GOAL US unpacks the main weekend storylines from the Premier League, La Liga and other top competitions in The Euro XI
The Premier League finally decided to go mad this week. We've been waiting for it, in all honesty. This thing has been too calm, too predictable early in the season. Liverpool winning everything? BORING. Arsenal failing to ground out wins? Man United are bad? Business as usual.
The good news is that some of that has changed. What would have been an eight-point gap between first and second is now just two, after a bit of weekend chaos. Chelsea seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot. And Man United found another way to be bad.
Elsewhere across the continent, Christian Pulisic has been really rather good this year, and continued that streak in a big win for Milan. Real Madrid showed that it might be quite difficult to be good at football. And then, to round it all off, Lamine Yamal did something ridiculous with a ball at his feet. We are so back.
GOAL US presents The Euro XI, with 11 key observations from the weekend.
Getty Images Sport1Liverpool slip up …
The first thing that needs to be established is that Crystal Palace are a really good football team. They haven't lost in their last 18, and won the FA Cup last year. Selhurst Park is a tough place to go, and the Eagles are flying high.
But Liverpool are reigning champions, and if they want to win again, they have to get it done in the tough ones. Well, that didn't go to plan. Palace won 2-1 on a last-minute Eddie Nketiah volley. In truth, it really should have been five or six.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport2… and Arsenal take advantage
The problem with Arsenal last year was that they couldn't capitalize on others getting it wrong. Call it mentality, quality, or even bad luck – the Gunners just didn't make up gaps. Well, it's a new season with a revamped squad.
And they appear to mean business. They ground out a gutsy 2-1 win over Newcastle, and were good value for it, too. Just like that, we have a title race on our hands.
Getty3Man Utd's crisis continues
Fun stat for you: Ruben Amorim has now nearly lost as twice as many games as he has won as Man United manager. You read that right. This club is in shambles at the moment. That's not news, of course.
United have been varying degrees of bad for nearly a decade now. And the misery piled on this weekend. The hope was that a win over Chelsea might galvanize something. Instead, United were comprehensively beaten by Brentford. Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty, too. In a word: yikes.
AFP4Chelsea, and the art of going down to 10 men
Is this Chelsea's vibe now? Do they like the challenge of playing with 10 men? It certainly seems so. For the second week running, they had someone sent off – and deservedly so. And for the second week running, it was enough to see them throw a game the really should have won.
This time it was Trevoh Chalobah, who dragged an opponent down as he ran through on goal. Stonewall red. Chelsea have, like, one centerback for * Liverpool next week. Nice.