Premier League winners and losers: Caicedo, Wolves, Rice, Farke, Liverpool, Frank, Emery and more…
Moises Caicedo v Declan Rice should be interesting later this month, Liverpool are back on track, and why Daniel Farke should never manage Newcastle.
The Premier League table is only worth looking at after 10 games. Winners and losers is worth reading almost never but you’re here now so get comfy.
Premier League winners
Moises Caicedo
Enzo Maresca deserves credit for devising a press which suffocated, stifled and panicked Spurs.
The Italian’s recent admission that he told his players preparations for games against Nottingham Forest and Sunderland had to go “straight in the bin because it was a back five” rather than the back four he had anticipated each time was damning.
But there are few coaches more meticulous and prescient in their planning when Maresca accurately predicts the opponent’s approach, as proven by his call to play Reece James in midfield because “we expected them to play with Sarr, Bentancur and Palhinha” so “we needed a little bit more physicality in the middle”.
It must help to possess an off-the-ball cheat code like Caicedo. There has surely never been an assist more representative of a player’s specific skillset than a double tackle before laying the ball off to a forward to score.
The Ecuadorian has already matched his best tally for combined goals and assists in a Premier League season, is the leader for combined tackles and interceptions in 2025/26, and perhaps most impressively as the midfield general in a ludicrously ill-disciplined team, has been booked just once this campaign.
He brings the sort of impact a nine-figure fee really ought to guarantee, but Caicedo has unsurprisingly successfully challenged the general rule of failure when it comes to expensive Premier League signings.
Declan Rice
Paul Scholes is more entitled to his opinion on elite central midfielders than most, but the idea that Caicedo and Rice are not “all-round midfield players” who contribute in every phase and area seems wild.
In the case of Rice especially, it can no longer be said that he doesn’t bring enough to the attack.
His set-piece consistency and quality is among the best in world football. He has carried the ball almost 700 cumulative yards further than any Arsenal teammate, and more than every other Premier League player bar Jan Paul van Hecke and Elliot Anderson. Only 10 players have made more passes into the final third.
Rice affects every facet of the game for the most balanced team in the country, ranking third of all Arsenal outfielders for touches in the defensive third and second for touches in both the middle and attacking thirds.
“As a centre-back, he would be perfect in front of you,” said Ashley Williams at the weekend. And those Rice plays behind, around, to the side and ahead of won’t be complaining either.
Liverpool
A 2-0 home win over an Aston Villa side seemingly determined to play specifically into Liverpool’s hands felt like the definition of Sterner Tests Await with both Real Madrid and Manchester City on the horizon before the next international break.
But after that repeat of Brendan at the Bernabeu, this was an afternoon when Liverpool just had to focus on crossing the line.
Rodgers sent Fabio Borini, Joe Allen and Lazar Markovic out against Real Madrid a decade ago, resting Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and a select few others for a Premier League game against Chelsea at Anfield that weekend.
They were beaten and for Rodgers the die was basically cast on his reign. Arne Slot was not facing exactly the same stakes against Villa after throwing the Carabao Cup fourth round but there were some parallels.
Thankfully not in either the performance or the result. A more balanced midfield and attack was complemented by a solidity in defence encouraged by the innate familiarity between Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson on the left.
The positive development of Hugo Ekitike in particular asks some awkward questions of which round holes the club’s two most expensive square pegs fit inside, because the ultimate endgame for Liverpool is Florian Wirtz lavishing countless chances on Alexander Isak every game.
But this was a moment when Liverpool needed to restore some confidence, remember the basics and ready themselves for what lies ahead. The next two games are likely to have a magnitudinal effect on the rest of their season so even caveated momentum is welcome.
READ: Two Liverpool players gatecrash Premier League XI of the season so far
Brighton
A first clean sheet in 12 Premier League games, which a relieved Fabian Hurzeler used to underline the importance of staying “alive for 90 minutes” and being “switched on” at all times.
It also breaks one of the weirder streaks of curious incompetence in recent Premier League seasons. Brighton had drawn each of their last five home games against newly promoted – and ultimately relegated – clubs dating back to November 2023, finding increasingly absurd ways to slip on otherwise inadequate banana skins like Sheffield United, Ipswich and Southampton.
This was overdue evidence that a frequent bloodier of elite noses can punch down too. Brighton’s four Premier League wins this season have now come against three Champions League sides and the Championship winners.
Fulham
A necessary end to a chastening losing run, although not an opponent against whom victory can ever represent a definitive corner turned.
But Fulham did still have to beat what was put in front of them in Wolves, did so with consummate comfort and professionalism, and can tentatively take more than a mere three points from their afternoon after the start of an overdue experiment.
Marco Silva had resisted deploying Alex Iwobi more centrally for long enough on the basis that it would cost Fulham too much on the left flank. But the successful integration of Kevin has granted the Cottagers more than enough technical ability down that side and the modest challenge of Wolves at home made playing a single natural defensive midfielder more palatable.
Sander Berge was excellent in that role but using Iwobi as his partner gave Fulham far more creative thrust than usual through the middle. The Nigerian’s seven shot-creating actions were the most by a Fulham player in a Premier League game since February.
It might be slightly less effective against the other 18 teams in the division, but it was a timely reminder that Fulham can use Iwobi’s versatility and intelligence far better.
West Ham
Newcastle were malleable guests but it does feel as though West Ham’s first win of the season against a team not managed by their current coach was the by-product of a more straightforward team selection first and foremost.
There was a significant improvement on the fundamentals compared to recent weeks; this was their best game of the season for shots attempted, xGa and, by quite some margin, tackles.
But it came from a more coherent structure with players in easily defined roles, down to an actual centre-forward leading the line, full-backs on the right side and some actual energy, endeavour and impetus in midfield. Nuno has his blueprint.
Jefferson Lerma
It has been a familiar refrain from Crystal Palace supporters this season, for Oliver Glasner to rotate more and manage an absurdly busy schedule.
Lerma is precisely the sort of player they should be able to rely on more often, with his experience and grit offering something different in a strong and multi-faceted midfield department.
The 31-year-old has started two Premier League games this season and Palace have kept clean sheets in both. They have only conceded twice with him on the pitch. And that leap for the first goal was only matched in decisiveness by the long throw for the second.
Manchester United
Obviously on the second-longest unbeaten streak in the Premier League behind only the dominant leaders, as predicted when Ruben Amorim was shuffling his little counters around against Grimsby.
As he said after the Nottingham Forest draw in which Manchester United both led and trailed, “in the past, if we had this kind of bad five minutes and we suffered two goals, we didn’t recover,” but “today is a different feeling – you can sense that we could not win this game, but we are not going to lose”.
There is a lot to be said for that after Amorim seemed to spend much of last season hiding incompetence and frequent defeats behind the pretence of necessary ‘suffering’, and a great many fans pretended it was an unavoidable part of this rebuild.
The football has returned to Casemiro, who played a full 90 minutes for the first time this season. Amad is among those stepping up when the chips are down instead of just staring aimlessly at Bruno Fernandes. And the World Cup year iteration of Luke Shaw has been unlocked.
Manchester United lost 21 games last campaign. It was a habit they needed to grow out of and might finally have.
READ: Five Manchester United stars who need to be replaced with upgrades, including one summer
Manchester City
Someone will probably need to dislodge Maxime Esteve as Manchester City’s second top Premier League goalscorer this season at some point if Pep Guardiola is going to avoid the ignominy of a second consecutive trophyless campaign.
But there is at least great variation in the identity of the man supplying bullets for Erling Haaland. Twelve different players have assisted a Premier League goal for Manchester City in 2025/26 – at least two more than any other club – with nine setting up the Norwegian alone. Though some have clearly not noticed.
Bournemouth themselves provided support with a recklessly high line which Manchester City cut through the middle of twice. Both Haaland’s goals came from Marcos Senesi being drawn out of position and leaving actual acres of space for the striker to attack, but Rayan Cherki had to get the pass right both times.
Sean Dyche
Having repeated his mantra of “you must keep the ball out at one end and put it into the net at the other” before the game, getting halfway there was genuine progress for Nottingham Forest.
The difference between Dyche and his predecessor could not have been made more stark by the club’s last two Premier League home games. Ange Postecoglou’s side wasted chance after chance against Chelsea before conceding twice within seven minutes of the second half and collapsing. Forest recovered from a frustrating deficit against Manchester United with two goals in 102 seconds after the restart.
They could not hold on for all three points but after four straight defeats without scoring at all, this was a step in the right direction.
Premier League losers
Wolves
What a hilarious mess that is.
Daniel Farke
There are questions to be asked of a recruitment team which armed Leeds with such an underpowered attack in particular. But while Brendan Rodgers lurks it might be an idea for Farke to address a career-long blind spot.
The German has won four of the 47 top-flight away league games he has ever managed: against Everton in November 2019, Brentford in November 2021, Hoffenheim in January 2023 and Wolves in September 2025.
Three of the teams he has ever beaten on the road in the Premier League or Bundesliga sacked their humiliated boss within six weeks. Marco Silva lasted 12 more days, Andre Breitenreiter nine and Vitor Pereira a positively protracted 43.
The only exception was Thomas Frank at Brentford, and it was immediately after that win that Norwich put Farke out of his misery.
Leeds might draw the same conclusion soon if the plan for survival is ultimately to try and turn Elland Road into the fortress of a painfully homesick team. Remove that 3-1 win at Molineux from the equation and the Whites have lost their other four away games without scoring.
Newcastle
The answer to the West Ham fans’ question? Very.
Thomas Frank
“I have never been in charge of a team that has created that little in one game, never. I think every team I’ve coached has scored a lot of goals. It will happen again in the future here.”
It’s a far cry from the “one-liner” Frank delivered to describe his “principles” a week after being appointed: “If you don’t take risks, you also take risks. So it’s important we take risks. Risk is you need to play forward. If you don’t risk the ball, you can’t create things. We need to be brave.”
Spurs – and one player in particular – cowered against Chelsea. The home form is rotten, there are early signs of dissent in the squad and there is a slightly Nuno-flavoured sense of an exclusively mid-table coach having his shortcomings more ruthlessly exposed at a higher level.
Unai Emery
When the opposing manager openly discusses how “we have not found an answer yet” to “a certain playing style which is a very good strategy to play against us”, it is definitely one option to basically ignore that.
Arne Slot has bemoaned the “low blocks” and “long balls” deployed to great success against a Liverpool side which was “not able to press the opponent because the ball wasn’t on the ground, it was through the air”.
So obviously Villa tried to build from the back and play precisely the sort of game Liverpool needed to rediscover their spark.
Slot also noted how Liverpool “didn’t concede a set-piece” of note, having struggled against those recently. If football is about accentuating your own strengths and targeting the weaknesses of the opponent, Emery took a curious approach which achieved the opposite.
Kevin Schade
Keith Andrews believes Schade to be ready to become “a more prominent figure within the team”, to take on a greater “level of responsibility” and “lead by example”.
It is an intoxicating thought at a club which has unearthed and polished some phenomenal attacking gems in recent years. The four biggest sales in Brentford’s history were all forwards and the rapid Schade has threatened to follow in their footsteps.
But at 23 with barely 100 top-flight league appearances, yet simultaneously the most experienced player in Brentford’s attack at this sort of level, it is a burden which can weigh heavy. Schade ranks fourth for minutes under Andrews this season, the highest of any forward, and his performances do not always warrant that sort of trust.
If the Bees are not able to break on the counter at will it is difficult to see what Schade brings. The more technical Reiss Nelson option should be explored more thoroughly in the coming weeks.
Bournemouth
That’s two defeats away at title rivals now. Not good enough if they’re actually going to win this thing.
