Arsenal hosted Crystal Palace on Monday night to round off the game week 8 fixtures in the premier league and it was more of the old same from the Gunners, going in front and pulling the handbrake, prompting questions of mentality weaknesses and dependability on individual brilliances.

Arsenal aren’t progressing to be honest, one step forward and two backwards is all shades of retrogression and the fact that their Manager Mikel Arteta sees and talks about their problems after every match without improvements in the next shows how much problem they have.

Manchester United are another team with problems to solve, defensively they’re weak and one moment of strength from the opponents exposes their collective incompetence so quickly as evident in the game at Leicester.

While fans want Ole Gunnar Solksjaer out at the helm, their options are quite slim and they would be wary of chopping and shoving as firing managers really don’t prove the silver bullet to success, but will they come good under the Norwegian?

Chelsea are right there in the title mix, the absence of key figures in defense didn’t really bite them against Brentford; the Bees took the game to them and if they could withstand that, then they can defend well against anyone regardless of who the personality is.

One of many points that we learned from Liverpool the other time they won the league was a functioning system. Liverpool kept same shape even if they replace certain personalities, the system is the same, you can’t make strong statement without solid identity, you cant!

Manchester City are going about their businesses quietly and it’s fun to watch, nothing spectacular about their win over Burnley but against a very low block, they kept the pressure on and took their chances when they showed up, stuff of champions.

Liverpool were expected to struggle early on with few injuries but they have coped well, are they going to win the title? Maybe yes maybe no, but with the way they’re taking it one game at a time, you can’t bet against them.

Tottenham aren’t there yet, Harry Kane has scored and that might mean he’s back in business and defenders can now start worrying again, but the signs are there that Tottenham will still struggle, it will be fun to see how they cope with opponents that take the game to them.

Some thoughts for Westham won’t hurt, if you thought what they did last season was a fluke you have to have a rethink; it was worthy to note that the gritty win over Everton away from home has returned them to a spot on the log where they can improve from, they won’t cave under pressure.

Speaking of Everton, they can’t wait to have the trio of Dominic Calvert Lewin, Richarlison and Andre Gomes back, they can’t continue to rely on Solomon Rondon up front and the manager won’t be under pressure yet, early results bought him enough time.

Leeds United! This is shocking but from the look of things they will be in the relegation mix, they play mesmerizing and frenetic football but with no end product; the absence of Raphinha and Bamford meant their goal threat was reduced in their latest loss to Southampton but where do they go from here?