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5 things we learned from the Premier League in week five
It was an action-packed weekend of Premier League football that featured shocks, comebacks and 32 goals. With the season now well underway, narratives are beginning to form and a few managers are already under pressure. With that in mind, here are the 5 things we learned from the Premier League in week five.
Stand up to Man City and you will rattle them
It has been said over the last two seasons that the seemingly invulnerable Man City can be unnerved at if you stand up to them, rather than sitting back and allowing their marauding forwards to gradually wear you down.
Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Leicester and Newcastle were the only sides who managed to execute this strategy in the league last season and, on Saturday, Norwich shocked the country by copying the blueprint to perfection.
Norwich’s bravery in their 3-2 win shouldn’t be understated. It’s all too easy for a newly promoted side to go into their shell against the might of City but that isn’t Daniel Farke’s philosophy and his refusal to be overawed has caused what already might be the season’s biggest upset in just its fifth week.
An interesting statistic is that Man City have come from behind to win just once in the league since Guardiola took over. Naturally this is, in part, due to how often the score first in matches. However, it also gives hope to other sides hoping to follow this formula and cause an upset, not to mention Liverpool who have already opened up a five point lead at the top.
Arsenal are still Arsenal
Whilst City’s capitulation was a shock and totally out of character, an upset that was less surprising was that of Arsenal, who continually lurch from the sublime to the ridiculous.
With an opportunity to go joint second away to the worst side in the league so far this season, would Arsenal would show a ruthless streak and dispatch The Hornets or would they meltdown in typically farcical fashion?
Arsenal overcame a bright start from Watford to take a 2-0 lead through a double from the superb Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. For more sides with top four ambitions the match would have been over. However, with this Arsenal defence, a two goal lead is never enough.
It’s easy to be wise after the event but once Tom Cleverley pulled a goal back after a laughable Arsenal goal kick was intercepted, most of the viewing public must have realised that the equaliser was coming.
Sure enough in the 81st minute, David Luiz gave a penalty to hand Watford their second. The Brazilian had given away three penalties in 160 matches for Chelsea but has given away two in four since moving to Arsenal. He is a player who tends to be as good as those around him, world class with the likes of John Terry beside him but taking him to Arsenal is like throwing petrol on a burning house.
Arsenal’s defensive issues are hardly news and question must be asked why, instead of addressing them during the summer, Unai Emery opted to spend £80m on Nicolas Pepe instead. They are questions which, if he can’t answer, might cost him his job.
Lampard’s kids are alright
Frank Lampard wasn’t able to strengthen any aspect of his team in the transfer window. However, with an academy like Chelsea’s that isn’t proving to be a problem.
The Blues legend has seamlessly integrated Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori into his side and was rewarded on Saturday when all three scored as Chelsea routed Wolves 5-2. In fact they have scored all 11 of Chelsea goals this season, with Abraham scoring 7 and sitting atop the Premier League top scorers table.
Whilst, sadly, it seems inevitable that Chelsea will abandon this principle and splurge £200m next summer once the ban has lifted, it is enormously heartening to see a club who are as culpable as any for causing the spiralling transfer fees of recent years find success by turning to their academy. Even if it was only because they had to.
Sheffield United’s bright start is fading fast
Everybody loves an underdog story, so everyone cheered when Sheffield United claimed four points from their opening two matches and were sitting pretty in eighth place. It certainly gave the critics who wrote the Blades off before the season began pause for thought.
Three games on and Chris Wilder’s side have only added one additional point to that total, though that admittedly came in a stunning comeback from two goals down against Chelsea. Regardless, they have slipped down to 15th place and now sit just a point above the relegation zone.
It won’t get any easier and the prospect of facing Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal and a potentially resurgent Watford in their next four games looks daunting. The Blades will be underdogs in each of those matches but cannot afford to let their spirits drop as, if they don’t start picking up points again, their early heroics will count for very little.
Wolves have been found out
In a mini-league comprising just last season’s top seven Wolves would have finished third, demonstrating how much of a thorn in the side of the big boys they were.
They didn’t concede more than three in the league all season and they actually beat Chelsea 2-1 when they visited Molineux. However, ten months on from that victory they were systematically dismantled in the same fixture by Chelsea’s kids.
Five goals conceded from six shots on target is a statistic that will give the Wolves goalkeeper, Rui Patricio, nightmares for weeks. Of greater concern is that it was eighth goal they have shipped in two games and they haven’t kept a clean sheet since a stalemate with Leicester on the opening day.
Whereas the Foxes have kicked on since then though, Wolves have regressed and are now 19th in the table with just three points on the board. It seems as though the side who took the league by surprise last season have been well and truly found out.
With fixtures against Crystal Palace and Watford next, Nuno Espirito Santo has an opportunity to get his team back on track and will need to because, should this rut continue, one of the managers of last season will find his job in the balance.
