1) City must reckon with the loss of their most important player
A sixth win from six games for Manchester City and the rest of the Premier League is already feeling that ominous churn in their stomach. But Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest came at a price, with Rodri’s spasm of throat-grabbing leading to a red card just after half-time along with a three-match ban.
Maybe we expect too much of City, but their loss of control of the game – even with 10 men – after Rodri was sent off was alarming.
City’s team is a spine of specialist players – Ederson, Rodri, and Haaland – around which revolve a team of Tom Wambsgans: a fleet of brilliant but highly interchangeable modular parts. Only the loss of the aforementioned trio significantly weaken City, and Rodri’s absence is the greatest of them all. There’s a reason he played more minutes than anyone else for City last season, including Ederson.
Kalvin Phillips is not a bad player but is nowhere near Rodri’s level. That’s unsurprising, given Rodri has been the best defensive midfielder in the world since joining City and he is now evolving into the best all-round midfielder in the game.
Rodri will miss the midweek Cup tie with Newcastle, next Saturday’s league game against Wolves, and then, crucially, the league clash with Arsenal at the Emirates on 8 October. Arsenal simply must win that game, and Rodri’s absence gives them a chance of doing that.
2) Arsenal are missing Granit Xhaka
Arsenal, however, must pray that Declan Rice is fit for that clash with City, after he was substituted at half-time in yesterday’s North London derby. Losing Rice would further deplete a midfield still missing the once-maligned Granit Xhaka.
Xhaka was a revelation in an advanced midfield position for Arsenal last season, playing as a left-sided number eight and recording progressive passing stats that stacked up against the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Luka Modric.
Arsenal’s left side has not functioned quite as well since Xhaka left: they miss his ability to knit play together. Replacement-wise, Kai Havertz is more of a striker than a midfielder while Fabio Vieria has been occasionally impressive but inconsistent, struggling yesterday.
Rice might actually be Arsenal’s best option to replace Xhaka, but he can only play further forward when Thomas Partey returns to fitness.
3) Mo Salah’s creative phase
Liverpool’s Moneyballers became successful when they learned to distinguish between price and value, seen most obviously when they spent a record fee on Virgil van Dijk. While their finely-tuned off-field structure has faltered in the last couple of years, but everyone made the right call in rejecting Al-Itthiad’s eye-watering bid for Mohamed Salah.
Salah has three goals in six Premier League games this season already, but his game is evolving beyond merely being Liverpool’s main goalscorer. He is become their main creator, too.
He already has four league assists this season – nobody in the league has more – and should have had another at the weekend, but saw Darwin Nunez blast an easy chance in front of goal into the Kop.
Salah leads the league in Expected Assists, and is second only to Erling Haaland when that stat is combined with non-penalty Expected Goals. He is showing a Messi-esque ability to reinvent himself as a creator, and Liverpool should fight to keep Salah next summer, too.
4) The rise of the midfield dribblers
One of the early-season trends has been the number of quality dribblers suddenly weaving their way through Premier League midfields. Spurs’ Yves Bissouma has been its finest proponent, with Dominik Szoboszlai impressing in the same regard at Liverpool. Ball-carrying is probably Matheus Nunes’ strongest trait, and he deployed it in creating Haaland’s goal against Forest on Saturday. Mateo Kovacic is also an outstanding midfield dribbler, so Pep Guardiola has added emphasis to dribbling ability in restocking his midfield, confirming so at a press conference last week.
Perhaps this is another press-baiting lesson he has learned from Roberto de Zerbi: ball-carriers draw opponents to press them, and thus the best dribblers can hold onto the ball and create space.
That these qualities are now as important in midfielders as they are in wide players shows the extent to which the game has evolved to become about finding ways around opponents’ press.
And while City, Spurs and Liverpool are well-equipped in this department, it’s another in which Manchester United’s ageing midfield looks short.