Some might argue that there isn’t a clear-cut top tier after 10 weeks of the Premier League season, but is it safe to say that there is?
The reigning winners beat a nearby foe, the runners-up from the previous two seasons beat a team in the bottom part of the table, and Spurs are currently on top of the table and have wins over two of the other three sides.
Yes, there are four teams competing for the title right now.
Then what? Aston Villa wants us to be a part of that conversation, but we need to get a win against a top team after getting beaten by Newcastle and Liverpool early in the season. The Magpies and Brighton both look like they don’t have enough players to fight in the Premier League and Europe, but Manchester United joins them in the “next” level. Chelsea is likely also there.
West Ham is having a hard time with Brentford and Wolves in the third level. West Ham has too much striking ability to be played in David Moyes’ response shell.
The striking ability of those three teams keeps them out of the fourth tier, which is currently held by Crystal Palace, Fulham, and Everton, who are all bad at coming up with new ideas. Forest may be the only swing team in the league, but we hope that Taiwo Awoniyi’s health will help them win more games.
The teams in the bottom four, Bournemouth, Burnley, Luton Town, and Sheffield United, all look like they won’t be able to have a relatively easy season.
Where did we come from? Our writers Joe Prince-Wright, Nick Mendola, and Andy Edwards will talk about the 10 games played in England’s top flight during Week 10.
Liverpool is in the running for the title, and its best middle pair may have arrived.
Liverpool 3-0 Nottingham Forest
As a team that wants to be in the title race, Liverpool is smashing lower-level teams with a fair lot of recklessness. Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones aren’t quite ready to play with Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in the middle of the pitch, since Stefan Bajcetic is still green, Cody Gakpo isn’t reliable and is better served up top, Thiago Alcantara is hurt, and Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch are still new to the team. He has been scoring in Europe, though, and he looked pretty good on Sunday. More importantly, Szoboszlai was exciting, Mac Allister was strong, and the Dutchman made up the third member of their group. Liverpool tied Chelsea and Brighton, beat Newcastle and Villa, and lost to Spurs, so it’s too early to say how they’ll do against the best teams. But against Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth, and West Ham? 5-0 with a difference of 14-2 goals. Not bad at all (not having a tough Europa League group has helped, for sure) – Nicholas Mendola
Liverpool vs. Forest in the Extended HLs 10th Match Week
Remember how well Liverpool played against Nottingham Forest in their 3-0 win at Anfield in Matchweek 10.
A dozen mistakes were made by the hosts at Old Trafford, who were awful
Man Utd 0-3 Man City | Erik ten Hag reaction + What’s next for Man Utd? ]
Look: Even if Manchester City is the best team in the world at offence, defence, and having the ball, this is the Manchester derby at Old Trafford. It’s not that bad. It was, though. Even though Erik ten Hag’s season isn’t out of hand in the Premier League or the Europa League, his players are playing badly and can’t be forgiven. Last season’s huge growth has turned into a shrug of guessing on the game with no method in place. It was a mess from the start. Think about the risks Ten Hag took that didn’t pay off much. Haris Maguire and Jonny Evans were picked over Raphael Varane. Victor Lindelof kept his spot at left back while Sergio Reguilon sat down. Also not in the XI: $175 men in total Antony Mason Mount Also, Jadon Sancho is still “learning lessons” away from the team.
What could be better for Manchester City than beating someone by five goals? It’s possible that Manchester City is just messing around with a rival when they’re not at home. City’s defence was so well organised that United couldn’t do much, even when the Red Devils had exchanges that weren’t pointless. The champions had 10 more shots on goal than the guests, who had 21. xG was 3.93 to 1.03. It wasn’t even close. John Nicholas Mendola.
Being freed from Leicester is even better for James Maddison than was hoped
Crystal Palace 1-2 Spurs
Maddison and Heung-min Son both had more fun on Friday, especially after the break for halftime. In the 53rd minute, Maddison almost scored the first goal by himself. After getting custodian Sam Johnstone close enough to make a terrible mistake, they had to settle for a frantic clearing and a Tottenham throw-in. After the throw-in, Spurs quickly got the ball back, and Maddison finally caught it on the corner of the six-yard box. His shot went wide, but it hit defender Joel Ward so hard and too quickly that he could only poke the ball into his own net. After thirteen minutes, Maddison was heavily involved in the play that led to Spurs’ second goal, but he still didn’t get credit for adding to the score. Brady Johnson, a replacement wide, made a smart run into the left channel, and Maddison found him with a well-placed through ball. Johnson cut the ball back with his left foot the first time, and Son was waiting on the edge of the six-yard line, unguarded. — Arthur Edwards
PL Update: Tottenham avoids a scare late at Palace
Paul Burmeister, Danny Higginbotham, and Robbie Mustoe talk about Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace. Spurs now have 15 points, which is five more than any other team in the Premier League.
Same old story for people who are afraid to set goals Hi, Chelsea
Chelsea 0-2 Brentford
Once more, Mauricio Pochettino, his players, and the fans all knew what was going to happen to Chelsea. This season, many of the first halves have gone the same way: they had the ball most of the time, created chances, but snatched them away and were punished. Chelsea can’t keep missing these big chances if they want to win games. They don’t have a professional winner because Christopher Nkunku is still out. Still, the chances that other people are getting have to be taken. They’re really not that hard. They have only scored 13 goals in 10 games, so it seems to be more of a mental problem. Even though they played well against Arsenal last week, they should have been well ahead by halftime. The attack at Chelsea is very good, but Pochettino isn’t getting the most out of them. He needs someone to step up quickly. Mykhailo Mudryk and Armando Broja were not playing, and they will be right back in when they get back. This is because Chelsea needs players who are focused on one thing: shooting from anywhere and being direct. Even though it’s early in the season, their chances of making it to the Champions League may be over soon if they can’t calm down and score more goals. – John Prince-Wright.
Arsenal let loose on a team in the bottom half as a matter of course
Arsenal 5-0 Sheffield United
It was embarrassing for those of us who thought it would go in a different direction when one of the best teams in the Premier League went to play one of the worst teams. Arsenal looked like a team that had just played Lens, Chelsea, Man City, and Sevilla and was finally getting a break. The Gunners had almost 70% of the ball and stopped the Blades from scoring, which was an unbelievable 0.03 expected goals. They also took 10 of the game’s 12 shots. Arsenal’s midfield was great. Declan Rice was in charge, but Emile Smith-Rowe and Kai Havertz were also very active when they had the ball. Sheffield United couldn’t handle the pressure from Arsenal. Not many players will be happy with their days, but American back Auston Trusty was one of the best, and Vini Souza and Gustavo Hamer were tough on the left. — Nick Mendola
All of the goals from Matchweek 10 in the Premier League
Watch all of the goals from the 10th week of the 2023–24 Premier League season.
There is more VAR controversy and questions in the big six-pointer
Bournemouth 2-1 Burnley
Just before the end of the game, Burnley thought for a moment that Jay Rodriguez had tied the game. There was then a five-minute goal check by the VAR. Rodriguez was first called offside, but after a video review, it looked like he was onside, even though the green line in the still picture seemed to go through his head. Fans on both sides got tired of waiting and started singing, “This is embarrassing,” inside the stadium. That’s when Rodriguez was called offside. Even though it was the right call, this would be talked about for weeks if it happened in a more important game. Andrew Edwards
David Moyes has run out of time at West Ham
West Ham 0-1 Everton
The things David Moyes has done at West Ham deserve him a lot of time to get back on track after this bad run of form. But their very talented team played sloppy football for most of last season as they fought to stay up, and we’re already seeing the same thing happen this season. Moyes doesn’t have a lot of support from the West Ham fans. Moyes can hear the boos getting louder, even though his team won the Europa Conference League last year and is off to a good start in the Europa League this year. Declan Rice’s departure in the summer was a hammer blow, but James Ward-Prowse, Edson Alvarez, and Mohammed Kudus were all great additions that made up for it. Does Moyes have what it takes to lead West Ham forward? The fans have been saying for a while that they want a more forward-thinking coach, and it’s become very clear that they want one after the poor performance against Everton. It is easy to see how a manager who likes to attack could get more out of this group of players than Moyes has been able to do every week in the Premier League for the past year. Still, West Ham fans should be careful what they wish for.- John Prince-Wright
West Ham vs. Everton in extra HLs 10th Match Week
John Dominic Calvert-Lewin comes through again for Everton as his goal was the difference in the game as they beat West Ham United at London Stadium and earned important three points.
As the fixtures pile up, seagulls trip and fall
Brighton 1-1 Fulham
It was always going to be this hard for Brighton this season. After doing so well to get into their first-ever European campaign, Roberto De Zerbi’s team is beginning to get tired, which is normal. The same thing happened to Swansea, Leicester, Southampton, and West Ham when they unexpectedly made it to the European tournament. And the way Brighton plays, Roberto De Zerbi wants a lot of pressing and a lot of intensity. That works if you have a big team, but Brighton makes so many changes every week that their play doesn’t flow well. They lost their shape badly in the second half against Fulham, and that’s how the Cottagers scored the equaliser. We knew this would happen again. They just got their first-ever European win, which was very emotional, against Ajax, a European giant that has been having a rough time lately. Now they have to keep playing in the Europa League and the Premier League. – John Prince-Wright
The pair of Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins is like a unicorn
Aston Villa 3-1 Luton Town
Villa is good, a whole team. There is a World Cup winner in goal, Douglas Luiz is almost the best midfielder in the world, and the fullbacks really push forward. So good are the centre backs that Tyrone Mings isn’t even there. But what makes Aston Villa a threat to win every game in every competition is Moussa Diaby, an electric megastar forward, and Ollie Watkins, who plays full forward and sets up the game for the two men up top, which is a pretty rare sight.
That leaves only two Premier League games left to play. In those two games, Everton and Liverpool, either Diaby (3 goals, 3 assists) or Watkins (5+5) has scored. And Villa can easily be one of the top four teams this season if they can figure out how to play well against stronger teams. This is because their attack has two different types of threats. It’s because the other teams aren’t even close. — Nick Mendola
It will be too hard for tired Magpies to beat rested Wolves
Wolves 2-2 Newcastle
The Wolves are a good team. End of sentence. Even if Gary O’Neil makes them even better, it’s not likely that they’ll fall far below these levels any time soon. However, Wolves isn’t quite good enough to expect an easy win over Newcastle, even though the Magpies are coming off a Champions League game against Dortmund and have a lot of injuries. Given what’s coming up, Newcastle doesn’t have enough depth right now. When it comes to a trophy fight or a race for the top four spots right now, Eddie Howe may need to rest key players against Manchester United this coming Wednesday or next weekend against Arsenal. Because Elliot Anderson was hurt and Sandro Tonali was suspended, the Magpies couldn’t add a midfielder late in the game, which could have changed the ending. Wolves also couldn’t afford to go off track from their plan. The game ended in a draw, which made sense since it rained late. There were a total of 28 fouls. — Nick Mendola
Wolves were “a massively tough game,” according to Eddie Howe, manager of Newcastle United. He talks about the hard-fought 2-2 draw between his team and Wolves at Molineux.
