For our weekly column of knee-jerk reactions, here are six conclusions we’ve come to based on the latest weekend of action in the Premier League.
We usually prefer to reserve judgement, take our time over things, and delve deep into the data before making sweeping statements.
But we also enjoy this weekly column where we look back at the weekend’s Premier League action and come to some conclusions that are probably just a little bit hasty.
So, without further ado, here are six knee-jerk reactions to the latest round of fixtures.
Liverpool Are Back (and So is Mo)
There has been a lot of writing off of Liverpool and Mohamed Salah recently. After four consecutive league defeats, Arne Slot’s side were, apparently, finished. And Salah, after a six-game goal drought in all competitions across September and October, was past it.
Lo and behold, the reigning Premier League champions and the player who last season topped the charts for both goals and assists aren’t, in fact, rubbish after all.
It was only one win, and it was far from the most convincing we’ve seen from Liverpool under Slot. They rode their luck at times, with Villa carrying a decent threat against a defence lacking in confidence, twice hitting the woodwork.
But it was a crucial win to end their dreadful losing streak, and it came against a team who had won their previous four league games, including beating Manchester City last time out. It didn’t really matter how Liverpool won this one, so it isn’t all that relevant that they weren’t at their best, but there is certainly plenty to say for keeping a clean sheet and beating a team as good as Villa.
Similarly, Salah’s goal was one of the easier ones he’ll score, cutting out an awful pass from Villa goalkeeper Emi Martínez to finish into a near-empty net, but it follows on from a quality finish against Brentford last week to make it goals in back-to-back games. With his goal, he moved level with Wayne Rooney for the most goal involvements for a single club in Premier League history (276).
All of a sudden, Liverpool are third and Salah is joint-sixth in the top scorers’ list on four goals. Catching Arsenal remains unlikely, but the defending champions are still one of the best teams in the country, and if anyone can create a title race this season, it’s them.
Rice is the Best Midfielder in the World
Declan Rice just seems to get better and better with every passing week, and this weekend he put in yet another exceptional performance that might just have cemented his spot as the most complete midfielder in world football.
He only did it against Burnley, who could well be back in the Championship next season, but in this well-oiled Arsenal machine that wins every week, barely concedes any chances – let alone goals – and looks in no way reliant on a single player, Rice increasingly appears to be their most important figure.
That’s because he can do it all, and he showed as much against Burnley. As he has done to such devastating effect this season, he put in a wicked delivery from a corner for an Arsenal goal – the opener scored by Viktor Gyökeres’ – and then scored a lovely header of his own to double the lead.
He completed 91.3% of his passes, and made five tackles, three interceptions and four clearances. It was the complete performance, the type of which we have grown accustomed to seeing from Rice.
He does so much for the team, both with and without the ball, and has become irreplaceable in Arsenal’s midfield. They have much better depth this season, but Rice probably remains the one player they simply cannot do without.
Cherki Can Take the Premier League by Storm
We have neither seen enough of Rayan Cherki since his summer move to Manchester City, nor have we seen anything like enough of him at his best.
But on Sunday afternoon at the Etihad Stadium, he produced his best performance in a City shirt and the clearest indication yet as to the quality he brings to Pep Guardiola’s team.
As well as countless deft and clever touches, the type of which you only see from true maverick midfielders, there were two first-half assists for Erling Haaland goals. Across all competitions in 2025, Cherki has now registered 2+ assists in five different matches, the most of any player for a side in Europe’s top five leagues.
For both assists, the France international put his new teammate clean through which, based on Haaland’s form this season, is basically a guaranteed goal. The indications from this game were that he can strike up a winning partnership with Haaland, and that in turn would essentially guarantee Cherki success.
There were also a few careless moments when he would try things that only an inexperienced yet supremely confident and creative player would that ended up giving possession away cheaply, including one, with the score at 2-1, that very nearly led to a Bournemouth equaliser.
But this was only his second Premier League start, and there may only be improvement from here.
Tottenham Are Broken and Thomas Frank Can’t Fix Them
Just 0.10 expected goals. That’s the total xG that Tottenham put up in their meek defeat to Chelsea on Saturday night.
It was the lowest by any team in a Premier League game this season. It was also the second lowest by Tottenham in any Premier League match in Opta’s record books, which for this particular metric go back as far as 2012-13. The only game in which Spurs have posted a lower xG total was an away defeat to Crystal Palace in September 2021 (0.06 xG), when they played more than a third of the match with 10 men.
“I have never been in charge of a team that has created that little in one game,” manager Thomas Frank reflected afterwards.
xG isn’t for everyone. Interim Celtic manager Martin O’Neill recently called it “total nonsense,” going on to say, “some people just use these words to try to sound clever.”
In the interests of deducing how bad this weekend was for Tottenham and not (only) to try and sound clever, there is a lot to glean from their miserable xG total.
In its simplest terms, statistically speaking, Spurs could have played out this exact performance against Chelsea 10 times before they created enough chances to score one goal. In other words, if they’d carried on playing as they were, they would have needed 900 minutes, or 15 hours, or almost two-thirds of a day, just to score once.
They have overperformed compared to their xG more than any other team in the Premier League this season, but given they can no longer rely on the world-class finishing of players like Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, they need to start creating better chances. The evidence of Saturday’s pitifully inadequate attacking performance suggests Frank might not be the man for the job.
Welbeck Deserves an England Recall
It admittedly doesn’t take that much for Danny Welbeck to be in the goalscoring form of his life, but he has been enjoying a run in front of goal that most strikers would be delighted with.
His strike in Brighton’s 3-0 win over Leeds on Saturday took him to six Premier League goals for the season. Only runaway leader Erling Haaland (13) has scored more.
But what is most remarkable about Welbeck’s run is how efficient he has been. His half-dozen goals have come from just 14 shots (one of which, as the below graphic shows, was from his own half) and, astonishingly, just eight shots on target. Despite now being 34 years old, and turning 35 later this month, he is as effective as he has ever been.
England don’t have tonnes of options up front, and other than Harry Kane, they have very, very few in-form goalscorers. Other than Kane (12) and Welbeck (six), the only other English players with three or more goals in Europe’s top five leagues this season are Mason Greenwood (seven), who isn’t going to get a call-up any time soon, Burnley’s Jaidon Anthony (four), West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen (three), Toulouse centre-back Charlie Cresswell (three) and Udinese’s former Aston Villa striker Keinan Davis (three).
Thomas Tuchel could do a lot worse than turn to Welbeck for the World Cup next summer.
This is Where Wolves’ Season Turns
For a fifth year in a row, Wolves have made a managerial change. This weekend, after taking just two points from 10 games at the start of this season, Vitor Pereira was sacked despite all the fine work he did last term.
Quite a lot of people have quite understandably grown tired of their way of doing things. It’s hard to have much sympathy with Wolves for their lowly position when they hire and fire managers so willingly.
But no matter what you think of it, you can’t deny that it works. They have finished no lower than 16th and as high as 10th in each of those recent years in which they have changed manager.
However, after such an awful start to 2025-26, they are very much up against it this time. Each of the five previous teams to earn two or fewer points from their opening 10 matches of a Premier League season have been relegated, and each of the last four have finished bottom.
If Wolves’ recent history is anything to go by, Pereira getting the chop will be the moment that their season turns around. Whether they can do enough to survive this time is the big question.
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