Gameweek 4 rewarded conviction. Arsenal won at Sunderland to make it four wins from four, Manchester City did the same at Old Trafford despite playing an hour and a half with ten men, and Leeds put four past Newcastle to climb into third. Cole Palmer did what this column asked of him against Hull, setting up Joao Pedro’s equaliser with a cutback that Chelsea’s earlier profligacy made necessary, though a defence conceding twice at home to a newly promoted side is now a four-game pattern worth building into every Chelsea decision going forward. The fixture list keeps handing Manchester City the benefit of the doubt, and this week it hands them the best one on the board.
A ten-man derby win tells you a squad can survive a bad afternoon. A home fixture against the division’s bottom club tells you what a good one looks like.
GW4 SCORELINES
Sunderland 0-2 Arsenal: Saka’s penalty and a string of David Raya saves keep the perfect record alive
Manchester United 0-1 Manchester City: Haaland’s disputed 60th-minute strike settles the derby after Foden’s early red card
Coventry City 0-5 Brighton and Hove Albion: five different threats for a Coventry side still without a point
Leeds United 4-1 Newcastle United: three goals in thirteen first-half minutes end Newcastle’s unbeaten start
Chelsea 2-2 Hull City: Belloumi’s early brace nearly holds up before Joao Pedro’s Palmer-assisted equaliser
Crystal Palace 2-3 Ipswich Town: a third away win in four for the promoted side, Palace’s defence now the league’s leakiest
Aston Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest: Gibbs-White’s assist sends Villa to a fourth match without a win
Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Everton: back-to-back goalless draws either side of a toothless attack
AFC Bournemouth 2-2 Brentford: five goals shared, Brentford’s habit of scoring every week stays intact
Liverpool 0-0 Fulham: the one result on the board nobody saw coming
The Top Pick: Erling Haaland
Manchester City host Sunderland, and nothing about that sentence needs qualifying. Sunderland have won once in four matches and travel off the back of a home defeat to Arsenal, while City remain the league’s most reliable source of goals even in an afternoon as chaotic as the derby. Haaland took his tally to four for the season with a goal that needed a VAR review to stand up, and a considerably simpler fixture at the Etihad is the week to stop overthinking the armband.
Why This Week
City needed a full ninety minutes with ten men to see off a resurgent United side, and still found a way to win. Sunderland offer none of that resistance: one win in four, a defence already breached by Arsenal, and a trip to the league’s in-form attack. If Haaland’s underlying numbers hold at anything close to a normal fixture, this is the week they show up on the scoresheet without complication.
The hold-don’t-chase caution from last week is over. The fixture has arrived.
The Next-Best Case: Morgan Gibbs-White
Forest’s win over Aston Villa was built on Gibbs-White’s involvement in everything final third, and Coventry arrive at the City Ground having just conceded five without reply to Brighton. Nottingham Forest have scored in each of their last two, and a Coventry side still searching for their first point of the season is as generous a fixture as the calendar offers anyone outside the traditional top six.
Hold, Don’t Chase: Bukayo Saka
Saka’s penalty at Sunderland kept Arsenal’s perfect start alive, and the underlying case for the armband, the penalties, the set pieces, a defence barely troubled all season, remains as strong as anywhere in the league. But Brighton just put five past Coventry without much fuss, and an away trip to a side playing with that kind of confidence is a tougher assignment than Sunderland ever was. Fine to hold. Harder to lead the week with.
Fade This Week: Cole Palmer
Palmer remains Chelsea’s most creative outlet by some distance and set up the equaliser against Hull with a ball few others on the pitch could pick out. But the defence he plays in front of has now conceded in every match of the season, and Brentford have scored in every gameweek so far. A trip to Brentford is the kind of fixture where a Chelsea captain can return points and just as easily watch the game turn into an exchange of goals at both ends. Save the armband for a calmer afternoon.
The Call
1. Erling Haaland, home vs Sunderland
2. Morgan Gibbs-White, home vs Coventry City
3. Bukayo Saka, away at Brighton and Hove Albion
Differential: Dominic Calvert-Lewin, home vs Crystal Palace, on the back of his goal in Leeds’ 4-1 win over Newcastle and a Palace defence that has now conceded nine goals in its last three matches
Fade: Cole Palmer, away at Brentford
Deadline is 19:30 BST on Friday, 18 September, ahead of the early Brentford-Chelsea kick-off. Sort the armband before then, the rest of the team sheet can wait until Saturday morning.
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