The Premier League returned from international break and reasserted that the first three weeks of the season weren’t fluky results.
Erling Haaland continues his ridiculous goal-scoring pace and Manchester City’s still perfect, six teams without a win remain so, and there are a host of teams capable of challenging for European spots in a talent-rich division.
[ MORE: Premier League goals leaders ]
There were some surprises, of course. Liverpool’s no longer perfect under Arne Slot and the loss came at the hands of somehow still-unbeaten Nottingham Forest.
Here are 10 thoughts about Week 4 from our writers, as Joe Prince-Wright, Andy Edwards, and Nick Mendola share their observations from the latest 10 games of the 2024-25 Premier League season.
Short-handed Arteta outfoxes Ange
Mikel Arteta continues to find ways to flex his managerial acumen, and this time he got a little help from his rival. Ange Postecoglou was without Yves Bissouma stuck to his ideals and deployed a midfield three of Dejan Kulusevski, Pape Sarr, and James Maddison, bidding to dice up Arsenal’s shorthanded veteran defensive midfield duo of Thomas Partey and Jorginho. What happened instead was near-complete Arsenal control of the midfield, as the veterans worked a treat. Arteta wasn’t perfect, either, as Leandro Trossard struggled atop the midfield, but Kai Havertz helped out and eventually settled in for more size and control Arteta also can beam at his set-piece breakthrough, as Guglielmo Vicario’s reputed struggles with crosses saw him boxed-in from reaching a corner kick that Gabriel thudded home. Postecoglou’s men neither showcased their best form nor their passion in the loss. — Nick Mendola
De Ligt, Ajax old boys repay faith as Ten Hag keeps things familiar
Southampton 0-3 Manchester United
Four of United’s back five who started against Southampton played for Erik ten Hag at Ajax and although they struggled early on to adapt to Saints’ fluid, high-energy approach, the familiar players ETH has signed to work with him again came up big when he needed them most. Andre Onana saved a penalty kick. Matthijs de Ligt made a crucial block at 0-0, then scored to make it 1-0 and was superb defensively as he and Lisandro Martinez are building a fine partnership. Noussair Mazraoui was injured late but looks calm and collected on the ball. United were ruthless when chances popped up and after riding their luck early they never let go of their grasp of this game go once ahead. There will be much tougher tests than this to come this season but if you plug in Luke Shaw at left back, this United back five looks solid and the familiarity they have with one another will hold them in good stead throughout the ups and downs this season. The only thing United will be hoping now is that their defensive injuries don’t hit again as De Ligt, Martinez and Mazraoui were all taken off as a precaution. — Joe Prince-Wright
Erling Haaland keeps up his record-breaking pace
That’s nine goals in four games (2.25 goals per game) for Erling Haaland this season, putting him on pace for 85 goals, and for once the early-season projection doesn’t seem so farfetched. After just four games, he is already 25 percent of the way to tying his own single-season goal record, which he set at 36 in his debut season with City. There’s not much else to say about Haaland (or Man City) at this point, other than to remind everyone that what we are witnessing is not in any way normal and we should enjoy it as much as we can, because we might never see a guy like this again in our lifetimes. — Andy Edwards
Confusion reigns at Everton
Sean Dyche will be hoping Everton’s woes are as simple as getting star center back Jarrad Branthwaite back in the fold, but there has to be so much more happening to have the Toffees on the wrong side of history. Clubs go entire seasons without losing a game in which they lead by two but Everton have now done it in Week 3 and Week 4. This is a messy situation where the side has done enough to win games at one end yet cannot even lean on that fact because it’s missing chances to increase leads to 3-0 or 4-0. Bournemouth felt it stole a result in Week 3 with its comeback, that it was dominated by Everton for long stretches, but Aston Villa will feel it just kept working to get a win that was backed by a superior performance. That’s troubling, and who knows of answers other than Dominic Calvert-Lewin finding the form of his one season as an elite finisher and Branthwaite returning and not missing a beat next to James Tarkowski. — Nick Mendola
Chelsea’s Jadon Sancho debuts, looks like Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho
Chelsea did not look the more likely team to score in the first 45 minutes at Bournemouth, but manager Enzo Maresca was not afraid to make a bold move at the break. He inserted new loan signing Jadon Sancho, a move that changed the game and helped deliver a win when the ex-Borussia Dortmund star assisted Christopher Nkunku’s winner. In fact, Sancho was named the Player of the Match. Sancho did his best — sorry Chelsea fans — Raheem Sterling impression, driving directly at Bournemouth right back Adam Smith and eventually inspiring a Cherries change at right back. The 24-year-old only missed on two of his pass attempts, and was credited with two created chances by fotmob. His performance felt bigger than that, and Maresca will have food for thought moving forward with his team selection. — Nick Mendola
Nuno Espirito Santo pushes right buttons at right time to sting Liverpool
Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest had been controlled over 45 minutes, and the second half started the same way. Nuno Espirito Santo would know a draw at Anfield would be accepted if not praised, but instead opted to go for it. The Forest boss removed steadiness and size on the wings — Elliot Anderson and Nicolas Dominguez — and put in creative forwards Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi. Goodness, did it pay off! The Nikola Milenkovic-sprang counter attack was touched to Elanga by Morgan Gibbs-White. Elanga’s fantastic long-range assist across the field to Hudson-Odoi saw the Englishman drop a pinpoint shot across goal and just inside the low post. The marvelous pass curled around one of Liverpool’s subs, Conor Bradley, and it feels like a masterstroke from Forest’s unbeaten boss. — Nick Mendola
Magpies unbeaten, third, and not even playing that well
This is a statement that can be scary to both Newcastle United and the rest of the Premier League, as the Magpies have yet to put together a controlling performance but are still counting themselves as one of the division’s only unbeaten sides. Part of that can be down to player selection and availability, sure, but there’s just no question Newcastle should be happy to have 10 points even if it would’ve expected as much from a start of Southampton, Bournemouth, Tottenham, and Wolves. Here’s match-winner Harvey Barnes on how they can improve:
“In a lot of areas to be honest. Last year we prided ourselves on clean sheets. This year, not so many. And our attacking play is not quite clicking. You see it in spells you see glimpses of it, but last year there were times we would go into games going to score three, four, five goals. It’s a good start points-wise but performance-wise we still have a lot to build on.”
Fulham, Man City, and Everton are next, and Newcastle will surely be targeting at least six points. They’ll need to be a lot better to get there. — Nick Mendola
Leicester will be more fun than we thought
Crystal Palace 2-2 Leicester City
Okay, so Steve Cooper’s appointment as Leicester boss this summer when Enzo Maresca left for Chelsea didn’t excite many. But maybe it should have. We often forget that Cooper is a manager who loves taking risks and encourages his players to express themselves. Ndidi and Mavididi did that on Saturday at Crystal Palace and combine that skill and quality on the ball with the direct running of Vardy , Fatawu and others and this Leicester side have a nice balance to them and they can hurt opponents. They had to do a lot of defending and just came up short in holding on for what would’ve been their first win of the season, but the main takeaway is that Leicester will have a real go this season and won’t be content with just sitting back, soaking up pressure and trying to launch counters. They can do that, but they’re also plenty of fun to watch when they did pick the right moments to pour forward — Joe Prince-Wright
Hammers get out of jail as new style taking its time
Michail Antonio and Tomas Soucek, two huge players for West Ham under former manager David Moyes, were hooked off at half time by Julen Lopetegui and it was easy to understand why. West Ham’s new manager is trying to implement a new style and era and he had just watched his side put in a wretched first half. He looked at Lucas Paqueta and Crysencio Summerville on the bench early in the first half and told them to be ready. It was that bad. But West Ham did look more dynamic in the second half, with Paqueta pulling the strings, Jarrod Bowen buzzing around, and the duo of Kudus and Summerville pinning Fulham out wide as they grabbed a point late on. It was much better and showed the control Lopetegui wants them to have during games. It will take time as new signings continue to settle into London. There are eight key new players who will all play their part in this overhaul but it’s hard to bring them all in at the same time. In the short-term there will be plenty more games like this one, with disjointed play and results from one half to the next to be expected. It’s only natural after West Ham had such a settled style of play for most of this squad over the last four years with Moyes at the helm. Big changes are happening but we shouldn’t judge Lopetegui and this new-look West Ham until the second half of this season. — Joe Prince-Wright
Brighton get the big-boy treatment, and deservedly so
At this point, everybody knows that Brighton want to press their opponents high up the field, turn them over, and quickly create scoring chances in transition. I know it, you know it, and the managers of the Premier League know it, too. That’s why Kieran McKenna set Ipswich up to defend the Seagulls deep inside their defensive half, forcing them to play around and in between a low block, rather than straight through a stretched midfield and defense. The result is 70 percent of possession for Brighton, who took 15 of their 21 shots from the edge of the penalty area or farther. Not so dangerous then, are they? — Andy Edwards
