Premier League 2025-26 Week 6 Updates: Arsenal Make Title Statement, Liverpool Stumble, Amorim On The Brink

Chelsea continue to shoot themselves in the foot

FOR ALL THEIR ATTACKING TALENT and a squad the size of a small country, Chelsea’s defensive mistakes have now turned winnable games into abominable losses. Against United last week, a mindless lunge by their keeper, Robert Sanchez, reduced the team to ten men at the 5-minute mark of a game that was begging to be won. This time around, against a measured Brighton, Trevor Chalobah, you could argue, committed a greater sin — picking up an unnecessary red card while his team were comfortably leading a tight contest at home. Allowing the attacker to score, for the second week running, would have been the right call. Chelsea aren’t exactly punishing opposition defences at the moment, which is probably pushing their defenders into making panicked do-or-die decisions. The high of winning the Club World Cup has already washed off with new-season optimism, an injury to Cole Palmer and defensive woes dampening the mood at Stamford Bridge. Things could get worse as their next opponents are league leaders and recently wounded Liverpool.

City’s defensive fragility could become their undoing

For a game in which Manchester City scored five goals — two of them own goals — and Erling Haaland secured a brace, it's damning to contend with the fact that for at least an hour of this match, lowly Burnley tore apart City’s shockingly brittle back line. That this isn’t City’s best defensive line, nor is it Pep Guardiola’s controlling machine of old, is well established, but it was humbling to see Burnley create chance after chance at the City ground. That one-sided scoreline merely smudges the subtext to what feels on paper like a thrashing. City’s striker is on fire, but the team’s midfield can no longer dictate games the way it used to. To add to that midfield misery, their back line will give just about everyone in the league an opportunity. The purchase of an un-Guardiola-like Donnarumma in goal makes all the more sense since the manager, one would presume, has pre-empted the emergence of these cracks.

Liverpool get their nose bloodied for good

At Selhurst Park, Liverpool and Crystal Palace exchanged punches like a couple of heavyweight teams headed for a photo finish for the ultimate prize. That’s commendable for a Palace team that has seen its most talented attacking player leave the club in what was assumed would be a difficult season for the Eagles. But Oliver Glasner has drilled the kind of courage and discipline into his Palace side that not only did they stare title-chasing Liverpool in the eye, but returned punch for punch until the Reds eventually gave way. Another key takeaway from this wildly entertaining clash was the collectively poor showing of Liverpool’s defensive back four. Barring injuries, if poor form and confidence were to strike his back line, manager Arne Slot has little to no inspiration to call upon from the bench. In the dying embers of a game headed for a draw, when a vicious long throw was hurled at his six-yard box, it showed.

Ruben Amorim is a dead man walking as United suffer again

At this point, United are a crisis club until they aren’t. Ruben Amorim, who has developed the curious habit of not looking at the pitch despite sitting beside it, will most certainly see the door if results and performances continue in this fashion. Fix one thing, screw one nut, glue one patch and another tears itself loose. It’s also hard to sympathise with Amorim, who, despite having spent substantial money on recruits, has failed to establish a bankable spine. At Brentford, United could and should have been well-beaten until former Brentford player Brian Mbuemo eked out a penalty, uncharacteristically missed by their reliable captain, Bruno Fernandes. From that shock of missing a golden opportunity, United never quite managed something of a siege on goal. Even if they had secured a point, it would have been undeserved. Amorim sports the look of a man suffering a great deal of misery and ought to be rescued by being put out of it. The question then becomes: who next?

Arsenal make title statement

St James’ Park is one of the hardest grounds to travel to in the Premier League. Eddie Howe’s side are formidable Europe-chasing punters, drilled to go toe to toe with the elite despite an obvious lack of depth in the squad. Predictably, the feverish atmosphere of one of the most hostile places in the league served up an unadulterated classic against Arsenal. The gunners arrived with the opportunity to close the gap on Liverpool dangling temptingly right in front of them. But the ask was raised at the hardest of Premier League destinations. For the longest time, it felt like they would come up short. Newcastle didn’t exactly boss them, but for long periods the Magpies thwarted whatever Arsenal threw at them. Until the “set-piece kings” rescued an unlikely win from the jaws of defeat. Comeback victories have been a theme across the league this season, but considering the opponent, the stakes and the odds, this one could prove to be pivotal in Arsenal’s title charge.

WATCH | Newcastle vs Arsenal here on OTTplay Premium

Postscript

Set pieces take centre stage

For consecutive weeks now, corners, free kicks and long throws have tipped games in favour of teams willing to mix silky, soft-core football with the aesthetically contradictory hard metal act of lobbing the ball — by foot or hand — into the opponent’s box. With the arrival of giant strikers in the league — Newcastle’s Woltemade towered above everyone else in the game against Arsenal — route one football seems to be making a comeback in a way that can be termed unprecedented. With the decline of suave ball carriers and tiki-taka (aka Guardiola), English football, it seems, is returning to the good-old lucky draw of punting the ball downfield. Thus far, it seems to be yielding results and points. Does it really matter if the aesthetics don’t add up?

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