Chelsea's Reboot Meets Brentford's Rhythm in Premier League

Chelsea have not beaten Brentford in a league game since the Bees’ first Premier League campaign. That 1-0 win in October 2021, settled by Ben Chilwell, feels a long way off now. Every trip across west London since has ended level, and the gap in identity between the neighbours has only widened.

Brentford know who they are: organised, settled, structurally sound. Chelsea are trying once again to work out what they might be. Xabi Alonso’s latest iteration comes with a back three, a system that has rarely carried teams to the title. Only one side has done it in the Premier League era – Chelsea themselves under Antonio Conte in 2016-17.

Alonso’s defensive shape is still a work in progress, which is exactly why Kevin Schade will relish this derby. Fresh from two sharp finishes at Bournemouth, the German forward looks ready to run at a back line still learning its angles and distances.

At the other end, Chelsea’s attack has clicked more quickly than the defence, but there is a problem. João Pedro already has three goals and three assists, the most reliable cutting edge in Alonso’s front line, yet there are doubts over his fitness. If he is not ready, Danny Welbeck could be handed his first league start of the season, a very different type of focal point.

For Brentford, Jannik Schuster remains under the microscope. The 20-year-old centre-back, in for Nathan Collins, survived a stern first Premier League start against Bournemouth’s Evanilson and came out with credit. Chelsea, with Alonso’s fluid front line, will ask a different kind of question. The last time Chelsea’s back three powered them to glory; this time, it might be Brentford’s stability that dictates the terms.

Spurs and Villa: fear, fragility and the hunt for a first win

What happens when a very stoppable force meets an extremely movable object? Tottenham against Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium might provide the answer.

Spurs sit 19th. Villa are not much better. Between them, they have managed just a single league goal. Both are still waiting for their first Premier League win of the season. It is a bleak return for two clubs with far grander ideas.

The good news for Tottenham: Pedro Porro is back. His return should finally end the Archie Gray Experiment at right-back, a trial that has looked increasingly strained. Roberto De Zerbi has chopped and changed in search of balance, but no Premier League XI feels as precarious as Spurs’. Almost every player seems one mistake away from the bench. The result is a team playing scared, taking the safe pass, avoiding risk.

James Maddison, so often the man to break that pattern, has been eased back from injury, coming off the bench against Everton and Liverpool. He will be desperate to start, to grab the game, to give this hesitant side a bit of personality. Villa arrive vulnerable. Spurs arrive anxious. Something has to give.

Brighton’s structure and a rising star named Yalcouyé

Brighton’s comeback win at Old Trafford said plenty about their character. Fabian Hürzeler chose to highlight something else: structure. His side, he insisted, are “well structured”. He could have been talking directly about Malick Yalcouyé.

The 20-year-old Ivorian has taken a winding road to Brighton’s first team. He arrived on the south coast in 2024 after a short spell at IFK Gothenburg, then disappeared from view on loans to Sturm Graz and Swansea. This season, with Jack Hinshelwood out until after the international break, Yalcouyé has stepped into the No 10 role and refused to give it back.

Two Premier League goals already. Intelligent movement. A feel for space in tight areas. Brighton, the division’s top scorers with 13 goals from four games, have found yet another attacking weapon.

Next up is Arsenal. The champions have already been stretched by a run of away fixtures, and this will be a fourth successive league game on the road. Mikel Arteta knows Brighton’s threat in theory; Yalcouyé’s emergence gives it a new edge in practice. The numbers are clear, the patterns obvious: Brighton will come forward, they will combine, and the young Ivorian will be at the heart of it.

Mykolenko steps up as Everton lean on experience

Vitalii Mykolenko’s form has improved quietly, almost in spite of the noise around him. It may never silence his doubters completely, but David Moyes will not care. At a time when Everton’s manager needs hardened professionals to carry a thin squad, his left-back has delivered.

Mykolenko signed a new three-year deal in the summer and appears physically stronger. The result has been a series of assured displays in a back line that has kept four clean sheets in six matches. The problem is depth. With Adam Aznou loaned to Málaga for the season, there is little cover at left-back. Mykolenko, the more reliable defender in that zone, has eased some of the pre-season anxiety.

Ipswich’s new forwards, Emersonn and Zian Flemming, will test that defensive resolve. If Everton can shut them down and sign off with a win before the extended international break, Moyes can file this opening stretch under “encouraging” – even if few outside Goodison Park are paying much attention to Mykolenko’s part in it.

Newcastle, Jaissle and a refusal to blink

Matthias Jaissle does not do long speeches when a single word will do. Asked on Thursday if Newcastle might switch to a back five or tone down their aggressive “vertical” game after Monday’s 4-1 hammering at Leeds and a spate of injuries, he barely paused.

No.

That was it. No caveats, no tactical hedging. Jaissle wants his young team to stay loyal to the bigger picture. Newcastle, who signed eight players aged 24 or under this summer, are starting a new cycle after Bruno Guimarães, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon. There will be bumps. Leeds was one.

“It’s a brave journey the club is going on and I’m fully committed in that,” the German said. One bad night, he insisted, does not invalidate the vision. “If there’s one setback, we shouldn’t delete our journey or our vision. We’re fully committed. We’re fully aligned. We anticipated that something like that against Leeds would happen. It’s on us to respond. But while still believing. We don’t change.”

Hull arrive on Tyneside knowing exactly what to expect. Newcastle will go forward, fast and often. Jaissle has drawn his line. Now his players have to stand on it.

Forest’s £45m bet and a club on the rise again

Plenty scoffed when Nottingham Forest paid £45m for Liam Delap. It felt steep for a striker trying to rediscover himself. The fit, though, looks better by the week.

Forest thrived last season with Chris Wood as their target man. Delap offers a younger version of that role – powerful, sharp in the box, willing to link play. In the win at Villa, his understanding with Morgan Gibbs-White already looked promising. Both will fancy their chances against a Coventry side that has shipped eight goals in two games.

Off the pitch, the mood is shifting too. After a nervy campaign last year, Forest feel as if they are climbing again. On Wednesday, the local council approved plans to expand the City Ground from 31,000 to 52,500, at an estimated cost of £790m. A bigger home, a big-money centre-forward, and a team that suddenly looks upwardly mobile again: the ingredients are there, if Delap can keep firing.

Iraola’s Bournemouth return and a demanding reunion

Andoni Iraola watched Bournemouth’s European debut from afar, in San Sebastián, a city he knows intimately. On Sunday, he goes back in person.

The Basque coach, now at Liverpool, returns to his old club having led them to their best-ever Premier League finish – sixth – and into the Europa League. His assistants, Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, both played for Bournemouth, with Elphick captaining them into the top flight in 2015. The welcome will be warm. The game will not.

Marco Rose has replaced Iraola on the south coast, and Bournemouth have started slowly under the German, but they remain awkward opponents. Rose spent a couple of hours with Iraola before officially taking over in June, talking through ideas and approaches. Both men like their teams to play with intensity. Both know what is coming.

Eddie Howe never managed to beat Bournemouth in eight league attempts with Newcastle. Iraola, who knows this club and this ground inside out, will expect a serious test from the side he left behind.

Calvert-Lewin, a Leeds record and the power of a partner

Dominic Calvert-Lewin walks into Elland Road on Saturday chasing history. Score against Crystal Palace and he will become the first Leeds player to find the net in six straight home league games since Arthur Hydes in 1932.

The transformation owes plenty to Daniel Farke’s tactical shift. For months, Calvert-Lewin toiled as a lone striker, isolated and frustrated. Late last November, Farke moved to a 3-5-2. Suddenly, the centre-forward had company – Noah Okafor or Lukas Nmecha alongside him – and the goals returned.

Leeds still switch shape, sometimes to 3-4-3, sometimes back to a four-man defence, but Calvert-Lewin has made one point repeatedly: strikers thrive in partnerships. The table backs him up. Eight points from four games represent Leeds’ best top-flight start since David O’Leary’s 2001-02 side.

Palace now stand between him and Hydes’ mark. If 3-5-2 can revive one career so dramatically, how many other managers will be tempted to follow?

City’s perfect start faces a familiar challenger

Manchester City have opened with four wins from four, but each has had a different flavour. There were 1-0 victories over Coventry and Manchester United, a 2-1 edge against Bournemouth, then a 4-1 dismantling of Crystal Palace.

Eight goals scored, two conceded. Only Arsenal can claim to have done slightly better defensively, letting in just one while also scoring eight on their way to 12 points. For Enzo Maresca, the numbers suggest a team ready to mount a serious title push.

Régis Le Bris has other ideas. The manager, now plotting City’s first slip, took Sunderland to a draw against the FA Cup holders last season at the Stadium of Light. The return fixture at the Etihad was a different story: City cruised to a 3-0 win.

Maresca’s side look composed, controlled and ruthless in rotation. Le Bris has already proved he can disrupt them once. The question now is whether he can do it again, in a stadium where City so rarely lose their grip.