EPL Review: City wins again, stuff of champions, and other stories

Tottenham's date with destiny on Monday must end with a win, or they could be saying goodbye to their manager. (Photo credit: Soccernet)...

Tottenham's date with destiny on Monday must end with a win, or they could be saying goodbye to their manager. (Photo credit: Soccernet)

The weekend is not done in the Premier League yet, with Tottenham hosting Coventry City on Monday night, but we can reflect on the nine fixtures we've seen so far and some key lessons from the games.

Tottenham must beat Coventry on Monday night. De Zerbi's team currently sits at the bottom of the log, and anything short of a win at home against newly-promoted Coventry City could signal the end of the Italian's reign at the club.

What do we expect from both sides? The Sky Blues have won their last two games, relieving some pressure on Frank Lampard; however, Tottenham will have a say in whether Lampard can build on those back-to-back victories.

Back to the weekend: Manchester City won again, but it wasn't pretty. The Cityzens had to dig deep and defend deep as the Tractor Boys sought a late equaliser. Is there also a possibility that Erling Haaland could be injured?

Chelsea won again, but that's not the whole of the story. For the first time under Xabi Alonso, the Blues won a game without conceding a goal. Also, the trio of Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers all failed to contribute to the goals. Sorry, FPL managers.

Arsenal once again robbed three points at gunpoint. How sustainable is it for the Gunners to keep labouring to results? Three points matter, but performance is a thing too. It took a late strike from Noni Madueke to hand Arsenal a win at Nottingham Forest.

Forest has now lost three times on the bounce, and that must mean something to Oliver Glasner. Forest didn't create lots of chances until late in the game; that must change in their subsequent games if they don't want to get stuck in trouble.

Liverpool got a get-out-of-jail card when two Brentford players got the boot. You could tell that Andoni Iraola's side would struggle to earn anything from the game had Brentford not gotten reduced to ten men and eventually nine men.

Finally, Manchester United refused to win again. Is Michael Carrick now close to Roberto De Zerbi on the hot seat? Leeds United played better and could have won the game; for how long do we continue to make excuses for Manchester United?