Mbeumo and Cunha mask Man Utd's flaws as Chelsea need a proper striker

Mbeumo and Cunha mask Man Utd flaws

Only Manchester United can comprehensively beat a team while simultaneously seeming like they survived a major scare. This was definitely a banana skin moment. United's recent record against Brighton is woeful and it's a fixture that always throws up drama. This latest instalment trended similarly.

Just when United draw you in, Old Trafford bouncing with unbridled glee at being 2-0 up, they drop you like a sack of bricks. It was easy to be charmed by the first-half performance but the second proved this United side are far from flawless. How can they make things look so easy and so hard all at the same time? It's an art.

Until Bryan Mbeumo slammed home a fourth in stoppage time there was a sense of foreboding seeping into the terraces. You could tangibly feel the atmosphere shift. Of the four big chances the hosts created, three were missed. And yet they still scored four times.

That's what Ruben Amorim means when he emphasised in his press conference that this year's squad contains players who "fit the style". He's talking about the quality of Matheus Cunha and Mbeumo. A new brand of Manchester United matchwinner.

Without them, this is still an average side very much trying to find its way.
Laura Hunter

West Ham are going down unless they - and Nuno - change

The scoreline will paint a close game: but it wasn't.

The usual problems emerged for West Ham at Leeds, whose inability to defend crosses and corners struck again to give them a huge uphill task.

It's not a question of: when will West Ham learn? It's when will West Ham give themselves a chance?

When will Nuno Espirito Santo give himself a chance too, after two incorrect line-ups against Leeds and Brentford saw him experiment with inverted full-backs playing on the wrong side and no centre forwards?

After the disastrous first 15 minutes which saw them go 2-0 down, they were lucky this is a fairly misfiring Leeds side as it could have been worse before half-time.

West Ham didn't deserve to get back in this game. Leeds ran nearly seven more kilometres than them, creating chance after chance right through the heart of the team.

Given West Ham have been in this division for over a decade, that's unacceptable.

There are holes in defence, holes in midfield and with Nuno reluctantly using Callum Wilson as their only recognised, fit striker, there's a hole in attack too.

If the Hammers are playing like this against their relegation rivals, what are they going to be like against the better sides?

West Ham are heading down unless Nuno changes - along with his team. It will need a miracle at this point.
Sam Blitz

Chelsea badly missing a No 9

Marc Guiu was one of three teenage goal-scorers against 10-man Ajax in the Champions League on Wednesday and had his chance to impress in his first Premier League start for Chelsea - up against the team he'd briefly been on loan at earlier this season.

But on this evidence, Liam Delap's pending return from injury cannot come soon enough. The England man could be involved in midweek Carabao Cup action - and Chelsea are in real need of a central threat on this stage.

Injured Cole Palmer's creativity is another big miss for a Chelsea team that struggled to carve a way through Sunderland's well-organised defence. That was illustrated by the Expected Goals figures, which showed Chelsea at 0.97 to Sunderland's 1.16 - despite the hosts having 69 per cent possession.

But Guiu was bullied by Dan Ballard, unable to find an angle to receive a pass from his team-mates and then unable to retain possession when he did get it. After 76 minutes he was withdrawn having had just 10 touches.

Joao Pedro later went up top, with sub Estevao going to No 10 but still Chelsea struggled to produce meaningful moments. It was an afternoon to wonder why there was such eagerness to offload Nicolas Jackson in the summer.

Enzo Maresca memorably insisted on playing down any hype about his team in the first half of last season. This performance was evidence that no one should be getting carried away by their recent run of wins.
Peter Smith

Sunderland defying pre-season predictions

Paul Merson held his hands up on Soccer Saturday before Sunderland's win at Chelsea, saying: "I made these the biggest certainty in the history of football to get relegated."

He wasn't alone. The Black Cats battled their way through the Championship play-offs and were expected to struggle in the top flight like most promoted sides have in recent times.

But Regis Le Bris has combined a big summer splurge with well-organised tactics to defy the doubters. Sunderland's 17 points from their first nine Premier League games is the best return from a promoted club at this stage since Hull City in 2008/09.

The majority of their points have come at the Stadium of Light, where their raucous home support matches the energy, physicality and intensity of the team. But on the road at Chelsea they showed quality in defence to shut out their hosts and then set-piece and counter-attack threat to hurt them at the other end.

The win moved them up to second in the Premier League. The stuff of dreams for their supporters, who sang 'We're going to win the league' in west London. They face Arsenal in a couple of weeks' time...

More importantly, Sunderland are just nine points off hitting a tally none of the relegated sides could reach last season. And it's only October. No-one is underestimating them now.
Peter Smith

Big-game Bruno delivers knockout blow

There are some players that have a natural ability at rising to an occasion.

Bruno Guimaraes is Newcastle's go-to guy in that regard.

The crowd look for him, his teammates grow around him and opponents shrink.

He comes alive at the big moments. The moments that matter. He defines what this Newcastle team are all about: fight and heart sprinkled with an abundance of quality.

Against Fulham after the equaliser that left the game at 1-1, it was Bruno who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and shook off any feelings of fatigue from the Champions League in midweek to get his team the points. He broke up play, launched counter attacks and completely shifted the momentum of the game with his tenacity. And when his team needed someone bursting into the box to slam home a rebound, he made that run and got his reward with the winning goal.

Big players don't just turn up in big games, they decide them. Bruno is doing that, repeatedly.
Lewis Jones

Are Fulham in danger of relegation?

Fulham have a couple of problems. The surge of the newly-promoted clubs showing no fear and huge worries concerning their own final-third output which is lacking in freshness and quality.

Despite showing promise in various phases in the defeat at Newcastle, Fulham were blunt in the key moments. To rack up 47 final third entries and 25 touches in the opposition box at St James' Park is a really healthy number but they simply didn't do enough with their territory.

It's now four defeats on the spin and if the goals don't flow soon, pressure is going to mount. That will test the mental resilience of a squad whose recent seasons have delivered stability, rather than battling survival. This is a season that could easily evolve into a tension-ridden relegation fight rather than a comfortable mid-table campaign.
Lewis Jones

Baleba form is worry for Brighton

Carlos Baleba's form is a concern for Brighton. He has been substituted in all nine of his starts this season, departing just before the hour mark in the Seagulls' chaotic defeat to Manchester United. It has been worse. Three times he has been hooked at the break.

After an improving showing against Newcastle, this was a return to the error-strewn efforts prior to that. Baleba switches off out of possession and looks far too loose in it. He was strongly linked with a move in the summer and does not seem to have settled.

"It definitely affected him because at the start of the season the levels weren't there and obviously the attention from a club like Manchester United, your head is going to be turned a bit," said Sky Sports' Jamie Redknapp speaking on Saturday Night Football.

"It is for the experienced players to get around him, ground him, have a couple of honest conversations because he is going to be a world-class midfield player." Still only 21 years old, that is most likely true given the potential that Baleba had shown previously.

But this is an alarming dip in form from him now and the demands of the Premier League wait for no man. Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler is trying to play his star midfielder back into form but he cannot wait indefinitely. It is on Baleba to do more.
Adam Bate