Dubai: The end of international break finally gave us a fantastic weekend of Premier League football. The weekend had some dramatic moments along with major fixtures to watch.
Matchweek 8 delivered plenty of drama, big results and, as always, some fascinating numbers.
Aston Villa 2–1 Manchester City
Manchester City had won their first seven league games under Enzo Maresca. The defeat prevented them from becoming only the third team to open a Premier League season with eight consecutive victories.
Meanwhile, Villa has now gone four consecutive home league games unbeaten against teams that started the match top of the table.
Nicolas Jackson scored twice, becoming the first Villa player to score a Premier League brace against the league leaders since Andreas Weimann against Manchester United in November 2012.
Both goals came after errors by Marc Guéhi and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Arsenal 2–0 Everton
Ezri Konsa opened the scoring in the seventh minute before Gabriel Magalhães sealed the win in the 68th.
Arsenal had two centre-backs score in the same match for the first time since Gabriel and William Saliba both scored against West Ham in February 2024.
Gabriel scored his 21st league goal, but it was his first strike that did not come from a set-piece situation.
Meanwhile, Konsa’s opener was Arsenal’s first non-penalty set-piece goal since May, ending a run of 13 games without one.
Chelsea 0–2 Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham secured only their second away win in 35 Premier League visits to Chelsea, with 11 draws and 22 defeats in that run before this result. Their previous win there came in April 2018.
Cole Palmer’s dismissal was Chelsea’s 100th red card in Premier League history, excluding rescinded cards. Only Everton and Arsenal had reached that mark before them.
Mike Penders became only the second Chelsea goalkeeper to score an own goal in the competition, after Petr Čech in December 2009.
The hosts managed just seven shots, their fewest in a Premier League match this season. Penders’ own goal came in the 77th minute before Mathys Tel added a second in the 87th.
Crystal Palace 0–2 Newcastle United
William Osula scored in the 47th minute and Harvey Barnes added a second in the 58th. Palace enjoyed 53% possession and attempted 17 shots, compared with Newcastle’s 10.
Newcastle’s Lukáš Horníček recorded four saves to help preserve the clean sheet. Palace registered four shots on target but could not convert their opportunities, while Newcastle scored with two of their four efforts on target.
Liverpool 2–0 Brighton
Brighton’s arrived at Anfield after four consecutive league victories, scoring 15 goals without conceding during that sequence.
Alexander Isak continued his scoring streak after Pascal Groß’s own goal had given Liverpool an early lead.
Liverpool's win was their first Premier League home victory since April, ending a run of five home league games without a win. They won despite having just 35.6% possession, their second-lowest share on record in a Premier League home victory since 2003/04.
Brighton struggled to finish as they only had 17 shots but only one on target, while Liverpool kept their fourth league clean sheet of the season.
Manchester United 0–3 Bournemouth
Manchester United had seven points from eight league matches, their lowest tally at this stage since the 1986/87 season, when they had four.
Bournemouth continued their Old Trafford success as they became only the third side to score at least twice in four consecutive Premier League away games against United, following Manchester City and Brighton.
Bournemouth had gone 3–0 up in a Premier League match at the stadium for the third time, after doing so in December 2023 and December 2024.
Rayan and Marcus Tavernier scored in the 38th and 43rd minutes before Evanilson added the third in the 71st.
United had 17 attempts but failed to score, while Bournemouth recorded their third consecutive win.