For the second game in a row, England hit the post, with Stones smacking an upright with a header on 12 minutes, before Mason Mount could not get his feet sorted to turn in Raheem Sterling's cross. Haaland also reserved some special words of praise for his Dortmund team-mate Jude Bellingham, who has earned almost as many headlines as him since arriving from Birmingham City in the summer of 2020. Liverpool, Leeds and Watford have also all condemned their fans for targeting Chelsea players with homophobic chanting this season. Despite the advantage of financial muscle against their three other relegation rivals, odds of 6/5 for Newcastle to be relegated with Sky Bet do make appeal for those looking for a longer-term punt for the remainder of the season to cheer on. Their manager was particularly concerned about the lack of finishing confidence in his side, though he expressed optimism the trait would improve in time. Mikel Arteta has praised Bukayo Saka’s ‘courage and maturity’ after the Arsenal youngster’s penalty in the Now people will say, 'Yeah, but why do you always [take] risks?' This is who I am. I can't change myself from today to tomorrow. Look at Liverpool, he says. Players for whom that move would've been the next step - Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Mo Salah. Football-wise, things are looking up for him too - Newcastle won their first game of the season last weekend and are off the bottom of the table. Smith said on Friday it was lunacy his side are having to play two games in 48 hours despite more Covid cases in the squad. Who's red hot?Using the Power Rankings formula, which awards points to players for 35 different statistics - from goals and assists, to blocks and tackles, City captain De Bruyne is the most in-form player right now with four goal involvements in his past three league games. With his Adidas baseball cap pulled down and his club tracksuit zipped to the top, he cut a soggy, frustrated figure as he watched his Manchester United side drop more points in the Premier League.  Chris Cadden hit the bar after Doig's deep cross and Nisbet headed home, but Anderson blew for a foul by Campbell. Overall, I thought they all acquitted themselves well. No team can play a club from their group or any side from their own country. Brighton remain ninth after an outing to forget for Graham Potter's side. The Clarets didn't have to wait long for their opener, though. Connolly joined Brighton as a youngster in 2016 and went on to make his first-team debut for the club in 2017, coming on as a substitute in a 1-0 win against Barnet in the EFL Cup. Humour is evident; Bale during a training drill nutmegged his mate Chris Gunter while it was being filmed, Gunter appealed to the cameraman with a huge smile while Bale et al were laughing like kids. Preston have lost just one of their last nine league games on home soil, while Barnsley have gone 11 away fixtures without a victory - losing six of their most recent eight. Carrick refused to be drawn on the Rangnick reports in his pre-match press conference, however, he did say he believed the players would be able to adapt no matter which manager came in. It was a similar story shortly after, with Ben Godfrey beating Joel Ward down the left, but his squared pass was sent into the goalkeeper's arms by Andre Gomes.

	Team	Events	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goal difference	Points
1	Manchester City	22	18	2	2	41	56
2	Chelsea	22	12	7	3	28	43
3	Liverpool	20	12	6	2	34	42
4	West Ham United	21	11	4	6	12	37
5	Arsenal	20	11	2	7	8	35
6	Tottenham Hotspur	18	10	3	5	3	33
7	Manchester United	19	9	4	6	3	31
8	Wolverhampton Wanderers	20	9	4	7	2	31
9	Brighton & Hove Albion	20	6	10	4	0	28
10	Leicester City	18	7	4	7	-2	25
11	Crystal Palace	21	5	9	7	-1	24
12	Southampton	21	5	9	7	-8	24
13	Brentford	20	6	5	9	-6	23
14	Aston Villa	19	7	1	11	-5	22
15	Everton	19	5	4	10	-10	19
16	Leeds United	19	4	7	8	-16	19
17	Watford	19	4	2	13	-14	14
18	Norwich City	21	3	4	14	-35	13
19	Newcastle United	20	1	9	10	-23	12
20	Burnley	17	1	8	8	-11	11