What we noticed from the Premier League weekend

We saw a number of intriguing tactical adjustments and the clever use of some players during the second weekend of the Premier League season.

Tottenham surprised Manchester City, West Ham was thrashed by Chelsea, and Fulham was drew with Manchester United.

Manchester United put on an underwhelming show at Fulham following a competitive Old Trafford match against Arsenal that will have irked those who watched them last season.

Marco Silva’s comments following the game reflected how his team presented United with a challenge on Sunday.

We are aware of their defense strategies and their sluggish back-feeting. And he claimed that if you don’t squeeze people’s bodies from the back five, you can create superiority in the middle.

They are aware of their middle-of-the-center play. With our three plus Alex [Iwobi], we attempted to overdose. It was really that easy.

This is instructive. Ruben Amorim’s team’s shape, which can be interpreted as a 3-4-3 with wing-backs, is well known, but occasionally veers away from a counter-attacking 5-4-1 against formidable foes.

Ryan Sessegnon and Timothy Castagne were pushed high against the United wing-backs by Fulham.

Silva cleverly instructed his other Fulham attackers to drop deep instead of attacking on the same line as United’s back five, aside from the striker and full-backs.

There were two things that this accomplished. First, it required United’s centre-backs to step up out of their back five if they wanted to put pressure on Fulham’s attacking midfielders. Second, it provided more bodies in the middle between United’s two midfielders.

Because of their reluctance to step out at times, Josh King, Alex Iwobi, Sasa Lukic, and Sander Berge were able to outshine the midfield duo. The delay allowed United’s center-backs to expand their passing options in the absence of any significant changes.

It raises questions for United’s current setup because Silva’s game plan allows for numerical advantage in the middle and makes use of Luke Yoro and Luke Shaw’s movements.

City appear to be putting a lot of effort into implementing a new version of their high press now that assistant coach Pep Lijnders has been hired, replacing Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool’s previous second-in-command.

Their defensive line has also been seen attempting to offside their foes by moving in the last few seconds.

Frank attacked down both flanks to counter City’s high pressure, and he did this with his own ideas.

The way this was accomplished down City’s left is appropriate because Spurs eventually scored with their first goal.

Erling Haaland frequently pressed Spurs’ Cristian Romero and looked to pass it to Pedro Porro at right-back.

Porro was able to pass the ball to Mohammed Kudus, who would drop deep, thanks to his strong passing skills. Due to City’s high press, Kudus was forced to play left-back more, but he was able to withstand this pressure thanks to his strength and ball control.

The contributions of Spurs’ midfielders, particularly Pape Matar Sarr, who willingly ran off the ball into Kudus’ left wing area, were a crucial factor. Ruben Dias or Nico Gonzalez were forced into unfamiliar territory as Nathan Ake left that region in a direction that was unfamiliar.

They made some impressive progress down the flanks thanks to these counter-movements between the Spurs winger and midfielder.

It would appear that Jack Grealish has since returned to his former Aston Villa ways after scoring an impressive goal in the impressive win over Brighton.

After all, he has left to join a team where he is more prominent in the lower league.

The England international already has two assists in the same game against Brighton this year, and it is noteworthy that Everton manager David Moyes deployed him in a manner akin to Guardiola’s at City.

In his brief but effective game against Leeds last week, Grealish was collecting the ball in tight positions when both wingers played deeper and more centrally when the full-backs were stationed in wider areas.

Grealish didn’t play centrally and didn’t try to play upfield like he did when he was at Villa. He lingered out wide as Everton attempted to entice Brighton on a packed side of the pitch before moving the ball to the far side where Grealish could play one-on-one.

Everton’s number 18 is one of the players who has greater numbers of opponents because they are so fundamentally impressive and dangerous.

It created space for others by allowing the ball to travel in space, counteracting with the opposition, and drawing several players in his direction.

In the space created by his own movements, he was able to intelligently lay the ball off for teammates.

A change in how teams are pressing high up the pitch has been observed in a lot of games this season.

When we consider the Manchester City vs. Tottenham game as an example, both teams had wingers pressing one of the centre-backs. Anthony Elanga of Newcastle United did this last week against Aston Villa too.

We could see Tottenham’s Brennan Johnson pressing Ruben Dias in the example from this week.

Rayan Cherki moved out wide in an effort to make the most of the space available when Rico Lewis moved infield and brought one of the midfielders with him. Micky van de Ven followed Cherki from center back to make sure he couldn’t pick up the ball freely.

Oscar Bobb used Lewis to press Spurs left-back Djed Spence while pressing Van de Ven for City. In a way Van de Vene’s Van de Vene required right-back Lewis to travel a considerable distance to reach the wide areas.

What does all of this mean, then?

Space might open up a little wide because wingers are pressing central defenders. This is theoretically less dangerous than having central space open up.

However, one player will typically have farther to travel to ensure they get out of the opposition player with their winger pressing the center rather than their opponent because space typically opens out wide.