The 2022/2023 Premier League season is now into its fifth 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.

What’s Happening At The Bridge?

Whatever is going on off-field at Chelsea has seriously impacted upon the on-field showing, as they fell to defeat once again to Southampton on this occasion. So far, they have been beaten by Southampton and Leeds who they certainly should be beating, scraped a draw against Spurs and only just gotten past Everton and Leicester. In all honesty, they should have been looking for a minimum of 12 points from their opening 5 matches, with the Spurs game the most likely for a slip up, however they currently sit on 7 points and are well behind the current leaders Arsenal.

With new owner Todd Boehly making big moves already in terms of spending and trying to live out some crazy and expensive Football Manager style dream, manager Thomas Tuchel will be feeling the pressure, as the Chelsea of old would likely have shown him out by now, whereas this new era at the club is a bit less certain, and so we can only assume the pressure will grow as the results fail to come.

Many fans of Chelsea will of course be behind the manager given their European success under the German coach, however this could quickly change if the performances don’t turn around, especially when their off-field planning seems to be going a bit out of control and rather unorthodox.

Not Out Just Yet

We have been heavily critical of Manchester United and Liverpool for the starts they have both had to this season, however now 5 games in, both sides have been picking up results and getting themselves back in contention at the top of the table.

Manchester United had 2 completely disastrous write-off results to begin their campaign, and despite looking impressive in preseason, they fell to pieces against Brentford and Brighton to start their new era under Ten Hag. Despite this, a win over Liverpool brought back the optimism and belief at the club, which has been followed by them grinding out wins over Southampton and Leicester. Although still not dominating in the games as we would expect, it feels like Ten Hag is focussing in on 2 areas currently, with fitness of many players being a noted concern, and the defence becoming much more secure. Back to back clean sheets suggests they have tightened things up at the back, and will eventually progress into a more attacking intention. Questions continue to be asked regarding Ronaldo’s place in this side, but their new manager seems to be building in stages, and Ronaldo moving on may be a latter stage to discuss.

For Liverpool, they struggled in their opening 3 games, with a tough draw with Fulham, the draw with Palace after going down to 10 men and the aforementioned loss to United. Despite this, they still picked up 2 points and then added to this with a huge 9-0 win last time out over Bournemouth, and this week pulled off a much more impressive result by beating Newcastle 2-1, who have already held City, Wolves and Brighton this year. They still seem some way off the mentally resolute, determined side we are used to under Klopp, but these back to back results will now surely be built upon as they enter a tough run of the Merseyside derby, Chelsea and Brighton over the next few weeks.

While they have had clear slip ups already, don’t write these sides off too soon, as we may well see a quick recovery and huge improvements from both as they climb the table, and begin to put pressure onto City and leaders Arsenal.

They Couldn’t Could They?

After last week discussing how Arsenal remain the only club in the league to go unbeaten, this has continued once again, as they edged past Aston Villa 2-1. Although City have stepped up their scoring game and hit another huge result, it’s this consistent type of result from Arsenal that could well see them in contention at the top come May.

With Chelsea dropping more points, Spurs struggling again and not looking quite the threat many had expected, and Liverpool and Man United only just getting up and running, Arsenal have created a gap between these top sides to take an early lead in the title/top 4 race. Of course Manchester City remain in close contention, however they have slipped early and their focus may well get drawn to Europe as the Champions League begins, whereas Arsenal can save themselves from these midweek fixture pile-ups.

Even with the impressive scoring of City, Arsenal fans are surely happy no matter, as they were realistically not expected to reach the very top of the table in this season, with most of their supporters, pundits and even neutrals predicting a secure top 4 spot, but certainly not yet at this level, so they may well exceed their plans and expectations before many had predicted, if they can continue their impressive form, but that’s a big IF.

Matchday 5 Player of the Week: Erling Haaland With back to back hattricks, and bringing his total to 9 goals in 5 games, last week we calculated how the numbers put Haaland at a potential 57 goal season. After this treble once again this week, his current average would put him at 68.4 goals in the season which, although I expect an eventual slowing down, would be just unbelievable. What’s equally impressive is the limited number of touches he is getting in games, as City sometimes feel like their build up play is with 10 men, but then the clinical target man has just a knack of taking any sniff of a chance provided and sees his side to another dominant victory.

Matchday 5 Game of the Week: Liverpool 2-1 Newcastle United We are trying to avoid just picking the highest scoring games as our choice for game of the week, and admittedly Forest didn’t put up much of a fight against City, therefore we looked at the 4 2-1 games and decided the Liverpool-Newcastle gave us the most entertainment of this round of fixtures. Liverpool, after a tough start and coming off a huge win, coming up against a seemingly resolute Newcastle defence, and Liverpool just edged it although both sides put in a decent showing in this one. With Liverpool getting a 98th minute winner through youngster Fabio Carvalho, they will take the 3 points, yet I’m sure these questions around Klopp’s side will remain for a bit longer.

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