out of his box to clear. That means the first long throw of the game…

1 min And they’re off!

Newcastle’s new chief executive, David Hopkinson, is presiding over a “100-day review” of all areas of club operations. It is the sort of management exercise beloved of senior executives across assorted companies but the reality at St James’ Park is that almost every department is largely a hostage to first-team fortunes. In other words, if Eddie Howe’s team fail to qualify for the Champions League again next season everyone will suffer the consequences.

Given the odds are overwhelmingly against Newcastle lifting that trophy next spring, they desperately need to hit their Premier League stride and start clambering up the table.

Goals from Brendan Aaronson and Joe Rodon did the damage as Nuno Espírito Santo’s winless start at West Ham continued

More Daniel Farke, speaking to Sky, and an explanation of his goalkeeping selection: “First of all, we have to say Karl Darlow is always reliable and done a really solid job when we needed him. We make no secret out of it that we have signed [Lucas] Perri as number one. Overall we had a difficult week. We had a few players struggling with a few physical problems. We tried to find a good mix. We cannot afford to play without all of them.

Andy Irving is a cult hero at West Ham. Ironically so far, though the club are calling out for a hero who isn’t called Jarrod Bowen.

Perhaps taking an extended holiday after being sacked by Nottingham Forest would have been a more sensible next step for Nuno Espírito Santo. Rather than being on a peaceful cruise, he is captaining a sinking ship with his West Ham defenders playing their role by being all at sea in defeat by Leeds.

Brenden Aaronson and Joe Rodon were allowed space in the box to put Leeds two up within a quarter of an hour. Leeds faded in the second half, offering West Ham a chance to fight back but the visitors lacked quality in the final third and could muster only a late consolation goal through Manuel Fernandes. The defeat leaves West Ham second bottom of the Premier League nine games into their worst start to a season in 52 years, and their only win came against their current head coach.