⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Alpha Marine]

Yeah, I agree, it’s way too early to start doubting City just because they dropped points against Spurs. Even the best teams can slip up in the opening rounds — it doesn’t mean they’re suddenly weak. Pep’s system always relies on control, and they had that, but without sharp finishing their possession didn’t translate into goals.

I've always talked about City's attack. They're not reliable. Haaland and Marmosh are the only reliable attackers they have, and only one of them can play as a striker at once. Savio, Doku, Foden and even Silvar when he plays as a winger are not reliable. They need to find a way to make the wingers work if they want to be competitive this season.
It's crazy that Rodri is still the best player in the team when he is on the pitch despite being injured for so long.

I won't read too much into today's loss because Tottenham weren't that bad, but Manchester City need to step up if they don't want to repeat last season's performance. It's a long season, so there is a lot of time, but they need to get their affairs in other on the pitch before its too late.

[Issa56]

I wasn't expecting this result to be honest, after seeing how they started off last weekend, now Lost 0-2 to the hands of Tottenham isn't a good start as a big team we used to know them over fellow big teams, it signals weakness over other big teams after they couldn't manage hold Tottenham at their home soil, it means Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool has the potential of winning them too if this is how they'll handle the big clubs this season. Your ability to defeat, or draw a big team is what rates a club higher.

Seriously I never expected Tottenham to win against Manchester city today, it’s really came as a surprise to me, I wasn’t expecting the match to be so difficult for Manchester City, but to my greatest surprise, Manchester city lost to Tottenham. I don’t really know what’s wrong with Manchester city, but am not expecting anything from them this season, Manchester city might end up having a bad season. Tottenham played well today, and they surprised everyone by getting a win today, I will say most people never expected today’s result, there is improvement in Tottenham’s performance already, with the look for things, they will be able to end the season in a better position.

[Miles2006]

Man City lost 2–0 at home to Tottenham.
Man City created many goal-scoring opportunities but couldn’t convert any.
There was a big mistake by James Trafford on the second goal, which really affected Man City’s morale.

Tottenham only had 2 or 3 chances, they converted them into goals.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, it just doesn’t work. Man City suffered their first defeat in the second match.

Tottenham once again showed their strength against Manchester City. Over the years, Spurs have built a reputation for being one of the toughest sides for City to beat. Today's result proves that beating City is never really an issue for Tottenham, as their legacy against City continues. Following this lose Pep has now lost more games to Tottenham than to any other club in his career.

Tottenham played Manchester city the whole time, I’m impressed at the high level Tottenham have gained and for record purpose they’ve defeated other strong teams not just Manchester city. I also didn’t expect the result although Tottenham wanted to defeat Manchester city but, a goal from city might actually boost their confidence obviously that’s how football works, a draw would be more better well it was not an easy one for city after performing brilliant last week.

Arsenal at the other hand tried their best, I love how the players cooperated viewing how they played. Like I said earlier Arteta should restructure the players in terms of changes and he did just that, the second half changes never affected the match unlike previous match against Manchester United.

[TelolettOm]

Anyway, the latest news on Chelsea is that Nico Jackson will definitely be leaving Chelsea as soon as possible. He's no longer at Chelsea, and Chelsea have several new signings from CFs, and there are plenty of CFs there. And right now, the club most desperate to land that center forward is Aston Villa.

I still think Jackson should choose Newcastle over Aston Villa, in Newcastle he high likely will include in starting lineup, while in Aston Villa he need to compete against Watkins. Liverpool is being quiet lately, the transfer would happen after Liverpool sign Isak.

This time, the battle for Nicolas Jackson is even more intense among top clubs from both the Premier League and the Bundesliga. It's been reported that in the last 24 hours, Newcastle and Bayern Munich have both contacted Nico Jackson again to confirm their seriousness.

And Aston Villa, according to the latest rumors, seems to have given up on acquiring the 24-year-old Chelsea player, as their asking price, around £70 million, is considered too high. So, will it really be Newcastle or Bayern Munich? Or maybe another club will step forward?

Source: Aston Villa look set to miss out on Nicolas Jackson,

[Amphenomenon]

Man City lost 2–0 at home to Tottenham.
Man City created many goal-scoring opportunities but couldn’t convert any.
There was a big mistake by James Trafford on the second goal, which really affected Man City’s morale.

Tottenham only had 2 or 3 chances, they converted them into goals.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, it just doesn’t work. Man City suffered their first defeat in the second match.

Manchester City defence was a mess today and Spurs did well to capitalise on their errors and held a 2 goals from first half till the end of the game.

No comeback win for them. I expect them to be more serious in getting Donnarumma now after the performance of Trafford making a costly mistake, although i won't blame entirely because the defence was poor also. While their attack wasn't able to get the best of the  Tottenham defence.

[pawel7777]

A home loss to Tottenham was not what Man City's fans expected to see today. The Citizens were a favourite, especially after big win over Wolverhampton in the previous round.
But it's Tottenham who are bagging another 3 points to their account and are currently in the 2nd place of the table, behind Arsenal (who demolished Leeds 5-0 at home).

Who is to blame for the loss? Hard to say, the new goalkeeper, young James Trafford, is definitely to blame for the 2nd goal with his horrible pass, but he did some good interventions and showed some character. Haaland could also do much better with that pass to Cherki in the 2nd half. If it was done right, it was a sure goal.
But I think something just didn't click in the team today, with lots of mistakes and nervousness. They cannot lose points like that if they want to win the championship back.

[kawetsriyanto]

Man City lost 2–0 at home to Tottenham.
Man City created many goal-scoring opportunities but couldn’t convert any.
There was a big mistake by James Trafford on the second goal, which really affected Man City’s morale.

Well, Man City got a bad result again in EPL. Unfortunately, it was in their home.  
According to the stats, Tottenham created more shots. So, Tottenham deserved to win. However, I agree that Man City also created quite good number of shots, they made 10 shots. Bu they scored 0 goal. I'm starting to doubt the quality of Man City attackers.

James Trafford doesn't deserve to be the GK in this match. I'm surprised Guardiola prefers him over Ederson. It was clear that the level of Trafford's quality is far from the top GK.

Tottenham only had 2 or 3 chances, they converted them into goals.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, it just doesn’t work.

Tottenham made 12 total shots, 5 shots on target. How can you say they had 2-3 chances?  
I think the problems are about the player selection for the starting lineup and the tactics. These caused Guardiola plan on the match didn't work properly.

[Smartvirus]

Man City lost 2–0 at home to Tottenham.
Man City created many goal-scoring opportunities but couldn’t convert any.
There was a big mistake by James Trafford on the second goal, which really affected Man City’s morale.

Tottenham only had 2 or 3 chances, they converted them into goals.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, it just doesn’t work. Man City suffered their first defeat in the second match.

I think we’ve got to appreciate the ingenuity of the Tottenham manager Thomas Frank. His found best means to utilize the assets his got and his getting results off them. How else will someone explain Tottenham coming to the Etihad and getting away with all 3 points without Manchester City managing to come off with a consolation goal. It was amazing how Spurs managed to put Manchester City in a spot today. Pep was greatly disappointed at his line up and before he could react to any major changes, it was too late for him. Spurs was already 2 goals up and they had a solid defense to help hold it.

[EL MOHA]

I wasn't expecting this result to be honest, after seeing how they started off last weekend, now Lost 0-2 to the hands of Tottenham isn't a good start as a big team we used to know them over fellow big teams, it signals weakness over other big teams after they couldn't manage hold Tottenham at their home soil, it means Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool has the potential of winning them too if this is how they'll handle the big clubs this season. Your ability to defeat, or draw a big team is what rates a club higher.

Anyone not expecting this win by Tottenham against Manchester city might have not looked at the head to head between this two clubs, Tottenham have never been always a making it easy for Manchester city, this isn’t even the first time under pep guardiola that they have beaten Manchester City at their home ground with three different mangers, so I don’t get why most people seems to be surprised about this defeat, not that they were exceptional to me in the first game.

Also it is yet another game which pep guardiola excessive team rotation affected him yet again, this is how Pep Guardiol does most of the time which is twerking the formation, for a new team I had  actually thought that he will stick to last week formation against Wolves and gradually just introduce players but he actually just twerk the formation yet again which contributed to this failure for me

[bitgolden]

The match was still underway, the second half hadn't even begun, but we all knew who would emerge victorious. In fact, West Ham performed quite well and managed to spring a surprise by taking an early one-goal lead over Chelsea in the sixth minute. Unfortunately, that lead was short-lived, and the score was now 3-1. With a two-goal deficit, I thought there was no chance for West Ham to equalize, and Chelsea might even continue scoring in the second half to further extend their lead.

Premier league matches are going smoothly and we saw match today against two teams which were Chelsea football team and West Ham United football team. Chelsea football team performance was very well and they did back to back 5 goals which was excellent effort in this match. But no player was dominant in this match as no player could do more than 1 goal in this match and all players did 1, 1 goal in this match. We saw 4 goals in the first half of the match and after that we saw 2 more goals in rfe the second half of the match.West Ham United team players could not resist in this match as they could do only 1 goal in this match Lucas Paquetá was a person who did first goal of the match and he did this goal at 6 minutes .

Chelsea definitely needed that win, the Palace game wasn't really that great for them, so they needed to win this one. And West Ham isn't nobody neither, they are a premier league team for good, some teams do go down and come back up, like I can't remember how many times I have seen Watford in premier league and championship back to back lol, but West Ham isn't that level of team, they are a strong club who plays very good, and now even goes to UEFA competitions, even if it's just conference sometimes.

Basically beating them shows that Chelsea is back on their feet and playing fine. I still wonder what's going on with Palmer, like I hope we can see the old Palmer back one day and he would continue his scoring and assisting and winning games soon enough.

[Lida93]

Manchester City drop their first 3points at the hands of Tottenham, and having watched this game I will admit to say Spurs looked like the better team in both halves and just looked more hungry for this victory, I now understand why the Cityzens weren't even considered as favourites to win this EPL because the team isn't just convincing tbh and that Ederson benching should be haunting Pep by now... 2nil what a game it was , Spurs will forget Song so easily if they keep performing like this 

First of all, Tottenham weren't the favourites in that game and secondly Manchester city lost due to pep Guardiola's tactical approach which later turned out to be a disaster during the game, the first goal that Manchester city conceded was due to a wrong offside trap from the Manchester city's defensive set up and the second goal came as a result of the blunder committed by the goal keeper and besides I didn't expect players like Doku, Bernardo Silver and Rodri to be on the bench in such a crucial game and that's why I blame the coach's tactics.

[Woodie]

Manchester United should have made that penalty count especially with chances not coming easy...and from the look of things Fernandez doesn't look to be himself looking at how he took the penalty different from the usual of the small jump   Now his distracted, hope Mbeumo or Cunha get on penalty duty...

Come on United, fight to get back into the game.

Inplay prediction Fulham 0-1 Manchester United

[Tonimez]

Manchester United should have made that penalty count especially with chances not coming easy...and from the look of things Fernandez doesn't look to be himself looking at how he took the penalty different from the usual of the small jump   Now his distracted, hope Mbeumo or Cunha get on penalty duty...

Come on United, fight to get back into the game.

Inplay prediction Fulham 0-1 Manchester United

The first half has ended and I still don't understand what is wrong with Manchester United. They play well but scoring is a big problem. Cunha had a shot on the bar while Bruno Fernandez missed a penalty kick. Many chances created but non was converted. Ending first half in draw was least expected but that is foot ball. I hope Amorim would have some observations to make and speak to them in the dressing room. Manchester still stands a bigger chance and it may end in 0-2 in favour of Manchester United.

[Abu-Naim]

Manchester United should have made that penalty count especially with chances not coming easy...and from the look of things Fernandez doesn't look to be himself looking at how he took the penalty different from the usual of the small jump   Now his distracted, hope Mbeumo or Cunha get on penalty duty...

Come on United, fight to get back into the game.

Inplay prediction Fulham 0-1 Manchester United

I don’t know what come over Bruno Fernandez to over hit this ball, it was not normal because that’s not his normal way of plying penalty, and this miss might affect the team’s performance as we have seen in the first half; I just hope his mood will not get him to problem because he might get red card due to how aggressive he is playing in the first half.

Fulham on the other way is playing a very good game, they have good attacking ability and might get luck in the second half if Manchester United keep playing like this.

Manchester United can still win the game because Mboymo and Cunha can do better in the second half.

[Rockson1]

First of all, Tottenham weren't the favourites in that game and secondly Manchester city lost due to pep Guardiola's tactical approach which later turned out to be a disaster during the game, the first goal that Manchester city conceded was due to a wrong offside trap from the Manchester city's defensive set up and the second goal came as a result of the blunder committed by the goal keeper and besides I didn't expect players like Doku, Bernardo Silver and Rodri to be on the bench in such a crucial game and that's why I blame the coach's tactics.

You know must times it look like coaches underestimate some team, if not what will those players you mentioned be doing in the bench, pep made a mistake in that match your analysis is right on this, if a team wants to win any match, they have to apply every possible technique for them to win, it seems pep guardiola forgot that the match was eleven eleven against each other, 2 goals scored, he couldn't still recover, so bad, what expensive mistake, may be they will learn later, it is too early for those mistake by Manchester city, they league is just starting therefore, it will be nice if they put theresleves together to put things in other.

[Woodie]

The first half has ended and I still don't understand what is wrong with Manchester United. They play well but scoring is a big problem. Cunha had a shot on the bar while Bruno Fernandez missed a penalty kick. Many chances created but non was converted. Ending first half in draw was least expected but that is foot ball. I hope Amorim would have some observations to make and speak to them in the dressing room. Manchester still stands a bigger chance and it may end in 0-2 in favour of Manchester United.

I think the problem now is that this team is almost built around Bruno Fernandez which could work for some games, but with all the fire power thàt the club has recruited, I think Amorim should insist the lads play based on how the formation and strengths of the players..if not this will turn into another Rashford nightmare and all the investments will go to waste..

Let's see how the boys fig themselves out of this one..hope not a draw or close, we need to see a win today nothing less.

[PremiumcryptoHub]

The first half has ended and I still don't understand what is wrong with Manchester United. They play well but scoring is a big problem. Cunha had a shot on the bar while Bruno Fernandez missed a penalty kick. Many chances created but non was converted. Ending first half in draw was least expected but that is foot ball. I hope Amorim would have some observations to make and speak to them in the dressing room. Manchester still stands a bigger chance and it may end in 0-2 in favour of Manchester United.

Manchester United team should have taken advantage of opportunities like the penalty but it is unimaginable that an experienced player could miss a penalty. However I think this match promises excitement drama and high-quality football as we see the real fight in this match with counterattacks from each team. Manchester United and Fulham Football Club failed to score in their second match before the break but they are now going forward with great conviction and the game is now undecided between them.
Before this everyone may have been aware that Man United were defeated by Arsenal Football Club in their new season's Premier League journey. This team certainly wants to move forward centered around Bruno Fernandes but his team may not even win in the second match of the new PL at Craven Cottage Stadium today.

[sotelorene]

First of all, Tottenham weren't the favourites in that game and secondly Manchester city lost due to pep Guardiola's tactical approach which later turned out to be a disaster during the game, the first goal that Manchester city conceded was due to a wrong offside trap from the Manchester city's defensive set up and the second goal came as a result of the blunder committed by the goal keeper and besides I didn't expect players like Doku, Bernardo Silver and Rodri to be on the bench in such a crucial game and that's why I blame the coach's tactics.

You know must times it look like coaches underestimate some team, if not what will those players you mentioned be doing in the bench, pep made a mistake in that match your analysis is right on this, if a team wants to win any match, they have to apply every possible technique for them to win, it seems pep guardiola forgot that the match was eleven eleven against each other, 2 goals scored, he couldn't still recover, so bad, what expensive mistake, may be they will learn later, it is too early for those mistake by Manchester city, they league is just starting therefore, it will be nice if they put theresleves together to put things in other.

It is not really about underestimating a team, pep use to win Tottenham Hotspur and if I'm not mistaking that was the same line up he used in there last match and he also know that Tottenham Hotspur is not a team he can win so easily because if you check their statistics very well you will see Tottenham Hotspur has win them more so it is just like History, even though pep used the people you guys feel are the best Tottenham Hotspur will still win them. I was expecting a draw from the match even before they started because I know Tottenham will disturb them but checking Manchester city possession and attempts it was obvious luck was not on their side so that's just the case.

[Mate2237]

First of all, Tottenham weren't the favourites in that game and secondly Manchester city lost due to pep Guardiola's tactical approach which later turned out to be a disaster during the game, the first goal that Manchester city conceded was due to a wrong offside trap from the Manchester city's defensive set up and the second goal came as a result of the blunder committed by the goal keeper and besides I didn't expect players like Doku, Bernardo Silver and Rodri to be on the bench in such a crucial game and that's why I blame the coach's tactics.

You know must times it look like coaches underestimate some team, if not what will those players you mentioned be doing in the bench, pep made a mistake in that match your analysis is right on this, if a team wants to win any match, they have to apply every possible technique for them to win, it seems pep guardiola forgot that the match was eleven eleven against each other, 2 goals scored, he couldn't still recover, so bad, what expensive mistake, may be they will learn later, it is too early for those mistake by Manchester city, they league is just starting therefore, it will be nice if they put theresleves together to put things in other.

It is not really about underestimating a team, pep use to win Tottenham Hotspur and if I'm not mistaking that was the same line up he used in there last match and he also know that Tottenham Hotspur is not a team he can win so easily because if you check their statistics very well you will see Tottenham Hotspur has win them more so it is just like History, even though pep used the people you guys feel are the best Tottenham Hotspur will still win them. I was expecting a draw from the match even before they started because I know Tottenham will disturb them but checking Manchester city possession and attempts it was obvious luck was not on their side so that's just the case.

What people should know is that Manchester City as a team has not yet fully come back to form city is not thesame way since last season so any average team can beat them so city lose should not be a surprise to many



Tottenham this season has looked impressive due to the players that they were able to bring to the club I think that Tottenham will be a more competitive team this season if they continue this way they may end up finishing up in the top four

[Lidger]

I wasn't expecting this result to be honest, after seeing how they started off last weekend, now Lost 0-2 to the hands of Tottenham isn't a good start as a big team we used to know them over fellow big teams, it signals weakness over other big teams after they couldn't manage hold Tottenham at their home soil, it means Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool has the potential of winning them too if this is how they'll handle the big clubs this season. Your ability to defeat, or draw a big team is what rates a club higher.

Anyone not expecting this win by Tottenham against Manchester city might have not looked at the head to head between this two clubs, Tottenham have never been always a making it easy for Manchester city, this isn’t even the first time under pep guardiola that they have beaten Manchester City at their home ground with three different mangers, so I don’t get why most people seems to be surprised about this defeat, not that they were exceptional to me in the first game.

Also it is yet another game which pep guardiola excessive team rotation affected him yet again, this is how Pep Guardiol does most of the time which is twerking the formation, for a new team I had  actually thought that he will stick to last week formation against Wolves and gradually just introduce players but he actually just twerk the formation yet again which contributed to this failure for me

Before the match against Tottenham, I considered Manchester City as the favorite team of the English Premier League and I thought that this team would definitely fight with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and other teams for the title, but after seeing Manchester City's performance against Tottenham, I am changing my opinion. Last season, Tottenham had Son and he always contributed a lot to the team's victory, but this season, Son is not in the team, and yet Manchester City lost 2-0 against this team. Just think about how bad the Manchester City defense and attacking lineup are currently. If their defense was good, a team with almost no stars would not have been able to score two goals against Manchester City.

Tottenham, on the other hand, if Manchester City's strikers had performed well, Manchester City's strikers would have been able to score at least one goal. Such a performance from Manchester City has really disappointed the fans.