Like any good soap opera, the Premier League always knows how to leave viewers wanting more.
England’s top flight delivered another weekend stuffed with thrills, spills and mountains made from molehills, quickening the pulse of fans from across the globe just before shutting everything down for a fortnight-long international break.
Liverpool may have established themselves as strong contenders for the title, but the rest of the division is squashed shoulder-to-shoulder. Just a single point separates seven teams scattered between third and ninth. More than a quarter of the season has elapsed but Brentford could jump from the bottom half of the table into the top three with one win.
Here are the individuals that managed to master these fine margins this weekend.
Martin Odegaard’s transformative return to Arsenal’s starting lineup was bittersweet. The talismanic captain once again stood out in a tense 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, offering a precious glut of craft and cunning amid the chaos in west London to tee up Gabriel Martinelli’s opener.
However, the staggering leap in performance which Odegaard’s passing – and pressing – produced shines an unflattering spotlight on the team’s over-reliance upon their skipper.
After producing a goal or an assist in ten of his previous 13 Premier League appearances, Bukayo Saka’s reliable threat was resolutely snuffed out by Marc Cucurella.
Making his first league start in more than a month, the Spanish full-back was as close and uncomfortable as a hair shirt, a blue cape draped over Saka’s back until the beaten winger limped off the pitch in the 81st minute.
Fulham’s unlikely charge towards European qualification – the Cottagers are one point behind third-place Chelsea – has been underpinned by Emile Smith Rowe’s fast start to life on the banks of the Thames.
The former Arsenal prodigy scored his third goal of the season to kick-start a comfortable 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday. Tiptoeing between the befuddled hosts, Smith Rowe’s display left Marco Silva purring: “It’s so nice to have a talent like him to work with.”
In a game between the two clubs starting the weekend by propping up the Premier League table, Matheus Cunha produced an individual display befitting a player of much loftier standards.
The former RB Leipzig and Atletico Madrid forward proved his pedigree with two brilliant moments of skill against Southampton on Saturday. After teeing up Pablo Sarabia’s opener with a deft pass following a thunderous forward surge, Cunha swept a spectacular strike beyond Aaron Ramsdale to earn Wolves‘ first win of the season.
Heading into October’s international break, Bruno Fernandes had been sent off twice in five days and was having his future at Old Trafford called into question.
One short month later, United’s divisive captain is toppling goalscoring milestones from the epicentre of a team that has remembered how to score. Fernandes played a role in all three goals against Leicester City, rattling in United’s opening, forcing Victor Kristiansen’s own goal and laying the ball off for Alejandro Garnacho’s sulky screamer.
After blasting in Liverpool’s winner against Brighton last weekend, Mohamed Salah cryptically wrote on social media that he “will never forget what scoring at Anfield feels like”. Six days later, he was reminded of the sensation when firing the Reds to yet another victory, this time over Aston Villa.
Salah established his superiority over Lucas Digne within the opening two minutes of an enthralling contest, knocking the ball over the head of an increasingly beleaguered left-back. It took a rugby tackle to stop Salah from scoring Liverpool’s opener – Darwin Nunez finished off the chance – but nothing could prevent the Egyptian sensation from making it 2-0.
