There were plenty of thrills and spills in the Premier League’s weekend matches, with United winning the Manchester derby and Arsenal triumphing in the North London derby against City and Tottenham respectively.
Chelsea, Aston Villa, Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Southampton all triumphed, with Brentford and Newcastle taking all three points too in controversial clashes.
Liverpool, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Fulham ended up on the losing side, with the pressure mounting for the managers of Leeds, West Ham, Leicester and Everton after defeats at the weekend too.
City were fuming after a questionable offside decision, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds were taken apart by the Seagulls and Thiago Silva was brilliant for Graham Potter’s Blues at Stamford Bridge.
Below, Sportsmail rounds up what we learned from the latest round of Premier League fixtures.
There were lots of thrills and spills in the latest round of Premier League matches this weekend
Man United won the derby against City; Arsenal beat Tottenham in the North London derby
Chelsea beat Crystal Palace too – below, Sportsmail rounds up what we learned this weekend
Offside clarity needed after Rashford debacle
The current offside law (and handball, for that matter) is infamously quite thorny and vague. Bruno Fernandes’ goal for United against City, which came after Marcus Rashford – who was offside – left the ball for him, should not have counted.
He did not touch the ball but clearly affected the goalkeeper and defenders around him in terms of their position and decision making, and United know it – they’d have been fuming if it were given the other way.
There’s no question over whether that type of goal – an offside player influencing the game without touching the ball – should be allowed in future.
Whether the referee applied the rules to the letter of the law in the Manchester derby is up for debate. It may have been correct. But it wasn’t right.
Tottenham’s passionless performance reflected by Conte
Spurs looked uninspired and off-colour against their oldest and bitterest rivals, and that’s putting it nicely.
Arsenal are managed by Mikel Arteta, who cares deeply about his club, his players, his philosophy, and he wears that passion and zeal on his sleeve. Sometimes, you could argue, he expresses that passion too ardently.
No such accusations could be levelled at Antonio Conte. While he is prone to an outburst, you get the sense he’s at Tottenham for himself. His own career,…