1) Rodgers is not solely to blame at Anfield
In the end, Brendan Rodgers’ reign as Liverpool manager was terminated in a phone-call from the United States. It was fitting there was distance between Mike Gordon, the president of Fenway Sports Group who made the call, and the manager who paid the price for several months of alarming results and performances considering the owners’ reluctance to take responsibility for their part in the club’s reverse.
2) Arsenal flip from impotence to excellence again
Arsenal have scored 10 goals in a week, in the process thrashing two top-five teams to go second in the table while also (hang on …) losing woefully 3-2 at home to Olympiakos and all-but going out of the Champions League at the first hurdle. Louis van Gaal, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Anthony Martial: we’ve got this covered. But put a team in front them with a 35-year-old half-speed Esteban Cambiasso and a striker who looked overwhelmed at West Brom and Arsenal played like frightened kittens. There are some reasons you might offer as to why they were so much better against United. Petr Cech was back for David Ospina and produced the game’s outstanding save as opposed to the game’s outstanding howler. Manchester United were weirdly subdued, failing, for example, to press the obvious advantage Martial had over Per Mertesacker one on one. Plus Arsenal always look better with Aaron Ramsey in the starting XI, if only for the bite and energy. Really though, the suspicion is that Arsenal’s ability to be sublime and utterly limp with more or less the same personnel goes back to the uniquely fixed-gear nature of this team. Against United Arsenal’s goals were the goals of a team whose component parts are thrumming together in perfect synchronicity, goals that require three, four, five players to make exactly the right decision. Teams however are funny things. They will not always function like this. At times, as against Olympiakos, it might help to win other ways, to win disappointingly, without grace or style or rhythm. In their defence it is worth remembering Arsenal are essentially just a first XI right now, with no real depth to change the way the team play, no Danny Welbeck for some muscle and speed or Jack Wilshere for midfield drive. But they have a run now of eight winnable league matches that opens up the chance of another of those surges before they play Manchester City just before Christmas. The evidence of the bad days seems conclusive enough. Arsenal do not look like Premier League title winners. And yet in between – tantalisingly – on days like these, they really do.
3) Saints savour deadly duo
It was perhaps inevitable that Ronald Koeman would be asked about Sadio Mané after Southampton’s 3-1 win at Chelsea on Saturday and if the superb display the 23-year-old delivered had increased the likelihood of him becoming the next player to leave St Mary’s for a more high-profile club. “You know in our situation that kind of player, if they play like today there will come a lot of interest,” replied Koeman in the manner of someone resigned to the inevitable. Privately, however, the Southampton manager may be pleased that the focus on Mané has turned many eyes away from Graziano Pellè, who was also excellent at Stamford Bridge. The Italian led the visitors front line fantastically, pinning back Gary Cahill at will, keeping possession when required and, most notably, scoring Southampton’s third goal with a crisp strike. That goal was also Pellè’s seventh of the season and having got 16 during the last campaign, his first for Southampton, there is little doubt this is player who has well and truly adjusted to life in the Premier League. The task for Southampton is to now keep hold of him and Mané, with the pair shaping up to be the most dynamic and deadly strike partnership in the country. Sachin Nakrani
4) De Bruyne can be Sterling’s inspiration
Raheem Sterling was taken off at half-time of Manchester City’s 6-1 rout of Newcastle United on Saturday. At that stage the score was 1-1 at the Etihad Stadium and Sterling was struggling. The 20-year-old said afterwards he had a back problem, so this was why Jesús Navas replaced him. While Sterling added he should be fine for England’s upcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers, he is currently out of form. From 1-1 City went on to score five more, the same tally the outstanding Sergio Agüero registered. This was hardly due just to the introduction of Navas, though he did create Kevin De Bruyne’s swoosh of a volleyed finish on 53 minutes. Yet before being taken off Sterling had been running into trouble, mis-controlling possession, and passing to no one. His finishing also continues to be an issue. De Bruyne looks the finished article that Sterling is yet to be. There are three and a half years between them and De Bruyne has elevated his game since an unsuccessful spell at Chelsea, so the Belgian can, and should, offer inspiration to Sterling. Jamie Jackson
5) Sunderland’s stock is slipping
When Reading’s Steve Clarke was asked about speculation linking him to the Sunderland vacancy created by Dick Advocaat’s resignation he dismissed it in jocular fashion. “My wife would kill me,” he said, suggesting that life at the Championship club is more attractive than taking charge of a struggling Premier League side who command at least 40,000 for every home game and would regularly fill their stadium to near 50,000 capacity were mid-table consistency to be achieved. Now either the north-south divide really is becoming a very big problem in England or have Sunderland turned into such a poisoned chalice only desperate men would consider taking charge at the Stadium of Light? After all stints on Wearside hardly enhanced the reputations of Steve Bruce, Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio and Gus Poyet. Louise Taylor
6) Hughes demands more from frustrating talent
Marko Arnautovic had a fine game for Stoke City in their win over Aston Villa, scoring the winning goal and having another incorrectly ruled out for offside. He can be frustrating at times but he is an outstanding player when he is in the mood. If Mark Hughes can coax that kind of performance out of him on a more regular basis, Stoke’s attack will surely thrive. “He’s done very well,” Hughes said. “He’s a big powerful guy and when he’s travelling at speed in the box he’s very difficult to defend against. He’s got to continue that and be consistent.” Jacob Steinberg
7) Pardew talks up French lieutenant
Wilfried Zaha’s tormenting of Chris Brunt was the most eye-catching feature of Crystal Palace’s comprehensive victory over an alarmingly passive West Bromwich Albion, but Alan Pardew seemed keener to highlight Yohan Cabaye’s cerebral contribution. Understandable, since the manager went to lengths during the summer to convince his board that breaking the club record to prise Cabaye from PSG would not shatter Palace’s unity. “It was a deal that knocked us out of kilter and the chairman and the board worried about that,” says Pardew of the £12.8m purchase of Cabaye in July. “But I assured them that there’s no player that can knock on my door and say ‘I want the same money as Cabaye’. If you increase the wage structure because someone has come in and they don’t deliver, then you have got a problem. But they can all come and knock on my door on Monday and ask for more money, saying ‘I want Yohan’s money’. And they’ll get a simple answer: ‘You’re not as good as him’.” Pardew went on describe Cabaye as his “lieutenant” and compared their relationship to the one once enjoyed by Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane. Palace’s performances so far have backed that up. It was impossible not to wonder, meanwhile, how much certain Albion players enjoy playing for Tony Pulis. Paul Doyle
8) Pochettino closer to solving Spurs’ post-Europa conundrum
Tottenham’s post-Europa League problems last season were well documented – Newcastle, West Brom and Stoke had all won at White Hart Lane by mid-November in games directly after European nights – and did little to pique their manager’s appetite for the competition. Perhaps it had more to do with Mauricio Pochettino’s mastery of his pack than the relentlessness of their schedule: following this term’s Thursday night endeavours Tottenham have beaten Crystal Palace and drawn at Swansea, the latter a match they had plenty of chances to win, and the Argentinian says that success on all fronts comes with better knowledge on his own part of how to deal with the situation. “Only when you know your squad and your players can you take the right decision,” said Pochettino after an entertaining match at the Liberty Stadium in which he started nine of the 11 who had begun their game in Monaco three days previously. “This is our second season here, we know our players much better and know who can play Thursday and Sunday.” It is heartening that one of those appears to be Christian Eriksen, who has struggled for fitness this season but followed 89 minutes against Monaco with an influential 90 in south Wales. His superb pair of free-kicks showed a string to Tottenham’s bow that they had not been able to fully utilise this season, but the bigger picture is that Pochettino’s team – now unbeaten in seven league games – may just be closer to satisfactorily answering the many and frequent challenges that come their way. Nick Ames
9) Ranieri’s Kanté addition looks astute
The re-assessment of Claudio Ranieri’s managerial worth by some pundits continues, after the Italian’s decision to leave out much-vaunted winger Riyad Mahrez was justified by the victory at Carrow Road. True, his offer of pizza all round remains on the table as once again the Foxes failed to keep a clean sheet, but against a Norwich side which Alex Neil said had been set up to deal with a counter-attacking team, and conspicuously failed to do so, they looked altogether more solid than previously this season, while retaining their threat going forward. The truth is pace, most notably that of Jamie Vardy and Jeffrey Schlupp, and the outstanding tackling of N’Golo Kanté, have been just as important to Leicester’s early success than the impact made by the creativity and shooting ability of Mahrez. Ranieri said Kante’s ball-winning stats were the best not just in the Premier League, but in all the English leagues – and when much is made of Ranieri’s sticking with the players who served Nigel Pearson so well at the end of last season, his addition of the dynamic Kanté in midfield cannot be overlooked. Richard Rae
10) Cherries’ style needs added steel
Bournemouth can acknowledge that the Premier League boils down to those elusive, fine margins but they need to act upon them and fast. “The big difference is that when the opposition gets a chance, they score,” said the Bournemouth left-back Charlie Daniels, before his side’s 1-1 draw with Watford on Saturday. But on the brink of half-time, goalkeeper Artur Boruc gifted Odion Ighalo his fifth goal of the season, after failing to clear a simple back pass from Sylvain Distin. It was another costly defensive lapse for a team that conceded on average less than a goal per game during their promotion from the Championship last season. Later, Glenn Murray, on his full debut, failed to convert a spot-kick to put the Cherries ahead. After the match, Eddie Howe admitted he was concerned about the way his side have been dropping points. Bournemouth are an extremely tight-knit group, on and off the pitch, with a fine fluid style, but they need to re-establish the steeliness that made them champions last season. That challenge is not eased by another injury to another key player, with the captain Tommy Elphick set to miss at least the next month of action with an achilles problem. Ben Fisher
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