Handy Liverpool scapegoat makes Premier League winners and losers debut

Brentford and Brighton are showing everyone how it's done. Everton and Southampton are definitely not. And Liverpool have lost their Midas touch.

Brentford The last team to beat Liverpool, Manchester City and Man Utd in the same Premier League season was Leicester in 2020/21. Before them, Southampton and West Ham, both in 2015/16, were the most recent clubs to achieve this feat. Each did not finish below 7th place in those respective seasons and, at the time, all were hailed as major applecart upsetters who had closed the gap to the Big Six with sensational scouting. and impeccable training.

It's not bad company for Brentford to keep anything. With Chelsea and Arsenal scalps also among their collection from last campaign, Spurs are the only member of the golden elite to avoid defeat to the Bees since promotion.

Thomas Frank and his team have done a phenomenal job. Liverpool were made to look less ordinary and Brentford went all out without their star striker and talisman. They are the operating model of a club.

Brighton Brighton's named XI against Everton cost £27.4million - less than the Toffees paid in individual sums for Jordan Pickford, Alex Iwobi and Amadou Onana: the keeper who scored four goals past him , one of the midfielders who was too weak to stop them and another who was suspended.

Yerry Mina, an unused Everton substitute, cost £27.2m alone. Against perhaps the most extravagant spenders in Premier League history, Brighton proved it was not a huge investment but a smart investment, both on and off the pitch. , which pays dividends.

Harry Kane In his defence, Harry Kane stressed that “it will take time to recover”. The missed World Cup penalty will always linger in his subconscious, hitting with stabs of regret at the most inopportune times. But he's a brave enough face to wear, scoring three goals in the 26 days since, back in the comfort of his role as Tottenham's savior and often only capable player.

The point has been made before, but Erling Haaland's description of the "cheat code" is far more apt for Kane. Manchester City don't need to skip levels in a game they've already completed many times; Spurs often struggle to navigate even the most basic objectives while mashing buttons before putting the controller back.

They were heading for another dreadful result and tasteless performance, coming on at half-time at Selhurst Park having had five shots against Crystal Palace's nine. A save from Hugo Lloris to deny Jordan Ayew, along with numerous late and vital defensive interventions from Eric Dier and Clément Lenglet, prevented a possible deficit causing a mutiny.

Then Kane arrived. His first goal was a simple header born from a great move, but soon after it was Harry pure and uncut: starting a deep move after drifting to the right, making a difficult first touch looks effortless and instantly shoots low and hard at the keeper. If the sound the ball made hitting the net could be translated, it would be onomatopoeia for Kane's majesty.

Bryan Gil was brilliant. Pape Matar Sarr impressed from the bench. Heung-min Son scored in his second game of the season. It looked like, to the uninitiated and optimists at least, a potential turning point.

But it was and is business as usual for Kane. Fifteen goals in 18 Premier League games in this Spurs team with those problems is sorcery. There's been a predictable increase in the volume of "no trophies lol" responses to any praise - or even the faintest mention - of Kane recently, but he remains one of the game's great modern strikers with or without a medal. the Carabao Cup.

Marco Silva The Premier League manager of the season so far, surpassing Mikel Arteta simply by accepting that his hair doesn't have to be immaculate.

Marco Silva is not getting the credit he deserves for what he achieved at Fulham, nor for acknowledging that his Premier League stock had dropped enough to compel him to step down in the Championship for his next opportunity.

But a stunning promotion season did little to persuade or convince onlookers that Fulham had changed their top-flight ways. They would be back where they came from soon enough, completing a hat-trick of instant relegation under many different managers.

Nearly halfway through the campaign, Fulham are above Chelsea, have beaten Man Utd and are level on points with Liverpool,...