Football has delivered nothing but endless action. From Manchester United’s opening day loss to Barca’s attack tearing into their opponents and Arsenal’s humbling at the Amex last week, it has been nothing short of intense action.
Nonetheless, we think there are a few talking points from the season so far, and there’s no better time to look at it than during the international break.
1. Maresca skipping transition period at Manchester City
Five league games into Enzo Maresca’s reign after losing Pep Guardiola and it doesn’t look like Manchester City are taking a break from the top.
They have won all five of their league games so far and are three points clear at the top after Sunday’s 5-3 victory over Sunderland. The scoreline, however, also exposed the other side of Maresca’s early work: while City are currently the most in-form team, they still have plenty of chinks in their armor.
Not that you could tell from the derby victory over Manchester United two weekends ago. City spent the second half with 10 men after Phil Foden’s dismissal but still managed to protect their lead. New signings Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson, and Ayoub Bouaddi have settled in nicely and are already making an impact. Maresca looks like he could repeat the feat done by Arne Slot, who won the title in his debut season with Liverpool.
Sunderland presented a different challenge at the weekend and vastly exposed City’s defensive vulnerability, but Maresca’s side still found enough attacking quality to maintain their perfect record.
2. More than a wobble from Mourinho’s Real Madrid
Real Madrid’s performance under Jose Mourinho has so far been unconvincing. Madrid have lost two games already under the Portuguese, the most recent the 2-1 derby defeat at Atletico last weekend. But some of the wins have also been scrappy, Madrid needing Carlos Espi to rescue three points late in the game twice so far.
After the derby defeat, Mourinho tore into the referees and blamed them for the loss. This is something Madrid have notoriously done in recent seasons, but with the Portuguese joining in, it also evokes memories of his typical wars against everyone and everything when he arrives at a club. “We’re in a privileged position: Mourinho, [Hansi] Flick, [Manuel] Pellegrini, me – we need to be careful what we say,” his Atletico counterpart Diego Simeone said after the game, as if in a prescient warning to his colleague.
Madrid are already six points behind a highly impressive Barcelona side after seven games, and one point behind Atletico. It is still early in the season, but there are serious reasons for anyone of the Madrid persuasion to be worried.
3. Barcelona absolutely flying
Barcelona’s 3-1 victory at Sevilla on Saturday completed a remarkable opening to the La Liga season: seven matches, seven wins. But more than that, Flick’s side have scored an incredible 31 goals in those games. It is the club’s best ever start to a season, which says a lot given their long, illustrious history. Raphinha is in peak form, bagging two hat-tricks in the space of three days. It is ridiculous to think there were concerns about the striking force before the start of the season.
The superb early form means that Barcelona are already five points clear in La Liga going into the first international break. Early days, but it is looking dangerously close to a third consecutive La Liga title for the Blaugrana.
4. Liverpool beginning to settle at the back
Liverpool’s attack has received most of the attention since Andoni Iraola took over, with the arrival of Victor Munoz and the £123m Bradley Barcola, and the return to fitness of Alexander Isak. But at the other end, Liverpool are improving on their defensive weaknesses, which were a sore point last season when they were far too easy to play through. They followed their goalless draw with Fulham by keeping another clean sheet against Bournemouth, giving them three consecutive Premier League shutouts. Jeremy Jacquet has been particularly impressive alongside Virgil van Dijk, while Iraola has kept faith with an unchanged back four.
At Bournemouth, Isak provided the decisive moment after Cody Gakpo supplied him for the fourth time this season. They do not yet look like a fluid and capable attacking side that can subdue most other Premier League sides, perhaps that will come, but the improvements at the back could yet provide a platform on which to build that.
5. Manchester United in limbo – again
Manchester United have been down this road before. This time it’s with Michael Carrick. But replace, at your pleasure, Carrick with Ruben Amorim, or Erik ten Hag, or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and it’s essentially the same theme. United are hurtling toward the abyss, the mood is in the gutters, and there are now questions over whether the new, formerly promising, coach can make it to the new year.
Given how the past decade has gone, it does not feel like United could set any poorer records post-Ferguson, but somehow the Red Devils keep finding a way. Under Carrick, they now have their worst start to a Premier League season in 12 years – five points from five games.
Worse, the signs do not bode well in the slightest. United are in the bottom three across various stats in running and physical intensity. They lost the Manchester derby with a man up for almost 70 minutes, the third time they have lost against 10men within the past year. They were eliminated from the Carabao Cup by Brighton after going 2-0 up in the first 10 minutes, and they needed an 89th-minute Matheus Cunha equaliser to escape with a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Against Fulham, United were second best for much of the game and pundit Gary Neville declared the first 15 minutes of the second half the worst performance he had ever seen in a United side. Exaggerated? Perhaps, but it encapsulates the mood and feeling for spectators. Carrick insists there are positive signs. After the break, those words will be put to a test.
6. Brian Brobbey generated more xG than every Premier League team except Sunderland
Brian Brobbey may have scored a hat-trick in Sunderland’s 5-3 defeat to Manchester City, but his performance was even more remarkable when you look at the underlying numbers. The striker generated 3.09 xG by himself at the Etihad, more than every Premier League team managed across the weekend except Sunderland themselves.
📊 Brian Brobbey generated more xG this weekend than every Premier League team (except Sunderland).@xGPhilosophy pic.twitter.com/YOM4TrRupt
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) September 21, 2026
Sunderland created 4.32 xG as a team, with Brobbey responsible for a huge chunk of it. Despite losing the game, the Dutchman showed just how dangerous he can be, constantly finding himself in high-value positions against one of the league’s strongest sides.
7. Brighton just keep scoring
Brighton have quietly become one of the most entertaining teams in the Premier League this season. After five games, the Seagulls have scored 16 goals, the most in the division, and are averaging more than three goals per game.
Their latest effort was perhaps the most impressive yet, as Fabian Hürzeler’s side demolished defending champions Arsenal 3-0. Brighton have now scored at least three goals in four of their five league games, with their only exception coming in a 2-1 defeat to Brentford. Their attack is becoming impossible to ignore.
8. Everton have conceded fewer goals than the “best defence in the league”
Everton’s start may not be getting the same attention as some of the more glamorous clubs, but David Moyes’ side have quietly built one of the best defensive records in the league. The Toffees have conceded just three goals in five Premier League games, compared with four for defending champions Arsenal.
Even more impressive, Everton are still unbeaten after five games, with two wins and three draws. Jordan Pickford has kept three clean sheets already, underlining how much more solid Everton have looked defensively this season.
9. Iraola ended the unbeaten run he started
There was something beautifully ironic about Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth. Andoni Iraola returned to the club he had managed for two seasons and ended the impressive home unbeaten run that had developed under his own reign.
🚨🚨| Andoni Iraola has 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃 Bournemouth’s unbeaten Premier League home run that he started, stretching back to January and even including a win over his current club Liverpool. 🏟🔴
It had to be him. pic.twitter.com/OcGa78nLbx
— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) September 20, 2026
Bournemouth had gone 11 Premier League home games unbeaten, a run stretching back to January, when Iraola was still their manager. This time, he arrived at the Vitality Stadium as Liverpool boss and left with all three points after Alexander Isak’s second-half goal. In the strangest twist, the man who helped build Bournemouth’s resilience was the one who finally broke it.
