The 2022/2023 Premier League season is now into its fourteenth game week, and the entertainment continues to be relentless and thoroughly enjoyable.

As a result, we will be breaking down each round of fixtures by picking out 3 of the biggest talking points, covering the biggest results, goals and general talking points from the week. We then will round off by picking our player of the week and game of the week based on what we saw in that round of games.

Let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) if you have seen anything in a game that you think we should be talking about, or have anything to share from what you’ve seen at a game that week. Any funny stories, tactical analysis or general comments will be featured.

Hammerings Galore

This weekend contained some big wins for the usual suspects, and also some surprise drubbings also. Arsenal cruised to a 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest who had just come off an impressive win against Liverpool the week prior. Meanwhile, Brighton dominated the returning Graham Potter who’s Chelsea side were embarrassed at the Amex, losing 4-1 (more on that later). Finally, Newcastle continued their hugely impressive season with a big win to bring Aston Villa crashing back down after their previous win the week prior.

Although less impressive in terms of score line, there were some other impressive results, with Spurs slightly getting back on track with a late comeback against Bournemouth to win 3-2, although questions will still be asked of their early performance, City beat Leicester, Crystal Palace beat Southampton and Manchester United beat West Ham. There was also yet another loss for Liverpool at home to Leeds, but again we will be getting to that shortly.

Marching Into Crisis?

Liverpool are in a bit of a crisis. It’s now clear for fans, neutrals and the club itself, as for some reason they have either taken their foot off the pedal after a hugely successful period, but the manner of their performances this season surely are cause for concern.

This weekend, they lost at home to a fairly mediocre Leeds side, although they certainly showed up to Anfield with intent. With Leeds taking an early lead, Salah pegged them back and nabbed an equaliser in the 14th minute, but then the game fell back under the control of Leeds. Despite having a majority possession, getting away 22 shots (10 on target), Leeds also matched them throughout and were happy to take what Liverpool threw at them, and give it back.

Jesse Marsch has had a tough season thus far, but this performance and win may well be enough to keep the Wolves from the door just yet, while for Klopp and Liverpool, questions keep coming and really for the first time in his tenure at Liverpool, he has to provide some answers to these questions, and quickly.

The Return

Everything was set up perfectly for this match, with Graham Potter returning to the club where he brought so much success last season and early this campaign, new manager De Zerbi impressing early into his time at Brighton, and Chelsea having an unpredictable season thus far, and boy did it live up to expectation.

Brighton flew out of the traps to get a lead inside 5 minutes, which they added to shortly after with a Loftus-Cheek own goal inside the first 15 minutes. Chelsea had lost control of the game and couldn’t get a foothold on it, resulting in being 3-0 down at half time, only managing to settle for a 4-1 loss at full-time. This was not the result, performance or return Potter would have wanted, and shows just how much work he has to do in order to get his new club back to their standards the supporters and new owner will be expecting. For Brighton however, they couldn’t have asked for more, as the fans will have worried at Potters departure, but after watching this De Zerbi masterclass, they may well turn out to be grateful for their former coach being poached.

Matchday 14 Player of the Week: Callum Wilson After yet another big win for Newcastle, things genuinely couldn’t be any better for Eddie Howe’s side this season, and Callum Wilson is hitting such a rich vein of form that surely has to earn his seat on the plane to Qatar this winter. With a brace, and assist in this 4-0 hammering, along with hitting the woodwork, he is a deserved player of the week and I look forward to seeing his place on the England squad selection.

Matchday 14 Game of the Week: Brighton & Hove Albion 4-1 Chelsea Everything about this game was entertaining. The build up of the return of Graham Potter who left a high performing Brighton side for the big move to Chelsea, their new manager De Zerbi showing what he will bring to the Seagulls against top 6 opposition, and the game itself where Chelsea were just completely overwhelmed from the first minute. Going 1 down in the first 5, and 2 down by 15 minutes, this game was out of Chelsea’s reach before it really got going, but for a neutral it made for a great watch.

Let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) what you made of the fourteenth round of fixtures, and what you’re looking forward to in the next game week.