With 10 games of the season complete, it feels like a nice, round number to reflect on some of the statistical quirks or tactical oddities that we spotted from this weekend’s fixtures.
On Saturday, Arsenal continued to stutter as they extended their winless run in the Premier League to three games with their loss to Newcastle United. Manchester City failed to capitalise as Pep Guardiola’s injury-ravaged side lost to Bournemouth for the first time in their history. Meanwhile, all power to Russell Martin after Southampton bagged their first league win of the season and Nottingham Forest are… pushing for Europe?
On Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur came from behind to emphatically win 4-1 against Aston Villa, while Chelsea travelled to Manchester United in what is the most-drawn fixture in Premier League’s history. The result? 1-1 of course.
Allow The Athletic to walk you through some of the things you might have missed.
Joelinton is the ultimate utility player
Alexander Isak scored Newcastle’s only goal against Arsenal after a great cross from Anthony Gordon from the right wing, but the strongest performance was arguably on the opposite side of the pitch, in and out of possession.
Joelinton was the man chosen on the left of Eddie Howe’s attack but the Brazil international played in something of a “false winger” role, rotating with Joe Willock in midfield to carry the threat down Newcastle’s flank.
At times, it was Joelinton pulling close to the touchline ahead of Willock, who would often use his off-ball running strengths to disrupt Arsenal’s defence.
On other occasions, it was Joelinton who played more inside, with Willock making marauding runs ahead of him like a traditional winger.
Newcastle did have long periods without the ball and Joelinton was defensively disciplined in supporting Lewis Hall — frequently dropping into a left wing-back role himself to ensure no gaps could be exploited across Howe’s back line, as he has done previously this season.
With Kai Havertz drifting across to Arsenal’s right to create overloads, Joelinton ensured his team-mate was protected and was doubling up on Bukayo Saka alongside Hall until the closing stages to nullify Arsenal’s most creative threat.
Newcastle’s fight and endeavour was crucial to their victory and the 28-year-old Joelinton was integral in getting them over the line with his hard work on and off the ball.
City stutter against a well-drilled Bournemouth
Manchester City’s 32-game Premier League unbeaten run came to an end on the south coast after their 2-1 loss to Bournemouth on Saturday.
Andoni Iraola’s side were good value for their victory, stifling City’s build-up and generating six Opta-defined big chances across the game. The last time City conceded six big chances in a single game was against Brentford in November 2022.
Mitigating injury circumstances aside, there are some warning signs that Guardiola needs to consider this season. City have conceded the opening goal in five of their first 10 Premier League games of 2024-25. The last time that happened was in the 2006-07 campaign, in a pre-Sheikh Mansour world where they finished in 14th.
As things stand, City’s 2.3 big chances conceded per 90 is comfortably their most in the past six seasons, where they did not exceed 1.6 per 90 across any of them. You would strongly suspect that average will come down as the season progresses, but City do have a defensive flaw in transitional moments that teams are clearly targeting. You might not always get a lot of chances against Guardiola’s side but those that you do get are often lucrative.
Bournemouth have picked up a well-deserved seven points from their last three games against Arsenal, Aston Villa and City, with Iraola’s energetic, aggressive approach executed perfectly by his players.
We know how Bournemouth play by now. They will go direct and make the opposition turn to face their own goal at the first opportunity. Only Everton have a higher share of their passes played long (35-plus yards) than Bournemouth’s 15 per cent this season, while only Tottenham Hotspur have won the ball in the attacking third more often than their 66 occasions.
Their 12 shot-ending sequences is also one of the highest in the league. Iraola’s side will harry and harass the opposition when out of possession, and go for the throat when they win it back.
“We could not match up the intensity of the situation,” Guardiola said after the game. “The long balls, we could not win it and when you don’t win these types of balls to (Antoine) Semenyo or strikers, you have to defend deeper. We struggled to make our build-up, especially for that (long balls). The rhythm they put in the game, they were higher than us. We could not handle it.”
The highest of praise for Iraola, who has made a habit of disrupting the Premier League elite in recent weeks.
Russell Martin’s philosophy is finally validated
Southampton bagged their first Premier League victory of the season against Everton after scoring a goal that was emblematic of manager Martin’s free-flowing style.
Only Liverpool and Manchester City have logged more sequences of nine-plus passes than Southampton’s 184 in the English top flight this season, but their toothless start to the campaign meant that a key question hanging over Martin is whether he would be willing to trade his high-possession approach for a more pragmatic, survival-based one.
Adam Armstrong’s goal only served to strengthen Martin’s case that Southampton can taste success with their style of play, as they worked the ball from their own penalty area and into Everton’s within a matter of seconds — after a patient sequence of play across the pitch (as shown below).
“I think some of the football we played today was outstanding,” Martin said after the game. “(We had) a few sticky moments when they took the ball off us because they were well-drilled. We recovered well from them and everyone stuck at it, and we scored a goal from (showing) brilliant courage and composure in our own box.
“Defending the set play, we head it down rather than clear it and play a one-two together for Matty Fernandes to drive up. I’m really proud of the players.”
A trip to 20th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers is up next for Martin’ side. If ever there was a time to earn back-to-back victories, it is next weekend.
Tottenham’s biggest strength is in transition
It may come as a surprise but Tottenham’s 4-1 victory over Aston Villa put them top of the Premier League’s goalscoring charts with 22 goals from their opening 10 games.
We have grown accustomed to Ange Postecoglou’s methods of considered possession and patient build-up, but it has been their moments in transition that have been a key strength of their season so far.
In Dominic Solanke, Postecoglou has the perfect striker to lead the press and the 27-year-old was equally impressive out of possession as he was in front of goal — with two excellent finishes taking his tally to four for the season.
Spurs were excellent at setting pressing traps and forcing Aston Villa to play long before making the most of the transitional moments when they arrived. Their second and third goals were the perfect example of that, with Pape Matar Sarr driving forward on both occasions and finding the right pass that exploited Villa’s shape in that transitional moment.
Solanke is there AGAIN! 🎯 pic.twitter.com/1HfQjanthP
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 3, 2024
While they have had some iffy results, Tottenham’s intensity has been high this season and the numbers support that. Their passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) — as a proxy of pressing intensity — sits at 7.8 this season, which is the lowest (and therefore most intense) in the league.
Mapping that alongside their volume of direct attacks — as a proxy of counter-attacking play — shows them to be one of the strongest transition sides in the opening ten games of the season.
“I still felt like we made them work really hard in that first half,” Postecoglou said after the game. “The thing with us is we’ve got another gear in us, two or three gears, and we keep going and we felt like we could really break them open in the second half if we just really stayed focused on making sure the football was up-tempo, and there was intensity in the game — and credit to the players after a massive effort on Wednesday night.”
Following on from a 2-1 victory against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup last Wednesday, Tottenham’s performance on Sunday has laid down a marker for themselves in terms of the level that they should be playing at. Based on the numbers above, you can be confident that physicality will play a key part in successful future performances.
