The Premier League leaders have amassed an enormous plus-20 goal difference already but Manchester United and top teams in Europe are also relentlessThese are historic times. Just look at the top of the Premier League table, where the two Manchester teams are divided only by the most dizzying of goal differences. It is not unprecedented for a team to have a goal difference of plus 20 or more after seven games but it is extraordinarily rare. It happened four times in the 19th century and three times in 117 years since, Manchester City this season becoming the latest side to achieve the feat.People think of the early days of the Football League as wild times, with disorganised defences coping miserably...
Everton’s defence has gone walkabout, Swansea and Southampton are serving up stodgy fare and Antonio Conte may rue being in a tougher league than Serie AChris Hughton, the Brighton & Hove Albion manager, said it all when he highlighted how his team had not been “out of sight” against Arsenal, just as they had not been against Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season. On both occasions, the final scoreline of 0-2 hinted at respectability. Which, in truth, was Brighton’s priority. The gap to the Premier League’s top six clubs yawns like a chasm and Hughton’s approach at the Emirates Stadium – an approach born out of necessity – was characterised by damage limitation. Hughton used a 4-5-1...
Once a position for the energetic and combative, Manchester City showed it has become one for those who can exploit the space in front of them to shape a gameThis is what the Premier League has been waiting for since Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City. There had been hints of it before, most notably in the first half of the derby at Old Trafford last season, but City’s performance at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was the first time a Guardiola side in England has so thoroughly dominated another member of the elite from start to finish. All the familiar tropes were there – the domination of possession, the rapid transitions, the tenacity at winning the ball back; all that...
He may be only 20 and not really a No9, but the Brazilian showed at Stamford Bridge just why he could prove so crucial in his first full season for CityGabriel Jesus will have more spectacular games than this. He will no doubt make the highlights reel more often and contribute more eye-catching moments of skill and craft than he did in Manchester City’s 1-0 victory at a relentlessly boisterous Stamford Bridge.This, though, was something else, a performance of deeper attacking gears from City’s inside-forward, turned-false-nine, turned out-and-out central striker. Up front on his own, Jesus played with real heart and skill at the Bridge, never faltering in his energy and movement, never letting his levels drop, and doing just...
Sean Dyche was worked up about nothing, Mark Hughes hopes life for Stoke will get easier and Ronald Koeman played his last cards to get Everton out of troubleIf Brighton survive this season – and they survived this game thanks to several Newcastle misses and some good goalkeeping – there is every chance we will be talking about the signing of Pascal Gross as a masterstroke. The German midfielder with a picture-perfect delivery has been involved in all of Brighton’s Premier League goals, and was instrumental again at the Amex in the 1-0 win over Newcastle when his free-kick homed in on Dale Stephens, who headed down for Tomer Hemed to finish. The value of an accurate set-piece taker cannot...