Ranking All 20 Premier League Teams’ Performances on Matchday 7

Kevin Danso’s 17th-minute red card can only partly be used as mitigation for this desperate implosion. Sunderland were already 1–0 down (thanks in part to a Danso blunder) and could have conceded another by the time the defender was dismissal.

“If I have to be honest with you, we are not good,” the Black Cats fullback Nordi Mukiele damningly admitted. “Maybe because we became arrogant, maybe. This is what I think.”

“It’s easy to analyze this game,” Hull City boss Sergej Jakirović quietly fumed. “We were out of everything.”

The Tigers were dutifully outshot, outrun and out-thought by their under-pressure hosts. Fulham dominated every conceivable aspect of the contest, making a mockery of their 1–0 margin of victory. Jakirović offered a more telling reflection that the scoreline: “It was men against boys.”

This was an damning contrast of control and chaos for Newcastle United. While Aston Villa played with the collective calm of a team benefitting from a three-second radio delay, the Magpies were left to thrash around in real time, haphazardly haring about the place, never too near to goal.

For a team that is so willfully gung-ho, and spent more than $225 million on forwards in less than two years, Newcastle were left to rely upon the 6'7" merchant of chaos, Dan Burn, as a late striker option.

“We were not smart enough,” Matthias Jaissle curtly concluded.

During Frank Lampard’s playing days at Chelsea, Tottenham’s home ground was uncharitably known as “Three Point Lane” rather than White Hart Lane, such was the lopsided nature of the London rivalry at the time.

Lampard’s Coventry City left the capital with zero points on Monday after failing to capitalize upon a strong start and fast finish to a night of rare euphoria for the hosts.

It says everything that David Moyes hailed Harrison Armstrong’s crunching challenge on Josh Acheampong as “the best part” of the goalless first half.

Considering the Toffees conceded two cheap goals while taking just two shots in a tame second 45 minutes, that tackle was probably the highlight of Moyes’s afternoon. And it was a foul.

It says plenty about where Leeds are at that Daniel Farke could come away from a draw with Manchester United and be justifiably disappointed with a point. Yet, this was not a case of wasted chances or bad luck.

Leeds played the occasion rather than the opposition in the first half, timidly prodding at a United side very much there for the taking. As underwhelming as the visitors have been, even this iteration of the Red Devils can’t be given a 45-minute head start and still lose.

The bright lights perennially beaming down upon Manchester United seem to be more blinding than most. A much-improved display against Atlético Madrid inspired Lisandro Martínez to give Jason Wilcox a public job review. A performance at Elland Road worthy of little more than a disinterested shrug somehow convinced Michael Carrick to hail a “fresh start.”

There was a fresh tactical approach which spelled out United’s place in the current hierarchy. Carrick didn’t deploy a new formation so much as set his players with 11 individual tasks, each one predicated on what their Leeds counterparts were doing at that exact moment. This grand show of inferiority did not tighten a leaky rearguard or improve their porous press but it did at least get a point.

The James Bond villain Auric Goldfinger tells 007: “Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” Arsenal were their own worst enemies for the third match in succession at the City Ground.

Just as in the wins over Leeds and Lille, Mikel Arteta’s champions didn’t bother turning up for the opening hour. Just as in those narrow victories, the team’s substitutes inspired a win which didn’t offer an overwhelming amount of confidence.

Arteta has publicly vaunted the positives of this sequence, namely Arsenal’s strength in depth and an ability to “manage the emotional part” of matches. Yet, if fans hope to endure any overriding emotions aside from frustration (followed by relief) it may be an idea to start brightly for once.

This was an 80-minute masterpiece in how to play Arsenal from Nottingham Forest. Martin Ødegaard was put in a jail of red fabric, Bukayo Saka shunted to the fringes and Eberechi Eze bulldozed into a halftime withdrawal. Matz Sels didn’t even have to make a save. Unfortunately, Forest’s goalkeeper would end the game without denying Arsenal’s only shot on target, which was diverted by a cruel double deflection.

The only criticism for Oliver Glasner’s side was a familiar one: no clinical composure. It’s now more than eight hours of soccer since Forest last scored a goal in front of their home fans.

Andoni Iraola may have been more concerned with the two players who ended the match in the treatment room, but there was plenty of positives for the Reds to take from a win that has to be put in the context of Yehor Yarmoliuk’s first-half red card.

Alexander Isak got another goal, Jérémy Jacquet looked even more imperious than Virgil van Dijk and Florian Wirtz was a central creative hub, misleading statistics or not.

“Bananas, no bananas, it makes no difference to me,” Ipswich manager Gary O’Neil sighed. It would appear to make no difference to Manchester City either.

Putting aside the tumultuous off-field machinations clanking around in the background, Enzo Maresca has set about constructing one of the best starts the Premier League has ever seen. City were not as faultless as their record may suggest against Ipswich—they have an odd habit of delivering more porous displays at the Etihad this term—but when there is a striker as remorselessly relentless as this current iteration of Erling Haaland, the league leaders don’t look like slipping on a banana peel just yet.

This was like being briefly transported back to May 2025. James Maddison was scoring goals, Dejan Kulusevski was on the pitch and Tottenham were winning home matches. There’s been three managers, 20 signings, a new institutional figurehead and more than $700 million spent but Spurs finally got back to that hazy memory of better days.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side did their best to delay this gratification for that little bit longer against Coventry, starting shakily before a nervy conclusion was mercifully spared by an increasingly common phenomena, a Ben Davies goal.

Marco Rose put Bournemouth’s rampant victory down to “mentality.” The Cherries were unified in one mindset of barreling straight through their limp-wristed visitors to earn a laughably one-sided win.

Bournemouth racked up 29 shots to Sunderland’s three, amassed an outrageous xG of 4.23 to 0.07 and set up camp inside the opposition’s penalty area with 56 touches.

“Today was not just about playing nice football,” Xabi Alonso reflected. Very little nice football was played by either side in an arm wrestle of a game defined by Emiliano Martínez’s concerning head injury.

Yet, Chelsea’s ability to win in ugly circumstances will be a minor triumph for Alonso, who has seen his side’s scintillating attacking play countered by a flimsy rearguard. “We needed a result like this,” the manager pointed out after Chelsea racked up the club’s first Premier League clean sheet at the 24th attempt.

Álvaro Arbeloa needed this. After six winless games to start his managerial career in the Premier League, the former Real Madrid manager was staring down the barrel of a swift dismissal. Fulham belatedly got that win and with a performance which vindicated all Arbeloa’s stubborn beliefs.

“Today was finally the day,” he smiled.

This was a symphony from Brighton. Five goals, one of which was a contender for the best of this season or any other, against your chief rivals is a day to savor. As poor as Crystal Palace were, this was a moment to celebrate the Seagulls, whose scoring blitz ensured that only Barcelona have racked up more goals across all competitions this season.

“We have to stay very humble,” Fabian Hürzeler insisted without much success. “I’m more happy that the fans have a good night out.” That part he could at least count on.

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