Premier League: Five things were learnt from Gameweek 5 | OneFootball

As Liverpool maintained a perfect start to their title defence, rivals Manchester United picked up a crucial win over Chelsea, while the promoted sides impressed once again. FromTheSpot lists five things we learnt following round five in the Premier League.

The Premier League is getting more competitive

It’s evident that the typical ‘big six’ is no more. Despite their struggles this season, Aston Villa achieved top six finishes in two of the last three seasons, while Manchester United and Spurs limped to 15th and 17th respectively last campaign.

This time around, Bournemouth are unbeaten at the Vitality after holding Newcastle to a draw and re-entering the top four, and Crystal Palace are going from strength to strength as Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell earned their side a 2-1 win over West Ham.

Superb managerial appointments in Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner, in addition to numerous smart signings, have propelled them up from mid-table and broken the Premier League’s status quo, giving the league a fresh look.

The opposite appears to be true with clubs such as Manchester United. Amorim has been under pressure for weeks, just about edging past Burnley 3-2 before relying on a Robert Sánchez red card to beat Chelsea, whereas Tottenham Hotspur are gradually rebuilding themselves to the competitive side they used to be.

Manchester City present an interesting case. Pep Guardiola seems to be leaning towards a more defensive approach, especially on the road, enjoying less of the ball compared to last season and dropping deeper to protect the penalty area.

With two defeats this season to Brighton and Tottenham, Guardiola will be happy to see his side become more difficult to break down than last season, prooviding a foundation for the league’s third best attack so far this season.

As for the promoted sides, they aren’t doing badly either.

Promoted clubs are to be taken seriously

This time last season, the promoted clubs had accumulated just seven points between them. Now, Sunderland have one more point alone and sit 7th while the total increases to 19 with the inclusion of Leeds United and Burnley. There is a clear increase in quality between this year’s promoted sides than previous seasons.

Firstly, all the promoted sides last season had managers who were yet to have their shot in the Premier League. While this sometimes doesn’t prove to be an issue, Russell Martin was sacked in December after a 5-0 thrashing by Tottenham Hotspur left them nine points adrift.

As for Ipswich Town, their considerable spending wasn’t quite utilised to full effect by Kieran McKenna in his debut season, and Ruud van Nistelrooy’s inexperience in the hot seat showed in Leicester City’s miserable run towards the business end of the season.

Spending will always be an issue in the Premier League for promoted sides. In particular, teams like Luton Town often have little financial muscle to flex.

But it’s how you spend that money that counts. Burnley, for example, trusted in the ability of loanee star Jaidon Anthony after a good spell in the second tier, and his goal secured them an important point against Forest.

Signing for £17m from Hoffenheim, German International Anton Stach shone for Leeds in their 3-1 comeback win against Wolves. He registered a goal and an assist, while also completing 32 passes and clearances and winning five duels.

The crude signing of Dominic Calvert-Lewin on a free transfer also paid off, as he finally scored his first goal in a Leeds shirt. Wolves’ transfer business, on the other hand, hasn’t paid dividends just yet.

Sunderland have irrefutably been the most impressive side coming up from the Championship so far. Having won the playoff final, often referred to as ‘richest game in football’, they needed to show ambition in the market.

With new captain Granit Xhaka leading effectively in the middle alongside the tireless Noah Sadiki, The Black Cats look seriously worth their place in 7th.

But what sets them apart from recent promoted sides is being able to rely on their Championship core in Trai Hume, Chriss Rigg, and Wilson Isidor, who is currently level with Hugo Ekitike for league goals.

This will have pleased Régis le Bris and provided the Sunderland faithful with some much needed hope for the rest of the season.

Brentford could be in trouble

A side currently looking on the verge of peril is Keith Andrew’s Brentford. After a successful four years as a stable Premier League team, their recent senior losses – including former manager Thomas Frank – could cost them.

They are one of the youngest sides in the Premier League, and the average age of the squad has fallen from 28.6 in the 2023/24 season to below 25.

With this, the outgoings of players such as Bryan Mbeumo have left The Bees‘ attacking options rather thin, despite Dango Ouattara impressing since signing from Bournemouth.

Whilst fielding talented young players is no bad thing, Brentford may not immediately be able to rely on the 23-year-old for the majority of their goals as they did with Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa. This is evident in their three draws from the opening five Premier League matches.

Caoimhín Kelleher has been kept busy between the sticks, and his talent that football fans got brief glimpses of while at Liverpool has been on full show. He will likely prove crucial to what may quickly turn into a relegation scrap for Brentford.

Isak set to be first choice at Liverpool

Alexander Isak scored his first Liverpool goal in their 2-1 win in the Carabao Cup over Southampton, before being withdrawn at half time.

His competition for the striker spot in the starting XI, Hugo Ekitike, scored the winner on 85 minutes but bizarrely decided to take off his shirt in a clearly Lionel Messi-inspired celebration – resulting in his second yellow card.

Despite racing to three goals in five league games in an impressive start for The Reds, it may not come as a surprise to see his minutes limited in favour of the Swede.

Despite his one game ban opening the door for Isak to seize his place in the team, Slot tightly managing Isak’s minutes in cup competitions suggests that he was first choice all along.

Other players such as Curtis Jones and Federico Chiesa, who have come off the bench to feature in Premier League games, also featured in their third-round victory.

One small step for Manchester United

Back to Manchester and The Red Devils, it was a crucial 2-1 win against Chelsea on Saturday evening. However, the circumstances of their victory might speak louder than the result itself.

Granted, whether United would have been able to pull off a similar result with Chelsea’s number one still in goal and 10 outfield players is up for speculation. The data suggests on another day they may not have come away with all three points.

They conceded twice against Burnley, who had 11 players on the pitch, and the stormy conditions provided an additional challenge to 10-man Chelsea.

However, Man United were able to overcome the weather too, and showed the necessary grit against The Blues that was arguably missing in previous matches this season.

Chelsea’s poor marking, in addition to Reece James’ sliced clearance leading to an opening for Casemiro to add a second, handed Man United the opportunities to seize control of the game, before they managed to pull one back after the Brazilian was sent off in the second half.

This chaotic encounter suggests that while Man United have made a much needed step forward, it is a small one at best.

You can keep up to date with all the action from the Premier League with a new five things we learnt every week.