What a weekend. Boards blinked, streaks rolled on, and a few big names got found out.
Wolves pulled the plug on Vítor Pereira after 45 days. That’s not a reset; that’s a fire alarm. Back a manager, then bin him before the paint’s dry? That screams board panic more than “new manager bounce.”
Arsenal? A defensive force field. Seven straight wins without conceding, one clean sheet from equalling a 122-year club record. Raya could’ve brought a deckchair to Turf Moor this is structure, intensity, and total buy-in from front to back.
Sean Dyche at Forest inherits a fixer-upper. Eighteen league games without a clean sheet and leaking set-piece goals like a sieve. No magic dust here just months of habits to rebuild and restarts to drill. Trust the grind.
Ollie Watkins needs a jolt one goal in 14 across competitions isn’t England-ticket form. Villa’s chance creation is fine; the No 9 has to solve it himself or risk watching the World Cup on TV.
Fulham flashed upside: new record signing Kevin buzzing, Samuel Chukwueze sharp off the bench. If Silva gets his senior core fit, this squad has gears we haven’t seen.
Spurs looked flat 0.05 xG against Chelsea and awkward optics with Thomas Frank and his players. Paper it over in public if you want; respect is earned in the dressing room and on the pitch.
Reiss Nelson’s Premier League minutes finally arrived at Brentford now the pressure’s on. Talent’s never been the question; consistency is. This loan has to sing, or the window narrows.
Brighton’s patience policy keeps paying. Mats Wieffer reinvented at right-back, Yankuba Minteh flying, and Diego Gomez adding goals after bedding in. Recruitment + coaching + time = results.
Eddie Howe rolled the rotation dice and came up snake eyes. Newcastle’s away form stutters, rhythm evaporates, and the “four competitions” juggle bites. Sometimes keeping it simple is the bravest call.
And City? Pep turned midfielders into menace at full-back. Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly look tailor-made press-resistant, aggressive, and decisive. When City morph like this, everyone else just reacts.
