The final weekend of Premier League football in October fittingly produced plenty of late scares.
Half of the ten fixtures had the result decisively changed by stoppage-time goals. Controversy and calamity was dished out in equal measure as England’s top flight repeatedly descended into mayhem.
Amid the madness, a handful of elite individuals rose above the chaos to earn their places in 90min’s best players of the week.
Manchester City’s subdued 1-0 win over Southampton on Saturday afternoon was played almost entirely inside the visitors’ defensive third. The hosts’ nominal left-back, Josko Gvardiol, had more touches in this advanced part of the pitch than any other player, dovetailing devilishly with Matheus Nunes, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland for the game’s only goal.
This was no anomaly for Gvardiol. Only two players across the entire Premier League boast more touches in the attacking third than City’s ever-improving defender.
Forced between the posts as emergency cover for the injured Kepa Arrizabalaga, Mark Travers enjoyed an afternoon to remember at Villa Park.
While he was beaten by Ross Barkley’s 76th-minute opener, nothing else went past the overworked shot-stopper, who rebuffed seven efforts to ensure that Evanilson’s stoppage-time header snatched a point for Bournemouth.
Cherries boss Andoni Iraola spoke for many when he admitted that Travers “kept us in the game when we were suffering”.
Always watch Brentford. As Thomas Frank grinned after a bonkers 4-3 victory over Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon: “When we play, it is exciting.”
Premier League games involving the Bees this season produce a staggering average of four goals – most of those that Brentford score have something to do with Bryan Mbeumo. The capital club’s reliable talisman delivered another brace at the Gtech, including a 96th-minute winner.
While Virgil van Dijk was involved in more of the incidents which directly defined Liverpool’s spirited 2-2 draw away to Arsenal on Sunday, Ibrahima Konate’s assured display kept the visitors in a contest which enjoyable ebbed and flowed.
The bruising centre-back was always on hand to cover the wandering Trent Alexander-Arnold, shutting Gabriel Martinelli out of much of the game with a typically full-blooded performance.
Arsenal’s unspoken mantra of getting the ball to Bukayo Saka at every given opportunity worked once again on Sunday. Upon his unexpected return from injury, the durable and dexterous forward showed Arsenal what they had been missing inside the opening ten minutes.
Andy Robertson was writhing around in a knotted heap on the Emirates turf by the time Saka blasted the ball beyond Caoimhin Kelleher. The Scot never got to grips with Arsenal’s youthful record breaker.
One of the few people not queuing up to laud Chris Wood’s prolific start to the season was the Kiwi striker himself. Nottingham Forest’s talisman insists that he is a forward who relies upon service from his teammates, but Wood has certainly made the most of the chances that have come his way.
The New Zealand international scored with both of his shots on target in Forest’s 3-1 victory over Leicester City on Friday night. As many as 23 players have taken more shots than Wood this season but only two can boast more goals.
Chelsea’s reliance upon Cole Palmer was abundantly clear once again during Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle United, as the bewitching playmaker left his indelible mark on both of the hosts’ goals. But few teams in the world would not bend to the will of a player as talented as Palmer.
As Enzo Maresca noted post-game, Palmer’s brilliance “is the reason why people pay”.
