Premier League Matchday 10 review: North London still running the show

Monday 30 October 2023 by Jonathan Victoria  Features

Another week of Premier League football and the top five are starting to break away from the pack - although it’s all the usual suspects within that group.

Check out our Premier League Matchday 10 review, where we’ll give you our thoughts on the good, the bad and the ugly from the weekend, plus the biggest winners and star players.

The Good

Arsenal’s emphatic 5-0 win over Sheffield United needs to be highlighted. The fact that it was against the team at the bottom of the table doesn’t take away from the Gunners’ excellent performance and it keeps them unbeaten for the season.

Another unbeaten team still so far is their North London rivals, Tottenham, who once again were a joy to watch on Friday night. James Maddison is playing out of his mind right now and inspired the win at a tricky Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace.

Liverpool picked up a solid 3-0 over Nottingham Forest. Nothing too special there, an unexpected and routine win for the Reds giving up just 28% possession and allowing just one shot on target.

Aston Villa was similar, beating Luton 3-1 in a game which they controlled. The win keeps them in the running for a Champions League spot and they are sitting comfortably in fifth, just four points of the league leaders Tottenham.

Brentford saw a good rise up the table too after a surprising 2-0 win over Chelsea. We say surprising but really it was earned, boasting a 2.2 xG and seeing five of their seven shots hit the target.

The Bad

Speaking of Chelsea there, it was a weekend to forget for them. The last few weeks really felt like they were turning things around, and while they did fill up the stats, their usual inability to finish problem reared its ugly head again and cost them.

We’re going to put Newcastle and Brighton in the bad section too as their results don’t help them to keep proper pace with the top five. 

Both suffered draws despite dominating their opponents by xG. Newcastle get no pass as well for potential distraction due to the Sandro Tonali suspension this week. Wolves were just their equal this week.

Brighton’s draw with Fulham isn’t exactly inexcusable as Fulham can be tricky customers, but the Seagulls were at home and have been more than capable of running the show when at the Amex, so a big shame they couldn’t do so again this weekend.

The Ugly

Another clean sweep of losses for the newly promoted side, keeping them in the ugly category in our eyes.

But it wasn’t the ugliest thing we saw this week, as Manchester United’s abysmal performance in one of their biggest games of the season at their own home ground takes the cake.

Now we know, City have a penchant to make their opponents look much worse than they actually are. But United looked a million miles away from being City’s equals.

Andre Onana pulled off some incredible saves, but that really is the only saving grace from what was a really poor performance from the Red Devils.

Biggest Winners

While there were some good wins this weekend for teams that could use them, none had a bigger one more so than Everton.

The Toffees beat West Ham at their own stadium for their third win in five games in the league, something which has seemed near impossible for them in the last few years.

It wasn’t much of a lucky win either. They took their chances when they had them, with four of their 10 shots hitting the target as opposed to West Ham’s two of 12.

The win takes them level on points with Nottingham Forest with 10, giving a little bit of breathing room from the four at the bottom, being four points ahead of Bournemouth in 17th.

Star Players

Eddie Nketiah

A hat-trick for Nketiah, he’s putting pressure on Arteta to make him decide if he should continue with Gabriel Jesus as his main man up front or try the Englishman more going forward. 

Erling Haaland

Let him have one and he’ll likely find another, that was Haaland against United. He could’ve had four if it weren’t for some superb stops from Onana.