Three teams are level on points at the top of the Premier League table after five weeks, but who were the Winners and Losers of Gameweek 5? OTB Sports' Enda Coll takes a look.
The Premier League is finally in full swing. How do I know that? Well, I forgot to pick my fantasy football starting XI for the first time this year and that's usually a sure sign.
With Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all level on points, it does look like we'll have a proper battle of the big clubs, for large chunks of the season at least.
That's not to forget Brighton's bright start as they attempt to convert their expected points from last year, into real points this year.
Here are the Winners and Losers of Gameweek 5 in the Premier League.
Winner - David de Gea
Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea celebrates victory after the final whistle during the Premier League match at the London Stadium, London. Picture date: Sunday September 19, 2021.The last time David de Gea saved a penalty, Barack Obama was in the Whitehouse. It was April 2016 when the Spaniard last stopped a penalty from hitting the back of the net, but he chose the perfect time to get his mojo back.
After a humiliating defeat to Young Boys during the week, it looked like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men were going to come up short in the London Stadium. But it was a day of redemption for a couple of his players.
Jesse Lingard first popped up to score what looked to be the winner, but drama at the death led to Mark Noble facing off with de Gea from the penalty spot.
Despite his record in recent years, the United man guessed correctly and won all three points for his side.
The save seems to have cemented his place as the number one choice in the position after losing out on some playing time to Dean Henderson last season.
"David is a different man. He asked to come back early for pre-season, he wanted to show how good he is and he's been so focused. He saved two points for us today.", Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of his goalkeeper.
Loser - David Moyes
Where there's a winner, there's a loser. In this case, it's David Moyes.
With the game hanging on a knife edge, Moyes made the Gareth Southgate call with the penalty, bringing his captain off the bench like an NFL special teams player.
In Moyes' defence, Noble had an impressive record from the spot in the Premier League having netted 27 times from 32 attempts for an 84 per cent conversion rate.
If it comes off, he's a genius - but it didn't, and that moves him to the losers category.
Winner - Thomas Tuchel
With every passing game, Thomas Tuchel is starting to look like the new boss in town in the Premier League. His transformation of Chelsea last season was something to behold and the improvements haven't stopped this season.
Fixing a team is one thing but Tuchel seems to have that magic spark every great manager has. When things are not going to plan, he knows what to do to make it work.
At Anfield a few weeks back, with Chelsea reduced to 10 men, he found a way to make the side both defensively solid and also capable of causing Liverpool some issues.
At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he introduced an attacking threat along with a defensive midfielder.
Chelsea had no shots on target in the first half and 10 in the second. One of their three goals came from substitute N’Golo Kante. Tuchel’s half-time changes completely swung the game.
Loser - Leicester City
This comes from someone who has too much stock in Leicester City sitting in his fantasy football team. The Foxes have been far from impressive this season and they fell to a third defeat of the season at the hands of Brighton.
It was a game of big decisions and unfortunately for Brendan Rodgers, his team were on the wrong side of VAR. There are underlying issues of concern, however.
They've been somewhat of a blunt force going forward, only scoring five times so far, but defensively will be their key concern, conceding a goal in every game bar the opening game of the season.
Much to improve on for Rodgers.
Winner - Brighton
I'll admit it, I wasn't fully on board with the Brighton hype. It was xG this, xG that, while Brighton sat just a few points above the relegation zone.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those 'what can stats tell me that my eyes don't already see' kind of people, in fact, I do find them quite useful. However, if your xG is high and your goals are low, that means you're doing something wrong.
This season, they've improved on their finishing and have scored 11 goals so far this season, the joint-second most in the league.
They've finally started to convert their xG into actual goals and are reaping the benefits of it.
It hasn't all been pretty stuff though, with Shane Duffy back into the team and in form again, they're a real threat from set-piece plays, with their penalty against Leicester coming from a Duffy header.
Loser - Harry Kane
Whether it was down to workrate (as argued by Roy Keane) or down to service (as argued by Micah Richards), it was a poor game for Harry Kane against Chelsea.
Three of Chelsea's back-four had twice as many shots on target as Kane did - two of them even scored.
While the opening 30 minutes were largely dominated by Spurs, Kane wasn't central to any of it. He was a ghost on the pitch for most of the game and it got even worse as Chelsea began to dominate in the second half.
It is hard to put his performance solely down to a 'hangover' from the failed summer move, but it certainly has to be considered as a factor. As with most things, the answer was probably somewhere in between Keane and Richards' argument.
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