Premier League winners and losers: Everton and stubborn Slot slammed but Nuno, Howe and Havertz shine

Eddie Howe eased the managerial pressure while Sean Dyche’s position only became more shaky. Kai Havertz and Jhon Duran had a better time than Evanilson.

Erling Haaland
The mental image of £75m-rated Jarrad Branthwaite being dog-walked will be difficult to shift but Ethan Pinnock can be added to the burgeoning list of very good defenders made to look amateurish by Haaland.

The Norwegian’s physical manipulation of both the situation and his opponent turned a slightly under-hit long ball into a phenomenal assist. Manchester City would have lost that game without him and the champions will know how crucial he has been as teammates still get up to speed – we’re looking at you, Kyle Walker and John Stones – with Rodri only just returning and Phil Foden yet to get going.

If Haaland can stay at full flow when Manchester City start to move out of second gear we could be on course for a truly engrossing race, with the Norwegian currently on 99 goals for the club. Will he reach 115 before this hearing concludes? These things take time.

Jhon Duran
Yet for goals per 90 minutes, Duran has Haaland beat. The season is only four games in and the 20-year-old has already equalled the Premier League record for most match-winning goals as a substitute in a single Premier League campaign. The only thing that might prevent him from breaking it is Unai Emery running out of excuses not to play him from the start.

Youri Tielemans
The scorer of a literal 25-yarder to win a cup final at Wembley was left with his head in his hands by the ludicrousness of his teammate, but Tielemans did as much as anyone to make it possible.

It seems slightly generous to credit him with a pre-assist for the Duran madness but Tielemans played an important role in the build-up to each goal and controlled the game after those early Everton moments as a deep-lying orchestrator. Douglas Luiz has not been missed, mainly because Emery is a magician.

Nuno Espirito Santo
After seven straight defeats to Liverpool at an aggregate score of 13-1, Nuno has finally ticked off the last proper scalp from his Premier League list. The remaining teams he has faced in the English top flight and not yet beaten are an eclectic bunch who will not afford the Portuguese any opportunity to correct things at all soon: West Brom, Huddersfield and Luton.

That underlines a certain longevity and endurance at this level, but also a propensity to rob from the rich and give to the relatively poorer. In his first season at Wolves they followed victories over Spurs in December and Manchester United in April by losing to Crystal Palace and Southampton respectively in their next games. It has very much been his thing.

But this was the perfect away win orchestrated by a manager perfectly in tune with the strengths and weaknesses of his players and how to adjust to cater to them: a brilliant defence providing the platform for game-changing substitutes who thrive on the counter, and the beaten favourites left scrambling around for some sort of moral victory in the ashes of a deserved defeat yet again.

Eddie Howe
It’s a curious sort of crisis, one which can engulf an unbeaten team second in the nascent table and welcoming back a handful of key players. But Howe needed that arguably more than Newcastle themselves.

While the manager would prefer not to make a distinction between the two, the off-pitch drama has made it unavoidable. No longer do those bonds between Howe and Newcastle seem as unbreakable as they did when surviving difficult results and performances last season. They are not tied together in quite the same way.

With that said, the “unity” Howe said he’ll “do everything in my power to keep” is only strengthened by winning in this manner. It is fostered in part through trusting players like Sean Longstaff when better options are available, but when decisions like the half-time triple substitution come off so brilliantly it doesn’t half make Newcastle look a bit daft for allowing these fractures to emerge.

Is Howe a generational talent? The Mailbox thinks so.

Kai Havertz
Before his Arsenal debut, Mikel Arteta said Havertz “gives us something very different with his quality and size”. The German won more headers than any player in the north London derby, beating the combined effort of his teammates eight to seven.

Arteta continued: “When you have to beat the press, for example, and use him as a target man. So, we will see – for now, he’s playing in the attacking midfield position, but I’m sure throughout the season and throughout games as well, we’re going to have the options to play him in different positions.”

The vision few except Arteta had in summer 2023 has long been clear for those who wish to see it, but Havertz very possibly achieved his ultimate version in the north London derby. He played about four different positions and excelled at each with tireless running and defensive diligence which comes at no sacrifice to his attacking output.

READ MORE: 16 Conclusions as wide-eyed Spurs throw themselves into Arsenal’s well-constructed but entirely obvious NLD trap

Wilfred Ndidi
Those Ndidi stocks expired long ago but this is a different phase of the Nigerian’s career. No longer simply a machine designed to churn out tackles and interceptions before the ball is played forward for the more creative sorts, Ndidi is starting to thrive higher up in an attacking midfield role himself.

Two assists – and two completely different assists at that, showcasing his long underrated passing range and intuition – is the most he has ever provided in a single game throughout his entire professional career for club and country. They also took him past Jay Jay Okocha in an all-time Premier League, albeit in 72 more appearances.

In his first three full Premier League seasons Ndidi ranked first throughout the entire division for combined tackles and interceptions; he dropped to second in 2020/21, largely because he only made 26 appearances. While 2024/25 is largely embryonic at this stage, the fact he is down in joint 41st underlines the shift in his deployment, but he is maximising the opportunity.

Ipswich
It took until December for a promoted club to record their first Premier League clean sheet last season; Ipswich required only four games to receive “compliments for how they defended” so diligently from Fabian Hurzeler.

Not many clubs could have delivered that level of performance after having basically an entire spine transplanted in the summer. The goalkeeper, two centre-halves and one of the midfielders all joined no more than a couple of months ago but Kieran McKenna has drilled this squad remarkably well.

Ipswich did invest considerable sums in the transfer window but it is notable just how much of that budget was set aside for specifically defensive players, as well as the sheer number they recruited. Aro Muric, Jacob Greaves and Dara O’Shea cost a combined £45m and with Kalvin Phillips flourishing in the right system, the Tractor Boys resisted the usual promoted urge to simply buy a load of exciting forwards and worry about coherent squad-building later.

Andre Onana
Erik ten Hag called it the “turning point” and rarely has one ever been so pronounced. If anything that undersold it: Southampton had six shots to Manchester United’s four up to and including the penalty, then zero shots to 16 from the 34th minute onwards.

That sudden shift in momentum was never going to come without Onana’s intervention. His 11th clean sheet in 42 Premier League games, taking him past Peter Enckelman, Lukasz Fabianski, Jordan Pickford and Shay Given for career clean sheet percentage, and level with Kevin Hitchcock on 26.2%, was entirely earned.

The eight-minute burst of redemption arcs turned a 1-0 deficit into an unassailable 2-0 lead through Matthijs de Ligt and Marcus Rashford. Onana’s post-match comments on the latter – “it’s not how you fall, it’s how many times you stand up” – came from the personal experience of a player coming through the other side of the dizzying Old Trafford spin cycle.

Robert Sanchez
Still less than convinced he is the best possible option a team which has spent more than £1bn could have ended up with, but Sanchez is at least showing signs of developing into a competent Chelsea keeper.

The penalty save was impressive but Enzo Maresca was most likely smitten with his level of involvement on the ball and Sanchez has taken things up a notch in terms of his sweeper-keeper responsibilities this season. Chelsea likely lose that game without him.

David Moyes
It turns out that managing West Ham and not picking Tomas Soucek or leading the line with Michail Antonio might not actually be as easy as it sounds. Sorry for all that criticism these last few years, Dave.

If Julen Lopetegui continues to provide ammunition for the Be Careful What You Wish For crowd he could and should never be forgiven. The patience and understanding shown towards the Spaniard for his early struggles are not unlimited and those selection decisions only drain such resources quicker.

The chief complaint against Moyes was that he was too defensive and not nearly ambitious enough with a brand of coaching which made the team as a whole seem less than the sum of their parts. These things do take time but West Ham appear to be worse after spending a great deal more.

Danny Ings
His last two goals have been equalisers as an 82nd-minute substitute. It’s quite the niche.

Jean-Philippe Mateta
Under Oliver Glasner: 17 goals in 18 games.

Under Patrick Vieira, Roy Hodgson and Ray Lewington: 16 goals in 93 games.

Is there a more sartorially powerful player in Premier League history than shirt-tucked Mateta? Might even take him over be-gloved Riyad Mahrez at this point.

Thomas Frank
Just a really very good coach whose gameplan not only disrupted Manchester City’s rhythm but broke their press and exposed the sort of weaknesses the fiercest critics of the champions’ monopoly over the title like to pretend do not exist.

Pep Guardiola’s side can be beaten and are vulnerable if targeted properly. But they also have Haaland and sometimes there really is only so much one can do about that.

MORE ON THE PREMIER LEAGUE WEEKEND FROM F365
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Premier League losers

Everton
Sean Dyche accepted his share of responsibility but for the fourth straight game blamed “mistakes” for Everton’s undoing. That in itself is fine enough, even if he continued to edge a little too far into Lampardian territory by emphasising the importance of “the basics” and “hard yards” in lieu of ‘tactics’ or ‘being good’.

One of many issues, however, seems to be his unconscious biases. To continue picking a defence featuring Ashley Young, James Tarkowski and Michael Keane whenever possible, before suggesting “some” of his players “are learning for the first time”, is approaching cowardice.

Tim Iroegbunam was one of Everton’s better players despite being in an exposed position and deserved more than such scapegoating. When Keane becomes smaller despite jumping it is unclear how that falls on the shoulders of Iliman Ndiaye. Jake O’Brien’s half-hour cameo debut surely prefaces an extended run of starts. He cannot possibly make Europe’s most porous defence any worse.

But the debates around team selection might be clouding the real issue of the manager’s approach, which seems to give Everton an in-built air of inferiority they are only too happy to live up to. The Dyche button is pressed by clubs willing to largely forego attacking endeavour and control for stability and robustness. After surrendering a pair of two-goal leads to lose successive games, it is worth asking what the point of it all is.

Cristian Romero
Without wanting to encroach on the Tickers trademark by writing about Spurs being rubbish, it is important to single out Romero for being just that extra bit awful when it mattered yet again.

Liverpool
It might be a simplification but a triple substitution in the 60th minute followed by a double change in the 75th points to an element of pre-planning which contradicts the need for in-game fluidity. Arne Slot would be justified in keeping the Champions League in the back of his mind, but the cliche about the next game being the most important exists for a reason.

Plan A was thwarted by an organised and focused Nottingham Forest and that happens. There is no crime there; it is so often forgotten that games involve two sets of players and coaches who both want to win and prepare diligently to try and do so, rather than just one side deciding the outcome of a match by being either brilliant or rubbish.

Liverpool veered far closer to the latter at Anfield but part of their problem was how unimaginative and predictable Plan B was. Slot made three of the exact same substitutions as he had against Manchester United – Gakpo for Diaz, Nunez for Jota and Tsimikas for Robertson – with Conor Bradley also coming on in both games. The changes made them worse and even more disjointed, and most of them felt like alterations the coach had already decided on before the match.

Forest’s decisive substitutions provided an awkward comparison and make no mistake: Nuno had prepared them before kick-off as well. Only the visitors executed both parts of a coherent and effective gameplan to perfection in ways that seemed entirely beyond Liverpool’s capabilities.

Ben Brereton Diaz
The new record holder for the most Premier League appearances without winning (18), but at least Marvin Sordell might have taken a crucial penalty to try and change that if given the chance. Brereton Diaz had the ball, but some may say he lacked the balls.

Perhaps that is an unfair characterisation, but trusting Cameron Archer with that spot kick makes for an uncomfortable contrast. He had never taken a penalty at senior professional level but missed one in a pre-season friendly for Aston Villa against Fulham last summer; it was put in the exact same corner and saved.

Brereton Diaz has scored all nine of his penalties at senior professional level and should have stepped up to bring him into career double figures.

Russell Martin explained that Archer “practiced a lot over the last two weeks during the intentional break whilst he’s been here and Ben hasn’t,” but when the stakes are so high and the margins so fine, it doesn’t really wash. It was the “wrong” decision and it cost Southampton dearly.

Fulham
“It just shows that in this Premier League you cannot switch off for one second. We are aware of the quick throws and we have to keep focus and concentration,” said Marco Silva; at the very least, Antonee Robinson was far from wise to the danger in that moment.

Add a 95th minute Danny Ings equaliser to the 91st minute David Datro Fofana equaliser, the 81st minute Bruno Guimaraes winner and the 87th minute Jeffrey Schlupp equaliser this calendar year alone. Fulham have completed a couple of stoppage-time rescue missions themselves in that period – Alex Iwobi at Old Trafford and Rodrigo Muniz stunning Sheffield United – but there is a clear theme of complacency creeping in which is undermining strong performances.

Brighton
A draw to extend their unbeaten start is no cause for immediate concern but hidden in the details of Brighton’s 21-shot bonanza against Ipswich was something for Fabian Hurzeler to consider: more than half of them were from at least 20 yards out, which is not in itself indicative of a problem, but each effort was certainly low value and a great many were inevitably blocked.

Brighton are the only side with three players in the top 25 for shots taken from the most average distance in the Premier League this season: Pervis Estupinan (33 yards), Julio Enciso (23.1) and Carlos Baleba (22.9). Baleba and Ferdi Kadioglu both had pot-shots from hilariously far out in stoppage-time and after the first-half double save from Aro Muric, the hosts dominated without creating all that much.

Marc Guehi
Not exactly the first man beaten for pace by Jamie Vardy, even at 37, but this has been a chastening start to the season and a particularly awful weekend for a £75m-rated defender who might have seen the £3m player he was supposed to replace at Newcastle continue to endear himself to supporters.

Wolves
Only one win in their last 14 Premier League games, and that was against relegated Luton. Wolves were leading at home against a poor team who lost arguably their best player and undeniably their best goalscorer at half-time. Being beaten from that position is sub-optimal.

Evanilson
Fair play to Bournemouth’s scouting system because Evanilson looks every bit as tireless, selfless and skilful as Dominic Solanke who, apropos of nothing, took 38 games to score his first Cherries goal before they started to properly flow. Andoni Iraola will hope it doesn’t take quite as long for his £40m forward.