A Manchester derby between two struggling Manchester sides, all the new strikers are lighting up the league as the top scorer race heats up, and Liverpool pulled another win out of absolutely nothing. This weekend saw Premier League football return in all its full glory and we're here as usual to bring you the winners and losers from all the action.

Keith Andrews and Brentford suffered the final blow of what had been an already cruel transfer window when they lost Yoane Wissa to Newcastle on deadline day. To recap, they lost their manager, their captain, their longtime goalkeeper, and the two prolific goalscorers that form their strike partnership in one window. I don't know if any manager in the league has a tougher job on his hands than Keith Andrews this season, and he's rising up to the occasion. They needed a 93rd minute strike to come away with a point against Chelsea, but to even drag a team that should be in title contention this season to that point is proof that Brentford will not be collapsing anytime soon. The Bees may have lost a raft of key personnel, but the ones who are left seem determined to fight.

As if they needed another reminder of their lack of attacking impetus this season, Villa are now the only team that are yet to score a goal in the Premier League so far. They currently find themselves in 19th place on the table, with two points after four games. Losing Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio at the end of their loan period was a big blow and from the look of things Emery hasn't figured out how to replace them yet. Replacements in the form of Evann Guessand, Jadon Sancho, and Harvey Elliott have been brought in at Villa Park, but none of them have seen regular game time as of yet. The question now is whether Emery can get these players working together to lift Villa out of the current slump and back to the heights they have managed to reach in the last two seasons.

The Premier League has seen an influx on new strikers this window. However, when the window began, Nick Woltemade wasn't really on anyone's radar (except Bayern). Nevertheless, a series of strange and convoluted occurrences saw the young German striker arrive at Saint James Park very late in the window with huge shoes to fill. And he has begun to fill them already. He scored one goal and almost set up another as Newcastle put Wolves away, but beyond the scoring, his overall performance was brilliant. Tall and physically imposing but also good with the ball at his feet, he ran the channels, held up play well and was rather adept at swapping positions with his teammates to confuse the Wolves back line. All these after only a few training sessions with his new teammates too! Isak's memory is fading away on Tyneside surely.

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Nick Woltemade’s @NUFC debut

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6:04 PM • Sep 13, 2025

No one knows what is going on at Manchester United at the moment. Yes I know that we can point fingers at Amorim's rigidity and the fact that he keeps trying to force these players into roles they are not particularly suited for. However, recall that this Manchester United team looked absolutely electric on opening day against Arsenal, but since then they've seemed like a shadow of that team that ran Arsenal ragged. The loss against City this weekend was embarrassing enough given that it was against their city rivals, but even more so because City themselves are struggling at the moment! To get brushed aside so casually by your rivals when they're not even at full strength must be a painful sight for the United fans. One wonders how long Amorim has got until the fans start calling for his sacking.

I don't think there is any manager anywhere in the world who has as much credit in the bank as Pep Guardiola does with the Manchester City fans, board, players, and staff. It would take an unprecedented change for the club to turn on him after what he's done for them. However, City needed a change of fortune badly going into this Manchester derby coming off the back of two consecutive defeats to Brighton and Tottenham. And the fortunes changed impressively, a convincing win, a dominant performance and a clean sheet against United will do wonders for the City morale as they head into the first round of Champions League football. For Guardiola in particular, this was what the doctor ordered.

I imagine one question will be on the mind of most Nottingham Forest fans in the coming weeks: "why did Marinakis and the board have to go and mess a good thing up?" Against Arsenal it was immediately clear that this is no loner Nuno's team, it's Ange's team now. Instead of the defensively solid, counter-attacking football that Forest have grown used to under Nuno, Saturday saw a more front-foot, aggressive pressing style of football. Needless to say, Arsenal cut through them like a hot knife through butter. This team was not exactly built with Ange's ideals in mind, and Ange hasn't been known to be the most adaptable of managers. These two factors mean that it could be a long season for the fans at the Forest Ground as the team tries to adapt to Ange's philosophy. They now risk losing all the progress they made under Nuno, and for what?