The Good, The Bad

The tops and flops from the Premier League weekend.

Liverpool are flying high at the top of the Premier League, as they capitalised on yet another slip-up from Manchester City.

Ipswich Town, meanwhile, clinched their first win back in the big time.

Here, we look at the good, and the bad, from this weekend’s Premier League action.

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THE GOOD

Jordan Pickford was the standout performer from the weekend’s drabbest match. West Ham and Everton played out the most 0-0s of all the 0-0s, but Pickford pulled off a string of fine saves, with his last-gasp stop from Danny Ings the highlight. Pickford showed all his agility and instinctive reactions to tip over the deflected strike, that was heading under the crossbar. That was one of six saves the England international made throughout Saturday’s contest at London Stadium, as he registered a goals-prevented figure of 1.2. It had not been the best of starts to the campaign for Pickford, but since saving an Anthony Gordon penalty last month, seems to be getting back toward his best.

Credit: Instagram - @jpickford1

Mohamed Salah is not certain to stay at Liverpool beyond this season, but if this is to be his last campaign at Anfield, then he is driving the Reds towards the title. Liverpool have collected 28 points from their opening 11 league games, with Arne Slot’s machine continuing to pay out. Only in 2019-20 (31) have they taken more points at this stage of a campaign in the competition. They beat Aston Villa 2-0 at home on Saturday, and Salah took centre stage, assisting Darwin Nunez’s opener before settling the contest with a composed finish of his own late on. Both goals came on the break, with Salah leading blistering counter-attacks — the kind of which were commonplace under Jurgen Klopp, as Slot continues to strike the balance between his own approach, while not completely disregarding what came before. Salah, meanwhile, became the first player from Europe’s big five leagues to score 10 goals and provide 10 assists in all competitions this season (via Opta).