Man City crisis over, Newcastle reaffirm attacking credentials, O’Neil beats former club – it’s F365’s 3pm Blackout

Crisis club Manchester City are back on track after beating Brighton to go top of the table in a boost for beleaguered Pep Guardiola and wildly out-of-form leading Premier League goalscorer Erling Haaland. We’re being facetious. Unlike us, that. Newcastle were great, Gary O’Neil continues to make fools of us all and Forest have some rueing to do…

Man City reclaim top spot but forced to hold on against Brighton
It would be slightly overegging things to declare City were quite in ‘need a win’ territory, but after back-to-back defeats in the Premier League for the first time in five years it was definitely a result over performance kind of afternoon for Pep Guardiola. Which is just as well.

It looked like a straightforward afternoon when City eased two goals clear in the first 20 minutes with Jeremy Doku giving James Milner a truly appalling time, but they were in the end forced to endure 10 minutes of injury-time by the end with just a one-goal advantage after Ansu Fati halved the deficit in the second half.

Still, it’s not bad to be top of the league when things aren’t quite going as they should be, even if their current trip to the summit might not last through Monday night. And a huge relief for everyone we’re sure to see Erling Haaland’s crisis over after he scored City’s second goal of the evening.

While City’s overwhelming feeling will be one of relief, it’s a tricky one for Brighton. This ended up a frustrating near-miss but could have been a far more harrowing afternoon for a team that can be defensively vulnerable. The sort of beating that appeared on the cards 20 minutes in would have meant more questions about the long-term prospects for Brighton’s season. The final hour of the game means that they leave Manchester with no points but perhaps more reason for optimism than might have been expected.

Brighton are a team who by their very nature will lose some games they ought to win, such is the high-risk nature of their philosophy, but it would be pushing things to place ‘Manchester City away’ in that category.

Report: Manchester City 2-1 Brighton: Alvarez and Haaland chip in to end losing run and send City top

Newcastle reaffirm credentials as Premier League’s best attacking force
It’s not all been plain sailing for Newcastle this season, with a few early defeats potentially putting them under pressure before the Champions League fixtures even came along to make life harder.

But Europe has gone swimmingly thus far. And while an upturn in Premier League results was pretty much inevitable from the lows of August, the manner of it was not. When they get it right, arguably not even City can currently match them for sheer goalscoring threat. They were already the leading scorers in the division on both real goals and expected ones, and have stretched that with four more against a Crystal Palace side that started the day with the joint third-best defensive record in the division.

And again, the encouraging thing for Newcastle is the sheer number of places those goals are coming from. It’s not quite eight scorers in an 8-0 win, but four different scorers in a 4-0 win is still quite something. You couldn’t ask for much more than a goal apiece for every member of your in-form front three, with Jacob Murphy taking most of the plaudits having also set up his mates Anthony Gordon and Callum Wilson.

Report: Newcastle 4-0 Crystal Palace: Dominant Magpies swat aside Eagles in bulldozing victory

Sloppy Forest blow glorious chance to ease well clear of the nonsense
It’s fair to say that any team failing to record a home win against Luton this season will devote a fair bit of time to the rueing of that result, but few will rue harder than Forest after this afternoon. A dull first half gave way to a second half of astonishing silliness in which Chris Wood appeared to have secured all the points with two goals only for a late comeback to see the points shared.

Luton, who continue to give a very decent account of themselves in the Barclays, deserve huge credit for the way they approached that final quarter-hour, with a trio of attacking substitutions ending in one of them netting a scarcely believable equaliser after they’d got back in the game by the barest of VAR margins after a lengthy offside check.

One still suspects, though, that this is a result with more significance for Forest than the Hatters. A win would have been their third of the season and left them on 12 points in 10th, eight clear of the bottom three. Instead they are 15th and for the second time this season facing up to the fact that a 2-0 lead has not been converted to victory. Defeat at Old Trafford was galling; this was surely far more damaging.

Report: Nottingham Forest 2-2 Luton: Hatters complete spirited turnaround as two late goals secure draw

Bournemouth blow it as Gary O’Neil enjoys sweet revenge
Things were going swimmingly for Bournemouth. At half-time, they led courtesy of a sublime goal, flicked in by Dominic Solanke after a sweeping move featuring Alex Scott and Philip Billing. Scott, on his belated debut, lifted the hosts as Andoni Iraola fielded perhaps the closest thing so far to his strongest XI.

Then Bournemouth blew it, with Lewis Cook chiefly responsible. The experienced midfielder moved his head towards Hwang Hee-chan – hardly a knockout blow but a daft, stupid, costly moment of madness. Which he realised immediately.

That gave Wolves, already level through Matheus Cunha after the Cherries started slowly in the second half, all the impetus they needed to go in search of what, on a personal note, must be one of the most satisfying wins of ex-Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil’s managerial career so far.

Achieving victory so late made it all the more sweet. But even then, Bournemouth were culpable in their own downfall, with Neto playing a short, quick goal-kick into Billing. Wolves had the midfielder surrounded and picked his pocket to present Pedro Neto with possession on the edge of the box. His delicious pass set up Sasa Kalajdzic, and eight seconds after restarting play, Neto (the Bournemouth version) was picking the ball from his net.

While O’Neil struts away from Dean Court, second-half self-sabotage leaves Iraola still looking for his first win. How long before the Cherries get twitchy?

Report: Bournemouth 1-2 Wolves: Late Kalajdzic strike secures all three points for visitors over 10 men

Capitulating Clarets make mugs of us all as Bees cruise to first home win
“The easy answer is Burnley but I don’t think anybody will be remotely surprised at their mid-table finish,” wrote Winty when asked for a pre-season prediction over which club will be a pleasant surprise. To be fair to the boss, we all f***ed it where the Clarets are concerned.

None of us realised how much of a soft touch Burnley would be, especially defensively. Maybe it was because they are coached by one of the greatest Premier League centre-backs of the modern era, which must make their current form all the more infuriating for Vincent Kompany.

Those defensive frailties were all too evident once more against a Brentford side who were yet to win at home this season. The Bees had 15 efforts on goal in the first half alone and would have had victory wrapped up by the break were it not for James Trafford in Kompany’s net. Overall, the possession was shared equally but Burnley allowed their hosts 17 more shots in total.

We all assumed Burnley would be fine on the basis of last season’s evidence which did not consider the changes forced upon Kompany by the loss of key loanees. Two of his three most-used defenders returned to parent clubs, while the other, Connor Roberts, was sent off as the visitors went through the motions late on.

Defeat leaves Burnley with only a single win, against Luton, making next week’s trip to Bournemouth a contender for the season’s earliest relegation six-pointer.

Report: Brentford 3-0 Burnley: Free-flowing Bees hammer Clarets to open up gap from danger