1) Time is running out for Rodgers at Liverpool

Will Brendan Rodgers still be the Liverpool manager when the clocks go back at the end of next month? After five matches, his side’s return is a paltry seven points. The Northern Irishman’s Liverpool project is starting to appear like a footballing Waiting for Godot: an ongoing search to re-find a plot that may or may not be successful but could take an age to find. In management, of course, time waits for no one. Especially the Liverpool coach. At Old Trafford on Saturday the pass-and-move stuff of Rodgers’ first seasons at the club appeared virtually extinct. Instead there was the odd spectacle of the 18-times champions hoofing the ball around in the hope a chance and a goal might come. Liverpool lost 3-1. They seemed close to clueless. Afterwards, Rodgers was a cowed figure. The sense is this cannot – and will not – continue much longer. Jamie Jackson

• Match report: Manchester United 3-1 Liverpool
• Carrick: we knew little of Martial but not now
• Michael Cox: Man Utd and Liverpool both show lack of tactical cohesion
• Barney Ronay: Van Gaal gets half his message across

2) Barkley a growing force at Everton

Ok, it wasn’t the talking point from Everton’s comprehensive defeat of Chelsea – the champions’ lack of fight, John Stones’s imperious display and Steven Naismith’s professionalism have been addressed in the match report – but it would be remiss to overlook Ross Barkley’s role in the 3-1 victory. The 21-year-old still makes the occasional baffling decision and Evertonians are quickly on the midfielder’s back when he does, but his touch, vision and drive were at the heart of an enthralling contest and ensured Everton looked the more dangerous side even when Chelsea dominated possession in the second half at Goodison Park. He benefits from Roberto Martínez’s acceptance that a creative midfielder will lose possession at times but, as with the pass that created Naismith’s hat-trick and put the game beyond José Mourinho’s side, that risk is worth taking. That encouragement appears to be lacking at international level from Roy Hodgson, an interested observer at Goodison on Saturday. Perhaps the Everton manager’s thwarted pursuit of a No10 playmaker this summer has sparked a reaction from Barkley. “Ross is probably the most improved player in the squad,” said Naismith on Saturday. “That showed in spells during pre-season and he’s scored a couple of goals already this season. The Watford game probably wasn’t his best game but he scored a good goal and that masked things and arguably he has been our best creative player since then. He’s making the right decisions now whereas last season he was probably trying to do it himself and would try to beat two men. Now if he sees the opportunity he will deliver the pass, as he did for me today and for Rom at Southampton. He’s doing the right things and he’s in a great moment. He sees the bigger picture much more now.” Andy Hunter

• Paul Wilson: Mourinho’s woes start with defence, midfield and attack
• Mourinho rages at Martínez over order of duties
• Mourinho: I am still the man for Chelsea job

3) Ranieri is raising eyebrows and expectations at Leicester

Many people pegged Leicester as favourites for relegation this season but while they certainly will not stay in second place, they do not look like dropping to the bottom. The prophesies of doom were partially down to a fear that the removal of Nigel Pearson would trigger a disintegration of Leicester’s exceptional team spirit and dynamism but the players have so far proven to be bigger than that – and Claudio Ranieri is not the clown some chose to portray him as. The Italian has had the good sense to preserve the side’s zest and enterprise, has not tinkered randomly, has recruited well and, as demonstrated during Sunday’s rousing fightback against Aston Villa, he has made decisive in-game changes. Early days, of course, and Leicester still have fragilities, but hands up who still thinks Leicester will go down? Paul Doyle

• Match report: Leicester City 3-2 Aston Villa

4) Manchester City’s defence looks transformed this season

Manchester City supporters simply could not have asked for a better start to the season; Kelechi Iheanacho’s late winner at Selhurst Park maintained their 100% record, and the team are yet to concede a single goal in their first five games. The identity of the last side to do so – Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth in 2006 – tells you it’s a rare achievement, and although extensive summer investment has taken place, this season’s ever-present back five is made up of existing squad members who all endured their own struggles during last season’s indifferent title defence. Eliaquim Mangala has found his Premier League feet, Vincent Kompany has rediscovered form and focus, and the full-backs Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna have been transformed from ageing squad offcuts to become part of the wall in front of Joe Hart, who has faced just eight accurate shots on his goal all season. Quite how this turnaround has been achieved is hard to pinpoint, particularly given Manuel Pellegrini’s often opaque interview technique; the Chilean did give a hint after the win over Watford, saying he had spent one-on-one time with several players to pick over last season’s disappointments. The pep talks have clearly worked: even at this very early stage, City have a significant cushion over all of their predicted title rivals, and a scarcely believable 11-point headstart on Chelsea. They may have been the transfer window’s biggest spenders but the faith shown in Pellegrini, passed in turn to players in need of a shot in the arm, could prove just as important as attacking investments. Niall McVeigh

• Match report: Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City
• Juventus stop rot in time for Champions League trip to Man City

5) When will Bamford get a chance for Palace?

Connor Wickham’s injury, coupled with the sale of Glenn Murray to Bournemouth, forced Crystal Palace to tweak their attack and Alan Pardew decided to use Yannick Bolasie in a floating central role, with Bakary Sako and Wilfried Zaha either side of him. Yet Palace were not short of strikers and it was intriguing to see Pardew prefer to put Dwight Gayle and Fraizer Campbell on the bench instead of Patrick Bamford. Gayle was almost sold to Bristol City during the transfer window and Pardew said that Campbell was lacking match fitness after returning from injury, so it was a surprise that there was no place for Bamford, a loan signing from Chelsea. Bamford scored plenty of goals in the Championship during his loan spells with Derby County and Middlesbrough, but his Premier League experience is minimal. “Patrick missed out today just because of the way I’m doing the subs and mixing things up a little bit,” Pardew said. “It was his turn to miss out today.” Jacob Steinberg

• Agüero still hopeful of facing Juventus despite knee injury
• Pellegrini turns ‘more solid’ Manchester City focus to Juventus
• Match report: Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City

6) M’Vila is class and key to Advocaat’s changing of the guard at Sunderland

You do not win 22 caps for France for nothing and M’Vila has proved precisely why he collected them. If the central midfielder had not self-destructed – see his time at Rubin Kazan and on loan at Internazionale – he would surely be a permanent fixture in his national team. M’Vila largely explained why, despite Sunderland’s 1-0 home defeat to Spurs, there are abundant reasons for optimism on Wearside. Dick Advocaat is building an attractive attacking side around the Rubin Kazan loanee. While they remained flawed, particularly in defence, this team were unlucky not to collect at least a point against Spurs and offered a 40,000 plus crowd real optimism that relegation can be avoided. A politically freighted teamsheet with Lee Cattermole – is he really on £80,000 a week, who on earth sanctioned that? – Seb Larsson and Jack Rodwell starting on the bench spoke volumes. Hats off Dick. More of the same please. Louise Taylor

• Tottenham agree to release striker Adebayor
• Match report: Sunderland 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

7) Watford’s lingo bingo not proving a hindrance so far

Much has been made of Watford’s League of Nations squad which, at one stage last month, comprised players from 22 different countries. The lingo bingo jibe might have been made in jest but the point was valid. How on earth will they all communicate properly when there are so many languages flying around the dressing room? How much will get lost in translation, especially as the Spanish head coach, Quique Sánchez Flores, has only a tenuous grasp of English? Well, the signs are encouraging. Watford have remained competitive in all league matches so far and deservedly secured their first win of the season at Vicarage Road on Saturday – a 1-0 victory over Swansea City. An understanding of each other’s roles and what was required by Flores did not seem a problem, the obvious cohesion proving far too much for Swansea to cope with. Post-match press conferences with Flores might be tough to unravel but, on the pitch, early fears of rampant miscommunication appear to have been unfounded. Football, of course, is a universal language. Russell Kempson

• Match report: Watford 1-0 Swansea
• Ayew named Premier League player of the month

8) Gabriel makes light of Mertesacker’s absence

Per Mertesacker did train last week but Arsène Wenger deemed him to be short of the required levels for Stoke City’s visit on Saturday. The Arsenal manager added that he was unlikely to travel to Croatia for Wednesday’s Champions League opener against Dinano Zagreb too. Mertesacker’s chest infection, which struck him down before the Liverpool game on 24 August, was a serious viral condition and Wenger said the German was “in bed for 18 days.”

Mertesacker’s absence, though, has given Gabriel Paulista the chance in central defence and the Brazilian was quietly efficient against Stoke. That the visitors rarely threatened owed much to Gabriel’s no-nonsense work alongside Laurent Koscielny. The pair suffocated Mame Biram Diouf and Joselu while Gabriel did not flinch in a second-half scrap with Marko Arnautovic. Gabriel has now been a part of Arsenal’s three consecutive clean sheets (even if the first one, against Liverpool, was pretty streaky) and, remarkably, across 11 appearances for the club, the team has conceded only four goals with him on the field. Arsenal’s record in those games reads: W10 D1. When Mertesacker is fit again, he may not return automatically to the line-up. David Hytner

• Match report: Arsenal 2-0 Stoke City
• Saturday Sundae: Arsenal blast 29 shots at Stoke

9) McManaman flop earns the West Brom winger a telling off

Managers often disagree over a particular call, but they rarely go against their own players. Yet that is what happened when West Brom had a penalty claim from Callum McManaman turned down after Matt Targett had slid in and the winger tumbled inside the box. The referee, Stuart Attwell, allowed play to continue. It was the correct call because while Targett’s challenge was reckless, there was no contact with the opposing player (nor the ball) and McManaman took a salmon-like leap before furiously protesting for a spot-kick. The West Brom manager, Tony Pulis, said he would take McManaman aside for making the most of the challenge and congratulated Attwell for his decision. Ronald Koeman, however, said he would have a quiet word with Targett for sliding in wildly and said he was lucky not to concede a penalty that may have proven decisive in an otherwise sleep-inducing draw. The Hawthorns press box was ideally placed to view the challenge in real time and it was impossible to call, so chapeau to Attwell, who was taking charge of his first top-flight game of the season having spent August loitering in the Football League. Alan Smith

• Match report: West Brom 0-0 Southampton

10) Bournemouth’s defence might be tried and tested but it is creaking

“Without a shadow of a doubt,” said Eddie Howe when asked whether Bournemouth’s defeat to Norwich on Saturday was their worst performance of this nascent season. “Definitely this season and I don’t think we performed like that at all throughout the season. From our perspective we defended very poorly. At 0-0 right in the game there was not a lot between the teams, the first goal was really poor to give away. From that moment on until the second went in we lost our way for 10 minutes totally, before finding ourselves. That 10-minute period was most unlike us.” Perhaps it is, but with only Sunderland and, curiously, Chelsea having let in more than them so far, their goals against column is a concern for Howe and his team. People often talk about a 20 goal striker being the key to staying in the Premier League, but in fact it’s a solid defence that will give you the best chance of survival. Or, at least, not having a terrible defence: you have to go back to 1989/90 for the last time the team with the worst goals conceded record in the division stayed up, when Crystal Palace let in more than anyone else but finished 15th. It’s a nice story that Bournemouth’s back four in their opening four games have all been with them since their League One days (it probably would have been all five games were it not for an injury to Charlie Daniels), but their quality is a worry. Howe recruited four defenders over the summer, one of whom (Tyrone Mings) is out for the season, another (Sylvain Distin) will be 38 in December and another (Joe Bennett) was brought in on loan after the Daniels and Mings injuries. Defending isn’t only about personnel, and that they had one of the better backlines in the Championship last season suggests Howe knows what he’s doing in that regard, but he will have to address their problems at the back pretty quickly. Nick Miller

• Match report: Norwich 3-1 Bournemouth