Good defending is the mark of champions. At Anfield, where Arsenal had not won in the past 13 visits, Mikel Arteta followed the orthodoxy of locking down once his team took the lead. This time around, it proved successful. Arsenal did not allow the occasion or the stadium to get to them as they have on previous occasions. In April 2023, Granit Xhaka entangling with Trent Alexander-Arnold energised home fans previously despondent that Arsenal were 2-0 up. It finished 2-2. On Sunday, Liverpool zipped around zestfully, as Andoni Iraola requests, though the final-ball quality was lacking. That owed a great deal to the organisation of the Arsenal defence. Ahead of the last international break, Brighton set a blueprint for getting the better of Arsenal in winning 3-0. Liverpool's squad profile might have made a similar strategy possible though Iraola's outfit is struggling to create chances in the same volume as Brighton or his Bournemouth team.

No shots on target for Liverpool, leaving them with zero margin for the errors that preceded Kai Havertz's decisive goal. Nine points behind Arsenal with a quarter of the season gone, Liverpool's season risks becoming a developmental one, a time to regroup and rethink rather than challenging for the title. The squad Iraola inherited still bears the weight of the failed rebuild of the summer of 2025. Florian Wirtz was both unlucky when rattling the crossbar and too ponderous when a second-half chance dropped his way. Alexander Isak is nothing like the busy-bee striker his manager asks to press from the front. Milos Kerkez continues to be chaotic. Bradley Barcola, 2026's headline signing, played his part in the flurry that followed Arsenal's goal but faded, as did his fellow forwards. There are shards of light. Jérémy Jacquet and Trey Nyoni (aggressive – perhaps too aggressive – and involved in his hour on the field) are young players who can go places. Though it may take some time for Liverpool to get there as a team.

The small matter of a glamorous trip to Barcelona comes first for Aston Villa but it is a quirk of timing that Unai Emery's next Premier League assignment should come at Old Trafford. It is the historical stature of Manchester United that triggered all the controversy over Jamie Carragher's claim that Emery should be looking to climb the football chain and consider succeeding Michael Carrick should he be sacked. But even if Emery perceived United as a step up (as Youri Tielemans did when trading clubs in the summer, and look where that's led him), would he prosper there? At Villa Park, he has an increasingly strong hold on how all team affairs are run, as signalled by his nominal upgrade from head coach to manager when he last signed a new contract, and he will visit the Camp Nou looking to extend Villa's 100% start to their Champions League campaign. Having suffered dips at Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, there is no certainty Emery's methods would work in the febrile cauldron that is Old Trafford. After all, Manchester United will never be Aston Villa.

Bournemouth are in full flow, winning each of their past six matches, scoring 16 goals. All while Alex Scott is absent with the muscle injury sustained with England. Those goals have come unanswered. Marco Rose has added a defensive solidity not always present during Iraola's era. Last season's goal difference was +4. Djordje Petrovic has not conceded a goal since the 5-1 defeat at Chelsea on 10 October. "The Chelsea game was the moment we changed all momentum," said Petrovic after beating Leeds. Rose has admitted testing opening weeks in the Premier League had altered perceptions to force a rethink. "Everyone in the team, starting from the attackers, is doing their job offensively and defensively," Petrovic said. Since Stamford Bridge, commitment to the collective has paid impressive dividends. "If you have that intensity with the attackers, it gets easier, we have a good group of players with quality and huge rotations in each position."

Roméo Lavia completed his first 90 minutes as a Chelsea player during their Carabao Cup defeat by Liverpool last Wednesday. It was a major milestone for a player who has struggled to stay fit since joining from Southampton three years ago. Lavia's injury record invites caution but the midfielder is making progress. He followed up his performance against Liverpool with his second consecutive 90-minute display when Chelsea beat Manchester United 2-0 on Saturday. "As long as I feel good, I'll do everything possible to help the team to get this type of result and I'm feeling good, so I'm very happy with my performance," Lavia said after starring against United and creating the opening goal for Morgan Rogers. "All I can say is that the work that we're doing with all the people at the club is going well. It's just about keeping it going. Hopefully it can continue this way."

With Tottenham cruising towards a third successive Premier League victory, against 10-man Crystal Palace, Roberto De Zerbi decided the time had come in the 88th minute. Luca Williams-Barnett is rated as one of the best prospects to emerge from the Spurs academy in many years but the attacking midfielder has had to be patient for his first league appearance as De Zerbi's side struggled at the start of the season. The 18-year-old made an instant impression with a sensational first touch and pass after replacing Mathys Tel before setting up Mohammed Kudus for a great chance, to make it 3-0, that was spurned. We can expect to see more of him if De Zerbi gets his way. "My career is clear: when I have young, talented players, nothing changes," he said. "I thought it was the right moment for him in the Premier League – but as a quality, he's a big, big talent."

After Fabian Hürzeler masterminded Brighton's fine 1-0 win at Manchester City that lifted the Seagulls to 19 points, only two behind their hosts, the manager pointed to the culture he is building. "For me, I think it's a lot about connection. We work in the people business. And we speak a lot about players. But for me, it's more important to understand the person behind the player. And therefore, we try to build a lot on connection. We try to build a lot on culture. Because I think having the right values, having the right connection, the right relationship between the players helps you massively on the pitch. On the pitch, they need to rely on each other, trust each other. And you can only build this on and off the pitch. And therefore, we try to emphasise this a lot."

The oddity about Brentford this season is that they're playing well, have a very good chance of qualifying for Europe for the first time in their history, and yet there's been a feeling that they've been leaving points behind. Inexplicably, victory over Nottingham Forest was their first win in five and their first clean sheet since the 3-0 demolition of Chelsea six weeks ago. Perhaps the biggest issue in terms of improving on last season's ninth-placed finish was whether Igor Thiago could match his tally of 22 goals. He's started this campaign slowly, but got his second of the season with Brentford's second against Forest. The finish, which looped in off Nikola Milenkovic, was fortuitous and not entirely convincing, but more significant perhaps was the way he stepped back away from the defenders, creating space for Jaidon Anthony to pick him out. That instinct will always generate chances, and the finishing will surely return.

The word at Ipswich is that Julio Enciso has come back to the club with an increased level of maturity after a year in Ligue 1. He occasionally sparkled at Portman Road on loan from Brighton in the second half of the doomed 2024-25 season but lacked consistency. This season he already has two goals, a pair of assists and has become Ipswich's chief creator. Enciso is comfortably top of the club's chances-created chart, the Paraguayan's tally of 14 is nearly double the next names on the list – Sasa Lukic, Emersonn and Abdul Fatawu, who have eight apiece. After the Tractor Boys had managed to turn a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit at Hull, Enciso's thwack from the edge of the box earned his side a vital point. He will be required to keep producing these kinds of moments if Gary O'Neil's side are to do what they couldn't last time around and stay in the top flight for consecutive seasons.

Régis Le Bris, Sunderland's head coach, said post-match: "First year in Europe, you will have on average 10 less points. It's our reality." The reality is Sunderland have 12 points fewer than they did after nine games last season and if you extrapolate their current form over 38 games it amounts to relegation. Only Crystal Palace have conceded more goals and only Nottingham Forest have scored fewer. It would stun no one to learn that those three clubs make up the bottom three, but what is a surprise is that three promoted sides are all looking capable of avoiding the drop. A word for Coventry, who have responded to a chastening start to the season by winning three of their past five. Beating the teams around you is important in the fight for survival and this was a big tick in that box.