1) Arsenal’s British core get their chance

One notable aspect of Arsenal’s side during the 3-1 defeat of Sunderland was the number of British players on the pitch. By the end there were four: Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Callum Chambers. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who started on the right, made it five on the day. Hardly overwhelming, but a notable moment for any team near the top of the Premier League, and significant too as Arsenal dig in for an interlude of shifting personnel. A while back Wenger was fond of talking up his “British core”, the six or seven home nations players signed to long-term contracts. If this hasn’t exactly bloomed as a concept so far, the next few weeks represent an opportunity for many of those players to assert, or reassert, their influence. Oxlade-Chamberlain was peripheral against Sunderland but he has a shot at a run in the team now, as he had, with some success, at the end of last season. Gibbs, filling in on the wing off the bench, did enough on the day. Chambers will have more opportunities in defence and midfield. By this time next month a fair chunk of the temporarily departed – among them Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck – will have returned. Before then Arsenal’s hopes will rest on many things, chief among them Ozil’s continued fine form. But exactly how that British core responds to a little extra pressure will be fascinating to watch. Barney Ronay

• Match report: Arsenal 3-1 Sunderland
• The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos

2) Scintillating Stoke show Potteries’ potential

Midfielder

Xherdan Shaqiri

Appearances

12

Free Kicks

14

Corners

24

Crosses

35

Assists

3

Will Stoke City’s thrilling dismantling of Manchester City become the blueprint for Mark Hughes’s team now? The manager was cautious when asked but said any gameplan depends on his players executing it and, listening to Jack Butland afterwards, there appears an appetite for serial destruction of sides. Manchester City began the day as leaders and ended it as a gilded bunch who had been seriously humbled. As the goalkeeper said: “I think they were probably quite embarrassed at the end. We played really well and even with the conditions we got the ball down and played some really, really good football. I’m really proud of the lads that they played that well. We could have had another couple in the second half as well. It just shows how well we played and how many problems we caused them. They actually couldn’t live with us.” He is correct. Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho, Wilfried Bony, Joe Hart and the rest of Manuel Pellegrini’s XI had no clue how to stop the attacking force of the superb Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic, and Bojan Krkic. The big question is: will Hughes be as front-foot-first in future? The answer may depend on that star trio being able to turn it on consistently. Their pedigree suggests they have the potential. Shaqiri arrived from Bayern Munich, Arnautovic has previously been at Internazionale, and Bojan’s former clubs are Barcelona, Milan, Ajax and Roma. In Hughes, each may finally have found the right manager to fully realise their talent. Jamie Jackson

• Hart: Manchester City’s feeble defeat unacceptable
• Match report: Stoke 2-0 Man City

3) Klopp’s touch of class

It is easy to eulogise foreign managers, to annoy Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce and company by over-hyping them while downplaying the achievements of their English counterparts. At times José Mourinho, for one, has certainly been made far too much a fuss of … and yet Jürgen Klopp really does seem both classy and refreshingly different.Scene one: The touchline after Newcastle have scored their second goal in stoppage time. It had been the worst performance of his Liverpool tenure but the visiting manager knew that this was a potentially watershed moment for an old Bundesliga adversary. Creditably he had the grace to step into Steve McClaren’s technical area and embrace Newcastle’s manager with real feeling. Klopp knew McClaren had very possibly just escaped the sack and possessed the emotional intelligence to realise his opponent could do with a hug.Scene two: The post-match press conference. Klopp has just been asked about the disallowed Alberto Moreno goal which actually looked onside in television replays and might have changed the game’s complexion. “We made our own goal, but because we weren’t good enough today, the linesman thought ‘Well, you don’t make world class goals if you play this shit,” he said before emphasising that Newcastle deserved to win. There was, of course, still a subtle dig at the official but Klopp also reflected the bigger picture. He knew better than to do as many peers would doubtless have done and spend almost his entire media de-brief blaming a desperately disappointing defeat on one dodgy decision. Louise Taylor

• Match report: Newcastle United 2-0 Liverpool

4) Leicester prove possession does not necessarily matter

Football can be so simple. Only Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion have had less possession than Leicester City this season, while no team has a worse pass completion rate than the league leaders. So much for needing to dominate games. It is difficult to imagine a team better at counterattacking than the Foxes, as demonstrated once more against Swansea on Saturday. Although their gameplan is not really sophisticated, with Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy in such incredible form they appear unstoppable when breaking from the back. That’s why Claudio Ranieri is happy for opposing teams to have the ball: he is confident once they make a mistake his players will pounce and punish. N’Golo Kanté has made more interceptions than any team in the league and all he needs to do from there is service the rapid duo in front of him. Alan Smith

• Match report: Swansea City 0-3 Leicester City
  
  

5) United did not miss Rooney

In past years, the temptation to put two and two together would have been irresistible. Manchester United failed to score. Wayne Rooney was injured. United, therefore, missed their talisman. Given Rooney’s increasingly mediocre form, however, it was harder to make that claim on Saturday. Admittedly, a forward with 237 goals for the club might have taken one of their 21 chances. At the very least, he could have forced the West Ham United goalkeeper Adrián into a save, something only Marouane Fellaini mustered, and with an opportunity he should have converted. Yet Rooney’s absence was not the reason for United’s stalemate with West Ham. Not when he had figured in each of their other five 0-0 draws this season. It spared Louis van Gaal the problem of where to accommodate him and while Fellaini’s limitations should preclude him from operating as a No10 for a high-class team, United are far from that. The Belgian has a brand of chaos theory: things happen around him, whether or not he really intends them. He ought to have been dismissed on Saturday for a lunge at James Tomkins. He almost helped fashion a breakthrough. He is a nuisance value and, increasingly, Rooney is not and there is a case of Van Gaal seeking to reunite the Belgian with Ashley Young, another of last season’s overachievers, to recreate the formula that worked well in spring. While Ander Herrera, who certainly was missed on Saturday, is still sidelined, and as Van Gaal remains reluctant to select Juan Mata as a No10, Fellaini again looks United’s best option in a pivotal position, even if that is sadly telling. Richard Jolly

• Manchester United to leave City in pole position for Pep Guardiola
• If Van Gaal is a genius why are Manchester United so bland?
• Match report: Man Utd 0-0 West Ham

6) Blunt Blues slump again

No bibs were flung, and during a 45-minute cameo in the second half against Bournemouth no shots to overly concern Artur Boruc were fired, so Diego Costa’s input for Chelsea this weekend went slightly under the radar. But the Costa question has not yet gone away. In fairness he is not the only one who must shoulder the responsibility for Chelsea’s goalscoring inhibitions, but the lack of potent alternatives is not helping matters. The drop in scoring efficiency across Chelsea’s attacking department takes them well below par. They had scored 34 goals after 15 Premier League matches last season, double the total they have amassed this season. In Costa’s case the issue feels particularly severe – 11 goals this time last season compared to three this. But there is a wider problem. The players expected to share the goalscoring duties with Costa have had a minimal impact in helping out. Eden Hazard and Loïc Rémy have no league goals. The summer arrivals, Falcao and Pedro, have one each. Willian, easily Chelsea’s most prolific weapon this campaign, has two league goals. Chelsea’s bluntness is costing them dearly. A mistake, or an “unlucky detail” which leads to a goal for the opposition, is bound to put them under more pressure when they are finding it so difficult to score themselves. Mourinho stressed after the weekend defeat that he wouldn’t ask for new signings in January. Surely they must consider strengthening their options if they possibly can. Amy Lawrence

• Chelsea and Mourinho run out of ideas
• Mourinho starts hoping for Europa League finish
• Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Bournemouth

7) West Brom’s Berahino riddle

Striker

Saido Berahino

Appearances

11

Goals

3

Shots

10

Shots on target

50%

Offsides

4

How much is Saido Berahino worth now? West Bromwich Albion and Tottenham Hotspur both desperately wanted him to play for them in August; he did not merit a place on the field when the teams met on Saturday. Tony Pulis has treated the truculent young striker with patience and care since arriving as head coach in January but admitted before Saturday’s 1-1 draw at The Hawthorns that the summer’s transfer saga, when Spurs’ four bids culminated in a £23m deadline-day offer, had sapped the powers that enabled Berahino to score 20 goals last season. Now he has slipped out of a West Brom team keeping their heads above water in mid-table while Spurs have survived Harry Kane’s early-season goal drought to prosper from their target man’s return to form and maintain their top-five progress. But Spurs acknowledge they need a back-up striker in the new year while West Brom have had the autumn to work behind the scenes on identifying a replacement for the day Berahino moves on. Contracted until June 2017, the former England Under-21 striker will not be moving on the cheap. But he is clearly underperforming (in training, presumably, or else he would be starting) and, from the look on his face on Saturday, is unhappy. Is he better off sitting on Spurs’ bench than West Brom’s? And who would pick up the phone first, Daniel Levy or Jeremy Peace, the clubs’ respective chairmen? If Peace digs his heels in any further and refuses to do business with Levy, will he find anyone else offering £23m? Someone is going to have to eat humble pie, another club is going to have to take a risk; or a capable young player is going to waste his talents over the next 18 months. Peter Lansley

• Match report: WBA 1-1 Tottenham
• Levy ‘suffers’ for Tottenham, says Pochettino

8) Ighalo shows his favourite currency is goals

“I love my strikers and I love the team we have,” said Quique Sánchez Flores after watching his side’s 2-0 victory over Norwich, a win that took Watford up to ninth. “[Troy] Deeney feels passion for this team and [Odion] Ighalo took a very good decision months ago when he had the opportunity to go and he stayed here.” Ighalo was offered a lucrative contract to play in China but chose to remain in Hertfordshire for what was expected to be a slog of a season. He has been richly rewarded for making that decision, scoring nine league goals – eight in the past 11 games – in a team whose football is starting to flow. With all the attention on Jamie Vardy’s exploits, Ighalo has been firing away under the radar. He’s scored 25 goals in 2015, more than any other player in English football’s four tiers. Norwich couldn’t deal with his strength and clever movement. He scored his almost mandatory goal in the final minute. He’ll be in double figures if he scores again, a tally that will surely give him greater satisfaction than a couple of extra zeroes on the end of his bank balance. Gregg Bakowski

• Match report: Watford 2-0 Norwich

9) Villa show signs of midfield life, but little more

Rémi Garde says that Jack Grealish will probably be recalled to the senior team after playing for the under-21s against Derby County on Monday. If the 20-year-old returns with renewed determination to show his ability more regularly, then that can only be a good thing. In his absence at least one other youngster has grown in influence, with the 22-year-old Jordan Veretout delivering another accomplished performance at Southampton on Saturday and showing why the club paid £8m for him in the summer. Carlos Sánchez did quite well alongside the Frenchman and Idrissa Gueye is getting close to the form he showed at Lille. With those, and others such as Carles Gil, Villa have an acceptable midfield. But there is still little sign of them having anywhere near enough up front and at the back. Paul Doyle

• Match report: Southampton 1-1 Aston Villa

10) Negativity hangs in the Swansea air

Garry Monk felt the need to clarify in the matchday programme on Saturday that he had not criticised Swansea’s fans for the anxiety around the ground during their previous home game against Bournemouth, saying his comments were taken out of context, but there was no mistaking the sense of dread emanating from the stands once they fell behind to Leicester inside five minutes. One moment in particular stood out around 10 minutes in. Shouts of encouragement during a spell of the intricate passing we have become familiar with seeing from those white shirts soon turned to loud groans when Ki Sung-yeung had no options in front of him and chose to go backwards to retain the ball. It’s a difficult one for fans, who have become accustomed to moderate success and, at the very least, the ability to give any team a good rattle. The current side are playing within themselves but it cannot do players’ confidence any good when they are being heckled so early in games. AS

Premier League table

Pos	Team	P	GD	Pts
1	Leicester	15	11	32
2	Arsenal	15	14	30
3	Man City	15	14	29
4	Man Utd	15	10	29
5	Tottenham Hotspur	15	13	26
6	West Ham	15	4	23
7	Liverpool	15	1	23
8	Crystal Palace	14	5	22
9	Watford	15	1	22
10	Stoke	15	-1	22
11	Everton	14	8	21
12	Southampton	15	3	21
13	West Brom	15	-5	19
14	Chelsea	15	-7	15
15	Swansea	15	-8	14
16	Norwich	15	-10	13
17	AFC Bournemouth	15	-12	13
18	Newcastle	15	-14	13
19	Sunderland	15	-12	12
20	Aston Villa	15	-15	6