Matchweek 5

Biggest surprise. Brighton 3–0 Arsenal. Arteta's side arrived at the Amex chasing an eight-game start that would have matched a 123-year club record and left three goals worse off, on the same ground and by the same score as the defeat that ended their last title challenge in May 2023. Pascal Gross and a 19-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas both scored from outside the box before half-time, and Chema Andrés headed in a corner nine minutes after the break. Arsenal actually edged the underlying chances — 1.58 to Brighton's 1.33 — which changes nothing about the scoreline. This was a poor performance, not misfortune, and saying so plainly is the entire point of declaring a bias here rather than hiding it.

Statement result. Manchester City 5–3 Sunderland. Brian Brobbey scored a hat-trick and still finished on the losing side, City wobbling at the back all afternoon before Erling Haaland settled it nine minutes from time — his first goal in three attempts against Sunderland, completing a scoring record against every club he has faced in the competition. Three points clear at the top, achieved in the least City-like way imaginable.

The soft spot's afternoon. Everton 1–0 Ipswich. James Tarkowski's shot deflected in off Thierno Barry after eleven minutes and that was the match's only goal, but the scoreline flatters the gap. Ipswich went down to ten men in the 67th when Abdul Fatawu picked up a second booking and still had a Barry header chalked off by VAR early in the second half. A losing performance with real substance in it, against a side that had started the day on the front foot before the red card turned the afternoon into an uphill one.

Elsewhere. Coventry won away at Nottingham Forest, a newly promoted side taking points off a top-half one on the road. Manchester United drew again, 1–1 at Fulham, four games into a season that has yet to produce a result worth building a sentence around. Leeds and Crystal Palace cancelled each other out goallessly, which was presumably not the afternoon either side had in mind.