Mikel Arteta called it a chance to do “something historic,” and Arsenal delivered at Anfield on Sunday. These Premier League weekend takeaways start with that result and run through a Manchester City collapse, a Chelsea milestone and a Nottingham Forest side sliding toward trouble. The weekend reshaped the top of the table and left Brighton sitting just two points off first place.
Arsenal Ends Its Anfield Drought With Defensive Masterclass
Kai Havertz scored early as Arsenal beat Liverpool 1-0, and what followed was a lesson in game management. Liverpool fired 17 shots and never once forced a save, the first time in the Premier League era a team failed to register a shot on target in a match at Anfield, according to Sporting News.
Arteta’s side has now won 81.1% of its Premier League games when scoring first, taking all three points in 137 of 169 such matches. “I’m extremely proud of them. It’s been 14 years, that’s a long time,” Arteta said after the win, per Sporting News. “That’s the magical part about this game, that it can take you to really bad places, but four days later you have an incredible opportunity to do something historic and we’ve done it.”
Brighton’s Low-Possession Plan Topples Manchester City
Yasin Ayari scored the only goal as Brighton beat Manchester City 1-0 at the Etihad, Pep’s side’s second league defeat in a week. City piled up 1.92 Expected Goals from 20 shots and still came away empty, the first time the club failed to score in a Premier League match since Jan. 17, according to Sky Sports.
Brighton managed the win with just 38% possession, a departure from head coach Fabian Hurzeler’s usual approach, per the Premier League’s own recap. The result marked three straight league wins for Brighton, something the club had not done since February 2025, and pushed Manchester City to back-to-back league losses for the first time under Enzo Maresca following the earlier defeat at Aston Villa.
Cole Palmer Reaches 50 Premier League Goals In Record Time
Cole Palmer scored his 50th Premier League goal in just 105 appearances as Chelsea beat Manchester United 2-0, with Pedro Neto deployed up front for the first time. Only Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (84 matches) and Diego Costa (85) reached the mark faster in Chelsea colors, per the Premier League.
Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro remain tied as Chelsea’s leading league scorers with five goals apiece this season. The win lifted Chelsea to fourth with 16 points, two spots and three points clear of Liverpool following the Anfield defeat.
Nottingham Forest’s Goal Drought Deepens Relegation Worry
Brentford beat Nottingham Forest 2-0, and Forest failed to score despite generating 15 shots, the fifth time this season the club has been held off the scoresheet in league play. The loss dropped Forest into the relegation zone, according to the Premier League’s weekend recap.
Brentford, by contrast, remains the only Premier League club to have scored in every match this season. The contrast between the two sides’ finishing is stark: Brentford is converting its chances while Forest’s shot volume has not translated into results.
Bournemouth And Fulham Show Two Different Finishing Stories
Bournemouth beat Leeds United 2-0 to extend its winning run to six matches across all competitions, every one of them a clean sheet. The run has turned Bournemouth into one of the league’s form sides heading into November, a point reinforced by their recent run at continental level as well.
Fulham offered the weekend’s clearest case of missed opportunity. The club produced an Expected Goals tally of 2.2 but came away without the win, continuing a season-long pattern in which Fulham has scored 3.2 goals fewer than its Expected Goals total and earned 3.2 fewer points than expected. Crystal Palace, their opponents, played the second half a man down after going to 10 men.
Table Check: City And Arsenal Tied, Brighton Lurking
Manchester City still leads the Premier League on goal difference with 21 points, level with Arsenal in second after Sunday’s loss at Anfield. Brighton sits third with 19 points, just two back after its win at the Etihad, with Chelsea fourth on 16 and Liverpool fifth on 15 following back-to-back setbacks of its own.
The table now shows three different sides, City, Arsenal and Brighton, within two points of top spot, setting up a tight race as the league moves further into November.
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