Thursday, September 24, 2026

Premier Table Match Week 5: Seagulls Defeat Arsenal; Manchester City Fires Five Past Sunderland; Brentford Dispenses With Chelsea; Everton Run Continues; Iraola Wins In Return To Bournemouth; Pressure Mounts On Michael Carrick

Hopes for a battle at the top of the Premier League table increased last weekend as Brighton inflicted the first loss of the season upon defending champion Arsenal 3-0 in the weekend’s headline. The Gunners vaunted defense seemed to take the day off against the high voltage Brighton attack which has now scored a league leading 16 goals this season. Arsenal seemed unprepared for the attacking mindset of high scoring Brighton as shots went unchallenged and normally composed Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya quickly seemed rattled by the ensuing shooting gallery. The defeat marked the first non-winning effort in 10 Premier League matches dating to last season for the Gunners.

Manchester City, meanwhile, moved three points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the table with a 5-3 victory in a goal fest at Sunderland. Antonio Semenyo’s brace led the scoring outburst for Manchester City which overcame a hat trick by Sunderland’s Bryan Brobbey. And, of course, Erling Haaland scored once again for the Citizens as he found the net for the fifth time this season.

Brighton moved into third place with its victory over Arsenal, followed by a group of four clubs which all trail the Seagulls by a point. Brentford is fourth on goal differential after a convincing 3-0 west London derby victory over Chelsea. Star striker Igor Thiago found the net for the first time this season as the undefeated Bees exploited a Chelsea side which seemingly has questions across the midfield and its back line. The Blues have conceded more goals than any other Premier League side. Half of those, including Thiago’s opener on Friday, have come on set pieces, a failure which must count as an indictment against new manager Xabi Alonso and his staff. Brentford supporters are more than happy with Manager Keith Andrews, who has only improved on the solid foundation left by longtime Brentford manager Thomas Frank.

Everton Manager David Moyes was left little in the way of a solid foundation when his ownership stripped his roster down to the bone this past transfer window. Ownership’s selling spree left Moyes with just a single player at no less than three different positions, including striker. Moyes, however, has made do with his patchwork squad to keep the Toffees undefeated in five matches after Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Ipswich. The scrappy way Everon has managed to score this season was highlighted by a winner which saw a hopeful long distance shot by James Tarkowski deflect off teammate Thierno Barry and into the Ipswich goal for a 1-0 Everton win at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The Toffees kept a clean sheet for a third time in five matches.

Liverpool, meanwhile, notched a third consecutive league clean sheet in Andoni Iraola’s triumphant return to Bournemouth where only last season he qualified the Cherries for Europe. Standing now on the visitor’s touchline, Iraola watched Alexander Isaak claim victory for Liverpool with his 57th minute goal in the Reds’ 1-0 victory.

Like Iraola, Oliver Glasner jumped ship to a perceived better career stop when he bolted Crystal Palace after a Conference League winning season. The Austrian manager took up the reins at Nottingham Forest, and the transition has been a bit bumpier than that of Iraola with Glasner’s only victory to date coming at beleaguered Aston Villa. On Saturday, the Tricky Trees became the first side to lose to newly promoted Coventry when Glasner and his new charges fell 1-0 to the Sky Blues in front of the faithful at the City Gound. It was the first league goal for Coventry this season.

Things have not been great for Glasner’s former side either. New manager Pierre Sage has not impressed at Crystal Palace though the Eagles were able to hold Leeds from scoring in a goalless outcome at Elland Road on Sunday. Undefeated Leeds has conceded the joint (Everton) fewest goals in the league, but Manager Daniel Farke will lament not being able to penetrate a Crystal Palace defense which has shipped 11 goals this season, just one less than the league’s most porous defense in Chelsea.

Newcastle returned from a far more unfortunate visit to Elland Road last week to show its resiliency under new manager Matthias Jaissle. The Magpies were pummeled 4-1 by Leeds last week but responded with a 2-1 win over previously undefeated Hull at St. James’s Park on Saturday.

Tottenham Hotspur got no lift from the home crowd as the league’s bottom side turned in a poor performance in a 3-2 loss to Aston Villa, another struggling side. The final score was misleading as Spurs scored two goals after the 85th minute once Aston Villa began prematurely celebrating a walkover win.

No one had reason to celebrate the goalless draw at Craven Cottage between Fulham and Manchester United. Manchester United was dreadful as early pressure is mounting on Manager Michael Carrick after just one win in five tries so far. Fulham, meanwhile, threw away the chance for new manager Alvaro Arbeloa’s first win by conceding an 89th minute goal to the Red Devils’ Matheus Cunha. The Premier League now goes on extended international break with no matches until October 10th.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Premier Table: Match Week 5 Preview

Arsenal faces its second major test of the young season this coming Saturday. Two weeks ago, the undefeated and untied Gunners edged Chelsea in front of home supporters at the Emirates. This week, the Gunners must travel to Brighton and face a Seagulls squad which not only leads the league in goals scored but by a wide three goal margin over the second most prolific side in Chelsea. Brighton have found the net 13 times in their four matches. Only Leeds has held Brighton to fewer than three goals over the first four league matches for the Seagulls. Defending Premier League champion Arsenal, meanwhile, has allowed only one league goal all season.

Fresh off its controversial, referee enabled, Manchester derby win over cross-town rival Manchester United, Manchester City returns to the Etihad to host Sunderland, 2-0 losers to Arsenal last week. In one of the more classless exercises of the new season, Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta refuses to just take last week’s win and focus on Brighton. The fiery manager is driving his club to protest a referee decision which went against the poor Gunners early in their 2-0 defeat of the Black Cats.

Manchester United heads down to London to face Fulham, which grabbed an unexpected point at Liverpool last week. Liverpool Manager Andoni Iraola, meanwhile, takes his club on the road this week to a venue well known to him. The Reds visit Vitality Stadium to face Iraola’s former club, Bournemouth, on Sunday. The Cherries are yet to win a Premier League match since their former manager left for Merseyside.

The other club in Merseyside remains undefeated and in the top half of the table despite gaping holes in the squad. Everton Manager David Moyes will try to get more blood from his stone of a team when the Toffees host Ipswich Town on Saturday. Unlike Everton, whose ownership held tight to the purse strings this past transfer window, Ipswich invested heavily to try to ensure promotion season survival. So far, so good as the Tractor Boys are level on points with Everton following a win over Crystal Palace last week.

Things should be even more difficult for Crystal Palace this week when the Eagles take on an energized Leeds side at Elland Road. The Whites sit third in the table after firing four goals past Newcastle on Monday.

Newcastle returns home this week to face another surprising top four side in the newly promoted and undefeated Hull Tigers. The Tigers conceded their first goals of the season in a draw at Chelsea last week and have yet to lose in their return to the Premier League. It remains to be seen, however, how well and how long the squad depth of this promoted side can hold up.

Another promoted side already seems doomed to relegation and a quick U-turn back to the second tier. Coventry City has conceded 10 goals in losing all four of their matches this season. The Sky Blues travel to the City Ground on Saturday where new Nottingham Forest Manager Oliver Glasner will be looking for his first home win of the young season.

Tottenham Hotspur, home to Aston Villa this weekend, is the only other club besides Coventry not to have found the net this season. Villa, meanwhile, has only scored once in four matches and has earned only a solitary point, one less than dreadful Spurs. This match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium could be hard on the eyes.

Match Week 5 begins on Friday with a west London derby between Brentford and Chelsea. The Blues travel to Brentford hoping to change their current trajectory where they were held to a draw at home versus Hull one week after losing at Arsenal. It’s been almost five years, however, since Chelsea last won a Premier League match at Gtech Community Stadium.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Premier Table Match Week 4 Results: Haaland Goal Gives City Victory At Old Trafford; Arsenal Wins At Sunderland; Leeds Climbs Table With Dominant Win Over Magpies; Hull leaves Stamford Bridge With Another Point; Liverpool Attack Fizzles In Goalless Draw With Fulham; Spurs And Coventry Still Chasing A First Goal

Manchester City played 70 minutes with ten men but came away with all three points in a 1-0 Manchester derby at Old Trafford. Phil Foden fell victim the dark arts of Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and got himself kicked out of the game in the 23rd minute. Fernandes surreptitiously kicked a prone Foden. The referees saw Foden’s retaliatory kick and City were down a man. Manchester United, however, couldn’t capitalize on their advantage and fell victim to Haaland’s fourth goal of the season. The 60th minute winner was controversial as Enzo Fernandez influenced the game winning play while in an offside position. The referee’s association issued an apology hours later for blowing the call, and the two VAR officials have been removed from their upcoming weekend assignments, but that obviously does Michael Carrick and his Red Devils little good. Carrick’s men, however, did not do themselves much good with a catatonic attack which could be the greater issue moving forward.

The Citizens, meanwhile, stayed level on points with Arsenal, which had its own referee issue in a 2-0 win at Sunderland. Mikel Arteta was livid after the match at the Stadium of Light over a penalty call which could have put Sunderland in the lead in the 55th minute of a scoreless struggle. Fortunately, Gunner goalkeeper David Raya saved the penalty try and Bruno Guimaraes put Arsenal ahead three minutes later for his first league goal as part of Arteta’s squad. Bukayo Saka’s 96th minute goal was icing on the cake.

Right behind the two top clubs are two surprises. Leeds poured in four goals against Newcastle on Monday after scoring just five in its three earlier matches. The 4-1 victory, Leeds’s second of the season, launched the West Yorkshire side into third position in the table. Manager Daniel Farke is working under an expiring contract and must feel good at the moment regarding his negotiating leverage.

Newly promoted Hull, meanwhile, went into Stamford Bridge and emerged with a point to stay in the top four. Hull conceded its first two goals of the season, but Mohamed Belloumi scored twice for the Tigers. Chelsea flirted with a more painful home until Joao Pedro scored the equalizer in the 66th minute.

While Hull has made itself right at home in the Premier League, former Chelsea player and Manager Frank Lampard is going through hell with his newly promoted side. Coventry was blasted at home 5-0 by Brighton to become only the second club in Premier League history to lose their first four matches without scoring a goal. The first club to do so, in 2017/18, was Crystal Palace which has a different problem this season.

The Eagles are the only club to have conceded more goals than Coventry City this season after a dispiriting 3-2 loss at Selhurst Park against newly promoted Ipswich Town. Ziann Flemming scored the 90th minute winner for Ipswich Town against a Palace side whose defensive struggles were compounded by Axel Disasi’s 34th minute red card. The Eagles have now conceded two or more goals in every game this season.

The sole Crystal Palace win this season was against a struggling Fulham side last week, so it was a bit surprising to see the Cottagers, who conceded three to the Eagles, hold Liverpool to a scoreless draw at Anfield on Saturday. Things had seemed to be coming together for a reconstituted Liverpool attack before Saturday proved much, much more work is needed.

Liverpool’s issues, however, pale in comparison to goal starved Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa. Spurs have now gone over 400 minutes without a goal in their winless season to date after a scoreless home draw versus Everton Saturday. Aston Villa’s first goal of the season was wasted in a 2-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest. Everton, with its own problems in attack, will happily take Saturday’s away point which keeps them undefeated on the season, albeit with just a single win.

Nottingham Forest Manager Oliver Glasner has his first win in charge of the Tricky Trees after Igor Jesus deposited the winner in the 88th minute to keep Villa winless on the season.

Brentford and Bournemouth, meanwhile, remain two of the four teams to have drawn three out of their four league matches after the Bees and Cherries played to a 2-2 deadlock at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. Kevin Schade equalized matters for the visiting Bees with his second goal of the game in the 56th minute.

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