Arsenal’s set-piece reliance and Chelsea’s midfield spending starts to pay off: Six observations from the Premier League weekend | OneFootball

An action packed weekend of Premier League football saw Arsenal and Man City drop points, Man Utd’s struggles continue and Chelsea win a seven-goal thriller against rivals Tottenham.

Here are six observations from the weekend’s action…

Arsenal’s reliance on set pieces

“Set piece again ole, ole” sang the Arsenal fans after scoring from another corner in the 1-1 draw with Fulham, but are Arsenal becoming too reliant on set pieces? The Gunners created just 0.3 expected goals from open play against Fulham, compared to a whopping 1.73 from set plays. It is of course a positive that Arsenal are so dominant from corners but there have been occasions this season where they have struggled to turn their dominance in general play into clear cut chances. Their draw with Fulham was another one.

Free scoring Brentford

Only Chelsea have scored more goals than Brentford in the Premier League this season, following Thomas Frank’s side’s 4-2 win over Newcastle on Saturday. Despite losing Ivan Toney in the summer, Brentford’s attacking play has improved and this was the fifth straight home game that they have scored at least three goals. Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa both took their Premier League goal tallies to nine for the season while Kevin Schade scored his fourth. They might still have yet to win away from home, but no side will relish a trip to the Gtech Community Stadium.

The big moments are going against Postecoglou

The pressure on Ange Postecoglou has increased further after his side again blew a two-goal lead to lose 4-3 to rivals Chelsea, meaning Spurs have now lost seven of their 15 Premier League games this season. The fact is that it is another lead blown but he is not being helped by some big moments going against him. Spurs generated six big chances to Chelsea’s three, missing four of them with the worst coming through Heung-Min Son when he raced clear through on goal at 2-2 and bent wide of the post, gave away two disastrous penalties and lost Cristian Romero to another injury after 20 minutes of the game. Postecoglou is not exempt from criticism but the players must take their fair share of responsibility too, while injuries haven’t helped.

United need to spend

Another defeat for Manchester United on Saturday again laid bare the fact that Ruben Amorim needs to be backed in the transfer market if he is to improve things. United have already spent significantly over the past few seasons but have actually got worse, with some huge errors in the transfer market while Erik ten Hag was in the dugout. Sporting director Dan Ashworth has now departed the club following a protracted effort to bring him in from Newcastle and the club’s minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe publicly criticised the club’s recruitment in an interview with fanzine United We Stand ahead of the loss to Nottingham Forest. That much is clear on the pitch, and this is a squad which needs an overhaul.

Guardiola’s limited options

Man City have won just one of their last nine games in all competitions following their 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday. Pep Guardiola again took the opportunity to make the point about how many players he is missing and that some of those who made the squad are also far from full fitness. Looking at their bench, it is easy to understand why Guardiola was so keen to make this point. City had two goalkeepers on the bench in Ederson and Scott Carson, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish who are both struggling for fitness, and five younger players. “Give me my players back and we will do it,” Guardiola said. “But it’s not possible right now and I don’t think it’s going to happen for a long time.”

Chelsea look to have got their money’s worth after all

Much was made of how much Chelsea spent on their midfield trio of Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez when the team were struggling. Lavia missed almost the entirety of his first season at the club through injury, while Caicedo and Enzo struggled to settle straight in to the side after their £100m+ moves from Brighton and Benfica respectively. But all three are now looking like the players Chelsea thought they were signing. Lavia impressed in the first half against Tottenham with some brilliant passes into the forward players before being forced off through injury, which is not expected to be anything serious according to boss Enzo Maresca. Caicedo has been one of the best midfielders in the league this season and Enzo has been on a great run of form late, scoring a fantastic goal against Spurs. All three have been instrumental in Chelsea’s improvement this season.