F365’s 3pm Blackout: Liverpool awful on perfect day as City stumble and Forest march on

Liverpool were really terrible on a perfect day for them as Erling Haaland fluffed his lines for Manchester City and Nottingham Forest march into the Champions League qualification spots.

Liverpool 2-1 Brighton: Arne Slot’s side awful on perfect day
Liverpool were truly awful in the first half. Brighton were very good but absurdly comfortable at Anfield as Reds players lost battles, gave the ball away and – frankly – didn’t look particularly arsed.

Ferdi Kadioglu scored a brilliant goal, smashing a right-footed effort in off the post with his weight moving in the other direction. He could have scored another after some excellent link-up play between Danny Welbeck and Kaoru Mitoma, who were thoroughly enjoying themselves against some almost laughably lax Liverpool defending, as all the Brighton players were. Georginio Rutter also missed a one-on-one chance with Caoimhin Kelleher after an excellent pass from Yasin Ayari, another credit to the Seagulls recruitment chiefs at £3m from AIK. Brighton could and should have been at least three up at half-time.

Arne Slot’s side still looked disorganised after the break, but leaned into the chaos in a We’ve Got Better Players Than You way that Jurgen Klopp would have been proud of. Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah both missed gilt-edged chances before Cody Gakpo cut in and delivered a cross with his right – as he had done to no effect on multiple occasions beforehand – that went over Darwin Nunez and into the far corner.

There was only one winner at that point as an Anfield crowd that had groaned through the first half fed off an increase in intensity.

Curtis Jones made the second having come on for the well below par Mac Allister, picking the ball up on the edge of his own box, playing an expansive one-two as he drove towards the Brighton goal, playing the ball wide for Salah, who did The Mohamed Salah, cutting in and swinging the ball into the far corner.

Arsenal defeat, Manchester City defeat, Liverpool win. What a day for Arne Slot and his players, whose title hopes were given a huge boost, not just because of the results but also because of the old credentials being handed out when a team plays badly and wins. Good news Liverpool fans, your team were terrible.

READ MORE: Arsenal continue descent into Arsene Wenger-inspired adequacy under Mikel Arteta

Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City: Semenyo shines in City defeat that’s been coming
On the four previous occasions Manchester City have gone behind this season they’ve come back to win. Antoine Semenyo’s opener for Bournemouth was also the fourth time they’ve conceded in the opening 15 minutes of a game, with only Ipswich (5) and West Ham (5) conceding more. Typically slow starters but fast finishers, the City juggernaut failed to steamroll the opposition this time.

Semenyo’s goal was lovely, as he displayed the benefits of being so two-footed with a perfect first touch with his left and a fine finish with his right in a packed penalty area. And he played a key role in the second, controlling the ball and running at City before feeding Milos Kerkez, who claimed his second assist of the game as his cross was diverted in by Evanilson.

The inevitable Bournemouth camping did arrive as City piled on the pressure in the last 20 minutes. Josko Gvardiol halved the deficit but Mark Travers produced a couple of excellent saves, one particularly brilliant one from Erling Haaland, who really should have scored with his header and then rather fluffed his follow-up, which hit the base of the post.

This defeat has been coming – ending a remarkable 32-game unbeaten run – with City picking up results without looking all that convincing for much of the season. They were so flat here on a day when they could have put eight points between them and Arsenal, but instead find themselves looking up to Liverpool at the Premier League summit.

Nottingham Forest 3-0 West Ham: Champions League calling Chris Wood
Four of us had them going down in our pre-season predictions, three of us had Nuno Espirito Santo as the first manager to lose his job and none of us had Chris Wood as the winner of the Golden Boot or PFA Player of the Year.

He’s now scored eight goals to help Nottingham Forest into third in the actual Premier League table , above Arsenal after they continued their descent into Arsene Wenger-inspired adequacy in the early kick-off, and currently also ahead of Aston Villa and Chelsea, both of whom face tough tests against Tottenham and Manchester United respectively on Sunday.

Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina added to the scoreline in the second half, with Aina’s fine left-footed strike celebrated by the Forest players with a little dance in the corner. Fair play lads, enjoy yourselves. What a start to the season.

Southampton 1-0 Everton: Saints sighs of relief as VAR denies Everton late equaliser
That Man Beto nearly did it again. After his stoppage-time equaliser against Fulham last weekend, the striker thought he had once again come to the rescue in the 89th minute, but a lengthy VAR check saw the goal ruled out for offside to huge cheers from the home supporters, who have at long last enjoyed a Premier League victory.

Adam Armstrong fired in from Yukinari Sugawara’s pass four minutes before that chalked-off equaliser, 27 seconds after Beto hit the crossbar at the opposite end of the pitch.

Aaron Ramsdale had produced a couple of fine saves ahead of the late drama as Everton carved out the better chances despite Southampton’s dominance of the ball. But all of that possession – often aimless this season – has paid off on this occasion for Russell Martin, who has miraculously, and quite comfortably, avoided being the last manager to win a Premier League game this season despite the victory coming at the tenth time of asking.

Ipswich 1-1 Leicester: McKenna still winless as Kalvin Phillips sees red
Kieran McKenna is still waiting for his first win and at some point the media will turn against a narrative that he and Ipswich are doing a great job. That time hasn’t come yet though. They probably would have won here had it not been for Kalvin Phillips seeing red and continuing his dramatic slide into submediocrity.

Remember Gareth Bale’s volley for Tottenham against Stoke? Wait until you see Leif Davis’ opener for Ipswich. It’s not as good, nowhere near actually, we probably shouldn’t have brought Bale’s up. Ignore that. Just watch Davis’ goal, it’s brilliant. He’s quite a player and definitely one for Thomas Tuchel to be keeping an eye on.

But Ipswich made it 12 points dropped from winning positions this season as Jordan Ayew scored another stoppage-time goal after his winner at Southampton a couple of weeks ago to deny McKenna and his side.