Who doesn’t love a bank holiday weekend bursting with Premier League action?
Matchweek 4 witnessed ten top-quality games unfold in the space of two days, with another 30 goals scored. Remarkably, half of that tally came from just two of the matches, with Liverpool’s merciless 9-0 drubbing of Bournemouth and Manchester City’s remarkable 4-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace underlining why both of these teams have set the standards in this league for over four years now.
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton and Hove Albion maintained their excellent starts to the season with both sides achieving a third victory in four games, whilst Manchester United’s tentative revival continued with a hard-fought 1-0 away victory over Southampton.
Here are our five Stars of the Week.
Stars of the Week – Matchweek 4
Goalkeeper: David De Gea (Manchester United)
After enduring a nightmare start to the new campaign, Manchester United’s week of recovery continued with a solid win on the road against Southampton, a result that propelled the Red Devils into the top half of the table.
With the margin of victory being a narrow one, it was necessary for United to remain strong at the back and goalkeeper David De Gea made his contribution to the victory with a couple of important saves. Southampton’s attacking threat was worrisome for United throughout, and De Gea did well to hold Che Adams’ snapshot before making an excellent reaction stop from Joe Aribo’s header later in the game.
The Spaniard made four saves in all to preserve a first clean sheet of the season, and boy did he need that.
Defender: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Much like their North-West rivals, Liverpool have also endured a difficult start to the season, but hammered home their quality in Saturday’s clash with Bournemouth at Anfield, walking away with a league record-equalling 9-0 victory.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is one player who’s epitomised Liverpool’s sticky start, but against the Cherries he reminded everyone of his quality with a thunderous, all-out display. The right-back hit an absolute rocket of a strike to put The Reds 3-0 up and effectively end the game as a contest, and in the second half his wicked cross was diverted home by Chris Mepham for number six.
Later, it was Alexander-Arnold’s raking pass to Tsimikas that set up Fabio Carvalho for Liverpool’s eighth, with Bournemouth simply having no answer to his range of passing.
With multiple attacking contributions and a first clean sheet of the season in the bag, this was a fine afternoon’s work for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool.
Midfielder: Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Nine goals at Anfield were delivered in parallel to another six at the Etihad, with Manchester City and Crystal Palace playing out a classic on Saturday afternoon.
For the second time in a week, City made an incredible recovery from two goals down, this time going one further to achieve victory with a 4-2 scoreline.
A lot of the attention will inevitably be on star striker Erling Haaland following his match-winning hat-trick, but it was midfielder Bernardo Silva who came out firing on all cylinders in the second half and made the comeback possible. Ten minutes after the break, the Portugal international worked some space brilliantly before steering home a deflected effort that got the hosts back into the game. In 70 minutes, Bernardo’s 1-2 with Julian Alvarez created a chance for John Stones, who inadvertently set up Haaland instead to make it 3-2 in City’s favour.
Amidst rampant speculation over his future, Pep Guardiola must be relieved that Bernardo looks set to stay put for at least another year.
Forward: Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)
It does feel very harsh to leave out Erling Haaland following his heroics for Manchester City, but with there being room for only one forward, Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino instead claims the spot with a sublime display against Bournemouth.
We’ve already spoken about the nine goals Liverpool scored, but instead of Mohamed Salah or Luis Diaz, it was instead Roberto Firmino who masterminded his team’s attacking brilliance.
Within six minutes of the opening whistle, the Brazilian had already dug out a cross to Luis Diaz and set up Harvey Elliott to claim two quick assists. A lay-off to Trent Alexander Arnold gave the Brazilian his third assist, before finally getting his goal with an opportunistic volley from close range. Firmino rounded off a vintage display with another close range finish in the second half, for an incredible total of five goal contributions in one game.
There have been questions over his continuing value to Liverpool heading into the new season, but this was an emphatic statement that Firmino can still be as important to the Reds as he ever has been.
Manager: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
How’s that for a bounce back? Having overseen Liverpool’s worst start to a Premier League season in a decade, questions were beginnign to be asked of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp, questions that were answered in scarcely believable fashion when his side hammered Bournemouth 9-0 at Anfield.
Having been plagued by midfield weakness and defensive turbulence in the first three fixtures, Klopp’s side replaced that with their very best attacking ruthlessness against the Cherries, scoring five in the first half alone. Whilst Bournemouth may not represent the toughest challenge on paper, for Liverpool to win in the manner that they did, with notable absentees in both midfield and up front, was a huge statement.
The turnaround from Klopp’s side between Monday and Saturday was magnificent, and now finally their season is up and running.
