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Last Friday night marked the enthralling return of the Premier League, with champions Liverpool overcoming a Bournemouth comeback to claim a dominant 4-2 victory at Anfield. This kicked off a brilliant four days of football, with the likes of Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Sunderland, Nottingham Forest and Leeds starting their seasons on the right foot with three points.
After the current Championship winners closed the opening gameweek with a controversial 1-0 victory over Everton, the many talking points from the first ten fixtures of the season can now be gathered and properly analysed. It may be early too make fair judgements of most players and sides, but how sides perform from the offset can often be a good indicator in how they’ll do for at least the first few months of the season at the very least.
From the new table toppers to those who have slumped downwards, here are five key takeaways from the curtain raiser of the English top flight.
Liverpool must find a better balance
Two late goals from Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah saw Liverpool over the line against Bournemouth last Friday in the first game of the 2025/26 campaign. Dutchman Cody Gakpo put the Reds into a comfortable 2-0 lead in the 49th minute after debutant Hugo Ekitike scored the only goal of the first half, coolly slotting home from close rage in front of the Anfield Road end.
Defensive openness allowed Bournemouth back into the game though, as the Reds continued to throw the kitchen sink at them despite a secure two goal advantage. Antoine Semenyo was at the double with two goals in 12 minutes, and though his side were eventually swept aside to see Liverpool win 4-2, his brace gave Liverpool plenty of room for concern.
Arne Slot opted for a very offensive-heavy midfield, with Dominik Szoboszlai starting deep in the eight next to Alexis Mac Allister, who played the deepest of the three but not quite as an out-and-out six, more forming a double-pivot with his Hungarian teammate behind German maestro Florian Wirtz. Though Mac Allister is more than suited to a deeper role, the experiment of playing Szoboszlai deeper has showed little upside, due to his lack of defensive expertise and positional unawareness when he’s playing deeper to where he’s used to.
A returning Ryan Gravenberch could be the answer to helping the champions balance their side better and not leaving them as exposed on the counter-attack, but even with the former Ajax midfielder’s reintroduction, his defensive qualities alone may not be enough to help properly screen this defence. Slot is clearly trying to transform his defence, switching to much more offensive full-backs in Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong (though the latter has been defensively solid throughout pre-season and continued that against Bournemouth).
It will likely take more than Ryan Gravenberch to fix this conundrum, but with a master tactician in Arne Slot at the helm and new additions to his backroom staff like former Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst to help also, Liverpool certainly have the tools to do so. They’ll have to figure that out soon though, with tough fixtures against Newcastle, Arsenal and Manchester United on the horizon.
Plenty of goal threat still at Tottenham
Thomas Frank got off to the perfect start as Tottenham Hotspur cruised to a 3-0 victory against Burnley. Though his side were the strong favourites coming into it, the opening matchday can throw twists and turns for some of the best sides in the league, especially when coming up against one of the newly promoted sides. Scott Parker’s side didn’t put of much of a fight though- which may well become a common theme throughout the tough season ahead of them- with Richarlison grabbing a brace before Brennan Johnson added a third in the 66th minute.
Goalscoring may prove to be an issue for Spurs this season, after former captain Heung-Min Son, who led the side for goals and assists last season on 16, departed for MLS just under two weeks ago. James Maddison also matched that tally last campaign, with nine goals and seven assists in 31 games. The English midfielder has been ruled out for most of the campaign with a ruptured ACL- a horrible bit of luck in what was set to be a big season for the 28-year-old.
Spurs showed no difficulty in scoring on Saturday though, playing free-flowing and intelligent offensive football that Frank became synonymous with from his time across the capital with Brentford. If they can keep the talent they have now fit, especially their final goalscorer Brennan Johnson, as well as adding to it with the likes of Eberechi Eze and Savinho before the end of the window, goals surely won’t be hard to come by for the Lilywhites this season.
As for Burnley, they’ve spent over £100m on new players this season, five of which started in their first game back in the league in two years. Despite this ambitious spending, the Yorkshire-based side still don’t look anywhere near ready to compete in the top flight. Defensively complacent and offensively blunt, their most recent result could be a sign of things to come this campaign, where they looked doom for a third relegation in five years.
Sunderland- the best of the new sides
What a start it was for Sunderland on Saturday, 3009 days on from their last Premier League game in May 2017. A second-half onslaught saw the Black Cats slam three goals into the back of the West Ham net to no response, which saw them go top of the Premier League for a few hours until Manchester City got their season off and running (more to come on them).
Sunderland played some delightful stuff, scoring a couple of great headers through Eliezer Mayenda and play-off hero Dan Ballard before Wilson Isidor added a third with an emphatic finish. If not for Danish debutant Mads Hermansen, it could have easily been four or five for the home side, who made two top saves throughout the game.
The Sunderland midfield of new lads Xhaka, Diarra and Sadiki were combative and energetic, despite it being only the second ever game they’ve started together after forming the midfield that beat Augsburg 1-0 nine days ago in the club’s second-from-last pre-season game. They weren’t the only new faces in Sunderland’s side though, with Simon Adingra and Chemsdine Talbi flanking Mayenda in the front three. It was an especially notable debut for Adingra, who bagged an excellent assist for Ballard in the 73rd minute. He looks set for a great season after joining from Brighton for £21 million, with the potential to establish himself as a Premier League regular at the age of just 23.
A performance brimming with positives for Regis Le Bris’s side, it was the complete opposite for Graham Potter’s side, with many fans already beginning to turn on the former Brighton and Chelsea manager. Even though his side dominated possession and ended up with more shots than the hosts, if not for Jarrod Bowen these numbers would not have been much fewer, with Bowen making most of them himself and keeping his side ticking over throughout the game.
If this form continues for the Hammers, who have won just five Premier League games all year, it could quickly become a season of disaster for them that may not see Graham Potter in a job for very long. His credit in the bank from his time at Brighton may be running low, with predictable tactics and a defensive system that seems much to easy to break down, a feature of his brand of football Sunderland were happy to expose.
Chelsea’s energy wares thin… to little surprise
More big spending and the momentum of becoming World Champions last month saw many pipping Chelsea as title contenders this season, with the Blues departing with out-of-favour figures like Joao Felix, Noni Madueke and Đorđe Petrović to name just some of the 11 players that have left Stamford Bridge for good so far this window. Their incomings, plentiful as ever, have also been impressive as Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap have arrived in West London to once again name some of their seven new faces.
None of their squad seemed to be up to scratch on Sunday though, as FA Cup champions Crystal Palace held them to a 0-0 draw. The bottom line of their performance tells you this was simply down to a lack of quality from both sides, with Dean Henderson and Robert Sanchez having quiet afternoons with nothing too much to test either of them. It seems the case though that this game will be burdened to be another game where VAR will be questioned, after James Bell sent referee Darren England over to the monitor for a supposed foul in Eberechi Eze’s free-kick stunner.
It was judged that Marc Guehi was less than a meter from Chelsea’s wall, breaking a rule introduced in 2019 that ruled it was a foul if a player was caught to do this. Though this is the first notable instance of VAR ruling out a goal for such a reason, it was bitterly disappointing to see a goal regardless of its quality chalked off for this, given the pedantic nature of such a rule.
Palace can probably still be happy with a point after also playing uninspiring football against the hosts, despite the success Eze enjoyed down the left hand side against Reece James. It may be viewed as a better result as the season goes on, but a frustrating ruling prevented what would have been a statement win to start what should be a campaign to remember ahead of their entry into the Europa Conference League this week, as they take on Fredrikstad Fotballklubb from Norway.
For Chelsea, a bore draw against Crystal Palace can’t be the only justification to suggest they can’t be part of a title race this season. The main cause for concern though was their energy in the second half, with most of their players looking lethargic which prevented any excellent attacks building up. This may become a common theme this season, after a very limited pre season due to their success in the new-look FIFA Club World Cup. With players looking overworked and tired, despite their multi-billion pound squad depth, this is what will happen to a side without a proper rest and will see key players fall like flies, something that’s already happened with Levi Colwill and Romeo Lavia.
Though Enzo Maresca’s side can now call themselves world champions, repetitive injury issues and lack of fitness and creativity are just two of the side affects that will come this season after their title win in the US. As the club enters a period where they need to start winning major trophies as the Clearlake project enters its fourth season, it’s certainly an issue they could have done without, unless the club are happier with a Club World Cup than a major trophy like a Premier League or Champions League title.
Arsenal win, but more positives for United
Riccardo Calafiori scored the only goal as Arsenal claimed an important victory at Old Trafford against Manchester United, though it was a highly preventable goal from United’s point of view as Altay Bayındır was easily brushed aside at the corner that lead to the goal came in. The Turkish keeper was only able to flap at the cross, meaning the Italian left-back was able to tap in from very close range to open the scoring in the first half.
Though the first half was very equal with both sides having glimpses in front of goal, the second 45 was not nearly as balanced with the home side dominating possession and the brunt of the chances. Mbeumo and Cunha combined in their first Premier League match together to cause the established Arsenal defence lots of problems, while captain Bruno Fernandes dictated play next to Casemiro in his new deep-lying role. United weren’t quite able to find the equaliser in spite of their efforts, especially thanks to David Raya’s excellence between the sticks.
Ruben Amorim’s side showed lots of positive signs for the season ahead after an abysmal 2024/25 campaign, attacking with purpose and defending well throughout the game. Alternatively, Arsenal had lots of causes for concern, despite being the side that took all three points. It was another underwhelming performance from Gabriel Martinelli on the left hand side, and Noni Madueke failed to make much better of an impression on his first Premier League game for the Gunners. It wasn’t a debut to remember for Viktor Gyökeres either, struggling to link up well with his teammates, a stark comparison to United’s striker on the day Matheus Cunha who caused countryman Gabriel and his partner William Saliba lots of problems.
Old Trafford is a difficult place to go to for the first game of the season, especially to come away with the win also, which is why it’s hard to be too critical of the North London outfit after Sunday’s game. However, when competing for the league title analysing performances can be just as important as analysing results taken, and after fellow title competitors Manchester City and Liverpool made such good starts, Mikel Arteta’s side will have to step up their levels quickly, especially with a trip to Anfield looming in just under two weeks time.
