The start of the Premier League season for Manchester City concluded with a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday. This allowed Arsenal to climb to the top of the table after defeating Everton.
In the match between Tottenham and Chelsea, Tottenham secured their second victory at Stamford Bridge in 42 visits. The Blues suffered a 2-0 loss due to a goal from Mike Penders and a red card for Cole Palmer.
Enzo Maresca became the first manager to win seven of the first Premier League matches at a new club, but he failed to find solutions to City's problems at Villa Park, where the team has lost the last four seasons.
Aston Villa's form and Manchester City's problems
Nicolas Jackson scored twice for Unai Emery's team, continuing a good run for the revamped Aston Villa. Erling Haaland temporarily equalized in the second half, but Maresca regretted that City could not utilize its dominance over long periods of the game.
Maresca noted: 'We lost because we are probably not clinical enough in the opponent's penalty area.' Aston Villa, which won the Europa League last season, suffered significant losses in the transfer window.
Nevertheless, Emery quickly formed a new squad, and Jackson refuted critics after a difficult spell at Chelsea. The Senegalese player took advantage of a mistake by Marc Guéhi to put Villa ahead less than six minutes after the start of the match.
Another new Villa player, Zion Suzuki, then blocked City's path with a series of impressive saves. Haaland scored his 13th goal in 10 games this season with a header, leveling the score. However, Villa quickly responded when Gianluigi Donnarumma could not save a low shot from Jackson around the hour mark.
Emery stated: 'This is a fantastic day that we can share with our fans at Villa Park. We felt it was our fortress, and the energy given to us by the fans was truly fantastic.'
Arsenal's strength in set pieces
'Arsenal' capitalized on the moment to close the gap to City by 21 points after eight matches, securing a routine 2-0 victory over Everton. Despite the lack of creative inspiration from Bukayo Saka, who will recover from a thigh injury for a long time, Arsenal had to rely on set-piece execution to succeed.
Ezri Konsa scored the club's first goal when Everton could not handle a corner kick in the seventh minute. Centre-back Gabriel Magalhães doubled Mikel Arteta's team's lead in the middle of the second half.
Arteta commented: 'We had some problems finishing attacks, but we scored from a set piece. This gave us confidence and calm to dominate the game.'
'Tottenham' dropped out of the top three after Chelsea self-destructed at Stamford Bridge. The match, complicated by harsh weather conditions, heated up in the final 15 minutes when Penders, playing instead of injured Emiliano Martínez, could not control a Tottenham corner attempt and sent the ball over his line.
Moments later, Palmer was sent off for a second yellow card after contact with former teammate Conor Gallagher. Tottenham fully exploited this, as Matias Tel's low shot also deceived Penders, giving them only their second victory over the London rivals since 1990.
'Fulham' also escaped the relegation zone, winning 1-0 against Coventry thanks to the individual effort of Oscar Bob.
On Sunday, attention will be focused on Manchester United manager Michael Carrick, as his team faces Bournemouth. A seven-match winless streak has called into question Carrick's future just a few months after he was hired on a two-year contract following successful interim management at the end of last season.