Premier League winners and losers kicks off with Lewis, Saka, Ten Hag, Dyche, Southampton and more
Arne Slot and Fabian Hurzeler made light work of their Premier League bows as ‘experience’ backfired for Everton. Erik ten Hag could save this marriage.
Premier League winners
Rico Lewis
The difference in reaction to Phil Foden’s emergence at Manchester City and that of Rico Lewis is strange. There was panic over the former’s lack of opportunities in his teenage years, a fear that his development was being stunted by Pep Guardiola. Maybe lessons have been learned in terms of patience with the latter but it feels more like Lewis has simply flown under the radar and into a spot as a bona fide first-team option for the perennial champions.
This is not the same as his burst of matches in the winter of 2022 and 2023, nor that steady stream of Champions League games Guardiola so often uses to season a player. This is Lewis becoming someone who can not only be trusted when others are unavailable, but also just a brilliant rotation option in his own right. When Rodri or Kyle Walker are out then the 19-year-old will help fill the void, but when they are in he has earned his place alongside them too.
Maybe England as a footballing country has become numb to the arrival of yet another prodigious right-back. Perhaps Manchester City struggle to stir the same neutral feelings as other clubs when showcasing sensational youngsters. But this feels like a breakout season for Lewis and the champions will not mind if everyone else takes no notice.
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Brighton
A thoroughly impressive start to Premier League life for Fabian Hurzeler, who will know an element of the punditocracy exists which would have been desperate for Sean Dyche to put Brighton’s hipster appointment in his place. There are few better potential ‘Welcome To The Premier League’ stadiums than Goodison Park but those familiar jeers from the home support could be heard as soon as the first goal went in.
Hurzeler was brave in his selection and found a perfect balance between maturity and youth, Premier League know-how and European naivety. His substitutions were purposeful and his tactical approach was clear.
With his predecessor bizarrely eager to torch his reputation by backing Mason Greenwood so fervently, suggesting that his goals for Marseille will “calm the controversies” over his arrival, Hurzeler took the chance to show Brighton might have nailed yet another difficult call.
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Bukayo Saka
Kyle Walker and John Stones were unused substitutes. Luke Shaw didn’t even make the match-day squad. Phil Foden managed only the second half. The Bundesliga season hasn’t yet started, much to the presumed delight of Harry Kane’s back.
There were times when Bukayo Saka looked as rusty and wearied as Marc Guehi, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Jude Bellingham on their returns to domestic league action after starting in the European Championship final for England. Yet he scored a goal and provided an assist to help settle a difficult game because that is what genuinely elite-level forwards do.
One day he will be more widely accepted as being firmly among that group. Until then, Saka will simply continue being as freakishly consistent as he is unusually available.
Erik ten Hag
In concluding that “Erik was the best partner for us to work with in driving up standards and outcomes,” Manchester United and their manager appear to have reached the same curious compromise used to try and save many a marriage: Ten Hag is the one who gets to choose where they go, what they do and who they see, while the club nod along and smile.
It eventually might. Manchester United spending their summer surveying the options available on the market does not inspire enduring confidence in the long-term structural integrity of this relationship but they are trying to show they can change and make things work.
Manchester United almost cheated so can say nothing when Ten Hag simply signs more Eredivisie alumni or suggests they should introduce Ruud van Nistelrooy to spice things up. Those small wins like Noussair Mazraoui slotting in seamlessly on his debut and Joshua Zirkzee providing match-winning quality in his cameo will need to be replicated most weeks but they are clear signs the club and manager can still make a go of this.
Arne Slot
Any suggestion that Slot was simply a pliable appointment and FSG yes-man was dispelled in his first game. The transfer argument is an entirely separate and still wholly relevant one but the head coach has largely distanced himself from that for a reason: he will work with what he is given, and on this brief evidence work really rather well.
The Liverpool squad can no longer be in any doubt as to the ruthlessness of their boss. Slot took Jarell Quansah off at half-time – and explained that substitution perfectly after the game so as not to encourage a pile-on of a young player but instead point out where improvements can be made as a whole – and also removed three key players in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota and Andy Robertson when the game was not quite settled to conserve energy and ensure rotation.
It was proactive, direct, impressive and crucial management in turning a difficult Premier League away game into a relatively comfortable afternoon.
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Newcastle
Not since a 2-1 victory over Doncaster in October 2009 had Newcastle gone on to win a league game they were drawing or losing after having a man sent off. It is impossible to do justice to the level of demons Zurab Khizanishvili must have exorcised at the weekend after his scrap with Billy Sharp a decade and a half ago.
“The result is unbelievable for us, but how we got there was very, very difficult. The sending off changed the game completely,” said Eddie Howe, who might not have enjoyed the unexpected test but will certainly appreciate the great many positives Newcastle can take from it; they rarely looked as defensively robust last season with an extra player.
Thomas Frank
Just an excellent manager discreetly going about his business of establishing a top-flight team in seemingly constantly tough conditions. Brentford have faced 24 different opponents in the Premier League and now beaten 22 of them; Leicester and Newcastle ought to fear the Mbeumo-Wissa collective.
Andoni Iraola
“I think the ones coming from the bench gave us the spark you need,” said the Bournemouth manager after the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest. It bears true: before his first change, the Cherries had nine shots to ten and 44.8% possession, completing two dribbles; after making four substitutions between the 63rd and 69th minutes, they had four shots to four, 51.8% possession and three dribbles.
Antoine Semenyo started and finally equalised with his fifth shot of the game, but it was the combination between the fresh Justin Kluivert and Ryan Christie which helped create that chance. Bournemouth have quietly constructed one of the most rounded squads in the division and installed a manager whose ethos is built on using it to the fullest.
Aston Villa
It understandably went under the radar that Aston Villa were on their longest run of consecutive winless Premier League games since the patch of form which cost Steven Gerrard his job in October 2022. In almost two years since, the mood and culture has been completely reshaped by a remarkable series of phenomenal decisions, not least the appointment of his successor.
The hilariously tiresome debate as to who is the better manager out of Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta will rage on, the flames intermittently stoked in the good name of engagement by Arsenal outlets who should know better. The only relevant argument is that both are phenomenal fits for their current posts.
Emery has helped take Villa to this stage and they could not dream of a more suitable figurehead for their future. He spoke about the need to “balance” their European commitments with the Premier League this season, putting faith in the entire squad to deliver when called upon. Three substitutes in Ian Maatsen, Jacob Ramsey and Jhon Duran combining to score the winner in a fixture Villa could only draw last season underlined the point.
Premier League losers
Everton
Dyche cited the substantial Premier League experience of Michael Keane as justification for selecting him ahead of summer signing Jake O’Brien against Brighton. When the equation is reduced to 240 career games against zero then the decision is simple. But it cannot be argued that any of Keane’s recent “experience” is either relevant or useful: his four Premier League starts last season ended in defeats of 3-0, 4-0 and 1-0, with only a 2-0 victory over relegated Burnley representing anything vaguely positive.
Starting a season with him alongside 39-year-old Ashley Young up against Kaoru Mitoma was asking for the sort of trouble Brighton were more than happy to provide.
Mason Holgate’s late cameo implies even he is further ahead in the central-defensive queue, his own 137 games of Premier League experience latterly culminating in relegation with Sheffield United, in which his most telling contribution was to be sent off in *checks notes*… yep, a limp home defeat to Brighton for an awful challenge on Mitoma.
If the argument is that O’Brien should not have been thrown on for his debut in such difficult circumstances at 2-0 and a man down, the counter is that he should have started after a promising pre-season and fine campaigns in Belgium and France. His lack of “experience” for Everton is no reason to play someone else less good but ostensibly more qualified; it weighs in his favour considering their recent trajectory.
It is the same point further forward with Iliman Ndiaye and Jesper Lindstrom, who had to watch Abdoulaye Doucoure toil in a creative role he seemed unsuited to for most of last season. Dyche said he felt the club had “added players who can help us” score goals this summer, but lamented that “they don’t have the Premier League experience”. Just look at how Mats Wieffer and Yankuba Minteh definitely struggled in dismantling his battle-hardened troops on their competition debuts.
Everton especially do not feel like a club which can really afford to spend £30m on players the manager cannot immediately trust over those tried, tested and tired options. A new season is supposed to offer hope, promise and, for a club in their position, the prospect of change. This was more of the depressing same.
Chelsea
Enzo Maresca was not exactly wrong to point out that “the difference between us and them was inside the box,” but it is an argument which collapses in on itself when remembering that Chelsea have spent more than £1bn specifically building a squad which has no keeper or striker who would realistically rank within the best 50 or so in the world (and that might be generous) in their position.
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Andreas Pereira
Harry Maguire did excellently but he should not have been given the opportunity. The pass to Alex Iwobi should have been executed better and at 0-0 would have changed the complexion of the entire game.
Pereira had nine shot-creating actions – at least two more than any other Premier League player on the opening weekend – but the one he failed to generate will be more easily remembered. That it came against the team he remains determined to prove were wrong not to play him more only added to the insult.
Southampton
The day it dawns on clubs not to incite St James’ Park cannot come too soon. Fuel that sense of perceived supporter injustice and more often than not it backfires. Kai Havertz and Arsenal were among those to realise that last season and Southampton really could have done without the lesson on their Premier League return.
Adam Armstrong was “not sure” whether Fabian Schar’s red card “was a good or bad thing for us”, while Howe added: “I don’t know if a sending off ever truly helps you, but it gets the crowd to inspire you – and that made a difference.”
Ben Brereton Diaz did nothing any other player wouldn’t do in contributing to that red, but he might regret playing up to his pantomime villain role quite so sincerely. That tackle on the sideline by Sean Longstaff shortly after shifted the momentum in favour of the hosts and Southampton could never quite wrestle it back.
West Ham
A disappointing result and performance but West Ham feel like the most extreme case of it being largely pointless to draw immediate conclusions; their starting line-up will undergo the most drastic transformation of any other soon enough.
As distressing as it might have been to watch 90 more minutes of Vladimir Coufal struggling to keep up with the pace, Tomas Soucek’s awkward flail of midfield limbs and Michail Antonio toiling while leading the line, none of those should be regular starters this season. Julen Lopetegui ought to be judged properly when Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Fullkrug are properly integrated, with tantalising dashes of Luis Guilherme added to the mix.
Nottingham Forest
Make that 55 points dropped from winning positions since Premier League promotion in summer 2022. The closest team to them in that time is Bournemouth (44 points), who have now scored goals in the 86th, 87th and 94th minute across the last three seasons to turn late deficits at the City Ground into two victories and a draw.
Wolves
One win in their last 11 Premier League games – and that was against relegated Luton. Five of those matches have come against last season’s Champions League qualifiers but Wolves ended the campaign in miserable form and have lost two key players while not making significant improvements in the transfer market. It could be a long season.
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Crystal Palace
More than perhaps for any other team, the closure of the transfer window cannot come soon enough. Oliver Glasner spoke about how “squad policy and players are even bigger issues for us at the moment” than preparation for the Brentford game and that uncertainty has already shown it can undermine what ought to have been an exciting start to the season after the end to 2023/24.
Ipswich
Have conceded eight Premier League goals since they last scored one. Omari Hutchinson and Liam Delap were not actually alive when six of those goals went in but still, embarrassing.
MORE PREMIER LEAGUE WEEKEND REACTION
👉 Wolves have five in worst Premier League XI of the weekend
👉 Erling Haaland ‘brutal’ and ‘raging’ after clashes with three Chelsea players
👉 Arsenal get the job done while Brighton revel in summer sun – the 3pm Blackout
👉 ‘Chelsea will go into administration and two tiers down’ as Enzo decision astounds
