Mattinson: 5 Things We Learned in Premier League Match Week 10
The title race is up in the air, with surprise teams in the race for European spots
Whoever Wins The Premier League Won’t Get 90 Points
Last season’s Premier League winners Manchester City just managed to break the 90 point barrier finishing on 91 with only three losses. The previous season they lost five games and won the title with 89 points. Back in 2022/23, Man City (93 points) and Liverpool (92 points) had only lost three and two games respectively.
Whereas this season, all three of the favorites for the title Man City (one loss), Liverpool (onw loss) and Arsenal (two losses) have already lost in their first 10 games and dropped points in others too. All of them have looked beatable at times, whereas previous winners have looked miles better than opponents and swept them aside. Even with each of these sides being poor at times this season, it’s still expected that it’ll be one of them to win the league. However, if they do, it’s unlikely that any of them will surpass 90 points with the trajectory they’re on.
Tricky Trees Standing At Number 3
Another week, another impressive Nottingham Forest win. Forest beat West Ham convincingly 3-0 and looked head and shoulders above them. Chris Wood opened the scoring with his 8th goal of the season continuing his red-hot form. Former Chelsea duo Ola Aina and Callum Hudson-Odoi got the other two goals and Edson Álvarez was sent off for West Ham just to add to their misery.
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All throughout their team, Forest have had top quality performances this season. Murillo and Milenković have formed a solid duo at the back, Matz Sels has finally sorted their goalkeeper position, Domínguez is showing his class week in week out, Elanga and Hudson-Odoi are consistently dangerous outlets. A big bonus was the return of Morgan Gibbs-White, he’ll add even more fear factor against the big teams.
Bournemouth The Giant Killers
After an impressive win against Arsenal a couple of game weeks ago, Bournemouth have now managed to beat champions Manchester City too. With a draw against Aston Villa coming in between, Bournemouth have shown they’re a tough team to come against this season.
Throughout their team, Bournemouth are full of aggressive duel winning players with a high technical ability. Antoine Semenyo, Miloš Kerkez, Marcos Senesi all had outstanding performances against City. Semenyo, Kerkez, Senesi, Zabarnyi and Huijsen should all be on the lists of top teams as potential new recruits.
Tottenham’s Attacking Dynamics Are Deadly
The league’s top scorers Tottenham are scoring goals for fun. There’s still areas to address and weaknesses within the team, but when they’re at their best they look dangerous for any defence in the league. A convincing 4-1 win against Aston Villa further demonstrated this.
Tottenham’s attacking options include creative passers (Maddison and Kulusevski) who thrive off runners like Brennan Johnson. They have a link-up striker (Solanke) to bring them all together and finishers (Son and Solanke) to get on the end of chances. A lot of the best teams aren’t flowing in attack right now, but Tottenham certainly are. If they can sure up their defense, then they’ll be able to rise up the table and continue to compete for Champions League places.
Newcastle Have One of The Best Fullback Pairings in The League
Cobham academy duo Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento have both been reunited at Newcastle and they’ve both consistently been two of their best players. Against Arsenal this weekend they were standout performers keeping wingers Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka quiet.
Livramento especially stood out. As such a physical, athletic fullback, he’s able to recover quickly and be aggressive in duels and 1v1’s. Martinelli couldn’t get past him once and whenever he got ahead, Livramento recovered to make a tackle or delay the attack.
With England struggling in the LB position, both Hall and Livramento may be genuine options for Thomas Tuchel in the future.
