EPL Round Up: United continues to slide down, Spurs capitulates at Brighton

Premier League weekend recap: Arsenal chase City, Liverpool stay top, and Spurs crumble. Man United escape defeat, Chelsea stumble in a home 1-1 draw.

Danny Welbeck celebrates after helping Brighton overcome a 2-goal deficit to beat Tottenham 3-2 at the Amex on Sunday. (Photo credit: GOAL)

After the weekend in the Premier League, it appears that the title race will resemble the one from last season, with Arsenal emerging as the most likely contender to challenge Manchester City once more.

The Gunners rotated interestingly against Southampton, giving players like Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus starting roles and shifting Thomas Partey to right back in the absence of the duo of Ben White and Jurrien Timber.

Southampton scored first early in the second half, but Arsenal responded almost immediately, and Mikel Arteta sent on the trio of Leandro Trossard, Mikel Merino, and Gabriel Martinelli, with the latter scoring soon after coming on to turn the game around before Bukayo Saka rounded off the scoring.

Manchester City hosted Fulham and had to fend off the Lilywhites’ late surge to run away with a 3-2 win at the Etihad. It was a Matteo Kovacic masterclass on Saturday as the Croatian scored twice, but Fulham regretted their missed chances, which prompted Pep Guardiola to walk Adama Traore through some drills at the end of the match.

Liverpool beat Palace 1-0, but could the home side have gotten a penalty? Virgil Van Dijk appeared to hold Marc Guehi during a set piece, but the VAR failed to call the referee to the monitor; the win keeps Liverpool at the top at least until the international break.

Liverpool's upcoming fixtures, which include away games against Arsenal and Leverkusen, are quite challenging. You wonder if these games will reveal their true status, but for now, they continue to impress with eight wins out of nine in all competitions.

Manchester United escaped defeat at Aston Villa, but they didn’t do anything worthy of celebration throughout the game. Erik Ten Hag, who is believed to be fighting for his life on the job, gave Johnny Evans and Harry Maguire the starting shirts in defense, with Mathijs Le Ligt and Lisandro Martinez dropping to the bench.

Kobbie Mainoo replaced Manuel Ugarte, while Joshua Zirkzee started from the bench alongside Alejandro Garnacho. Villa missed numerous opportunities, resulting in a single point and dropping them out of the top four on goals difference.

Despite playing about fifteen minutes of the game against ten men, Chelsea settled for a 1-1 draw after James Ward Prowse was sent off for a professional foul. Are the Blues gradually settling for a top-four fight instead of a title charge?

The game of the weekend has to be the one at the Amex, where Tottenham lost a two-goal lead to leave the pitch empty-handed. Brighton came back from two goals down to beat Tottenham 3-2, a result Ange Postecoglou labels as his worst ever defeat.