Matchweek 8

Long overdue. Cardiff City 3–1 Charlton. Seven games without a win, a record-equalling run for the club, ended with two goals from Jack Moylan inside the first 23 minutes. Charlton arrived sixth in the table with only one league defeat all season and left with two — Tyreece Campbell pulled one back before half-time, but Moylan's second, in the 61st, put it beyond doubt. Three weeks ago Charlton held the division's only unbeaten record. This is now three defeats in five, and the drop from top to mid-table has been steep enough to deserve tracking rather than shrugging off as a blip.

A repeating problem. Norwich City 3–4 Bolton. Second matchweek running Norwich have lost by an identical 4–3 scoreline, having gone down by the same margin at Middlesbrough the previous Saturday. Mohamed Touré's fifth-minute opener was cancelled out twice before half-time, and Bolton substitute Atsuki Ito settled it in the 72nd. Eight goals conceded in two matches against bottom-half opposition is not bad luck twice over — it is a pattern, and Norwich sit 17th because of it.

Run ended. Wrexham 2–1 Southampton. Kieffer Moore headed the hosts ahead against the run of play in the 35th, James Ward-Prowse levelled five minutes into the second half with his first goal since returning to the club, and Wrexham won it in the 88th when Jacques Ekomié's cross was turned in off Keven Schlotterbeck. Southampton had the better of the chances for long stretches and still lost, which ended a five-match unbeaten run and is a more useful sentence than any number of points earned since the deduction.

Note for the model. West Ham drew 2–2 at Millwall, their first dropped points since a run that included a 6–0 win over Wrexham. Two winless matches as favourites in August, four straight wins after — the early caution about treating a newly relegated club as an automatic pick looks to have been about form finding its level, not about the club itself being overrated. Worth remembering the next time a parachute side starts slowly.