The 5 biggest talking points from the Premier League weekend as Liverpool impress at Stamford Bridge

Liverpool’s game management shows signs of improvement

This time around, Liverpool were much more resolute with the hugely impressive Joel Matip marshalling their defence and being dominant at set pieces, with the tone he set bringing out the best in Dejan Lovren, his central defensive partner. In the full back positions, Nathaniel Clyne and James Milner tackled everything that moved, preventing Chelsea from finding the kind of space in wide areas that they were being denied centrally and stopping crosses from coming in. Organisationally, Liverpool were much better than they have been for some time and coupled with a newly found willingness to break up play by fair means or foul and an ability to keep possession under pressure, they saw out the final half hour of the game without being seriously troubled with Simon Mignolet having to make only one routine save from Costa. For all the plaudits that their attacking play in the first half prompted it will have been what happened after they conceded that pleased Klopp most. We already knew that Liverpool score goals, the question was whether they could become adept at keeping them out and this was their most convincing step in the right direction yet. There is still some way for them to go – only Watford have conceded more in the top 15 places of the Premier League – but this was undoubtedly promising and if it is a sign of things to come Liverpool’s chances of challenging Manchester City will increase significantly. Tony Barrett

Pep Guardiola is right to be cautious. He can transform Manchester City but he will never be complacent

There are only five games played, but this looks like a different Manchester City. This is a side transformed, a side motivated once more and a side that will make a far more convincing title challenge this season.

These, of course, were the things said about Manchester City last season when they had a 100 per cent record after their first five league games of the season, which included a last-minute winner at Crystal Palace which moved them five points clear at the top of the table and a demolition of the champions, Chelsea.

City, it is easy to forget, looked dominant at this stage twelve months ago and seemed certain to triumph in a league which had no obvious superpower.

By the end of September, City were already demonstrating some of their old failings when they lost 4-1 at White Hart Lane, but they remained in contention until the spring. A 3-1 defeat at home to Leicester, when a victory would have put them top, seemed to sum up the old City who ended the season fifteen points behind the eventual champions.

This season, it is more reasonable to expect great and lasting change. Primarily this is because Pep Guardiola has replaced Manuel Pellegrini as manager and Guardiola is already demonstrating his capacity to transform a side.
Guardiola’s ideas are bewitching and his tactical remodelling at the Etihad is fascinating. City have the most devastating attacking players in Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero, but nobody will be more aware than the manager of how little has been achieved just yet.

This may explain why he responded so magnificently when asked at the weekend if City could win the quadruple.

Q: is the aim to win four trophies?
A: WTF pic.twitter.com/CbF3ifT4rt

— Sam Lee (@SamLee) September 18, 2016

This is a standard question asked of any manager whose side is challenging for four trophies, but it is unusual for it to be asked when one of the competitions hasn’t started yet and the other two are in the very early stages.
But then, Guardiola has always been a groundbreaker and maybe in this too, he is taking the game where it has never gone before.

He knows, however, that it is too early to talk about winning anything, let alone four trophies, no matter how thrilling his influence may already be.

Guardiola insists the game is about players, but already he has shown how much influence he can have over any group as he takes De Bruyne and Sterling to another level and reinvents others like Aleksandar Kolarov.

It is hard to recognise Manchester City from the side that fell away last season. Guardiola has had an astonishing effect on players who look unrecognisable from last season.

Guardiola is restless, intense and driven. His desire to win will drive everything he does at City this season. He despised the tiki-taka label at Barcelona because he felt it suggested self-indulgence and an interest in passing for the sake of it. Instead, he believes in ruthless, dominating football.

City are aware of what happened last season and they have a manager who is defined by his resistance to complacency. They won’t make last season’s mistakes which is why they will know nothing has been achieved yet. Dion Fanning

Jose Mourinho’s problems compounded by his own declining popularity

There was a time, not so long ago, when the nation swooned whenever Jose Mourinho came into view. The coat that he wore, the things that he said, the methods he used; everything about him was a cause to celebrate. He was a figure to admire to such an extent that his failings, when they did occur, were either overlooked or placed into a context that they did not deserve.

That time, though, has gone.

The football public of this country now have other objects of their affection, be it the sartorially splendid Pep Guardiola with his fancy football or Jurgen Klopp with his man hugs and gegenpressing, Between them, that pair are now enjoying much of the admiration that Mourinho once counted as his own. The dedicated followers of fashion have, as they always do, moved onto something else, and that leaves the Manchester United manager with a declining approval rating.

Why does any of this matter? In one sense it doesn’t. Results, as ever, are all important and should United win much more often than they lose, Mourinho’s standing will be irrelevant. But in another, the removal of a veneer that offers protection could be damaging as if results are poor, as is the case now, the scrutiny will be greater and those rushing to defend him will be fewer. Rightly or wrongly, perception does matter and where Mourinho once prompted excitement, he now provokes weariness and that makes him much more vulnerable than he used to be.

With his record over the past year being mediocre and totally out of keeping with what went before, there is also increasing doubt about whether the methods that served him so well in the past are still as effective as they once were. That all of this is happening while he is in charge of United, who attract more media interest than any other club in the country, adds to the sense that he is there to be shot at in a way that no one could have previously imagined.

All of a sudden, it has become fashionable to question and even doubt Mourinho and that is a development which leaves him more susceptible to pressure than has previously been the case in a hitherto great managerial career. There is no doubt that Mourinho can cope with losing the popularity that he once had but he will know that it makes the need for good results even greater now that he no longer has the cult of his own personality to protect him. TB

Antonio Conte needs to remember how things work at Chelsea

For a long time, Roman Abramovich has defied conventional wisdom. As he dismissed manager after manager, he was always told that football didn’t work this way. Managers needed time, he was told, managers shouldn’t be sacked a year after winning the double and coming second, they said. But Abramovich did it his way and, despite what he was told, trophies kept coming.

Less than a year after Carlo Ancelotti won the double, Abramovich dismissed his successor Andre Villas-Boas. A few months later, Chelsea won the European Cup. Six months later, Roberto Di Matteo was dismissed despite managing on that memorable night in Munich.

And on it goes. Abramovich has taken on the cult of the manager and demonstrated that the cult of having a lot of money matters more in modern football.

Abramovich was, however, bewitched by the cult of one manager, Pep Guardiola, but his failure to persuaded him to manage his club didn’t appear to be a major problem when Jose Mourinho returned speaking of love and happiness, before winning the league in his second season.

But then came last season and the spectacular reminder of who Jose Mourinho is and how all he is capable of can also be destroyed in an instant.

When Mourinho left, there were mutinous scenes at Stamford Bridge with some fans prepared to turn on those players who, now free of their troublesome manager, would return to their best form.
It was an unfortunate situation for the players who could only prove they weren’t a witch by drowning or, in this instance, not improving.

Chelsea did improve, but not so dramatically that they achieved the things some said were possible when Mourinho left. They finished tenth and Antonio Conte came in, billed as a manager who would push the players to their limits.
On Friday, the Chelsea players looked exhausted already by those demands. Conte’s failure to make a substitution until the final six minutes baffled many supporters who have wondered why he refuses to make changes earlier in games.

There were the early murmurings of discontent which may be irrelevant at this stage in the season and could disappear if Arsenal are beaten at the Emirates on Saturday.

But Conte also warned after the defeat to Liverpool that Chelsea had to avoid making the mistakes they made last season.

“We mustn’t forget last season,” he said, “That was such a bad season, and I don’t want to repeat it. When you finish the season in 10th place, there is something strange. It’s not natural. It’s not simple. When you finish in 10th place it means you have to work very hard to improve to make sure you don’t repeat the bad season. I think that, this season, the manager, the players, all the people who work for Chelsea must take their responsibility. Because, I repeat, we win together, we lose together.”

That is the idea, all right, but it doesn’t tend to work like that at Stamford Bridge which has always had a number of power bases and a manager must find a way of dominating or surviving.

Conte may be frustrated at the failure to sign the players he wanted over the summer and ending up with David Luiz instead. But he was the least culpable member of the defence on Friday night which again missed the organisational ability of John Terry, who remains a necessary presence at the back no matter how slow his reaction times become.

He is also a huge presence at the club. Chelsea prospered during the years when Abramovich ditched managers not just because of the owner’s money, but because the core group who won the title under Mourinho in 2005 drove things forward from within the dressing room.

The rebuilding has been painful. Chelsea lack the personality they once had. But Abramovich hasn’t changed his ways. Conte might talk about winning and losing together, but the history at Stamford Bridge suggests it can be a little lonelier than that. DF

Lee Mason is football’s unlikely revolutionary

Mason’s refereeing at Goodison Park on Saturday was useless. In terms of applying the laws of the game, he failed to do the basics at crucial moments and allowed goals to stand that should have been ruled out. In doing so, though, the referee struck a blow for those of us who believe the move towards making football clean has gone so far that any kind of contact, even if it is only perceived, can lead to fouls being awarded and punishment meted out.

There is no question that according to the laws of the game as they currently stand, Mason should have disallowed Middlesbrough’s opener, an own goal by Maarten Stekelenburg who knocked the ball into his net after Alvaro Negredo had headed the Everton goalkeeper’s hands. Usually, such aggression would lead to the award of a free kick rather than a goal but Mason evoked the spirit of his refereeing ancestors by allowing the goal to stand. It was a decision from the 1950s with Negredo cast in the role of Nat Lofthouse.

Had that been an isolated incident, Everton would have had great cause for complaint but Mason clearly had a point to prove and was not about to let modern standards get in the way of his purge on a game which has become too soft for its own good. Soon after, the referee watched in admiration as Ashley Williams challenged Victor Valdes with his studs showing and the ball fell to Gareth Barry who marked his 600th Premier League appearance with a well taken goal.

While Barry milked the acclaim, a contented Mason knew that his work was done. Not only had the official shown that he was no longer prepared to allow goalkeepers to be over-protected, he had also demonstrated a commitment to returning football to its physical roots that the rest of his contemporaries should take note of. A revolution has begun and Mason is its father. One day we will all thank him for this. It takes a great man to stand against convention and put himself on the line for the good of others. Mason is that man. He is the Robespierre of referees. Or else, he just isn’t particularly good at his job. TB