With the Women's Super League on a two-week break, Sky Sports columnist Laura Hunter tackles talking points from the latest Premier League matches, including a look at Nick Woltemade's eye-catching performances for Newcastle and a familiar problem at Tottenham...
Woltemade debunks Premier League myth
A move from the Bundesliga to the Premier League is a well-travelled path. Just this summer, another raft of high-profile names made the swap. Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Hugo Ekitike joined Liverpool, Benjamin Sesko was sold to Manchester United, Xavi Simons to Tottenham. All for big sums.
But the one who has made his acclimatisation look most natural is Newcastle forward Nick Woltemade. In just seven short weeks, he has become the toast of the Toon, and rubbished the theory that players arriving from Germany require a 'transition period'.
The 23-year-old, unmissable at 6ft 6in, has not needed the caveats most have offered Wirtz and Sesko. He has just got on with it. On his Premier League bow he joined an elite, but small, group of compatriots - Jurgen Klinsmann and Ilkay Gundogan - in becoming the third German to score on his debut.
He has netted another four times in all competitions since, five if you include his contribution for Germany.
In fact, Woltemade has made a mockery of plenty of conventional tags in the early part of this season. "The players are looking for me," he said at the weekend. It is easy to see why. A tall target man with a silky touch is a rare commodity in modern day football, much lesser seen than a more conventional type.
Newcastle might have eventually lost to Brighton on Saturday but Woltemade's remarkable back-heel flick to draw them level hinted at a unique intelligence. His individuality as a No 9/ No 10 hybrid makes him difficult to track. "Nick has done really well," said Eddie Howe, "and we're delighted for him, but we need more from the rest of the team."
Newcastle had failed to score in each of their last four Premier League away games until Woltemade made his mark at the Amex - and as a team, only Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Leeds have a lower conversion rate (7.3 per cent) this season. Woltemade himself (36.4 per cent) bucks the trend - his minutes-to-goals ratio second only to Erling Haaland - but as Howe acknowledged, he needs more help.
Still, the understanding with Anthony Gordon shows promise and a positive should be gleaned from his willingness to embrace a leading role so early in his Newcastle career. He rarely appears fazed. The range of his talent is deceptive, too, able to drop deep and act as the bounce player while also revealing himself to be a shrewd finisher.
He might not have been signed as a direct replacement for Alexander Isak, who is yet to score in the league for Liverpool, but Woltemade is filling the void admirably and proving the necessity of so-called transition time to be nothing more than a myth.
Spurs stifled at home
Thomas Frank has hit a stumbling block. The problem is not necessarily of his own making but will be his to fix. Since the start of last season, Tottenham have dropped more points from winning positions at home in the Premier League (19) than any other side.
They have lost five times after leading in that time, also a league-high tally.
Spurs would have gone second with a win over Aston Villa on Sunday and third with a draw. Instead they find themselves sixth. In many ways, following the debacle of last season, it's tangible progress. Those who pay their money to watch from the terraces of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, however, have a right to disagree. Based on home form alone Spurs would be 17th.
Why, then, are performances so stifled in more familiar surroundings? It's clear that from open play Frank's side lack cohesiveness, and that frustrates home crowds. Their open-play xG at the weekend was a pitiful 0.16. They did carry set-piece threat, but summer arrivals Mohammed Kudus and Simons struggled to combine effectively with Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel.
Tel's runs were predictable, and for the most part he wasn't served the ball anyway. Simons failed to gain any momentum. Kudus has been a bright spark since joining from West Ham but even centre-back Micky van de Ven carried more xG threat against Villa. Kudus actually generated zero.
Every forward foray seemed to be half-a-yard out, or mistimed completely - Spurs were caught offside six times in total, more than any other side across matchweek eight.
Unai Emery rather hit the nail on the head post-match: "We adapted to everything tactically," he said, and Villa played on an anxiousness that has come to define games in this part of north London.
When Tottenham let their lead go they tend also to let their ascendancy slip. Frank's foremost problem is to ensure that habit, inherited from the Ange Postecoglou era, is not a hallmark of his time in charge.
Forest failings expose wider problems
Nottingham Forest are about to appoint their third manager of the season and it's only October. A sad indictment of how far the club has plummeted in the space of a few short months. The highs and lows of football have scarcely been more acutely encapsulated.
Postecoglou sacked as Forest boss
The exact date of the beginning of such a sensational downfall is difficult to pinpoint. Was it in the first week of the season, when former boss Nuno Espirito Santo publicly labelled his squad "unbalanced" and called it a "major problem"? Was it 24 days later when he was sacked? Or is it better summarised by Ange Postecoglou's disastrous 39-day reign?
It's hard to say. But what is abundantly obvious is just how poor Forest have been on the pitch as well as off it. All this confusion has obviously unnerved players and rid them of the stability they used to drive last season's impressive push for Europe.
Forest have now failed to score in three successive league home games for the first time since October 1998. Saturday marked the first time they generated an xG value over two (2.35) and failed to score since returning to the Premier League in 2022. The upheaval has unpicked everything good about Forest under Nuno. They have slipped 11 places in the table between May and now.
With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps even Evangelos Marinakis might admit hiring a manager whose style of play is the antithesis of the previous regime - the most successful in the club's recent history - was a mistake.
Postecoglou was the first manager to see his team score only one goal in his first five Premier League matches in charge since - drumroll, please - Sean Dyche at Burnley in 2014. Marinakis might not be privy to that information because he has enlisted Dyche himself to enact the turnaround. He will be the ninth Forest manager in eight years.
This soap opera style of club management cannot be sustainable. Blame can of course be shared around but really the only way to ease such turbulence is to settle the noise by winning football matches. Forest find themselves marooned in the relegation scrap with the worst offensive record and second-worst defensive record in the league.
Dyche's job is gigantic and he can't afford to get it wrong.