Premier League Weekend Review: Leeds United Dominates
The Premier League’s fourth weekend did not so much unfold as detonate.
A centre-back scored from another postcode. A 34-year-old, at that. A No 9 masterclass in Leeds. Another in Sunderland. Red cards, tactical pivots, promoted upstarts refusing to know their place. Strip away the VAR noise and the table, and what’s left is performance — who actually played well when the whistle blew.
Here’s how the 20 stack up on that basis alone.
1. Leeds United – Relentless and ruthless
Leeds United 4-1 Newcastle United
Elland Road crackled. Leeds didn’t just beat Newcastle, they chased them out of the place.
Daniel Farke’s side came flying out of the blocks and never really eased off. The first half was a siege: wave after wave of white shirts, Newcastle clinging on, desperate for the interval. Jayden Bogle seemed to exist in three positions at once, charging forward, recovering, and, by pure accident, getting himself on the scoresheet when he blocked Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s header into the net.
Calvert-Lewin was monstrous. He bullied Sven Botman and Malick Thiaw all night, dominated in the air, pinned his markers, and still had the quality to finish and create. A goal and an assist barely scratched the surface of his impact.
Noah Okafor drifted in from the left, full of invention, and got his reward with a goal. Behind them, the midfield three of Anton Stach, Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka ran Newcastle into the ground, suffocating any attempt to play through the thirds.
Farke called it “top-class”. Hard to argue.
2. Brighton – Dunk lights the fuse
Coventry City 0-5 Brighton
Two words: Lewis Dunk.
The Brighton captain, 34 years old and playing centre-back, sauntered onto a loose ball and sent a 30-yard strike arcing into the top corner. A goal-of-the-season contender, hit with the calm of a man rolling a pass across the back line.
That was the exclamation mark on a demolition job. Fabian Hürzeler’s side were missing Yankuba Minteh, Kaoru Mitoma and Georginio Rutter — one Premier League appearance between them this season — and still Brighton are scoring at will, averaging more than three a game.
Coventry’s defending helped, but Brighton were merciless. Malick Yalcouye punished hesitation at the back with another impressive display, the kind that makes Swansea’s use of him last season look baffling. Charalampos Kostoulas produced a piece of juggling brilliance for one goal, then Dunk strolled up to lash in that outrageous long-range effort.
In midfield, Pascal Gross and Yasin Ayari knitted everything together, both getting on the scoresheet, both dictating tempo. Brighton were a step ahead in every department.
3. Nottingham Forest – Glasner’s grip tightens
Aston Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Oliver Glasner didn’t just get a win. He got a performance that looked like a blueprint.
Forest came out after half-time as if they’d been plugged into the mains. They hunted everything. First to every loose ball, aggressive in the press, confident on the ball. Aston Villa simply couldn’t live with the intensity.
Liam Delap was the standout. Within a minute of the restart, he smashed in from distance to give Forest the lead, then kept tormenting Villa’s back line. He headed into the side-netting, had another ruled out, and gave his team a focal point Villa never found.
Xaver Schlager and James McAtee controlled midfield. Schlager’s diagonal switches repeatedly opened the game up, and he almost scored with a header from Daniel Muñoz’s cross. On the right, Muñoz ran riot, and once Ian Maatsen limped off, Villa were down to 10 and exposed on that flank. It was no surprise Forest’s winner came from that side, Morgan Gibbs-White adding a deft flick in the build-up.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, Neco Williams plucked a ball out of the sky with such nonchalance it deserved its own highlight reel.
4. Manchester City – Ten men, total control
Manchester United 0-1 Manchester City
Forget the VAR farce for a moment. Look at how Manchester City turned a red card into a tactical stranglehold.
Phil Foden’s dismissal after 23 minutes — a straight red for kicking out at Bruno Fernandes — should have tilted the derby towards Manchester United. Instead, it exposed them. Enzo Maresca reacted instantly, reshaping City to deny United the thing they crave most: space in transition.
Out went Rayan Cherki at half-time, a bold call given his creative talent. In came Iliman Ndiaye, whose work rate and ball-carrying were exactly what the situation demanded. He ran, he carried, he bought time and territory. Erling Haaland compared him to Neymar in flashes. It wasn’t entirely fanciful.
Behind him, Elliot Anderson covered every blade of grass, the embodiment of City’s work ethic. With 10 men, they sat deeper, waited, and gave United nothing to counter into. United’s best efforts came from distance, and City looked the more coherent side throughout.
A derby, down to 10, managed with icy clarity.
5. Arsenal – Champions dig in
Sunderland 0-2 Arsenal
This was not the Arsenal that shredded Chelsea. This was something else: cold, hard, awkward work.
At a snarling Stadium of Light, Sunderland gave the champions a fight. They pressed, they went long into Brian Brobbey, and they made it nasty. Arsenal had to roll up their sleeves.
They did. David Raya, the most in-form goalkeeper in the division, produced the pivotal moment, saving Enzo Le Fée’s penalty. Within moments, Arsenal were ahead through a thunderous strike from Bruno Guimarães, who came off the bench and changed the game with that long-range hit.
Christos Tzolis, roughed up at Villa Park a week earlier, responded in the right way here. When a decision went against him, he didn’t sulk; he sprinted half the pitch to slide into a tackle. That edge is becoming part of Arsenal’s armoury.
Sunderland never folded. Arsenal never flinched. The champions won ugly. That matters.
6. Hull City – The promoted side that refuses to bow
Chelsea 2-2 Hull City
Hull arrived at Stamford Bridge as supposed relegation fodder. They left having made a mockery of that label yet again.
Sergej Jakirović’s team didn’t just cling on for a point. Late on, they were chasing all three. If Mohamed-Ali Cho had made better contact with Ryan Giles’ latest pinpoint cross, they might have taken them.
Hull have now made the third-best start of any promoted side in Premier League history: eight points from four games. Out of possession, you know what’s coming — a narrow, compact 5-4-1 in a low block. But with the ball, they can hurt you. Mohamed Belloumi, all subtle touches and sharp movement, scored twice and caused Chelsea’s defence constant problems.
The work rate is ferocious. Deep into stoppage time, Regan Slater was still tearing around, mugging Valentin Barco in the 92nd minute. This team does not stop.
7. Fulham – Arbeloa finds a foothold
Liverpool 0-0 Fulham
Alvaro Arbeloa needed a response. He got one at Anfield.
After a bruising start to the season and public criticism from their own head coach, Fulham produced a disciplined, intelligent display. A clean sheet away to Liverpool told one story. The way they limited Liverpool’s chances told a better one.
David Affengruber came in for his Premier League debut at centre-back and looked assured. Ahead of him, Alex Iwobi played higher on the left, drifting inside into the “pocket” role Arbeloa wanted, dovetailing neatly with Antonee Robinson. That left flank caused Liverpool problems.
Josh King, meanwhile, was relentless: spinning in behind, twisting Dominik Szoboszlai with a sharp chop, stretching the game. Fulham should probably have nicked it, Jeremy Jacquet clearing Gonzalo Garcia’s effort off the line to deny them.
The goal never came, but the structure and spirit did. At last.
8. Bournemouth – Easy on the eye, hard on themselves
Bournemouth 2-2 Brentford
Marco Rose liked what he saw in attack. Who wouldn’t?
Bournemouth are quickly becoming the connoisseur’s choice: slick, brave, creative — and maddeningly wasteful. They led again. They failed to win again. For the fourth straight game, they couldn’t hold a lead.
Some of their football was outstanding. One late move, starting in their own half and flowing through Ryan Christie, Alex Scott, Tyler Adams and Marcus Tavernier, carved Brentford open. The finish from Rayan was tame, and that felt symbolic.
Scott was excellent aside from his end product. Antonio Silva, Rayan earlier in the match, and Scott himself all passed up big chances. Evanilson’s movement and hold-up play dragged Brentford’s back line around, with Silva repeatedly finding him from deep.
Brentford boss Keith Andrews called the Brazilian “a tricky customer”. The problem for Bournemouth is that individual errors and poor finishing keep turning good performances into average results.
9. Ipswich Town – Chaos, control, and Leif Davis
Crystal Palace 2-3 Ipswich Town
This was a strange, wild, data-backed kind of win.
Gary O’Neil insisted Ipswich deserved it, and the numbers agreed: more shots, more on target, more touches in the box, an xG at least double Crystal Palace’s. With Axel Disasi sent off in the first half, Ipswich played against 10 men for almost an hour.
Yet they wobbled. At 2-2, Palace piled on the pressure and should have gone ahead when Anan Khalaili arrived unmarked at the back post and somehow failed to score.
O’Neil pointed to chances wasted just after half-time, but the real star of the show was Leif Davis. The left-back delivered a wonderful cross for the opener, then scored the second himself, then set up the third by heading against the bar, the rebound finished off.
A full-back running the game. Not bad at all.
10. Sunderland – Brobbey’s bruising masterclass
Sunderland 0-2 Arsenal
If you want a clinic in back-to-goal centre-forward play, start the tape of Brian Brobbey against Arsenal.
This wasn’t a goalscoring display. It was a lesson in how to torment elite defenders. Time and again, Sunderland fired the ball into his feet with Ezri Konsa tight to him. Time and again, Brobbey pinned his man, protected the ball, and brought others into play. By the 94th minute, he’d done it nine times, by one meticulous count.
From the opening seconds, Sunderland set the tone. Granit Xhaka robbed Myles Lewis-Skelly inside two minutes. Brobbey barged Konsa over soon after. Arsenal were warned.
The match turned on that brutal two-minute swing: Enzo Le Fée’s penalty saved by David Raya, then Bruno Guimarães thundering in from distance at the other end. Sunderland kept coming, direct and intense, but the damage was done.
The result hurt. The performance, and Brobbey’s, did not.
11. Chelsea – Soft centre, sharp edge
Chelsea 2-2 Hull City
Chelsea remain a contradiction. Slick and incisive one moment, shambolic the next.
The opening goal was pure modern Chelsea: Cole Palmer, João Pedro and Morgan Rogers combining neatly, carving Hull open inside seven minutes. It felt routine. So did what followed.
Defensively, this team is a mess. Twenty straight league games without a clean sheet tells its own story. For Hull’s equaliser, Chelsea broke one of the first rules of defending — don’t let the ball bounce — not once, but twice. Malo Gusto, Jorrel Hato and Wesley Fofana were all culpable.
Xabi Alonso didn’t hide his irritation, warning that if you’re “soft” or “not prepared”, you get punished. He’s right. Chelsea are also wide open in transition and look horribly exposed in midfield without Moisés Caicedo.
Yet they remain compulsive viewing. In the final minutes, Palmer, Rogers, João Pedro, Estevão and Danny Welbeck were all on the pitch hunting a winner, while Hull pressed Valentin Barco into mistakes at the other end. Chaos, but never dull.
12. Everton – Solid, but how ambitious?
Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Everton
This could be filed under “job done” or “chance missed”, depending on your mood.
Spurs flew out of the blocks for 15 minutes, but Jordan Pickford barely had a save to make. His first real stop, from Matheus Fernandes after the break, was a dribbler. His second, in the 89th minute, came after his own poor pass had invited trouble.
Everton had to dig in. Jarrad Branthwaite was immense, throwing himself in front of shots, twice denying Fernandes and Sandro Tonali with vital blocks. In front of him, James Garner snapped into tackles and then tried to set something up the other way.
Garner and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall combined to create Everton’s best opening for Brennan Johnson, while Dewsbury-Hall also had a sight of goal after Antonin Kinsky attempted “the most dangerous pass in football” at exactly the wrong time.
Everton were organised, competitive, hard to break down. But against a Spurs side low on belief, could they have shown more intent?
13. Tottenham Hotspur – Confidence crisis in slow motion
Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Everton
The pattern is becoming painfully familiar.
For a quarter of an hour, Spurs looked like a team again: energetic, bright, front-foot. And yet, even in that spell, they never truly looked like scoring. When Matheus Fernandes was slipped through by Savio in the sixth minute, he just had to shoot. Instead, he rolled his foot over the ball, the chance evaporated, and so did Spurs’ conviction.
From there, the football turned safe and sideways. One sequence in the 38th minute summed it up: Micky van de Ven won the ball, passed to Sandro Tonali, who went six yards sideways to Fernandes. Back to Tonali. Across to Rodrigo Bentancur, then straight back again. All in the same patch of turf. No risk, no incision, only growing frustration in the stands.
Late on, Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Bergvall produced a similarly pointless bounce pass that visibly annoyed Roberto De Zerbi on the touchline.
Two shots on target all game. One greeted with ironic cheers. Spurs look like a team that has forgotten how to trust itself.
14. Brentford – Schade or nothing
Bournemouth 2-2 Brentford
This was not the Brentford that blew Spurs away on opening day or dominated Leeds for 45 minutes at Elland Road.
They escaped with a point, and Kevin Schade admitted as much. His two goals were Brentford’s only shots on target, one gift-wrapped by a dreadful pass from Bournemouth goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.
The visitors never found their rhythm. Bournemouth’s approach play was superior; Brentford survived because Bournemouth’s finishing did not match their build-up.
Mamadou Sangare, so impressive in the first two games, had a quieter afternoon, even if he did help spark the first goal by robbing Adrien Truffert. The bigger issue lies up front. Igor Thiago is still searching for his first Premier League goal and offered little here. At the moment, Brentford’s attacking threat begins and ends with Schade.
That’s not a sustainable plan.
15. Liverpool – Flat when it mattered
Liverpool 0-0 Fulham
Andoni Iraola called it the sort of game you win with a set piece or a flash of genius. Liverpool found neither.
They had their moments from dead balls — Victor Muñoz forced Bernd Leno into a save with a header, and Alexander Isak had a half-chance late on — but open play brought almost nothing.
Bradley Barcola is still playing his way into form. Florian Wirtz endured a subdued afternoon, his best contribution a neat flick to release Barcola, whose cutback failed to find Isak. That sequence felt like a microcosm of Liverpool’s day: neat idea, no end product.
After back-to-back wins over Ipswich and Atletico Madrid, Liverpool looked drained — slow in thought, short on spark. Fulham were organised but hardly ferocious. Liverpool simply lacked the energy and quality to prise them open.
At Anfield, that stings.
16. Aston Villa – Emery’s patience tested
Aston Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Unai Emery didn’t bother sugar-coating it. His team were “so, so poor” in the second half and didn’t deserve more.
Forest out-shot Villa 22-7 and controlled the game after the break. Emery threw on all his substitutes by the 63rd minute in an attempt to change the flow, only to lose Ian Maatsen injured and finish with 10 men.
In midfield, Villa were ragged. Within a minute of the restart, both Ross Barkley and Boubacar Kamara had coughed up possession in their own half. Kamara’s error led directly to Liam Delap’s opener. Up front, Nicolas Jackson, meant to be the focal point, was withdrawn at half-time amid fears he might pick up a second yellow. Tammy Abraham, his replacement, barely had a kick.
It was that sort of day: disjointed, nervy, summed up when Johan Manzambi volleyed his very first touch for the club straight into touch.
17. Manchester United – Exposed, even against 10
Manchester United 0-1 Manchester City
Strip away the officiating controversy and what remains is a bleak picture for Manchester United.
Phil Foden’s red card should have transformed the derby. Instead, it exposed United’s lack of ideas. Their best efforts came from long range, Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo both striking the post. It took until the 70th minute for them to register a shot on target against 10 men.
The passing was ponderous, the movement predictable. Bruno Fernandes, usually the heartbeat, drifted through the game strangely subdued. Michael Carrick’s decision not to introduce Benjamin Sesko, a natural centre-forward, earlier against a deep, undermanned defence felt baffling.
On a day that underlined the gulf in quality between the two squads, United managed to make a numerical advantage look like a problem rather than an opportunity.
18. Crystal Palace – Organisation in tatters
Crystal Palace 2-3 Ipswich Town
Pierre Sage didn’t need analytics to diagnose the problem. “We have to prevent the crosses and be more aggressive in the box.” He was right on both counts.
Palace rode their luck against Fulham the previous week. This time, it ran out. Axel Disasi’s reckless first-half red card for a lunge on Jack Clarke made life harder, but it didn’t excuse the basics going missing.
Emersonn was left completely unmarked between Disasi — appealing for offside instead of defending — and Honest Ahanor for Ipswich’s first. For the second, Daichi Kamada failed to help Tyrick Mitchell in a two-versus-one, while Anan Khalaili and Chris Richards seemed unsure who to pick up. For the third, neither Will Hughes nor Ahanor stopped Julio Enciso’s cross. Seconds later, Davis won yet another header in Palace’s box.
Then came the killer miss: Khalaili, free at the back post at 2-2, somehow failing to convert. Palace are asking more questions than they can answer right now.
19. Coventry City – Fragile at both ends
Coventry City 0-5 Brighton
Frank Lampard’s verdict — “we did some good stuff but then the game became very difficult” — was fair, but the good stuff vanished quickly.
Coventry’s defensive fragility, already evident in their previous home defeat to Hull, was ruthlessly exposed again. The second goal was a horror show: Aurele Amenda simply had to beat Malick Yalcouye to the ball and didn’t. The red card for Taiwo Awoniyi on 53 minutes ended the contest.
Brighton were sharper in every duel. Kostoulas beat Bobby Thomas to the ball by a fraction for the penalty that led to the third goal, a moment that summed up the afternoon: Brighton first to everything, Coventry always a step behind.
At the other end, there were chances — especially in a 10-minute spell around the half-hour mark — but even allowing for Bart Verbruggen’s good goalkeeping, Coventry’s finishing lacked conviction. That’s becoming a worrying trend.
20. Newcastle United – Overrun and out of answers
Leeds United 4-1 Newcastle United
Alan Shearer called it “an absolute s*** show” at half-time on social media. He wasn’t exaggerating.
By then, Newcastle were 3-0 down and being humiliated. Dominic Calvert-Lewin bullied Botman and Thiaw from first whistle to last, dominating them physically and in the air. In midfield, the loss of Nico Gonzalez to concussion after 19 minutes forced Eddie Howe to pair 18-year-old Sean Steur with 20-year-old Lewis Miley. It was a huge ask.
They couldn’t cope. Anton Stach, Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka swarmed all over them. Steur’s loose pass led to Leeds’ second goal, officially credited to Jayden Bogle but really forged by Calvert-Lewin’s towering leap and desire.
Newcastle were totally overrun in the middle and flimsy at the back. They mustered just one shot in the first half and only came to life after a raft of substitutions, six of their seven efforts arriving after the break. By then, the damage was terminal.
The performance, not the scoreline, is what will worry them most. Where do they go from here?
