Liverpool were truly awful on a perfect day for them as Erling Haaland shook up his lines for Manchester City and Nottingham Forest marched into the Champions League qualification spots.
Liverpool 2-1 Brighton: Arne Slot’s side terrible on perfect day
Liverpool were really terrible in the first half. Brighton were very good, but absurdly uncomfortable at Anfield as the Reds players lost battles, gave away the ball and – to be honest – didn’t look particularly angry.
Ferdi Kadioglu scored a brilliant goal, blasting a right-footed shot in off the post as his weight shifted in the other direction. He could have scored another after excellent interplay between Danny Welbeck and Kaoru Mitoma, who enjoyed themselves against Liverpool’s almost laughably lax defense, as did all the Brighton players. Georginio Rutter also missed a one-on-one chance with Caoimhin Kelleher after an excellent pass from Yasin Ayari, another honor for the Seagulls recruitment chiefs for £3m from AIK. Brighton could and should have been ahead by at least three at half-time.
Arne Slot’s side still looked disorganized after the break, but leaned into the chaos in a We’ve Got Better Players Than You manner that Jurgen Klopp would have been proud of. Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah both missed big chances before Cody Gakpo intervened and delivered a right-footed cross – as he had done several times before to no avail – that went over Darin Nunez and into the far corner.
There was only one winner at that point as the Anfield crowd that had roared for the first half was fueled by a rise in intensity.
Curtis Jones scored the second after coming on for well under Mac Allister’s mark, collecting the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and playing an extended one-two as he drove towards the Brighton goal, played the ball next to Salah, who did. The Mohamed Salah, who cuts the ball inside and swings it into the far corner.
Arsenal defeat, Manchester City defeat, Liverpool victory. What a day for Arne Slot and his players, whose title hopes received a huge boost not only because of the results, but also because of the old references that are handed out when a team plays poorly and wins. Good news Liverpool fans, your team was terrible.
Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City: Semenyo shines in upcoming City defeat
The four previous times that Manchester City have gone behind this season, they have come back to win. Antoine Semenyo’s opener for Bournemouth was also the fourth time they have conceded in the opening fifteen minutes of a match, with only Ipswich (5) and West Ham (5) conceding more. The City juggernaut, who are usually slow starters but fast finishers, failed to beat the opposition this time.
Semenyo’s goal was beautiful, just like him showed the benefits of being so bipedal with a perfect first touch with his left and a fine finish with his right in a crowded penalty area. And he played a key role in the second, controlling the ball and running for City before feeding Milos Kerkez, who claimed his second assist of the match when his cross was diverted by Evanilson.
The inevitable Bournemouth camp did happen as City piled on the pressure in the final twenty minutes. Josko Gvardiol halved the deficit, but Mark Travers produced some excellent saves, including one particularly brilliant save from Erling Haaland, who should have scored with his header and then made his follow-up rather fluffy, hitting the base of the post.
This defeat was coming, with City getting results without looking particularly convincing for much of the season. They were so flat here on a day that they could have put eight points between them and Arsenal, but instead found themselves looking up to Liverpool at the Premier League summit.
Nottingham Forest 3-0 West Ham: Champions League with Chris Wood
Four of us went in our predictions for the seasonthree of us had Nuno Espirito Santo as the first manager to lose his job and none of us had Chris Wood as the Golden Boot winner or PFA Player of the Year.
He has now scored eight goals to help Nottingham Forest to third place in the Premier League, then above Arsenal they continued their descent into Arsène Wenger-inspired fitness in the early kick-off, and currently also for Aston Villa and Chelsea, both of whom face tough tests against Tottenham and Manchester United respectively on Sunday.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina added to the scoring in the second half, with Aina’s lovely left-footed strike celebrated by the Forest players with a little dance in the corner. Fair play guys, enjoy it. What a start to the season.
Southampton 1-0 Everton: Saints breathe a sigh of relief as VAR denies Everton’s late equalizer
That Man Beto almost did it again. After his equalizer in stoppage time against Fulham last weekend, the striker thought he had come to the rescue again in the 89th minute, but after a lengthy VAR check the goal was disallowed for offside, amid loud cheers from the home fans, who had scored a long ago victory in the Premier League.
Adam Armstrong fired in from Yukinari Sugawara’s pass four minutes for the equalizer, 27 seconds after Beto hit the crossbar at the other end of the field.
Aaron Ramsdale had produced some fine saves prior to the late drama as Everton created the better chances despite Southampton’s dominance on the ball. But all that possession – often aimless this season – has paid off on this occasion for Russell Martin, who has miraculously – and quite comfortably – avoided being the last manager to win a Premier League game this season, despite winning who came for the tenth time. of questions.
Ipswich 1-1 Leicester: McKenna still scoreless as Kalvin Phillips sees red
Kieran McKenna is still waiting for his first win and at some point the media will turn against the narrative that he and Ipswich are doing a great job. However, that time has not yet come. They probably would have won here if Kalvin Phillips hadn’t seen red and continued his dramatic slide into sub-mediocrity.
Remember Gareth Bale’s volley for Tottenham against Stoke? Wait until you see Leif Davis’ opener for Ipswich. It’s not that good, not by a long shot actually, we probably shouldn’t have brought up Bale’s. Ignore that. Just look at Davis’ goal, it’s brilliant. He is a real player and certainly one that Thomas Tuchel should keep an eye on.
But Ipswich moved within 12 points of the winning positions this season when Jordan Ayew scored another stoppage-time goal after his winner at Southampton denied Ipswich a few weeks ago.