10 thoughts from the weekend's Premier League action

theScore examines the most important Premier League developments from the weekend, dissecting the biggest talking points after a busy slate of action.

Give Salah the money he wants

If Mohamed Salah truly wants £500,000 a week to sign a new contract with Liverpool, well, hand it over. He’s earned the right to be the Premier League’s highest-paid player – and he proved it again this weekend.

Salah’s goal against Watford on Saturday was just the latest display of his world-class ability. Just as he did against Manchester City two weeks ago, the Egyptian dangled and weaved his way into Watford’s penalty area before curling a perfect shot into the far corner. Earlier in the first half, Salah delivered a spectacular assist to Roberto Firmino with the outside of his left foot.

“Come on, who is better at the moment than him?” manager Jurgen Klopp asked BT Sport following the game.

Salah’s performance Saturday isn’t an anomaly. He’s scored in eight consecutive matches across all competitions and against all sorts of opponents, including Chelsea, AC Milan, and City. But the stats only tell half the story. Salah has dominated matches by taking on defenders and stretching lines, and he’s helped to restore the ruthless streak Liverpool lost down the stretch last season.

Now, his contract, which expires in June 2023, needs to be sorted out. Liverpool usually loathe handing big deals to players over 30, and Salah, along with star teammate Sadio Mane, will be over that threshold next year. But Salah is so clearly an exception that Liverpool have almost a fiduciary responsibility to re-sign him. He takes good care of his physical well-being and there’s no sign he’ll slow down.

Watford show signs of life in final minutes

Claudio Ranieri smirked as he assessed the damage from Watford’s 5-0 loss to Liverpool. He knew he had a tough job on his hands when he accepted the gig, just maybe not this tough. Watford looked completely out of sorts – with free-agent signing Danny Rose completely out of shape – as Liverpool ran circles around them.

Still, Ranieri mentioned he saw something good on Saturday. He might’ve been referring to the final 15 minutes at Vicarage Road when Watford finally broke into Liverpool’s end and started creating chances. The crowd even applauded when the club won their first corner of the match in the 78th minute. But the play of midfielder Moussa Sissoko and attacker Cucho Hernandez must’ve encouraged Ranieri most. They buzzed around the left flank, and Hernandez nearly snuck a goal past the otherwise idle ‘keeper Caoimhin Kelleher with a shot that soared just wide. Ismaila Sarr also hit the upright with a close-range effort.

Ranieri also gained knowledge about his team after losing so convincingly. Now, he’ll know all of Watford’s weaknesses and what exactly he has to fix. And the examination has to start in defense. The Hornets conceded two goals after losing possession in the first half alone and allowed Firmino to score a trio of tap-ins.

How much longer will Solskjaer last?

Manchester United kicked off a tricky run of fixtures on the worst possible note, and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn’t really have an answer for it.

“Lately we have not been in great form and lost too many points. Something may have to change. Do we need more legs in there? What do we need?” Solskjaer told Sky Sports after Saturday’s chastening 4-2 defeat to Leicester City.

That’s a pretty unconvincing diagnosis from a man who should have answers to the questions he’s asking. It’s almost like he wants someone else to come up with the solutions.

And the problems – and there are several – are clear to the average spectator. United approach matches without a cohesive strategy, and they don’t play with any particular structure. There’s nothing linking this group of talented individuals.

“The most damning aspect of this sorry performance from Manchester United is that Leicester City simply looked like the better-coached team,” The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg wrote. “Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had Cristiano Ronaldo, but (Leicester boss) Brendan Rodgers had a plan.”

And Rodgers’ plan worked. Leicester took advantage of United’s lack of intensity by playing through the middle. Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho pressed high and forced a clearly unfit Harry Maguire into compromising positions. Even when United went ahead 2-1, they looked like a team that had merely found temporary relief.

Solskjaer’s side has now earned just a single point in its last three Premier League matches. The schedule gets no easier, with upcoming contests against Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Atalanta, and City.

Wolves finally find scoring boots

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Bruno Lage remained optimistic even after his team slumped to a third consecutive 1-0 defeat at the start of the Premier League season. Wolves didn’t exactly play poorly in any of those losses – they outshot their opponents in all three defeats – but struggled to convert their chances.

However, Lage took solace in the offense Wolves were creating.

“From the past, the team didn’t score too many goals,” the 45-year-old tactician said in September. “They have maybe one or two per game, so the average of the goals is not big, so we’re trying to play a different way, trying to create more chances to raise that average.”

Now, they can’t stop scoring. Wolves put three goals past Aston Villa in the final 10 minutes on Saturday to win 3-2 – their fourth victory in five matches. Though Wolves struggled to produce the kind of offense Lage had previously promised, they showed a much more clinical edge than they had in the past, and did so with star striker Raul Jimenez starting on the bench. They needed a bit of luck, too; Ruben Neves’ last-gasp free-kick took a fortuitous deflection on its way in, but the west Midlands side still showed a side of their game they lacked in earlier encounters.

All three of Wolves’ goals came off set pieces, and while scrappy, they managed to turn around a game Villa had dominated up until the 80th minute.

Southampton can kick on from here

Southampton ended a nine-match winless run dating back to last season with a 1-0 result against a depleted Leeds United side. Southampton were also missing captain James Ward-Prowse, who missed the match through suspension, and still managed to impose themselves against Marcelo Bielsa’s usually repellent XI, firing 19 shots to the visitors’ three.

Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has always found solutions in the most trying times, and he struck again with the inspired decision to start Armando Broja, Chelsea’s on-loan striker who made his full Premier League debut Saturday. Broja scored the only goal of the game off a counterattack facilitated by the tricky Nathan Redmond.

With upcoming matches against winless Burnley and Norwich City and struggling Watford, Southampton can build on this victory.

City off rhythm against favorite opponent

If you were watching them for the first time, you’d never know Manchester City scored 30 goals in their previous eight matches against Burnley. Their last four meetings at the Etihad Stadium ended 5-0 to the reigning Premier League champions, but Saturday’s win required far more effort.

City struggled to find their rhythm in between goals from Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, and Burnley themselves looked far more interested in a result, pressing the hosts when out of possession. Josh Brownhill nearly equalized in the 35th minute when he lashed a shot that skidded just wide of the far post, and Maxwel Cornet threatened after Burnley boss Sean Dyche moved him over to the left flank. It was fairly inspired stuff from a club that usually defends in blocks of four, and it had to be, with the Clarets still without a win this season.

“It was a better performance here. It’s been tough in recent times,” Dyche said afterward, according to The Lancashire Telegraph. “We didn’t do much wrong but got punished.”

Mendy proves he’s one of world’s best ‘keepers

Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy didn’t have a save to make until the 73rd minute against Brentford. And yet, it ended up being the first of many.

Mendy singlehandedly ensured Chelsea escaped Brentford’s Community Stadium with all three points, making six stops to pick up his 20th clean sheet since joining Chelsea in 2019. Only three goalkeepers have reached the mark quicker in the Premier League.

Clearly, Chelsea would’ve dropped points without the 29-year-old, who compensated for the absences of Thiago Silva and Antonio Rudiger with proactive and aggressive goalkeeping. Mendy exerted great control over his area, coming out to cut down angles, sweep up loose balls, and deal with crosses into the six-yard box.

It was an important showing from someone who’s struggled to be the sweeper-keeper many expected him to be.

Maybe that’s why he’s not mentioned in the same breath as Ederson, Alisson, and his other top-tier peers. Mendy’s not the most confident passer of the ball, and when he does release it, he prefers to ping it 40 yards forward. But his performance Saturday should remind everyone he possesses the most important quality a goalkeeper should have: pure shot-stopping ability.

West Ham’s set-piece prowess

Don’t concede free-kicks or corners against West Ham United.

The Hammers prospered from yet another dead-ball situation Sunday, with a flicked header from Angelo Ogbonna holding up as the lone goal in an otherwise drab victory over Everton at Goodison Park.

The Italian’s tally was largely down to ineffectual Everton marking, but West Ham’s set-piece prowess is no fluke: assistant coaches Paul Nevin and Kevin Nolan have worked extensively on the training ground to optimize these situations since taking their respective posts alongside David Moyes, and it’s clearly paying dividends.

Set-piece coaches have grown in popularity of late, and for good reason. With such thin margins, especially in games with little action from open play, free-kicks and corners can make all the difference. It would be foolish not to have a deep repertoire of routines at your disposal.

Everton supporters were outraged over the awarding of the corner that led to Ogbonna’s goal – Michail Antonio appeared to get the final touch on the preceding play – but, if anything, that adds more ammunition to the argument that you should focus heavily on set pieces in training; there aren’t many other situations in the game where you can immediately turn a contentious call into a goal. Every little edge is extremely valuable.

Combine the work West Ham are doing with a squad boasting several players who are dominant in the air, and you have a recipe for success.

How we discuss Newcastle matters

Sunday’s match against Tottenham Hotspur was heralded as the start of a new era for Newcastle United supporters. After watching the club flounder under Mike Ashley’s 14-year reign, fans are well within their right to be excited about the despised businessman’s departure.

However, what they can’t do is blindly ignore the ethical questions being raised about the association with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund; the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is now the majority owner of the storied English club.

It’s true that Newcastle supporters aren’t responsible for the actions in Saudi Arabia. They can’t control who purchases the club, of course.

But they can control how they exhibit their feelings about the newfound attachment to a nation accused by Amnesty International of using Newcastle to “sportswash” its “appalling” human rights record. Waving Saudi Arabian flags and wearing mock Arab headdresses are decisions many fans made Sunday.

Members of the media can control how they discuss the purchase, too. It’s important to be aware of what’s being said about Newcastle’s takeover and by whom in the coming weeks. How we handle these types of discussions, which are far more important than sports, matters.

Heroic actions from Tottenham players

For more reasons than one – see directly above – Tottenham’s 3-2 victory at St. James’ Park was a stark reminder that football is a secondary concern in the grand scheme of things.

The match was temporarily suspended late in the first half after the players were alerted to an urgent medical issue involving one of the fans in the East Stand. Had Sergio Reguilon not acted quickly to inform the referee, and had Eric Dier not done the same to ensure that medical personnel raced over with a defibrillator, the welcome news that the supporter was eventually stabilized may never have arrived.

The situation evoked instant memories of Christian Eriksen’s frightening collapse earlier this year at Euro 2020; Danish captain Simon Kjaer was widely praised for his role in saving his compatriot’s life that day. Reguilon and Dier’s actions Sunday deserve similar praise, as do those of the fans who quickly made the players aware of the incident and ensured the match was halted so proper medical attention could be administered.

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