6) Moyes unable to boost Wearside weariness
Arsène Wenger did not mean to be patronising but he sounded it. “I feel pity for him,” Arsenal’s manager said when asked to reflect on Sunderland’s collection of two points from the first 10 Premier League games of David Moyes’s tenure. Ellis Short, Sunderland’s owner, has no appetite to sack the club’s seventh manager in five years but, should Moyes’s team stumble in their next two fixtures – at Bournemouth and home against Hull City – the Wearside crowd may ensure his position simply becomes untenable. That would be a shame as, in many respects, he seems Sunderland’s most impressive coach in years. Certainly no one should question Moyes’s integrity or industry. Short’s best policy would be to swallow the pain of relegation and allow him to rebuild in the Championship a lá Rafael Benítez and Newcastle but reality dictates a manager can take only so many defeats before being mortally wounded. Louise Taylor
7) Musa puts body on the line to make mark
On the ropes after conceding to Vincent Janssen’s penalty on the stroke of half-time, Leicester City’s renewed togetherness was encapsulated by the commitment Ahmed Musa displayed when he scored the equaliser that earned them their first away point of the season. Musa put his body on the line when he met Jamie Vardy’s cross and although he avoided a serious injury, the winger was eventually substituted. “He goes without fear of the tackle to score the goal,” Claudio Ranieri said. Leicester’s manager is hopeful Musa will be fit for the trip to FC Copenhagen on Wednesday. They could certainly do with him being available. The Nigerian is beginning to enjoy playing for the champions after moving from CSKA Moscow. “I want Musa to understand the spirit of the Premier League and now he’s getting better,” Ranieri said. Musa, with two goals in two games, looks like a smart signing. Jacob Steinberg
8) Phelan must draw on experience amid hard times
Despite all that success as Sir Alex Ferguson’s right-hand man at Old Trafford, Mike Phelan has not always had it easy. No longer required as Stockport assistant when Gary Megson was sacked in 1999, the former midfielder ended up joining United’s academy and had to wait two years for his chance with the first team. Almost two decades later, Phelan is back in the real world of the Premier League’s basement boys having seen his side pick up one point since the end of August. “You get used to winning after being involved in it for 19 years, of course you do,” he said after the latest defeat, against Watford. “But you understand that while I have been at other end and winning, there are others who have lost along the way. I have to accept that is part of the game.” Hull could count themselves unfortunate after Michael Dawson’s late own goal handed Watford the pointsfollowing some dogged defending by the visitors. But Phelan knows he will need his fair share of luck to ensure they do not return from whence they came in May. “I have stepped up to this role now in difficult circumstances,” he acknowledged. “I have to stress that. Those circumstances are always around but we have to deal with it – we are in the big league where things have to develop fast. But we are newly promoted. We are on a losing spell but we have to stick together and keep working at it.” Ed Aarons
9) What can make Agüero even better?
In Pep Guardiola’s ideal world, Sergio Agüero would be a little more aggressive. The Argentina striker is too nice, according to his manager, and because of that needs to do more to convince people he is among the world’s best. “In the box he’s in that level with the best,” Guardiola said when asked where he ranks after he scored twice and provided an assist to end City’s six‑match winless run. Scarily for opposing defenders, the Manchester City manager also reckons “a club legend” could have a bit more self‑belief. “He has to convince because he is one of the nicest players I’ve trained in my career. He is a pleasure to work with but he has to believe how good he is. Without him we cannot achieve our targets, it’s impossible.” That is one way of extinguishing speculation that Agüero does not fit in his plans and is in line for a move away from City. He has 13 goals this season in all competitions and, away from the pitch, has been helpful to Guardiola as he settled in to life in the north-west. Alan Smith
10) Sánchez gives Arsenal the edge they had craved
After Arsène Wenger declared that Alexis Sánchez’s best position was as a centre-forward last week, the Chilean seemed to take his words to heart. His two goals against Sunderland on Saturday were very ‘centre-forward’ goals: one a towering header (and Lamine Koné might want to reflect on how a man seven inches shorter than him managed to tower so) and the other a snaffled finish of an expert poacher. It was as if he decided: “Well, if I’m a centre-forward, I had better start acting like one.” Those two strikes were his seventh and eighth of the season (his 49th and 50th for the club), and his move to this new position has been one of the triumphs of the campaign so far, after a summer in which most people believed Arsenal needed another centre-forward. As it turned out that was true, it’s just that, as Wenger often says, buying another one wasn’t necessarily the answer. What’s also encouraging for Arsenal’s prospects this season is that now Sánchez represents Plan A, Olivier Giroud becomes the Plan B that he should probably always have represented. Options, depth and ruthless attacking: Arsenal look like a serious force this season. Nick Miller
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