The Score: Phil Foden’s banana, Newcastle nosedive and the wild Brighton stat

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Hello and welcome back to The Score, my weekly column on the biggest talking points of the Premier League weekend. For the new season, we’ve given it a little revamp – with a new structure and some shiny bells and whistles at the end. Please let me know your (positive) thoughts on social media: @danielstorey85

You can hardly blame Manchester City’s players for using the last fortnight as the sole ingredient in an effective siege mentality. If you make the decision to join a club that is under serious investigation then it can hardly put you off your stride when the judgements come. For the players, the only business of football is football.

Still, the image of Phil Foden holding an inflatable banana in his post-match press interview was a little on the nose. That has become the physical symbol of supporter resolve, a famous item from a past era when the taglines and punchlines about City involved their underperformance, not cheating.

Victories at Anfield and at home to Ipswich have reinforced that this City squad is – at worst – the second best in the Premier League. They rebuilt their midfield and it is already purring. Erling Haaland has more goals than games played. The defence and goalkeeper are wobbly, but when you score three times you won’t drop many points.

This is a huge problem for the Premier League. It would have been far easier for them if the guilty verdict – with appeal to come – had caused a headloss within the defendants that had impacted upon their league form. We can now be certain that isn’t going to happen.

Phil Foden arrived for his post-match interview with an inflatable banana pic.twitter.com/15brfnndUb

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) October 17, 2026

Instead, the Premier League faces the nightmare scenario that a club found guilty of the most serious offences, on an industrial scale, leading their competition in the same season that their behaviour was proven.

That would be incredibly damaging to the reputation of the organisation (through no fault of their own, given they pursued the case so diligently). For supporters of other clubs, it would create a climate of futility in challenging those at the top. It would degrade the view of the league across the world, potentially harming negotiations in advertising and marketing deals.

This is why it is critical that the process is ended as soon as possible. It’s also why Manchester City should be minded to drag out the appeal for as long as possible: it gives them a reason to fight against perceived injustice (I know, I know, but that’s what they’re saying) and gives players and supporters a reason to stick together. The biggest migraine in English football just won’t go away.

Evidence of severe disconnect at Newcastle

My colleague Mark Douglas was on hand to give a deserved kicking to Newcastle United chasing a game with Dan Burn as an emergency striker despite spending £179m on forwards to replace Alexander Isak. Is that what Matthias Jaissle really meant by “vertical football”?

It epitomises a general disconnect at Newcastle right now. Most of the moves the club have made off the pitch – new song, new shirts, new pricing structures – have been met with opprobrium. The new manager, here in part for his Saudi Pro League connections, has started terribly.

And where is the joined up thinking? Newcastle spent around £250m on new players this summer, sold key individuals within the squad, got gazumped on their first choices and invested almost entirely in youth having lost experience.

Only one of the outfield arrivals has started more than four of their seven league games. Aladji Bamba, Bazoumana Toure and Ewen Jaouen cost almost £90m and share 150 minutes. Were these players bought for the head coach or the club? Do they fit Jaissle’s system?

Brighton lost their striker and started scoring

Brighton have won their last six matches in all competitions. If that wasn’t enough to convince you that they belong in the conversation for the top five, they also outclassed Arsenal during that run, have just won their local derby 5-0, and have scored 17 goals since they last conceded.

The pre-season worry was that Fabian Hurzeler’s team may struggle for goals with a group of novice attackers and Danny Welbeck leaving for Chelsea late in the transfer window. But the loss of a focal point centre forward seems to have aided the manager’s plan. It enables them to be more freeform and less predictable, midfielders, full-backs and wide attackers interchanging, popping up everywhere and swarming over opponents.

We’re seven games into their league season and three Brighton players have scored three or more league goals, three more have scored two and five more have scored. Nonsensically good.

Gameweek 7 highlights

Goal of the weekend – Diego Gomez (Brighton)

Huge fan of a goal that reduces the situation to the technique and composure of a single player and his ability to execute something absolutely outrageous. Step forward Diego Gomez, who had plenty of goal to aim at but who drilled his shot from the centre circle like it was a computer game. The rest of the game went pretty well for Brighton too.

"Would you look at that!"

DIEGO GOMEZ SCORES FROM THE HALFWAY LINE! pic.twitter.com/qmagVbGEb4

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 18, 2026

Statistic of the weekend

Erling Haaland has now scored 120 goals in 130 Premier League matches. Since he made his debut, he is 54 goals ahead of any other current Premier League player (Ollie Watkins). That’s quite dominating.

Villain of the weekend – Yehor Yarmoliuk (Brentford)

Sometimes footballers do things that make managers scream in anguish and vow that it really would be easier if they just got a job in which they didn’t have to rely upon other people not being incredibly dim. On Saturday evening, Keith Andrews was probably in one of those moods.

His team were beating Liverpool and had them on the ropes, only for Yarmoliuk to headbutt Jeremy Jacquet in the penalty area after a tangle between the two players. Brentford eventually lost a game they could and should have won.

Player of the weekend – Pedro Neto (Chelsea)

Now seemingly a fixture at right wing-back under Xabi Alonso, Neto clearly has the ability to take the ball past a man and drift inside onto his left foot.

What was most impressive about Saturday was how often he was able to get forward from a quasi-defensive role: more penalty box touches than any other player in the match and two first-time finishes through being in the right place when the ball broke loose.