Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 11, including:
- Man City are back to their best – and have Arsenal in their sights
- Arsenal must make sure they move on from horribly-timed Raya error
- Spurs correct tactical errors but Frank still struggling with proactive football
- Garnacho hitting form could take Chelsea to the next level
- Nuno is finding his Forest-like key players as West Ham achieve successive wins
- Newcastle’s poor form hits a new nadir
- Dyche has already made the City Ground a tough place to visit again
- Villa capitalise on emerging problem in Bournemouth's midfield
- Uneventful draw keeps Brighton and Palace firmly in UCL race
Man City are back to their best – and have Arsenal in their sights
Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as a manager was celebrated with an emphatic victory over rivals Liverpool, and fittingly the match was pure Pep: a tactical masterclass built through clever midfield combinations, as our analysis highlights.
Jeremy Doku was the standout performer for Manchester City, his dominance of the left flank not only capitalising on a well-known weakness in the Liverpool setup but showing the best of Guardiola’s renewed interest in direct football.
Doku became the first player with 10+ dribbles, 10+ duels won, 3+ chances created, 3+ shots on target and a goal in the same Premier League game since Eden Hazard for Chelsea v West Ham United in April 2019.
He helped Man City to a dominant win, a flexing of the muscles that shifts the balance of the Premier League table as we enter the final international break of 2025.
Arsenal’s draw, and a reduction of their lead to four points, is not the reason why the title battle was rejuvenated this weekend.
What has changed the perspective is the sheer power and confidence in the Man City performance; the energy that Guardiola says has returned to both his players and himself.
All of a sudden, Man City look as likely as Arsenal to hit 90+ points.
Arsenal must make sure they move on from horribly-timed Raya error
"It wasn’t meant to be, so we have to accept it," was Mikel Arteta’s philosophical conclusion when speaking to BBC Sport’s Match of the Day. It’s important his message is felt by the players.
The final match before the international break is a bad moment for Arsenal’s perfect form to be punctured.
Not only did they concede a goal for the first time in 812 minutes, but it was the first match this season in which they conceded twice.
Brian Brobbey's strike, which caused Arsenal to let two points slip, was the first 90th-minute goal the Gunners have conceded since September 2024. It came from a goalkeeping error, with David Raya mistakenly attempting to claim a ball that was always that of the Sunderland substitute.
Arsenal need to shrug this off and not let it fester over the break. Their greatest battle this season, as they look to win a first league title in over 20 years, is against themselves.
Mistakes like that one can happen. The trick is to forget all about it, especially with local rivals Tottenham Hotspur up next.
Spurs correct tactical errors but Frank still struggling with proactive football
Matthijs de Ligt’s 95th-minute equaliser was a huge blow to Thomas Frank, who was so close to a first home win since the opening weekend.
In the first 45 minutes, Spurs tried to play proactive football in the wrong way. They consistently attempted to play out from their own penalty area but were unable to do so because neither Pape Matar Sarr nor Joao Palhinha were able to take the ball on the half-turn and break lines.
Manchester United’s press consistently won them possession, including in the build-up to Bryan Mbeumo’s opener. Spurs were stuck, Man Utd were in control, and once again the hosts could not create chances.
Frank picked reactive/defensive-minded players and tried to play proactive football, a confused decision made worse by an attacking setup in which left-winger Richarlison moved so far infield, Spurs had no width. Trying to play through the middle, they were inevitably blocked by Man Utd’s midfield box.
In the second half, Frank made substitutions and moved to a far more conventional setup, with Wilson Odobert sticking wide left and the left-back Destiny Udogie making inverted runs. This simple switch gave Spurs the width they needed to put Man Utd under pressure, and Odobert and Udogie assisted goals to put the home side 2-1 ahead.
The lesson for Frank, as he tries to find a balance between his conservative instincts and the need to play more expansively at Spurs, is to go all-in on one or the other.
Here, he picked a stodgy midfield but tried to play through the thirds - the worst of both worlds – before correcting things with a more direct approach.
Nuno is finding his Forest-like key players as West Ham achieve successive wins
Consecutive Premier League wins have lifted West Ham to within goal difference of leaving the bottom three, suggesting that the Nuno Espirito Santo era has lift-off.
But it’s more than just results that tell us that. The individual pieces are beginning to come together.
Matheus Fernandes enjoyed his best performance since joining West Ham in the summer, creating three chances and completing three tackles - on both counts the most of any player on the pitch - and playing in an all-action style that complimented Lucas Paqueta.
Along with Freddie Potts (the breakout star of West Ham’s win against Newcastle the previous week) in the No 6 role, all of a sudden the Hammers have a midfield trio that looks technically good enough to play the same quick counter-attacking football enacted by Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White at Nuno’s Forest.
In the final third, Crysencio Summerville showed an explosive quality that fits the profile of a classic Nuno winger (like Anthony Elanga), while Callum Wilson’s poacher’s goal hinted at his potential as the Chris Wood-type big No 9.
There’s a lot of hard work ahead, but things are beginning to fall into place.
Garnacho hitting form could take Chelsea to the next level
Chelsea laboured through a difficult first half on Saturday evening in which left-winger Alejandro Garnacho was the only lively attacker, and then, just when fans were beginning to worry, the Argentine’s brilliant cross gave Enzo Maresca's side the breakthrough.
Garnacho’s skill to set up the third goal was even better, and although he might be a bit too experienced for this to be called a coming-of-age performance – this was his 99th Premier League game – it is noteworthy this was the first time he has provided two assists in the same match.
Often lost amid the ongoings at Man Utd, then quickly out of favour under Ruben Amorim, we have only seen Garnacho’s talent in short bursts before. An extended run in the Chelsea first team could enable him to fulfil his potential.
Fulham’s away record is becoming a serious issue for Silva
Everton were never in any danger in this one, winning 2-0 but scoring three offside goals in a dominant performance that continued Fulham’s poor record of just one away point this season.
"We played 20 minutes of the first half, and 20 minutes of the second half, nothing more," was Marco Silva’s damning assessment on BBC Sport’s Match of the Day. "All the other moments of the game were not good enough at all."
Fulham are not in any immediate danger, but analysis of their results so far this season suggests things might not be as secure as they seem.
Their three victories, all at Craven Cottage, have been against Leeds United, Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers, three bottom-half clubs who have collected just seven points from a combined 17 away matches so far this season.
Fulham's next PL fixtures
In other words, the fixture list has been kind to Fulham, but from now until 24 January, they only have one home game against a team currently in the bottom half - Nottingham Forest in late December.
Fulham need to fix their away form, fast.
Newcastle’s poor form hits a new mark
The weekend could not have gone much worse for Newcastle United, whose defeat at Brentford has left them just two points above the relegation zone and cut adrift in the lower half of where the league table has split.
Remarkably, only four points separate second place from ninth and just six points separate second from 12th spot. From there, the gaps begin to widen. Newcastle, for now, are outside that compressed top half and looking nervously over their shoulder.
Eddie Howe’s team have lost three of their last four Premier League games, with UEFA Champions League action appearing to interfere with their domestic form for the second consecutive campaign in Europe’s premier competition.
But the true extent of Newcastle’s poor start to the season had perhaps gone under the radar, to outsiders at least, until this weekend.
We are approaching the one-third mark of the 2025/26 campaign and Newcastle have only beaten three teams - Wolves, Forest, and Fulham - and all of the matches were at home, against opponents who were at their lowest ebb.
Howe's team are a reminder of just how often pre-season predictions are wrong – as are Brentford, surpassing all expectations to move within a point of the top half.
For that, they can thank Igor Thiago. Brentford’s new striker has scored eight Premier League goals this season, the second-most behind Erling Haaland.
Dyche has already made the City Ground a tough place to visit again
Sean Dyche has been an instant success at Forest. After beating FC Porto and coming close to beating Manchester United in his first two matches at the City Ground, his team ended a nine-game winless run in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
And they’re doing it in a "Dychian" way: the first two goals against Leeds were both long punts into the final third, followed by crosses into the box.
What’s most impressive about Dyche’s Forest is the energy and intent they are showing at home. They took eight shots in the opening 20 minutes and, despite going 1-0 down early on, were level within two minutes.
Dyche is enjoying a classic new-manager bounce and has already won more games in charge of Forest (two) than his predecessors this season, Ange Postecoglou and Nuno, with a combined total of one victory.
Villa capitalise on emerging problem in Bournemouth's midfield
In the build-up to this game, Unai Emery had a choice to make: go long and avoid the manic AFC Bournemouth press, as he did to mastermind a 1-0 win the last time the sides met, or double down on the risky passing out from the back that walked into Liverpool’s trap last weekend.
He chose the latter – and was proved right.
Villa were by far the better team, and although a 4-0 scoreline flattered them a little, Bournemouth can have no complaints after a laboured performance and disorganised press allowed the home side to pass around them and dominate between the lines.
Note the room that Villa’s playmakers (No 10 and 27) have between the lines in this average positions graphic below.
John McGinn, Emiliano Buendia, and Morgan Rogers all looked to pick up the ball between the defensive and midfield lines and – worryingly for Bournemouth – for the second week running, this was an issue.
Just as Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden found room between the lines for Man City the previous weekend, Villa’s playmakers eased through this match. It hints at tiredness in the Bournemouth team and, perhaps, an imminent regression to the mean.
Uneventful draw keeps Brighton and Palace firmly in UCL race
On an eventful Premier League weekend that featured 33 goals – or an average of 3.3 per game – it isn’t controversial to say the grudge match between Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion was by far the least eventful.
This was a good point for both, however, with the clean sheet positive for Fabian Hurzeler and the extension of an unbeaten home run useful for Oliver Glasner.
Brighton have recorded consecutive clean sheets, as many as in their previous 22 league matches, suggesting Hurzeler is beginning to find greater defensive balance.
Palace are unbeaten in 12 Premier League matches at Selhurst Park, the longest current run of any team in the competition.
Brighton are three points off fourth and Palace are three points off third; an uneventful, but satisfying, weekend for both.