It was yet another high-scoring weekend of Premier League football and, with seven of the ten matches won by the away side, here was further proof we are in for a disordered season high on entertainment and chaotic tactical management.
Tottenham Hotspur's defeat at home to Newcastle showed they will struggle to create chances against bottom-half teams this season, Manchester United's similar problem against Crystal Palace suggested Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made a mistake by focusing on speed in his attack, and in more positive news several of the Premier League's new strikers opened their accounts.
Here are three tactical talking points from the weekend action:
1) Tottenham are struggling to break teams down without high quality full-backs
When opponents sat deep at White Hart Lane it used to mean Tottenham would quickly switch the ball from flank to flank, pulling the defensive shell wider as Kyle Walker and Danny Rose attacked from deep. But in 2019 their full-backs do not possess the same quality, leaving Spurs flat and sluggish for games like the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United on Sunday. Mauricio Pochettino deserves a big portion of the blame for his team selection and tactics.
Newcastle's deep 5-4-1 was easy to predict, which is why it made little sense to play Lucas Moura and Heung-Min Son in wide positions. This only isolated both and forced Spurs to pass sideways until the ball was worked out to one of these two, who ended up running into a dead end. They badly needed the more intricate playmaking abilities of Christian Eriksen and Giovani Lo Celso, both of whom were brought on too late in the game to change the tactical rhythm.
This aimless possession and unthreatening play in the final third (Spurs did not attempt a single through ball on Sunday) is becoming a pattern. West Ham's 1-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium towards the end of last season was a long time coming following narrow, stuttering wins for the hosts against Brighton, Crystal Palace, Newcastle, and Watford earlier in the calendar year. Pochettino needs to drastically alter his tactical approach in these matches or Spurs risk going backwards.
2) Crystal Palace show why Solskjaer's tactical approach is out-dated
Solskjaer has focused on attacking speed over the summer, telling journalists he is deliberately mimicking the of Man Utd's attack under Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1990s. But football has changed an awful lot since then. The Big Six are expected to hold the vast majority of possession and opponents sit deep to absorb pressure, nullifying pace in a way Fergie didn't have to deal with in the late 90s.
Palace's 2-1 win at Old Trafford was simple enough: sit deep to prevent Anthony Martial or Daniel James from getting in behind, play narrowly so that Marcus Rashford cannot drop into those dangerous half-spaces as he did against Wolves, and pick out Jordan Ayew to hold up the ball and release Wilfried Zaha on the counter-attack. It worked perfectly, mainly because United don't have a creative passer in the mould of Eriksen, having doubled down on a 'pace and power' strategy over the summer.
United might just lose plenty more matches like this, particularly now a template for success has been drawn up. Solskjaer can counteract this in future by playing Paul Pogba higher up the pitch, rather than harmlessly deploying the Frenchman alongside Scott McTominay, while Juan Mata should also be picked, arguably as a number ten alongside Pogba. Mata certainly deserves more game time than the five minutes he got against Palace.
3) Arsenal's diamond 4-4-2 offers an intriguing take on how to combat Liverpool
In the end, Arsenal simply could not match the quality of their opponents, but for the majority of the first half it looked as though Unai Emery's surprise diamond 4-4-2 might just work – even if many people failed to understand that Arsenal 'playing into Liverpool's hands' was a deliberate strategy.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson were given acres of space on the flanks because of Arsenal's narrow midfield shape, but that was not a mistake; Emery wanted to draw them forward in order to leave Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe two on two for the counter. What's more, by playing so narrowly Arsenal squeezed out the spaces between full-back and centre-back, meaning Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah were largely nullified.
Arsenal trusted themselves to deal with every cross from Liverpool's full-backs, which they did - that is until sloppy marking from a corner undermined their efforts. Until that point Emery's backs-to-the-wall approach may have given off the appearance of being dominated, but in truth it was an intriguing tactical battle plan intended to make Liverpool over-confident. Passing their way out of trouble invited Liverpool to keep pressing high, luring them into giving Pepe a clean run at Virgil van Dijk.
The tactics didn't work in the end, such is the gulf in class between the two sides. However, Emery should be praised, not ridiculed, for trying something different.
Best of the Week – Haller, Wesley, & Joelinton highlight the importance of a powerful lone striker
Sebastien Heller's brace at Watford, Wesley's opener for Aston Villa against Everton, and Joelinton's winner at Tottenham ensured that the Premier League's three most expensive new strikers all made headlines this weekend. But aside from their ruthlessness in front of goal, in all three cases it was powerful hold-up play that made them so crucial to their clubs' respective wins.
Joelinton fought for everything on Sunday, getting 38 touches of the ball compare with Harry Kane's 24. He repeatedly allowed Newcastle to reset higher up the pitch by holding off challenges and winning set-pieces, and the same can be said for Wesley at Villa. Everton's occasional wave of pressure was always ended by Wesley shrugging a defender aside and bringing his team-mates into play – including for Villa's second goal on Friday night. In Haller, West Ham have found the striker they've been searching for throughout the last ten years.
Worst of the Week – Gomes & Schneiderlin partnership at Villa Park
Andre Gomes was dribbled past five times against Villa, failing to complete a single tackle or interception across the 90 minutes. His diabolical performance was summed up when Alwar El Ghazi nutmegged him inside the penalty area to score in the 94th minute. Morgan Schneiderlin was slightly better than his team-mate, but as a partnership Everton's midfield was horribly flat-footed, incapable of troubling Villa.
More importantly, Gomes and Schneiderlin could not cope with John McGinn and Jack Grealish; Everton badly missed Jean-Philippe Gbamin, their Idrissa Gueye replacement, having failed to intercept a single ball in the central area of the pitch.
