Roberto De Zerbi did not soften the blow.
“In 14 years as a coach, I’ve never seen a team like us, so fragile and inconsistent,” the Italian said after Tottenham’s 3-2 home defeat to Aston Villa, a loss that left them alone at the bottom of the table on two points from five matches.
Tottenham went bigger this summer than they had ever gone before, headlined by an £85m outlay on Savio and a future £60m for Omar Marmoush. Two points from those first five games sits well below the level the spend was meant to deliver.
City’s goal load is no longer just Haaland’s
Enzo Maresca has made the succession from Pep Guardiola look almost boring. Manchester City are the only club with a maximum from five games, three points clear at the top after a 5-3 win over Sunderland at the Etihad in which Erling Haaland’s late strike settled a match Brian Brobbey had dragged back with a hat-trick.
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The summer arrivals of Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo have spread the goal load. Sky Sports writer Laura Hunter argues City will “rival Arsenal in the race,” pointing to a squad in which the burden on Haaland is lighter than it was a year ago.
Konsa steps into a defence still missing Saliba
Arsenal arrived at the Amex with a perfect record and left it beaten 3-0. Pascal Gross opened, Charalampos Kostoulas and Chema Andres finished the job on 19 September, and Mikel Arteta called the performance “very disappointing.”
The champions have not yet looked demonstrably sharper than the side that won the league. Bruno Guimaraes was overrun in midfield at Brighton, and Ezri Konsa has been drafted straight into a defence missing William Saliba rather than added to a settled back four.
Three clean sheets, but Wirtz still not settled
Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool are unbeaten after five, and the Opta stat is a curiosity: Iraola is the first Liverpool manager to go unbeaten in his first five league games since Joe Fagan in September 1983. Three consecutive Premier League clean sheets, the club’s longest such run since September 2024, back it up.
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Florian Wirtz is the reason it does not feel settled. At Bournemouth, the £116.5m playmaker was under pressure from James Hill when his shot was blocked, and the loose ball dropped for Alexander Isak to turn in the winner in the 57th minute. Jamie Carragher has already questioned the German’s early impact at Anfield.
Same old story for United under Carrick
Michael Carrick’s Manchester United sit twelfth with five points, hit already by injuries to Amad Diallo and Benjamin Sesko and beaten at home by Hull on the opening weekend. Carrick, who joined on an interim basis before being given the job permanently, has yet to shift the pattern the club had hoped a new manager would break.
Sky Sports writer Callum Bishop’s line on United after five games was blunt: “Five years on, the story is the same.” The win column reads one from five, and the international break gives Carrick a fortnight with a squad short of fit forwards.
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