Palace make it easy for Arsenal
The oddity of Arsenal’s win over Crystal Palace was that their performance was probably less impressive than the one that brought FA Cup defeat to Liverpool. Gabriel Martinelli’s two late goals may have handy longer-term consequences as a confidence boost. The low-key nature of their victory highlighted the level of aimlessness around their opponents, who turned up corporeally but never looked like being protagonists. Palace’s owners took the brunt of fans’ ire and there is little suggestion knives will be out for Roy Hodgson. But something needs to change. The best that can currently be said for Palace is that the table will probably show three inferior teams – or at least three with a smaller points tally – at the end of the season. That does not bode well. Drift has a habit of accelerating rapidly into decline and the questions reverberating around Palace’s corridors of power will centre on how their fortunes can be reversed. Nick Ames
Match report: Arsenal 5-0 Crystal Palace
Turner a weak last line in Forest defence
There has been nothing musty about Nuno Espírito Santo’s football so far at Nottingham Forest: six games played in all competitions, three won, 14 goals scored, 12 conceded. Half of those games have finished 3-2, including Saturday’s defeat at Brentford. Part of the issue for Forest is in goal. Nuno – who was a goalkeeper in his playing career – prefers Matt Turner to Odysseas Vlachodimos, as did his predecessor Steve Cooper.There must be a reason for that: Turner, as he showed against Manchester United, is capable of spectacular saves. But he is uncertain with the ball at his feet and the way Brentford bombarded him with inswinging corners suggested they were targeting a perceived weakness. Turner is relatively new to the Premier League – he has featured in just 16 league games for Forest having not played in a year at Arsenal after joining from New England Revolution – so the sample size is small. But amid all the changes at Forest, perhaps the biggest this season is the absence of Keylor Navas, who played such a key role in their survival in the second half of last season. Jonathan Wilson
Match report: Brentford 3-2 Nottingham Forest
Cornet turns a corner at West Ham
Elite sport is all about seizing opportunity and with Mohammed Kudus away on African Cup of Nations duty for Ghana, Maxwel Cornet – not included in Ivory Coast’s Afcon squad – was handed a first Premier League start of the season for West Ham against Sheffield United, having not featured since the opening day against Bournemouth. Cornet scored the opening goal: his first since joining the Hammers from Burnley back in 2022. “The key is patience,” Cornet said. “It wasn’t enough [for the win] but personally I’m happy to get my first goal for West Ham and hopefully I can score more.” Jamie Jackson
Match report: Sheffield United 2-2 West Ham
Iraola undone by tinkerman Klopp
It was a game of two halves – first a stalemate, then a rout. And it was a tale of two managers, as you could see as the teams emerged for the second half. Jürgen Klopp was back in his seat early, silent for once, and calm. He had just made the tweak that would change the game, switching Darwin Núñez from the left wing to the middle and asking Diogo Jota rather than Luis Díaz to fill Mohamed Salah’s boots on the right. It was still 0-0 but Klopp was sitting there as if his team were 2-0 up. Meanwhile Andoni Iraola was giving an interview to Sky, not sounding very confident at all. “Second half,” he said, “the game will open and I hope it’s going to help us … Liverpool are a strong team in the second half.” He made the right diagnosis, yet never came close to finding the cure. Plan A had gone quite well for Bournemouth, but Plan B was needed and it never arrived. Their attempts on goal were long shots, their lone marksman, Dominic Solanke , was muffled, and they ended up getting a reality check. Tim de Lisle
Match report: Bournemouth 0-4 Liverpool
Jota is highly effective again for Reds
There are good footballers, there are great footballers, and there is endless talk about the difference between the two. But there are also effective footballers, and maybe we don’t discuss them enough. Diogo Jota, seldom mentioned as one of the best players in the Premier League, is surely one of the most effective. At Bournemouth he had only two official attempts on goal. They both ended up in the net, while a third one eluded the stats people because it was a kick at thin air. Somehow Jota turned even that into a success, by seizing on the loose ball and slotting it home. He is Liverpool’s Ole Gunnar Solskjær, a striker who can regularly make a difference without being a regular starter. Jota is also an exceptional finisher: his expected goals here were 0.14. On WhoScored.com, where 7/10 is a good rating and 8 is great, he was awarded 9.9. TdL
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 21 | 29 | 48 |
| 2 | Man City | 20 | 25 | 43 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 21 | 22 | 43 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 21 | 16 | 43 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 21 | 13 | 40 |
| 6 | West Ham | 21 | 3 | 35 |
| 7 | Man Utd | 21 | -5 | 32 |
| 8 | Brighton | 20 | 5 | 31 |
| 9 | Chelsea | 21 | 4 | 31 |
| 10 | Newcastle | 21 | 9 | 29 |
| 11 | Wolverhampton | 20 | -1 | 28 |
| 12 | AFC Bournemouth | 20 | -11 | 25 |
| 13 | Fulham | 21 | -8 | 24 |
| 14 | Brentford | 20 | -4 | 22 |
| 15 | Crystal Palace | 21 | -12 | 21 |
| 16 | Nottm Forest | 21 | -12 | 20 |
| 17 | Everton | 21 | -4 | 17 |
| 18 | Luton | 20 | -14 | 16 |
| 19 | Burnley | 21 | -21 | 12 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 21 | -34 | 10 |
