After the conclusion of Matchweek 4 of the 2024/25 Premier League season, Alex Keble looks at the key talking points and tactical lessons, including:
- Guardiola's tactical tweak assists Haaland
- Is Spurs' risky football too predictable?
- Can Emery accommodate Duran and Watkins?
- Martin's system unpicked by Man Utd
- Chelsea show progress but room to improve
- Slot's style struggles with Forest’s low block
- Brighton’s scoring troubles return
- Late equaliser underscores Leicester's tactical shift
- More positives than negatives for Fulham
- Barnes' stunner compounds Wolves’ woes
Ederson’s assist a Pep special
All the focus has been on Erling Haaland, and that’s hardly a surprise. In just four Premier League matches he’s scored a third of his 2023/24 total.
At this rate, with nine in four matches, Haaland will win the Golden Boot with 86 Premier League goals.
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But Manchester City’s victory was not solely down to Haaland’s brilliance. Pep Guardiola should be credited for a surprising tweak to his set-up.
Man City required a 71st-minute penalty to win 1-0 in their last meeting with Brentford at the Etihad Stadium and lost 2-1 the time before, reflecting Thomas Frank’s success in sitting his team deep and crowding Haaland with three centre-backs.
Anticipating a similar challenge, Guardiola instructed goalkeeper Ederson to hit long flat passes up to Haaland, taking a direct route forward that made it harder for Brentford to get set in their defensive shell.
The Man City 'keeper played several long ground passes prior to the one that assisted Haaland’s match-winning second goal:
As is so often the case, Guardiola’s ingenuity ultimately made the difference.
Spurs' predictability behind worst start since 2015/16
Arsenal’s pragmatic defence-first match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium should not have surprised anyone. It’s exactly what they did when the teams last met.
Mikel Arteta’s side sat in a deep block for most of the match, squeezing the middle and looking to play on the counter-attack.
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It was "pure Jose Mourinho", as Match of the Day 2 pundit Theo Walcott astutely highlighted, complete with time-wasting tactics, niggly fouls, and a set-piece winner.
Ange Postecoglou should have seen it coming, given it was practically identical to how Arsenal won the same fixture 3-2 back in April, when two set-piece goals cost Tottenham Hotspur dearly.
The same trick working twice is further evidence that Spurs are too predictable, that Postecoglou’s insistence on playing the same way risks being too idealistic to work long-term.
It is certainly the reason behind their worst start to a Premier League campaign since 2015/16.
Spurs have won only four points from the first four matches - and both of their defeats have followed old trends.
Arsenal’s set-piece winner comes after Newcastle United scored a winning goal from a quick break that beat Postecoglou’s infamous high line.
The Spurs head coach needs to shake things up because, as Arsenal and Newcastle United have shown, Premier League managers know how Spurs will play. That means they can spend the week working a plan to stop them.
Emery must find way to pair Watkins and Duran
Another goal from Jhon Duran, this time a ludicrous screamer to seal a turnaround win, had Unai Emery musing on how he can accommodate the 20-year-old into the team alongside Ollie Watkins.
“We have to feel comfortable with those strikers and have to figure out how we can play with two strikers,” Emery said after the match. “This is the challenge we have.”
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It isn’t like Emery to discuss tactical ideas for the future, nor is it like him to field two out-and-out strikers together, but Duran has elbowed his way into the conversation by scoring the winning goal off the bench in three Premier League matches this season.
It won’t be easy getting Watkins and Duran into the same team, although the way they dovetailed on Saturday evening was a positive start. Duran tended to drop the deeper of the two, hence why he picked the ball up 40 yards out, but ordinarily he is as much of a penalty-box striker as Watkins.
Duran's stunning winner v Everton
The winner, in all its glory ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/L6fafOM6Cc
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) September 14, 2024
To complicate things further, Morgan Rogers has been sensational as the No 10 in Emery’s 4-2-3-1 formation. Playing Duran and Watkins together would mean changing formation and moving Villa’s star player out of his best position.
It’s a good headache to have, as the saying goes. Watkins’ brace has made him undroppable again. It has also confirmed that Aston Villa have the strongest pair of strikers in the Premier League.
Familiar faults hurt Southampton after decisive penalty miss
There were eight minutes between Cameron Archer’s penalty miss and Manchester United’s second, game-killing goal. It was a brutal lesson in the realities of Premier League life.
Southampton would have been good value for a first-half lead, their more fluid central midfield outgunning a wayward and disconnected pairing of Christian Eriksen and Kobbie Mainoo.
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But instead of United’s familiar issues defining the outcome it was Southampton’s. Russell Martin played this game exactly as we predicted - and paid the price for it.
The first two Man Utd goals were scored from corners, each won via a counter-attack after possession was pinched. Once again Southampton were too open, had committed too many bodies forward, and were too sloppy on the ball.
What was new, or newish, was the defensive disorganisation from those two decisive corners.
Neither Bruno Fernandes nor Marcus Rashford were closed down sufficiently for the former’s assist to Matthijs de Ligt and the latter’s goal, as reflected below.
Southampton need to be better at the basics, especially if they continue playing such an expansive game.
Squad depth rescues Chelsea from another stuttering performance
After the whirlwind of transfer activity at Chelsea over the summer you might assume their squad is a mess, but in fact Enzo Maresca has been left with a good-size team and two quality players for every outfield position.
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The late win at AFC Bournemouth was evidence of just how important that squad depth will prove to be.
Jadon Sancho assisted Christopher Nkunku for the winner, a pair of substitutes combining smartly to steal the three points after what had been a disjointed performance from Chelsea at the Vitality Stadium.
Bournemouth’s 19 shots were their second-most in a Premier League match without scoring and the most Chelsea have faced in the competition without conceding since April 2014.
In other words, Chelsea got a bit lucky. As the squad learns Maresca’s painstaking methods, they will need more luck - and more contributions from the bench - in the months ahead.
Forest put first dent in Slot’s patient football
The first hiccup was bound to produce an anxious critique of the differences between Arne Slot and Jurgen Klopp, but we should not read too much into this defeat despite Liverpool looking like a caricature of a Slot team.
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Liverpool’s patient football and slow movement through the thirds mark a significant shift from the more chaotically energetic approach of Jurgen Klopp. That shift arguably explains why Liverpool were unable to manoeuvre Nottingham Forest out of their low block.
Perhaps a Klopp team would have played with more fire in their bellies in the closing stages, too, whereas Slot’s side were unable to create clear-cut chances at any point, finishing with their lowest Expected Goals of the season to date with 0.87xG.
But what Liverpool lacked on Saturday was sharpness in their passing, something clearly present in Slot’s other three Premier League matches as manager. Klopp's team also had off days, of course. There is no need to worry about the tactical side of things so early in the Slot project.
Still, defeat recalibrates expectations. This was always likely to be a transitional year for the club. Anyone who was getting carried away will have been grounded by Forest’s richly deserved win.
Old goalscoring problem returns in Joao Pedro’s absence
Tempering expectations was also the lesson from the Amex, where Brighton’s brilliant start under Fabian Hurzeler was knocked by a frustrating draw with Ipswich Town.
But unlike Liverpool labouring against Forest, Brighton did enough to win. They had 21 shots, their most in a Premier League match without scoring since February 2023.
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“Today we did everything to win the game,” Hurzeler said. “We don't get the result we want but long-term I'm sure if you have this performance, it will pay off.”
That is a fair reflection on the match, although it’s a concern that Brighton have failed to score in a league match 10 times this calendar year.
This is an old issue and Brighton are under new management, but nevertheless another summer without signing a new striker means the problem could resurface.
Joao Pedro, who has scored two of Brighton’s six league goals so far, was sorely missed, while Evan Ferguson wasn’t trusted to come on until the 85th minute after recovering from injury.
Thankfully Pedro should be back for the visit of Forest next weekend. They need to keep him fit this season.
Late concession emphasises the difference between Cooper and Maresca
At 2-0 up it looked as though the Steve Cooper era was finally taking off. Leicester City had scored their first from a Cooper-esque fast break and everything was falling into place.
But by the final whistle, concerns regarding the seismic style shift from Maresca to Cooper came roaring back.
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Conor Coady’s clumsy foul in the penalty area was the only reason Leicester didn’t win this match, and although Cooper will have expected better from such an experienced defender, the manager also takes some responsibility for his defensive substitution.
With seven minutes plus stoppage time remaining, Cooper took off Jordan Ayew for Coady and moved to a back five, a move that invited pressure.
Sure enough, from the 83rd minute onwards, Crystal Palace held 77 per cent possession and had five shots to Leicester’s zero.
Palace v Leicester stats
| Possession | Shot count | |
| 0-83 mins | CRY 66% LEI 34% | CRY 15 LEI 9 |
| 83-90 mins | CRY 77% LEI 23% | CRY 5 LEI 0 |
It’s hard to imagine Maresca making a substitution like that.
Unlucky Fulham make progress despite draw
Danny Ings’ equaliser in stoppage time did not look it was going to happen. Fulham were clearly the better team at Craven Cottage, leading for 71 minutes and spurning several good chances to score a second.
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Their xG was double West Ham United’s (1.54 to 0.76), they had almost twice as many shots (21 to 11), and looked in control until the moment Ings scored.
Marco Silva need not be concerned, then, by this setback. There were more positives than negatives, in particular the excellent performances from three of their new signings - Joachim Andersen, Sander Berge and Emile Smith Rowe.
Andersen's long passes v West Ham
Joachim Andersen's Sexy Diags. 🤤
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) September 16, 2024
Episode 1 of ? pic.twitter.com/gfL8BY2iQD
Barnes’s brilliant winner adds to Wolves' woes
Harvey Barnes' brilliant winning goal at Molineux was surely evidence that he needs to start more matches for Newcastle. He has been been directly involved in 11 goals in his 25 Premier League appearances for Newcastle (seven goals, four assists), averaging a goal or assist every 87 minutes.
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It’s the sort of ruthlessness Wolverhampton Wanderers could have done with. They were the better team for most of this match and missed several big chances to go 2-0 up prior to Newcastle’s comeback, which we might interpret as a sign that Gary O'Neil doesn’t have anything to worry about.
Barnes' winner v Wolves
An absolute rocket from @harveybarnes97! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/lxotTEpXQ9
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) September 15, 2024
But the fixture list says otherwise.
Wolves are in the bottom three with just one point from four matches - their joint-worst ever start to a Premier League campaign - and having led for so long on Sunday confidence could be in short supply ahead of a tough run.
They face Aston Villa (A), Liverpool (H), Brentford (A), Man City (H), and Brighton (A) in their next five Premier League matches, a sequence that could easily leave Wolves with no wins from their first nine matches of the 2024/25 season.
Their mood could hardly be more different from that of Newcastle. Ten points from four matches is their best start to a Premier League campaign since the 1995/96 season, when Kevin Keegan’s side challenged for the title.
