10 things we know after 10 Premier League games

Happy Monday, folks.

Ten games down, 28 to go, and the Premier League now takes a two-week break for international games. Perfect time to pull up a stool and take stock.

On tap today:

• 🔟 things we know after 10 Premier League games

• ⚽ The weekend’s results, plus a lap of Europe’s other big leagues

• 🍻 A beer with Liverpool striker Alexander Isak

Let’s tap in.

🥃 TOP SHELF

10 things we know after 10 games

Ten games into a 38-game season is about where the NFL sits after Week 4 or 5. Too early to crown anyone. Not too early to panic.

So while the league takes a breather, let’s wipe down the bar and run through it.

1. Arsenal are the team to beat

27 points from a possible 30. Nine wins, one loss, and only five goals conceded, the best defense in the league (and arguably the world). It’s their joint-best start to a Premier League season ever.

It hasn’t been pretty. Six of those wins came by a single goal. But the four teams in Premier League history with more points at this stage all went on to win the title.

Think of the NFL team that wins 17-14 every week. Nobody’s buying the highlight DVD. Everybody’s checking the standings.

2. Brighton are for real

Second place, 22 points, and the most goals in the league with 26. They’ve beaten Arsenal 3-0 and Man City too, and it’s the first time Brighton have sat second after a matchweek outside August.

Brighton are the Tampa Bay Rays of English soccer: smart, data-driven, always selling their best players, and somehow still beating the big spenders. Their coach, Fabian Hürzeler, is 33. I have bar stools older than that.

3. Man City’s post-Pep hangover is real

City won their first seven under new manager Enzo Maresca, the first coach ever to do that in charge of a new Premier League club. Then they lost three in a row: Aston Villa, Brighton, and Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

The only other English top-flight team to win its first seven and then lose the next three? Sheffield Wednesday, in 1904-05.

Erling Haaland is still the league’s top scorer with nine. The problem is at the other end. City have conceded 13. Arsenal have conceded five.

4. Man United are in the relegation zone. Really.

Back in August I called United the Dallas Cowboys. I was being kind.

Ten games, eight points, 18th place, and one win, a 5-2 over Ipswich back in August. Eight league games without a win is their worst run of the Premier League era.

On Sunday they went two goals down twice against Aston Villa and still scrambled a 4-4 draw. Brilliant and hopeless in the same 90 minutes. Very United.

“Joe, they’re not actually going to get relegated, are they?”

Probably not. There are 28 games left and there’s still an awful lot of money in that building. But United haven’t been relegated since 1974, and nobody at Old Trafford is laughing about it anymore.

5. Liverpool are a work in progress

Fourth place, nine points off the top, after a 1-0 home loss to Arsenal last week. New manager, plenty of new faces, and still finding a rhythm.

But Sunday was a reminder of what they’ve got. Florian Wirtz scored his first league goal of the season in a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace, and Alexander Isak added the third late on. More on him further down.

6. The promoted teams are doing just fine

Coventry, Ipswich and Hull came up from the second division this summer. In 2024 and 2025, all three promoted teams went straight back down. This year? Hull are 13th, Ipswich 14th and Coventry 17th. All three are above the line.

The bottom three are Man United, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, and Palace are last season’s Conference League champions (that’s Europe’s third-tier club competition). I feel for you, Palace fans.

7. Everton are punching above their weight

David Moyes’s side have won three in a row and are doing it with the smallest squad in the division. Striker Thierno Barry scored twice in Friday’s comeback win over Coventry.

Picture the small-market team that keeps showing up in the playoff picture. Nobody can explain it, and their fans would rather you didn’t try.

8. Nobody’s been fired yet. That’s about to change.

Ten games in, no Premier League club has fired its manager, which is unusual. Last season, four were gone by early November.

It won’t last. Crystal Palace are bottom and set to sack Pierre Sage after just 16 games in charge, with Thomas Frank among the candidates to replace him. The pressure is building on Newcastle’s Matthias Jaissle too.

If you’ve ever wondered why soccer managers are always getting fired, we covered it back in February.

9. The middle of the table is a traffic jam

Only seven points separate fifth place from 17th. Bournemouth have won four straight league games, while Chelsea lost at Sunderland on Sunday and sit fifth only on goal difference.

It’s the NFL wild-card race, except everyone’s in it.

10. It’s still really early.

Only 15 of the 34 teams top after 10 games went on to win the league, and 14 teams that were bottom at this point still stayed up.

So, Arsenal fans: don’t book the parade. Palace fans: don’t book the moving truck.

🗣️ SOUND LIKE A REGULAR

“Old-fashioned number 9”

/oʊld ˈfæʃənd ˈnʌmbə naɪn/ 🔊

noun · soccer

1. Definition: A classic striker who holds up play, wins headers and cares about one thing only: scoring goals. No fancy passes, no defensive work. Just goals.

2. Origin: Goes back to when jersey numbers directly mapped to positions. The #9 was always the big, physical center forward who lived in the opposition's penalty box.

USED IN A SENTENCE

“Do they have anyone up front?” - “Yeah, a proper old-fashioned number 9. Doesn’t do much but comes alive in the box.”

🗞️ THE WEEKLY TAP-IN…

Premier League recap: matchweek 10 of 38

Last round before the break. Arsenal are five points clear of Brighton, Man City are six back in third, and Man United head into the break in the bottom three. Full table here.

• Nottingham Forest 3-1 Man City: Forest were two up within 18 minutes, and former City striker Liam Delap scored twice. Rayan Cherki’s thunderbolt gave City brief hope, but that’s three league defeats in a row.

• Arsenal 1-0 Hull: Captain Martin Ødegaard struck with 18 minutes left, making it seven home wins in a row. Not fluent, but three more points.

• Man United 4-4 Aston Villa: Villa were 2-0 up inside four minutes and 4-2 up early in the second half. United scored twice in stoppage time to rescue a point.

• Crystal Palace 1-3 Liverpool: Alexis Mac Allister and Florian Wirtz scored either side of halftime, and Isak added a third late on. Palace are bottom, and their manager’s job is hanging by a thread.

The rest: Everton 3-1 Coventry, Leeds 1-0 Tottenham, Fulham 1-1 Newcastle, Brighton 2-0 Brentford, Ipswich 1-2 Bournemouth, Sunderland 1-0 Chelsea.

Around Europe: who’s on top

The Premier League is one of what’s known as Europe’s “Big Five” leagues, along with Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1. They have the richest clubs, the biggest TV deals and most of the world’s best players. Think of them as soccer’s version of college football’s power conferences.

And here’s one for the bar: those five countries are the only countries in Europe that have ever won the World Cup. Between them, they’ve won 13 of the 23 ever played.

Here’s how the other four look going into the break:

• 🇪🇸 Spain: Barcelona came from behind to win 2-1 at Atlético Madrid, with two from Fermín López, to lead Real Madrid by three points. Real Betis are fourth, so Irish striker Troy Parrott is having a good time.

• 🇮🇹 Italy: Lazio, coached by Gennaro Gattuso, lead by a point after a 1-1 draw at Napoli, with Inter second and Roma third. Lazio and Roma are the first teams from the same city to go unbeaten through the first 11 games of a Serie A season. AC Milan, now coached by former Man United boss Rúben Amorim, are fourth, and American Christian Pulisic scored in this weekend’s win at Genoa.

• 🇩🇪 Germany: For once, Bayern Munich have company. They’re level on 21 points with Borussia Dortmund after nine games, and top only on goal difference.

• 🇫🇷 France: PSG are top, but only two points clear of Lille, with Paris FC, the city’s other club, in third. And Lens, runners-up last season under Pierre Sage, are 11th. Small world.

Read more: Who are the best teams in each European league?

🍻 HAVE A BEER WITH…

Alexander Isak

Club and country: Liverpool and Sweden

This week: Last Monday he was the honest fella who stayed on his feet against Arsenal and got nothing for it. On Sunday he got his reward, sealing Liverpool’s 3-1 win at Crystal Palace in the 89th minute. That’s seven league goals this season, second only to Erling Haaland. Not bad for a man who broke his leg scoring at Tottenham last December.

Fact: In March 2025 he scored against Liverpool in the League Cup final, helping Newcastle to their first major domestic trophy since 1955. That September, Liverpool paid a British record $169 million for him. Newcastle fans haven’t forgotten. They booed him and called him a rat on his return this August.

Toast: An Asmara Lager, a nod to his parents’ homeland, Eritrea. The brewery has been going since 1939 and even runs its own soccer team in the Eritrean top division.

Instagram: @alexanderisak

🔥 HOUSE SPECIALS

⚽ Goal of the week: Liam Delap’s screamer to complete his brace against his old club, Man City, and seal Forest’s 3-1 win.

🎉 Fanzone: Forest’s James McAtee had to explain to a fan in the front row that he couldn’t give him a hug, because he’d get a yellow card for it. Rules are rules.

📅 On this day: November 9, 1997, Aberdeen’s Dean Windass picked up three red cards in one game. Two yellows, then abusing the referee, then kicking over a corner flag on his way off. Six-game ban.

🐶 Underdog corner: Wimborne Town, six divisions below the Premier League, beat fourth-tier Crawley Town 2-0 to reach the FA Cup second round for the first time in their history.

👕 Wardrobe watch: Real Madrid have re-released their 2014-15 dragon third kit, designed by Japanese fashion icon Yohji Yamamoto, who painted the dragon himself.

🔗 Most clicked from Friday: A fan’s-eye view of Matheus Cunha’s late winner for Man United against Roma.

That’s all, folks. Sláinte.