Seven matchweeks into the season, these Premier League weekend takeaways center on one club rising fast and another sinking into a troubling pattern. Brighton’s 5-0 demolition of Crystal Palace headlined the weekend, while Manchester United extended a miserable run that now threatens to produce their worst start since 1986/87.
Brighton Keep Delivering The Season’s Best Surprise
Brighton routed Crystal Palace 5-0, a result CBS Sports called the highlight of the weekend. The win was not an outlier. Seven games into the campaign, Brighton have already produced multiple standout performances, cementing their status as this season’s most pleasant surprise in the top flight.
The margin against Palace stands out even by Brighton’s own recent standard. A club that entered the year with modest expectations is instead collecting results that look more like statement wins than survival-mode points.
Manchester United’s Numbers Don’t Match Their Table Position
Manchester United sit 13th despite leading the league in shots with 125 and touches in the opposition box with 205. They have converted just nine of those chances into goals. CBS Sports noted the underlying statistics suggest United should be positioned well above 13th, yet the club appears resigned to mediocrity.
The finishing problem has compounded a brutal run of form. United lost 2-0 to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last Tuesday, stretching a winless streak to five games across all competitions following a 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. Their current pace would mark their worst start to a Premier League season since 1986/87.
Adding to the strain, United play eight matches in 30 days between last Saturday’s Tottenham draw and a home fixture against Aston Villa on Nov. 8, averaging a game every 3.75 days. That is roughly double the frequency of once every 7.5 days the club faced during Michael Carrick’s previous spell in charge, according to the Premier League’s own breakdown of the schedule. The fallout inside the club has already included disciplinary action tied to a meeting with Carrick.
Leeds Carry Historical Weight Into The United Rivalry
Leeds enter their next meeting with Manchester United from a higher league position than their rivals for the first time since September 2002, a gap the Premier League flagged as one of the matchweek’s defining storylines. Leeds are unbeaten in their last seven Premier League home games and rank second in the division for pressed sequences with 76.
History also favors Leeds in recent head-to-head terms. They beat United 2-1 at Old Trafford in April, ending a 10-game winless run against their fiercest rival. The combination of home form, pressing numbers and the reversed table positions makes this fixture one of the more notable subplots building around United’s struggles.
Chelsea’s Defense Remains A Problem Despite Goal-Scoring Punch
Chelsea have conceded 13 goals this season, tied for the most in the league, even after thrashing AFC Bournemouth 5-1 last weekend. The defensive total puts Chelsea at the opposite end of the spectrum from Everton, who have conceded just five goals, tied for the fewest, and remain one of only three unbeaten teams in the division.
The Premier League drew a parallel to Chelsea’s 2016/17 title-winning season under Antonio Conte, when the club had also taken 10 points from its first five matches before losing its sixth game and then accelerating into form. Whether this group follows a similar trajectory will depend largely on tightening a defense that has already conceded as many goals as some relegation-threatened sides.
Liverpool’s Slow Start Echoes A Recent Warning Sign
Liverpool have taken just nine points from their first six matches, their lowest return at this stage since 2022/23, when an identical record preceded a fifth-place finish. The comparison, highlighted by the Premier League, is not encouraging given how last time played out.
The standings underline the slump. Brentford now sit above Liverpool for the first time since 1938, and they did it after going unbeaten in both meetings with Liverpool last season, collecting four points in the process. Ipswich, meanwhile, offer a cautionary tale about facing Liverpool and the rest of the big six. Despite a promising start overall, Ipswich have lost all three matches against big six opponents and in the EFL Cup, conceding 11 goals, including five to Manchester United and two to Liverpool.
For more on recent results involving the league’s top clubs, see the previous weekend’s takeaways on Manchester City’s rout at Anfield, and the continuing scrutiny around Manchester City’s season following their guilty verdict. Liverpool’s attacking questions also followed a difficult stretch that included conceding a hat-trick in a prior fixture.
The next test for several of these storylines arrives when United host Leeds and Chelsea look to build on their win over Bournemouth, with both fixtures set to shape how the table looks heading into the next international break.
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