Premier League roundtable: Semenyo or Haaland? Slot’s Liverpool plans? Biggest surprise? – The Athletic

The international break is over, forgotten about. Club football is back.

This weekend brings the return of the Premier League, so we got The Athletic’s Oliver Kay, Conor O’Neill, Phil Hay, Cerys Jones and Elias Burke to give their views on the season so far and what to expect.

Who has been the best player in the Premier League this season so far and why?

Kay: Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth. Erling Haaland has made a typically formidable start at Manchester City, but the player who has made the biggest impression on me is Semenyo. Some of his performances have been truly outstanding and I’m fascinated to see whether he can sustain it the way the very best players (like Haaland) do.

Jones: Semenyo would have been my pick, so for variety’s sake, I’ll say Haaland for the usual straightforward reasons. In a City side that has not looked especially fluid or creative at times, he continues to be the reliable bulldozer. Moises Caicedo also deserves a word: when not busy being Chelsea’s first line of defence, he has chipped in with a couple of cracking goals, most notably against Liverpool.

O’Neill: Is it too trite to just pick the guy with the most goals? When Haaland signed in 2022, he was the goalscoring garnish on top of a whirring, high-quality midfield. Now he is the outright main man. His goal against Brentford typified this transformation, carving out a chance by brute force to drag a stuttering City performance over the line.

Hay: I’ve been beaten to the punch on Haaland and Semenyo, and I can’t argue with either of those picks. The scary thing about Haaland is that he doesn’t look like he’s broken sweat. I wouldn’t like to guess how many goals he’ll finish with. Arsenal’s defence have been great, though, and I feel like Eberechi Eze is settling in nicely there. He’s caught my eye.

Burke: Rio Ferdinand often referred to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as “aliens”, and Haaland’s goalscoring rate this season is comparatively supernatural, so he belongs in his own category. Semenyo has probably been the outstanding mere mortal, but seeing as he’s already been mentioned, I’d like to give a shoutout to Ryan Gravenberch. Yes, Liverpool are in “crisis” having lost two games and fallen an insurmountable one point from the top, but he’s been consistently excellent. He’s been the best midfielder in the Premier League this season, and possibly in Europe.

Haaland has been his usual superhuman self so far this season (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Which team has most surprised you in a good way? And which in a bad way?

Kay: In a good way, Crystal Palace, Leeds and Sunderland, but above all Bournemouth, whose strong start is all the more impressive when you consider that they lost four of last season’s back five. Nottingham Forest, having surprised me in a good way last season, have done the opposite this season. I would have said Aston Villa too, but they appear to have turned a corner.

Jones: Sunderland in a very good way. Despite the signings they made in attack, I thought they were going to struggle at the back and they’ve been very respectable, only conceding six goals in seven games. I’m surprised and saddened to see Forest falling so far — they were a really enjoyable watch last season and after they managed to hold onto Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson, I expected much better. It’s not looking good, mate.

O’Neill: Sunderland. Promoted teams that recruit heavily in the summer often take time to gel, but Regis Le Bris has bedded in the new arrivals seamlessly. Granit Xhaka already looks a strong contender for signing of the season, bringing experience and quality to an otherwise youthful squad. Villa, meanwhile, have been disappointing. They look predictable and stale in attack, despite a favourable set of early fixtures.

Xhaka and Sunderland have impressed (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Hay: Crystal Palace. They’re a good team, clearly — the FA Cup win proved that — but between Eberechi Eze leaving and Marc Guehi’s transfer to Liverpool falling apart, I wondered if they’d be a bit unsettled coming into this season. Not a bit of it. Which club have surprised me in a bad way? Brentford, although not in terms of results, because I reckoned they’d find the going tough. I’m just surprised they allowed so much high-level churn in the transfer market, and gambled on Keith Andrews as head coach. I think it might cost them.

Burke: On the good side, Bournemouth are the obvious pick. They’ve come out of trips to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and St James’ Park with four points, and were unlucky not to draw at Anfield on the opening day. Having lost most of their backline, Andoni Iraola has quickly solidified them, and their attack is frightening. On the other end, West Ham United have been disappointing. Having made a couple of good signings, notably left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, I expected Graham Potter to get them playing this season. Under Nuno Espirito Santo, I think they’ll figure it out.

Which manager has surpassed expectations?

Kay: I’ve been impressed by what Le Bris and Daniel Farke are doing at Sunderland and Leeds respectively, and obviously by what Oliver Glasner is doing at Crystal Palace, but I think it’s Iraola at Bournemouth, for the reasons outlined above. And I think it’s worth the reminder that after nine Premier League games in charge of Bournemouth — no wins, three draws, six defeats, 20 goals conceded — Iraola looked like he was on thin ice. What he has done since then is remarkable.

Iraola’s success at Bournemouth has been remarkable (Ed Sykes/Getty Images)

Jones: Le Bris deserves credit for Sunderland’s strong return to the top flight — but I have been most impressed by Glasner. Despite all the noise around losing Eberechi Eze, almost losing Marc Guehi, the European qualification debacle, and chatter around his own future, the Crystal Palace manager has established them as one of the most difficult sides to beat. Sustaining it will be more difficult.

O’Neill: Given that plenty circled his name in the “first to be sacked” stakes, I’ll go with Keith Andrews. The inexperienced head coach has sensibly made only minor tweaks since taking over, sticking with the compact, direct football that has served Brentford so well. Seven points from a tricky opening run is a solid return, all the more so after losing Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa in the summer.

Hay: Ange Postecoglou. Why? Because I thought his appointment at Nottingham Forest would go badly. I didn’t think it would go this badly this quickly, so that counts as exceeding expectations in my book. In a positive sense, Thomas Frank’s run at Tottenham so far has been far more consistent than I anticipated.

Burke: For the sake of variety, I’ll throw in David Moyes. He joined Everton in January when the club were sitting 16th, and now they’re a consistent goalscorer away from being an outside European contender. They’re swiftly becoming one of my favourite teams to watch, too, having been elevated by Jack Grealish’s creativity and Iliman Ndiaye’s dynamism.

What is the most interesting plot line to follow in the coming months?

Kay: I’m fascinated to see whether — or, more likely, to what extent — Liverpool can rediscover a semblance of order and balance in their play. They were so impressive in that respect last season, but that stability and consistency has been severely lacking so far this term. There are different reasons for that, but there is a question of how, structurally, it is going to work with, say, Mohamed Salah, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak (or even just three of them) in the same starting line-up without sacrificing something in terms of how they operate without the ball.

Jones: I’m surprised there isn’t more chatter around Newcastle United. They have battled well in difficult fixtures against Liverpool and Arsenal but ultimately failed to get a result, and that is despite strong recruitment over summer. Isak’s departure overshadowed the start of the season, but they should be performing better than this. I will be interested to see how they fare over the next few months.

O’Neill: What tactical direction Pep Guardiola takes Manchester City down. Watching them play backs-to-the-wall, route-one football in their 1-1 draw away to Arsenal has been the season’s most jarring performance, the antithesis of Guardiola’s typical possession-based style. It showed a willingness to adapt as they look to rediscover their winning touch. Left to ruminate and refine his tactical blueprint over a two-week international break, write off him and his side at your peril.

What are Guardiola’s plans for City? (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Hay: Two things: can Arne Slot make total sense of his squad at Anfield? I’m intrigued to see if the past few weeks are teething problems, or if the massive expenditure has upset the squad’s equilibrium. I suspect the former. Isak and Wirtz just need to find some flow. But the biggest fascination is definitely Nottingham Forest. Can big Ange make it out of the woods (ho ho)? And if he can’t, who will they punt on next? Stay tuned.

Burke: With an England hat on, I’ll be keeping a close eye on Adam Wharton’s performances for Crystal Palace. He’s been excellent this season, and it was a huge surprise not to see him named in the England squad over the break, though Thomas Tuchel’s decision to stick with the same unit from September paid dividends. Can Wharton continue to dominate Premier League matches to such a level that he can no longer be overlooked?