Premier League winners and losers: Brighton run riot as Sage’s Palace hit a new low

Brighton delivered the weekend’s most emphatic statement, Enzo Maresca made Premier League history and Marco Rose finally had a league win to celebrate.

Our Premier League winners and losers also features three clubs whose problems are becoming harder to dismiss. Crystal Palace’s derby humiliation exposed a familiar weakness, Nottingham Forest’s home scoring drought continued and Sunderland helped a relegation rival climb above them.

With Tottenham hosting Coventry on Monday night, there is still one match to come. Here is our verdict on the weekend.

Premier League winners and losers: three winners

Brighton and Fabian Hürzeler

There are derby wins, and then there is being 3-0 up inside 10 minutes.

For Hürzeler, who was booed after losing this fixture last season, Brighton’s 5-0 demolition of Palace offered particularly satisfying vindication. His side are third on 16 points, with four consecutive league victories and a 15-0 aggregate score across those matches.

Diego Gómez’s extraordinary goal from 51.3 metres will dominate the clips. The sustained run deserves just as much attention.

According to Opta’s analysis of the derby, Brighton became only the ninth Premier League side to score three times in the opening 10 minutes. That start settled the contest; adding two more after half-time underlined how thoroughly they controlled it.

Enzo Maresca

Managing Manchester City comes with considerable advantages. Winning your first seven Premier League matches in charge still deserves proper credit.

Maresca is the first manager to achieve that with a club, moving beyond the six-win starts of Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

City’s 3-2 victory over Ipswich also supplied a useful reminder that a perfect record does not mean perfect performances. They have things to improve while collecting every available point.

Arsenal’s Sunday win reduced the gap to three points. The title race remains competitive, but Maresca has given himself something every new manager wants: time to develop his team without having to explain dropped points.

Marco Rose

Rose’s first Premier League victory as Bournemouth manager came against precisely the sort of opponent they needed to beat.

The 2-0 win over Sunderland lifted Bournemouth out of the bottom three and into 15th. It also prevented a struggling rival from opening a gap above them.

Kevin Danso’s early dismissal clearly helped, although Bournemouth were already ahead through Marcus Tavernier before Sunderland went down to 10 men. Evanilson then added the second shortly after the interval.

One victory offers limited evidence of a lasting recovery. Its immediate value is considerable, though: Bournemouth enter the next round above the relegation places, and Rose finally has a league result around which to build some confidence.

Three losers from the Premier League weekend

Pierre Sage

Being thrashed by your rivals guarantees an uncomfortable week. Conceding three times in the opening 10 minutes makes the questions especially difficult for a manager.

Palace’s heaviest defeat to Brighton since January 1956 left them with 17 league goals conceded, the worst defensive record in the division. They are only two points above the relegation zone.

Sage accepted responsibility afterwards: “I prepare the team, I’m responsible.”

That is the right starting point. Palace now need evidence that he can fix it. A team with so little room above the bottom three cannot keep making games harder for itself before it has had a chance to settle.

Nottingham Forest and Oliver Glasner

There was misfortune in the deflection that helped Noni Madueke give Arsenal a late 1-0 win at Forest. Forest’s wider problem is much harder to explain away.

They still have not scored a home league goal this season.

That leaves the defence with almost no margin for error. However effectively Forest frustrate an opponent, one lapse, one deflection or one good finish can undo the afternoon.

Glasner’s side are 18th with five points. Losing narrowly to Arsenal is hardly a crisis on its own, but the pattern at home is becoming damaging. Forest need to give themselves a route to winning these matches, rather than relying on keeping the opposition out indefinitely.

Sunderland

Sunderland’s defeat was particularly costly because of who benefited.

Bournemouth began the match in trouble themselves. Sunderland conceded after six minutes, lost Danso to a straight red after 17 and then conceded again early in the second half. Those were substantial advantages to hand a direct rival.

The result left Sunderland 19th on four points, with four successive league defeats and no league victory since beating Fulham on 30 August.

There is a consequence for the next match, too: Danso’s suspension rules him out against Leeds. Sunderland now have to arrest their slide while replacing a defender whose dismissal helped make this defeat so difficult to avoid.

What Monday could change

Tottenham are bottom on three points before hosting Coventry, who sit 16th on six. That fixture could alter the assessment of the weekend’s biggest losers.

For now, the Premier League table leaves three clear concerns at the bottom: Forest cannot score at home, Sunderland cannot stop losing and Palace have the division’s leakiest defence.