⚽️ Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta Makes a Keeper Change

It was delightful to have the Premier League back after the international break. As always, The Greatest League in the World wasted no time in creating story lines. And as always, Manchester City is still keeping the chasing pack chasing.

The Scores:

• Liverpool (A) 3, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1: Mohamed Salah assisted on two of Liverpool’s goals, giving him 201 goal involvements in his storied Premier League career.

• Aston Villa (H) 3, Crystal Palace 1: Villa trailed until the 87th minute when they equalized, then scored twice more in second half stoppage time to claim the win.

• Fulham (H) 1, Luton Town 0: Not every match is going to be electric. Fulham’s drab win kept Luton pinned to the bottom of the table with four played, four lost.

• Brighton & Hove Albion (A) 3, Manchester United 1: United are in absolute disarray. Fortunately, they have a pretty easy task midweek playing away at Bayern Munich in Champions League group play. 💀 

• Tottenham Hotspur (H) 2, Sheffield United 1: Late goals were all the rage this weekend. Spurs scored twice late in stoppage time to rescue a crucial win.

• Manchester City (A) 3, West Ham United 1: City spent the first half in first/second gear, trailed, then scored three times in a dominant but still not all that compelling second half.

• Newcastle United (H) 1, Brentford 0: Every win matters, but this unconvincing one nil is not going to buy Magpies’ manager Eddie Howe much time.

• AFC Bournemouth (H) 0, Chelsea 0: Not to be that guy, but it’s matches like this one that make many American sports fans turn away from soccer. This literally was 22 guys running around for an hour forty and making almost nothing happen.

• Arsenal (A) 1, Everton 0: We’re covering the only really relevant nugget out of this match in the first story below.

Top of the Table:

In the email today:

Nobody saw this coming. Least of all Aaron Ramsdale. Arsenal’s erstwhile Number 1 keeper grabbed some pine yesterday at Everton, and no one is really sure whether this was Arteta just getting David Raya some playing time or if this is a changing of the guard.

• Before yesterday’s win, Arsenal had a poor recent record at Goodison Park with three straight losses and no wins in six years.

• Raya made his Arsenal debut, having joined on a season-long loan from Brentford with an option-to-buy clause.

• Arteta explained that he aims to build a squad with depth in each position, allowing for rotation during busy fixture periods.

• Raya's good form at Brentford had attracted interest from Spurs, but Arsenal beat them to the player.

• Arsenal faces a packed schedule in the near term, including a Champions League match against PSV, the North London Derby with Spurs, and a Carabao Cup tie against Raya's former club, Brentford.

• Raya expressed excitement about the new challenge in his career when he joined Arsenal last month.

Our take: Arteta interned under Pep Guardiola before taking the Arsenal job. This move has Pep’s fingerprints all over it, i.e., fixing something that isn’t broken and maybe being too clever by half. Ramsdale wasn't/isn’t Arsenal’s primary issue. The Gunners have only conceded four goals in five matches. The problem is the offense — nine scored in five, that won’t cut it at the top of the table.

2) 📈 Buy or Sell

These are going to be a little more reactionary than usual. We don’t have a full body of work to go with yet, but we can certainly make some snap judgments.

• 🟢 Tottenham Hotspur: Maybe Harry Kane was actually holding these guys back.

• 🔴 Mikel Arteta: As indicated above, the decision to bench Ramsdale while not being clear about who the Number 1 keeper is makes no sense. Like the old adage goes, if you have two Number 1’s at that position, you don’t have a Number 1 at all.

• 🟢 Brighton & Hove Albion: Did we pick them +190 to win at United? We did. The Seagulls continue to prove that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.

• 🔴 Luton Town: Two goals scored, 10 conceded, no points. This looks like it’ll be a very short stay in the Prem for the Hatters.

•  🟢 Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool looked played out at the end of last season, like an NFL running back who had lost a step. Klopp has his team stirring up the echoes.

• 🔴 Erik ten Hag: When it comes to the Manchester United manager, no one is doing less with more than ten Hag.

Our take: There were a lot of unlikely goal scorers over the weekend, so it was hard to give a “buy” to anyone who wasn’t super obvious (Erling Haaland) or really just a guy (Richarlison).

3) ❌ Tweet of the Day: “You’re Going the Wrong Way!” “How Does He Know Where We’re Going?”

It’s already late early for United and Chelsea, who couldn’t find the top of the table with GPS.

4) 🗳️ Poll: If You Were Arteta, Would You Have Benched Ramsdale?

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• 🏥 Best wishes to Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson for a speedy recovery.

• 😠 Former Manchester United starlet Mason Greenwood was greeted rudely in his Getafe debut.

• 😢 Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom did some whining and crying over Prem officiating after his team lost Saturday.

• ⚖️ Manchester City castoff Benjamin Mendy played his first minutes in two years for Lorient in Ligue 1.

• 🤷‍♂️ Chelsea’s goalless draw with Bournemouth was the first 0-0 of the Premier League season.

The newsletter today was written by Phil Keidel. Follow Phil on X @philkeidel.

Thanks for reading!