Premier League Gameweek 5 Round-Up: 18-20th September

The last round of fixtures before an international break long enough to forget what your own back four looks like.

Here's what you might've missed from Gameweek 5.

Match Ball, No Points

Brian Brobbey turned up at the Etihad on Sunday without a Premier League goal to his name this season. He left with a hat-trick, the match ball, and absolutely nothing to show for it in the table. Manchester City 5-3 Sunderland, and somehow that scoreline still undersells how mad it was.

Every time City went in front, Brobbey dragged Sunderland back. Enzo Fernández opened it with a cheeky free-kick in the 9th minute, and Brobbey equalised 3 minutes later with a finish off the outside of his boot. Rayan Cherki made it 2-1, Brobbey made it 2-2 after a long wait on an onside call. Antoine Semenyo then scored either side of half-time to make it 4-2, and just as it looked done, Brobbey completed his hat-trick in the 59th minute, prodding into an empty net after Nilson Angulo beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to a lovely Granit Xhaka delivery. Rúben Dias spent most of the afternoon being bullied by him.

Sunderland kept coming. Dias had to clear one off the line with the visitors hunting a 3rd equaliser, before Erling Haaland finally settled it nine minutes from time, turning in Joško Gvardiol's low cross after VAR overturned an offside flag.

That goal means Haaland has now scored against all 25 Premier League sides he's faced.

Brobbey is only the 6th player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick and still lose, and the first since Roque Santa Cruz did it for Blackburn against Wigan in December 2007. Nearly 19 years between them. Fair.

It Had to Be Brighton

The last time Arsenal lost a match by 3 goals was 14 May 2023. Arsenal 0-3 Brighton at the Emirates, the afternoon that more or less handed Manchester City that season's title. 1,224 days later, the reigning champions finally lost by 3 again. Against, you guessed it, Brighton.

And Brighton didn't just pick any old Saturday. The club turned 125 this week, and marked it by wearing a one-off blue shirt and cream shorts modelled on their original 1901 kit, with white anniversary corner flags and a record Amex crowd.

Mikel Arteta admitted afterwards that Brighton were simply a gear above his side. And if Fabian Hürzeler, who had already ruffled a few Arsenal feathers by publicly criticising the time-wasting and dark arts he felt helped them to the title, looked a touch smug at full time, frankly, he'd earned it. Brighton are third on 10 points, with 16 goals from their first 5 games.

Just Give It to Gakpo

Liverpool's attacking plan at the moment appears to be: get it to Cody Gakpo, let him do something, and trust Alexander Isak to be standing in the right place. It's working.

Isak's 57th-minute winner at Bournemouth was his 4th Premier League goal in 5 games, and Gakpo had assisted the previous 3. This one came after Gakpo muscled his way down the right and whipped in a cross meant for Florian Wirtz. Wirtz, under pressure from James Hill, could only get the faintest touch on it, and the ball dropped kindly for Isak to sweep home. Whether the stats people hand Gakpo the assist given that nick off Wirtz is one for the anoraks. Anyone watching knew exactly who made it.

There's a nice side plot too. Andoni Iraola, now in the Liverpool dugout, was back at the Vitality for the first time since swapping the Cherries for Anfield in the summer, and he left with all three points against his old club.

Jamie Carragher, on co-commentary for Sky, reckoned Iraola couldn't believe how lethargic Liverpool looked in the first half. Didn't matter in the end. Gakpo, Isak, 1-0.

Off the Mark at Last

Coventry City's return to the Premier League had started about as badly as it possibly could. 4 games, 4 defeats, 0 goals and a goal difference of -10, with trips to Arsenal and Manchester City in the opening run and a 5-0 home hammering by Brighton the week before. Welcome back, lads.

Then, at the City Ground on Saturday evening, Jay Dasilva happened. In the 55th minute, Carl Rushworth launched a long kick upfield, Dasilva brought it down, cut inside and bent it past Matz Sels. It was his first goal for the Sky Blues at the 126th time of asking, Coventry's first Premier League goal of the season, and it turned out to be the winner.

Not without a scare, mind. Bobby Thomas had to clear an Igor Jesus effort off the line in the 76th minute, and with 4 minutes left Jesus did find the net, only for referee Jarred Gillett to be sent to the monitor and rule that he'd caught Caleb Yirenkyi's heel in the build-up. Goal chalked off. The away end, understandably, went through the roof. Forest fans will have their own views on VAR this week, and they'll probably be sharing them loudly.

It's Coventry's first Premier League win since April 2001, when a John Hartson goal beat Sunderland. 25 years. There are grown adults in Coventry shirts who had never seen it.

Two Own Goals (One Official)

Fulham v Manchester United produced 26 shots in the first half and not a single goal, a Premier League record for a goalless first half since Opta started counting shots in 2003-04. Naturally, when the goals did finally come, neither was scored in the traditional sense.

In the 63rd minute, Calvin Bassey let fly, Senne Lammens parried it with his legs rather than his gloves, and the ball struck Lisandro Martínez and trickled over the line. That's one Lammens should be dealing with, and there wasn't much Martínez could do about it.

Fulham were a minute away from their first win of the season, and a first Premier League win under Álvaro Arbeloa. Then, in the 89th minute, Patrick Dorgu found Matheus Cunha on the edge of the box, Cunha had a go from distance, and the ball took a massive deflection off Affengruber, wrong-footing Bernd Leno and flying into the opposite corner. Cunha gets the goal. Affengruber gets the blame. Football, eh.

That's your lot until the Premier League returns on 10 October. Plenty of time to overthink every bit of it. Spotted something we didn't? Let us know in the comments.