Five matchdays into the Premier League season and a three-week international break gives us the first real chance to take stock. Very little has gone to script: the league’s most dangerous attack belongs to a Brighton side missing half its goals from last season, while Tottenham spent £400m and couldn’t score for four games. Here are our five early verdicts, from the season’s surprise package to the manager most likely to be first out of the door.
Most impressive start | Brighton (3-1-1, 3rd)
Brighton go into the international break third in the table and top of the scoring charts, with 16 goals from five matches. That tally is even more impressive considering that half of their 2025-26 goal return has been missing: Danny Welbeck was sold to Chelsea, while Mitoma, Minteh, Hinshelwood and Georginio have all spent time in the treatment room. 35-year-old Pascal Gross is playing perhaps the best football of his career, Maxim De Cuyper has three goals and three assists from the left, and Malick Yalcouyé, underwhelming on loan at Swansea last season, has become an instant fan favorite. Even as Brighton continue to sell on key players, they find new replacements within their ranks. Hürzeler’s side lead the league for turnovers won in the final third thanks to their pressing, leaving the reigning champions bewildered in a 3-0 hammering at the Amex before the break.
October will tell us far more, with seven matches in 22 days including a trip to Anfield and a double-header at the Etihad. Two of the three wins came against sides reduced to 10 men, Brighton were out-created by Chelsea, Leeds and Arsenal, and both the finishing (the league’s biggest overperformance against xG) and Bart Verbruggen’s shot-stopping will be hard to sustain.
Honorable mention: Hull City, the bookmakers’ overwhelming relegation favorites, who took eight points from their first four matches, including a win over Manchester United and a draw at Stamford Bridge.
Most disappointing start | Tottenham Hotspur (0-2-3, 20th)
Bottom of the table, behind Fulham on goal differential, there is no other candidate. After consecutive 17th-placed finishes, the Spurs hierarchy thought they’d solved this problem over the summer, backing Roberto De Zerbi by spending £400m on 11 incoming signings.
Yet despite the spending spree, Tottenham have completely wasted the goodwill they earned after De Zerbi managed to stave off relegation on the final day of the ‘25-26 season. The players look utterly shot of confidence, going scoreless across their first four matches and only managing two goals in the final 10 minutes, after conceding 3 to a Villa team who themselves have only found the back of the net 4 times. Spurs desperately need attacking signings Savio, Omar Marmoush, and project Mykhailo Mudryk to find an edge in front of the goal before a rough start turns into a full blown crisis.
There are some green shoots of positivity – Spurs have nearly 60% possession (up from 50% in De Zerbi’s first 7 last spring), and the fourth highest field-tilt in the league, per xGstat.com. Excluding their disastrous opener against Brentford, when half their starting backline (captain Micky Van de Ven & World Cup winner Pedro Porro) were absent, OptaAnalyst have Spurs conceding 1.07 xG against, putting them amongst the better defensive rates in the league.
Roberto De Zerbi went winless, with a similar 2 points, in his first 5 matches managing Brighton, before beating Chelsea in his sixth. Throwing out last spring as a rescue job, he now finds himself in a nearly identical situation, with Spurs supporters desperate for him to pull off a similar sixth match surprise win over another top 6 foe, Manchester United, after the break.
Most impactful early signing | Tarik Muharemovic, Defender, Leeds
After conceding the fifth-most goals last season, Leeds bucked the domestic trend and looked abroad for defensive reinforcements. The 23 year old Bosnian, Tarik Muharemovic, has played every minute of the new campaign for the joint-stingiest defense, anchoring their central defense with Ethan Ampadu. Muharemovic, signed for €40m from Sassuolo, is averaging nearly 7 clearances per 90, and has only racked up 2 fouls despite his aggressive, front-foot style. He’s also contributed to the attack, scoring in the League Cup against Chelsea and creating 3 scoring chances in the Premier League. Leeds will be hoping for more Man of the Match performances like this past weekend’s goalless draw with Palace, as they visit Arsenal before hosting Manchester United in their first fixtures after the international break.
Tarik Muharemovic in action for Leeds earlier this season. Photo by Melissa Tamex/Icon Sportswire
Most disappointing early signing | Sandro Tonali, Midfielder, Tottenham Hotspur
You could conceivably pick any of Spurs’ summer additions for this section, but the reported £92.5m fee for Tonali makes this deal the most concerning at this stage. Spurs have clearly failed to find the requisite balance in midfield during their winless league start, and so far Tonali appears to be a key contributor to this issue. Far from the complete midfielder that Roberto De Zerbi hoped for, Tonali has been far more adept at breaking up play rather than providing any meaningful creativity to the side. Tonali isn’t helped by the dysfunction around him and once key playmakers return from injury there is every chance he can still be a success for Spurs.
First managerial departure | Frank Lampard, Coventry City
There is a case here to round out Spurs’ early season pain by placing Roberto De Zerbi here – but expect the sheer cost and credit in the bank from last season to see him overcome his short betting odds for the time being at least. Coventry by contrast have cause for optimism after they picked up their first points of the season at the City Ground last weekend. Expectations are lower in the West Midlands following Coventry’s recent promotion, but a slow start will still see Frank Lampard come under increasing pressure. Coventry’s current expected position based on their first 5 games is 19th according to OptaAnalyst, with the Sky Blues struggling on their return to the Premier League – mustering just a single goal in the league to date. Unless Lampard can arrest this goalscoring issue soon, expect his odds of being the first managerial casualty of the season to plummet.
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