We highlight the hot topics and tactical lessons from Saturday.

Arsenal made to work to equal best start

Arsenal huffed and they puffed, and finally got their reward with a little under 20 minutes to go against Hull City as the Gunners equalled their best start to a Premier League season and extend their lead at the top of the table.

The 2025/26 Premier League champions have picked up 27 points from the opening 10 games, and managed seven clean sheets in that time, matching the points feat achieved in 2022/23. They did so by making it 19 wins from the last 20 meetings with promoted sides.

Arsenal’s best ever starts to a Premier League season

And it was Martin Odegaard who broke the deadlock on home turf as the Arsenal captain capitalised upon a Konstantinos Tzolakis spill to bag his third league goal of the season.

Not only is Odegaard one short of matching his goal tally from the previous two league seasons combined, he himself also continued his good form against promoted sides, which now stands at 12 goals and six assists.

His goal came after good work down the right from Noni Madueke, who has been in flying form down the Arsenal flank in recent weeks.

England head coach Thomas Tuchel overlooked Madueke for his latest squad and Arteta has revealed the international snub has spurred Madueke on. “What he did was go abroad and he trained,” Mikel Arteta said. “He got somebody to train and he wanted a programme. That’s Noni and that’s his mindset. He wants to get better.”

Hull’s winless run extended to eight matches. Their last top-flight win was over Coventry City in late-August, but they remain clear of the bottom three.

Glasner riot act has impact as Man City slump goes on

“It's not good enough,” Nottingham Forest boss Oliver Glasner said after the 2-0 defeat at Brentford last week. “And that's why, for me, it's now time that we change things, that I change things. That's what I will do.”

Glasner read his players the riot act last week as the Midlands side failed to take their chances once again. They had boasted an Expected Goal (xG) underperformance of -8.34, far and away the biggest in the Premier League.

Whatever Glasner told his players had the desired effect. In the sixth minute, Jair Cunha scored Forest’s first home league goal of the season. Twelve minutes later they had their second as Liam Delap, against the team where he started his career, rifled past Gianluigi Donnarumma.

It’s the earliest City have been two-down in a Premier League match in seven years and they have now conceded inside the opening 11 minutes in each of their last three Premier League outings.

Rayan Cherki halved the deficit early in the second half with a terrific goal, only for Delap to score his second and Forest’s third with a little over 15 minutes to go. The 23-year-old had only scored once in the league this season. Narrative dictated that he get a brace against the team where he “grew up”.

“It’s been coming," Delap said. "We’ve been performing like that every week, just not putting it in the net. Today we’re did so we’re happy."

Ryan Yates, the Forest captain, added: "People have been speaking about our xG, today we were ruthless."

The win lifts Forest out of the relegation zone and pushes Manchester United into it, meaning they will end the day in the bottom three of the top-flight having played at least nine games for the first time since November 1986.

A third consecutive defeat in the league for Enzo Maresca’s men mean they will drop to third if Brighton & Hove Albion beat Brentford on Sunday having overseen a third successive defeat, with defence proving a problem. This was their eighth consecutive match in all competitions without a clean sheet.

Farke's tactical tweaks get Leeds back on track

It was Daniel Farke’s second-half changes that helped Leeds United return to winning ways in Saturday’s early kick-off after a winless run of five matches.

Harry Wilson and Noah Okafor had been on the pitch for 109 and 97 seconds respectively, before combining to register the winner.

Okafor’s goal marked the first time a Leeds substitute had scored in the Premier League this season, and was the fastest by a replacement in the competition.

“When you’re sent on as a sub, and the game’s nil-nil, you’re just trying to look for that moment to get the team the winner,” Wilson said at full-time. “When the ball fell to this guy [Okafor], fantastic first touch, and then a great finish.”

Okafor wasn’t even expected to feature. “It was a late call with him because he was a week out in training,” Farke said.

“The doctors at the beginning of the week said: ‘No chance for the weekend.’ They told me if I stayed disciplined and don’t put him on the pitch for longer than 15, 20 minutes, there is a chance.”

It meant a first three points for Leeds since beating Newcastle United 4-1 in mid-September, and it came against one of the division’s in-form sides.

Roberto De Zerbi had overseen successive Spurs victories over Coventry, Chelsea and Crystal Palace after a tough start to the season but his team struggled to threaten until the very end, only managing seven shots in this match despite a dominant first half.

Fulham and Newcastle find vital victory elusive

Fulham and Newcastle United’s first Premier League draw at Craven Cottage prolonged their respective issues as both sides struggle to strike up a run of form under new managers.

The two teams have won only two of their last eight league matches between them as both Fulham head coach Alvaro Arbeloa and his Newcastle counterpart Matthias Jaissle were forced to settle for a share of the spoils. For Fulham, they failed to scored in the first half for the sixth time in their last seven league outings.

These first-half issues almost haunted the west London side as Jacob Murphy broke the deadlock in the 80th minute with a great goal.

But Newcastle’s lead lasted just 179 seconds as Fulham substitute Rodrigo Muniz restored parity with a well-taken finish for his first goal in 28 league matches. The result at least extended Fulham’s unbeaten streak to four matches as they continue to move away from danger after a stuttering start under Arbeloa.

The Magpies can take positives following a testing week. Jaissle saw his side fall to back-to-back defeats to Everton in both cup and league, so a point heading into the international break is still welcome.