Arsenal Dominates Rivals with 2-0 Victory at Sunderland
Arsenal’s perfect title defence rolled on with a ruthless 2-0 win at Sunderland, lit up by a Bruno Guimaraes thunderbolt and underpinned by David Raya’s nerve from the spot, on a day when their supposed rivals all stuttered.
Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham? All held. All booed, questioned or simply left frustrated.
Arsenal ruthless as rivals stall
At the Stadium of Light, Arsenal showed exactly why they already have daylight at the top. Raya set the tone, reading Enzo Le Fee’s penalty and beating it away to preserve parity and silence the home crowd.
Then came the moment that broke Sunderland’s resistance. Barely two minutes after the save, Guimaraes stepped up with his first goal for the club, a vicious long-range strike that screamed into the top corner and drained the noise from the stands.
Arsenal controlled the rest. Sunderland hung on, hoping for one last chance, but Bukayo Saka killed that dream with the final kick of the game, burying a penalty to seal four wins from four and a three-point cushion over Manchester City.
City can pull level again if they win the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday. Even so, the pattern is emerging: Arsenal are already edging away while the rest of the pack trips over its own feet.
Alonso wants ‘boring’ Chelsea as Hull refuse to blink
At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea put on another show that thrilled and infuriated in equal measure. The front three of Morgan Rogers, Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer lit up the game, but the same old frailties at the back left Xabi Alonso shaking his head.
Five games against top-flight opposition under Alonso. Sixteen scored, twelve conceded. Chaos, dressed up as entertainment.
“Maybe entertaining, but I hope one day you’ll say it was a boring game and we win and we don’t give these entertaining moments,” Alonso admitted, his side now five points off the top.
Hull, back in the Premier League and still riding the wave, arrived as the last team yet to concede this season. That record vanished after just seven minutes when Rogers drilled in at the near post. It should have been the platform for Chelsea to take control.
Instead, Mohamed Belloumi pounced on slack defending twice before the break, punishing Chelsea’s looseness and flipping the game on its head.
Chelsea rallied. Joao Pedro crashed a Palmer cross into the top corner just after the hour to level it at 2-2, and the hosts poured forward. The winner never came. Hull dug in, took their point and stayed unbeaten, their early-season honeymoon stretching into another week.
Liverpool flat as Fulham dig in for Arbeloa
At Anfield, the mood turned sour. Liverpool remain unbeaten under Andoni Iraola, but a goalless draw with a struggling Fulham side, taking their first point under Alvaro Arbeloa, drew boos at full-time.
On paper, Liverpool’s front line should have shredded a defence that has leaked goals. Bradley Barcola, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak – three £100 million forwards – never clicked. The passing lacked bite, the tempo never quite rose high enough, and Fulham grew in belief.
“When you draw, especially at home, you can’t be happy,” Iraola said, pointing to fatigue after Wednesday’s Champions League exertions against Atletico Madrid. He had a point. Liverpool looked heavy-legged and short of ideas.
“Today we lacked a bit of freshness and we did not do enough offensively to make the difference,” he added.
The table is already unforgiving. Liverpool sit sixth, six points behind Arsenal, and the margin for error is shrinking fast.
Tottenham still goal-shy, Villa punished late
Tottenham’s lavish summer was meant to bury the memories of back-to-back 17th-place finishes. The spending touched £300 million. The goals, though, still refuse to arrive.
A home stalemate with Everton extended their wait for a first league goal of the season. The anxiety is starting to seep into the stands as Spurs hover just above the relegation zone, all that investment yet to translate into any cutting edge.
Aston Villa are stuck in the same mire. Beaten late by Nottingham Forest, they remain in the bottom three and still searching for rhythm.
Forest had raised eyebrows when they paid a reported club-record £45 million to bring Liam Delap from Chelsea, a striker who never quite broke through at Stamford Bridge. This, though, was the performance that justified the gamble.
Delap stepped up with a precise long-range effort into the bottom corner to open the scoring, a finish full of conviction and control. Villa finally responded, Alysson grabbing their first league goal of the campaign to level it.
The comeback stopped there. Igor Jesus struck to secure Oliver Glasner’s first win as Forest manager, a result that carried extra bite after last season’s Europa League semifinal defeat to Villa.
Palace floored late, Brentford keep rolling
Glasner’s old club Crystal Palace endured another bruising afternoon. A 3-2 home defeat to Ipswich deepened their poor start, the visitors aided by Axel Disasi’s first-half red card.
Palace battled, but Ipswich refused to go away. In stoppage time, Zian Flemming stepped forward with his first goal for the Tractor Boys, snatching all three points and leaving Selhurst Park stunned.
Brentford, by contrast, kept their unbeaten run intact. Kevin Schade scored twice in a lively 2-2 draw at Bournemouth, another reminder that while the heavyweights wrestle with their own flaws, the league’s middle class is more than happy to take advantage.
Four games in, Arsenal are already setting the pace. The real question now: who, if anyone, looks ready to keep up?
