“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday The Athletic discusses three of the biggest questions posed by the weekend’s Premier League action. This was the round when Anfield saw a farewell of uncertain finality from a Liverpool legend and another fine display from a new hero, Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca provide this week’s puzzle with a cryptic post-match interview, Fulham beat Burnley in the Scott Parker derby and Leeds pick up a decent point at Brentford. …”
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The Briefing: ‘Efficient’ Villa and City hunt Arsenal, own goals galore – and has Frank blown it?
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Mohamed Salah, Unai Emery and Thomas Frank have already experienced highs and lows
“Emiliano Buendia crashed home a stoppage-time winner to stun leaders Arsenal and end their 18-match unbeaten run. Trailing at half-time to Matty Cash’s opener at Villa Park, Arsenal were far from their best but looked set to take a point thanks to substitute Leandro Trossard’s 52nd-minute equaliser. But Villa were not to be denied, with Buendia coming off the bench to hammer a shot beyond David Raya following an almighty scramble. …”
“The cold nights are drawing in, hopes and dreams from those optimistic, innocent, bright summer days are long gone. Reality has bitten. With the Premier League table still tighter than the proverbial camel’s backside in a sandstorm, with just six points separating fifth from 15th (this time last year the gap was 12 points), it’s hard to judge which clubs and which fanbases are happy with what they’ve seen so far. A week of wins can lift you from relegation concerns to a European push, while successive defeats can take you from the Champions League places to looking downwards to the Championship. It’s temperamental. Far more reliable than the actual league table, then, is The Athletic’sHappiness Table, in which we accurately summise each club’s xH (expected happiness) level, but without the xH bit because that’s a bit silly. …”
“Welcome to The Athletic’s 2026 Transfer DealSheet — covering the January and summer windows. Our team of dedicated writers will take you inside the market to explain the deals being worked on. The transfer window will reopen on January 1, 2026 — at which point The Transfer DealSheet will return to its weekly in-window format. The information found within this article has been gathered according to The Athletic’s sourcing guidelines. Unless stated, our reporters have spoken to more than one person briefed on each deal before offering the clubs involved the opportunity to comment. Their responses, when they were given, have been included. …”
“This was the weekend when 
“In an era where football fans implore their club to spend big money on new players, it’s notable that very few of the most expensive footballers in history have been an unqualified success at their new club. Eleven players have been transferred for £100million or more, and there are more flops than clear positives. Antoine Griezmann’s 2017 move from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona (
“Tottenham may have put in a more positive display against PSG than against Arsenal on Sunday, but they came away from Paris defeated in an eight-goal thriller despite twice taking the lead. Richarlison headed in during the first half after a great team move from Spurs before an incredible strike from Vitinha just before half-time drew the hosts level. Randal Kolo Muani, playing against his parent club, put Spurs back in front before Vitinha again drew the teams level with another lovely finish. Two poor goals to concede followed, though, as the early promise from Spurs evaporated. Kolo Muani made it 4-3 before Vitinha completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after a handball. PSG then had Lucas Hernandez sent off in stoppage time. …”
“Liverpool’s season goes from bad to worse. A wretched 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, who were entrenched in the relegation zone ahead of kick-off, dealt a further blow to 
“Manchester City missed an opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal in the title race, falling to a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The result leaves Pep Guardiola’s team in third, a point behind Chelsea, and potentially seven points behind Arsenal, should Mikel Arteta’s side beat Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. The game was decided in a dramatic seven second-half minutes. Both sides had missed an abundance of chances before Newcastle opened the scoring in the 64th minute. A smart interchange in midfield between Bruno Guimaraes and Harvey Barnes ended with the latter shooting low and hard past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. The lead only lasted five minutes, however, as Newcastle struggled to clear from a corner and Ruben Dias equalised, his shot squirming between the legs of Fabian Schar. …”
“The scene was a school in west London, the weather was overcast and, for what felt like the first day of a new term, the mood was horribly tense. It was the Premier League’s official launch event for the 2015-16 Premier League season. Eddie Howe led a contingent from Bournemouth, all of them wide-eyed with excitement on the eve of their first top-flight campaign. The Swansea City lot were happy to be there, too. The delegation from reigning champions Chelsea? Not so much. …”
“One of the common moans about English football is that everything feels homogenous these days. Teams play the same style of football. Stadiums are identikit bowls. Clubs play in away kits that don’t particularly feel like their colours. So among clubs becoming increasingly indistinguishable from one another, one small element of Premier League football is a complete free-for-all: the commentary used on the highlights packages for clubs’ respective YouTube channels. Here, there is absolutely no consensus whatsoever about the right thing to do. Should you use a standard feed of ‘neutral’ television commentary? Should you use a dedicated club commentator? Should you use the club’s dedicated radio commentary and overlay it on the pictures? Should you use local BBC radio commentary? …”
“The Premier League returns this week after the final international break of the calendar year. At the top, Arsenal are four points clear but have suffered further injuries, including to key defender Gabriel, before the north London derby against Tottenham on Sunday. Second-placed Manchester City visit Newcastle on Saturday evening, with Eddie Howe’s home side as close to rock-bottom Wolves in points terms as they are to Pep Guardiola’s team. …”
Tottenham fans have been underwhelmed by their team’s style of play this season
“There are two reasons you might encounter the four letters ‘doku’ on the back page of your newspaper. The first is when preceded by the letters ‘Su’. The second is when preceded by the word ‘Jeremy’. Sudoku, for those uninitiated, is the Japanese logic game that suddenly exploded in English-language media two decades ago. Players are given a 9×9 grid, which is also divided into nine squares. Some numbers are already written in. The player must complete the grid by entering the numbers 1-9, but each individual number cannot appear twice in any row, column or square. …”
“Illegal streaming of football is on the rise in the UK and most fans want the Saturday 3pm blackout lifted, a new podcast released by The Athletic has revealed. The Underground World of Illegal Streaming — a special episode of 
“There are few neater points of the Premier League season than when the 20 clubs are all 10 games in — 100 matches, 200 results, infinite opinions. At that point in 2025-26, there have been 22 penalties, 268 goals, 801 shots on target, 86,473 passes and one 15-year-old. Far too much to explain in its entirety, but plenty of information to boil down into a statistical vignette of the campaign so far. So let’s do precisely that. …”
“Newcastle United have travelled nearly 1,300 miles for a meagre return of three points, two goals and no wins from five Premier League away trips this season. Head coach Eddie Howe was brutally honest after defeat at the London Stadium, where West Ham United recovered from a fourth-minute Jacob Murphy goal to beat Newcastle 3-1. … This week has encapsulated Newcastle of late. A dominant 2-0 victory at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup was followed by a defeat against a West Ham side who had not won at home since late February. …”
“Amid 
“On Tuesday, 
“In the aftermath of losing his first Premier League match as Nottingham Forest head coach at Bournemouth at the weekend, Sean Dyche claimed his new side were not yet in the physical condition he wanted. ‘I am not knocking any other manager,’ Dyche said after the 2-0 defeat. ‘But I have been in the Premier League for 11 years and I know where I want my team to be physically. I don’t think the players are where they need to be for my way of working.’ …”
“Long throws are the hot new thing. Well, sort of. They are not really that new, and whether they are hot or not is a matter for debate. They are certainly a thing, though. 
“Erling Haaland had just scored his 12th goal of the season when he was asked for the secrets behind his form. After scoring Manchester City’s winner against Brentford in October, Haaland explained how becoming a father to a son last December was a key factor behind his purple patch on the pitch. … It was a reminder that fatherhood and football are often overlooked despite affecting the majority of players during their careers. But how does it all work in reality? How do players manage the inevitable lack of sleep, and how does this impact their ability to perform to their highest level? What support are they given by their clubs? And why is the idea of paternity leave still virtually unheard of in football? …”
“The weirdest aspect of Ange Postecoglou’s 40-day reign at Nottingham Forest was how inevitable it all felt. The only shock was that he was sacked on Saturday, within minutes of a 
“When you have spent 17 years stuck behind the Electrical Contractors’ Association, the Edinburgh College of Art, and the European Cockpit Association in Google’s search results for the acronym ‘ECA’, it probably is time for a makeover. So, when the hundreds of delegates arrived at the European Club Association’s 32nd general assembly in Rome this month, they actually found themselves at the first general assembly of European Football Clubs, which is a good name for a lobby group that represents European football clubs. …”
“It is lunchtime, Newcastle United’s academy is a hubbub of people and Steve Harper is conducting an impromptu tour, slap-bang in his element. The club’s former goalkeeper, its longest-serving player and now the academy manager knows everybody and their backstories. There is encouragement, feedback, a steady stream of dad jokes. … What they do is produce footballers for Newcastle — the primary objective — and along one internal wall there is a mural of academy graduates who made their way into the first team. Sean Longstaff is open-jawed after scoring, Andy Carroll is in an England shirt, arms outstretched, Elliot Anderson is there. But what they do is way more than football. But what they do is way more than football. …”
If you tune into any Premier League game this season there is only a 54.7 per cent chance the ball is in play
“… Welcome to The Athletic’s 2025 agent survey, which analyses a 
“”The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of 
“Welcome to the seventh edition of The Alternative Premier League Table, where each Thursday, Anantaajith Raghuraman analyses the entire division through a specific lens. After looking at each club’s usage of long balls last week, this time our qualifier is expected goals and how teams have performed against the metric so far. As usual, the article that follows is long but detailed, so please settle down and enjoy it all — or search for the side you want to read about. …”
“There is a certain aesthetic which sits alongside the most entertaining games of football — often it is that they are played at a ‘good tempo’. A player who can dictate the tempo of a match is worth their weight in gold, while identifying a team’s shift in tempo is synonymous with an increase in energy and creativity. It is a term that is frequently used within football parlance, but what exactly do we mean by it? …”
“Almost as soon as Anfield’s last visitors leave, new ones swoop in. On Tancred Road, four streets away from the district’s famous football stadium and home of Liverpool FC, changeover day in three rental properties last week was Thursday. Out went the Liverpool fans who had travelled from other parts of the world to watch their team’s 3-2 Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid. Shortly after, they were replaced by ones in town for Saturday’s Premier League Merseyside derby against Everton. Nearby, separate groups shared a four-bedroom house from Tuesday to Sunday, taking in both fixtures. …”
“… This was the round when 
“Many frontiers have been crossed within football analytics. It was not too long ago that clubs would be lucky to obtain the most basic event metrics, such as shots, passes, and corners. Fast forward to the modern day, and the granularity of football data now is eye-watering. Players with GPS (Global Positioning System) vests are commonplace in the modern game as clubs monitor the speed, distance covered, accelerations and decelerations of each squad member in every training session and matchday. …”
“It wasn’t pretty but Tottenham Hotspur’s return to the Champions League was a winning one. A calamitous own goal by Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior in the fourth minute proved enough for Thomas Frank’s side in a low-key encounter in north London, although few Spurs fans were complaining at the relative lack of fireworks. Here, we analyse the major talking points. …”
“This summer, the traditional ‘Big Six’ clubs signed more players from the rest of the Premier League than in any of the previous 15 seasons. 
“Aston Villa’s goal of the month for August was simple. They decided not to bother with it at all because, for only the second time in their history, Villa failed to score in their first three league fixtures. They are the only team out of 162 that make up England’s top seven leagues (Premier League down to the National League North and South) yet to hit the back of the net. A big caveat here is that they have played only three league matches, whereas some teams in lower leagues have played more than double that number. …”
“Tottenham Hotspur has been the club where everything changes but its owners. For all that managers and players come and go, ENIC has held power for almost a quarter of a century. No Premier League owner has lasted longer. The front-facing leader had always been Daniel Levy but 
“The transfer window is over. Over 150 senior players have been signed by Premier League clubs. Others have moved on to the continent. Much like every year, a club’s transfer window will likely be judged a success or a failure based on the season that follows — that big-money striker who fires his new side into the Champions League or the huge (and unresolved) hole in defence that means a club slips into a relegation scrap. But with the window having just closed, we asked The Athletic’s club reporters for their view on how it panned out for their side, and what grade they would give the club’s window. …”
“It is just 90 days since Paris Saint-Germain claimed their first Champions League with 
“Welcome to the 13th edition of The Athletic’s Transfer DealSheet for the summer 2025 transfer window. Our team of dedicated writers, including David Ornstein, will take you inside the market to explain the deals being worked on. The transfer window is open and will run until September 1. The information found within this article has been gathered according to The Athletic’s sourcing guidelines. Unless stated, our reporters have spoken to more than one person briefed on each deal before offering the clubs involved the opportunity to comment. Their responses, when they were given, have been included. We aim to bring you analysis you can trust about what is happening at Europe’s leading clubs and the latest information we’re hearing from across the market. This year, The Athletic’s football finance writer, Chris Weatherspoon, will be adding to our analysis of the transfer market. …”
“There is no doubting the sizeable and growing divide between London and much of the rest of England. A 
“Electric is how Eddie Howe describes the atmosphere he expects at St James’ Park tonight. First home game of the season, Bank Holiday Monday, under the floodlights and Newcastle United will have the pent-up emotions of a city behind them: their frustration unleashed not upon Alexander Isak this time, but Liverpool. All summer long a sense of indignation has brewed and bubbled on Tyneside. This could be the night it boils over. Isak’s actions — spurning Newcastle and their supporters’ adoration, turning his back on his manager and team-mates as he agitates for a transfer — have caused anger. Liverpool, whom Isak is set on joining, will feel the brunt of that resentment. …”
“Football quite often shows that it isn’t aware of its own absurdity, and a prime example of that came last week when Enzo Maresca was discussing Levi Colwill’s knee injury. Colwill is likely to miss most of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, which given he started 35 league games in the 2024-25 campaign, is enough to put a wrinkle in anyone’s plans. Maresca’s immediate solution was to suggest that Todd Boehly further loosened the already pretty loose Chelsea purse strings and furnish him with a new signing to plug the gap. …”
“C’est la vie is the motto Tijjani Reijnders lives by, the one that inspired his trademark shoulder-shrug celebration he performed on his debut for Manchester City. That’s life and, yes, this — running football matches — is what I do. Deal with it. The Premier League certainly got the message. He played a key role in all of City’s goals in their 4-0 away win against Wolves: orchestrating the first, scoring the second, assisting the third and doing the leg work for the fourth to rank among the best debuts the division has ever seen. …”
“Have you missed football? Probably not, because it never really stopped. But if you were struggling, fear not, because the Premier League is back. Three hundred and eighty matches, 282 days, 20 teams, endless grumbling about VARs, and almost certainly a new officiating debate that none of us have dreamed up yet are waiting just around the corner, all starting when reigning champions Liverpool host Bournemouth on Friday at 8pm BST/3pm EST. 
“As the new season gets under way, the 20 Premier League managers will be grappling with key selection decisions that could make the difference between a good or bad start to the campaign. So to help them, The Athletic’s dedicated club correspondents and experts have picked their own strongest XI — and justified the reasoning behind it. So without further delay, here they are. …”
“Landing transfer targets at Newcastle United this summer has been a bit like trying to nail jelly to a wall. Last week, Benjamin Sesko became the latest player to turn them down, signing for Manchester United instead and joining a list that includes Hugo Ekitike, James Trafford and Joao Pedro. Newcastle made bids for all four players this summer and ended up missing out on each of them. They also tried and failed to sign Dean Huijsen, Bryan Mbeumo and Liam Delap. On top of that, Alexander Isak, the club’s talisman and biggest asset, is attempting to force through a move to Liverpool. …”
Scissors Kick 