Jurgen Klopp finds a new chaotic front trio, Bournemouth reveal an innovative kickoff routine and Fabio Vieira showed why Arsenal brought the Portuguese to London. Here's five lessons we learned from the Premier League weekend...
1) GAKPO, NUNEZ & SALAH POINT TO A WILD AND JOYFUL FUTURE
Liverpool have upset pretty much everything we thought we knew about them and Manchester United with a freak result at Anfield, and it would be wrong to completely rip up our previous ideas on the Jurgen Klopp shaky rebuild and Erik ten Hag's measured control of things at United. However, this game did align with our recent analysis of Liverpool finding a new fiery, chaotic energy since the Merseyside derby.
Stefan Bajcetic had seemed to add spark that allowed Liverpool to press higher and more effectively again, and the knock-on effect of being reinvigorated is a new-look front line showing the future. Cody Gakpo played very deep here, a false nine who effectively made Liverpool's formation into a diamond 4-4-2 with Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah playing narrowly ahead of him. Gakpo offered so much more than Roberto Firmino has been able to historically, adding urgency and purpose on top of the connecting work.
Nunez remains a wild presence on the left but he has a power that even Sadio Mane did not have, while Mohamed Salah was back to his peak on the right. As a three, they were frantic and often out of sync, confounding the opposition until Ten Hag's defenders were sent spinning out of position. The up side to being so erratic is that it becomes infectious, sending the other team into a tailspin.
2) REJIGGED ARSENAL SHOWS DEPTH GREATER THAN ANTICIPATED
Although this was another victory built on emotion as much as anything else, the most striking aspect tactically was how Mikel Arteta is using more of his squad towards the end of this season. He began the game with Fabio Vieira in the Granit Xhaka role and the Portuguese did it well, adding a Bernardo Silva-style grace to that left half-space to show Arteta's coaching goes deep enough for fringe players to fill in.
However, his influence was arguably limited by the rustiness of Emile Smith Rowe on the left wing and these two did not interact particularly effectively, prompting Arteta to bring on Reiss Nelson – who assisted the equaliser before scoring the winner. Nelson's directness was a decent substitute for Gabriel Martinelli, in the process adding further weight to the idea that Arsenal can maintain their form despite going deep in the Europa League.
With Jorginho and Kieran Tierney unused substitutes and Gabriel Jesus working towards recovery, all of a sudden Arsenal do not look like the thin squad we thought they were in January. For that reason alone, they should be favourites to win the title.
3) BOURNEMOUTH'S 10-SECOND KICKOFF GOAL REVEALS INNOVATION POINT
The second-fastest goal in Premier League history was particularly interesting because of the unique way in which Bournemouth enacted a set play. Here was genuine innovation, found in an unlikely place; few, if any, clubs have thought so deeply about how to use a kick-off as if it was a normal set-piece, and this goal opens up a new avenue for teams to explore tactical tricks.
Bournemouth crowded to the left, so Arsenal followed in anticipation of a long ball, only for Joe Rothwell to suddenly sprint across and, taking the pass off Dominic Solanke, play Dango Outtara into a dangerous position on the right. It was a smart move that caught Arsenal unawares - and could have had huge ramifications on the title race. Surely we will start seeing more of these in the future.
Kick-off is an interesting moment for play books because it closely resembles the beginning of an American Football set piece. Maybe, in years to come, we will see players making runs and dummy runs, waiting for the quarter back to launch a pass into a dangerous zone unseen.
4) STRIKER-LESS SYSTEM SUGGESTS DYCHE CAN GET EVERTON OVER THE LINE
There has been a lot of worry regarding the absence of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and its affect upon Sean Dyche's ability to implement his long-ball football. Without him, there is nobody to hit those long balls to, and it had meant that Everton seemed a little toothless, but Dyche has already shown that he is more adaptable than we imagined having watched Burnley utilise the same 4-4-2 for so many years.
After playing Neal Maupay as a lone striker the previous weekend Dyche moved to what was essentially a 4-6-0 on Saturday, with Demarai Gray dropping so deep from the front he really became another midfielder. Often that meant Everton had two wingers on one side as Gray shuffled out to double up, which had the unique advantage against Nottingham Forest of overwhelming the full-back in Steve Cooper's narrow 4-3-2-1.
Both Everton goals were the result of scrambles in a packed penalty area, proving that Dyche can get numbers in there even without a striker: Abdoulaye Doucoure and Amadou Onana both ventured forward more often than expected while Dwight McNeil worked hard to pop up at the back post, ensuring Everton could create chances without a big man up top.
5) DOMINANT BRIGHTON SUGGEST MOYES WON'T RECOVER
Brighton completely overwhelmed West Ham United in a 4-0 victory and it reportedly has left David Moyes in a perilous position as leaks to the press suggest the dressing room is unhappy with the negative of football. That is perhaps unsurprising after such a big defeat, in which West Ham held less than 40% possession and managed a meagre three shots on goal, but what is most interesting about the performance was the fact Moyes picked an attacking line-up.
His 4-2-3-1 had as many attacking players on the pitch as one would expect, with Lucas Paqueta again trusted in a central role as Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma backed up Danny Ings. But Moyes just doesn't have the tactical belief to really open up and coach more expressive football, which is why his more attacking selections only create defensive issues (Brighton tore through central midfield) rather than allow West Ham to seize the initiative.
It is pretty damning evidence that, if West Ham want to evolve to become a more exciting team, they will need to change their manager.
