Five Knee-Jerk Reactions to Premier League Matchday 2

We look back on the second round of matches of the 2026-27 Premier League season with five snap judgements that may not stand the test of time.

Every week, we round up the weekend’s action in the Premier League by coming to some hasty conclusions based on only that single round of matches.

Being numbers people, this isn’t our usual way of working. We prefer to use much more data when making up our minds on any given topic.

But there may still be some truth behind these judgements, even if we might have jumped the gun slightly with them.

Read on to see what we made of Matchday 2 in the Premier League 2026-27.

With Tielemans in Tow, Bruno Can Eclipse Last Season

Almost all of Manchester United’s summer surgery has come in central midfield, with Casemiro having departed and three players coming in for a combined total of almost £200 million. The cheapest of those signings, Youri Tielemans, is the only one to have started both Premier League games for United this season, and on the evidence of this weekend, it could be that he has the most significant impact.

Part of the need for so much overhaul in the middle of the park was to ensure Bruno Fernandes is never needed in the double pivot, instead able to stay higher up the pitch and focus on doing the things he does better than anyone else. Last season, he broke the record for assists in a Premier League season (21).

No improvement on that front can reasonably be asked of him, but he is more than capable of bettering the five non-penalty goals he managed in 2025-26, especially if he can play further forward more consistently.

He scored a hat-trick against Ipswich on Sunday (though one did come from the spot), clearly given more licence to get forward, and he received more passes from Tielemans (nine) than he did from any other teammate, while Tielemans found him more times than he did anyone else, too. For more reasons than one, the Belgian could be key to unlocking even more from Bruno.

Jonathan Manuel / Data Analyst

This Is the Year Arsenal Challenge Chelsea’s Defensive Record

Two games into last season, Arsenal had two wins from two. One was a hard-fought away win at a strong team who were expected to challenge for the top four, and the other was a comfortable home win over a team who looked set for a relegation battle.

They’ve done exactly the same this season, following up their opening-day win over Coventry with Monday night’s tight but deserved victory at Aston Villa. But this time around, they somehow look even more solid at the back.

Arsenal’s defence was immense last term. Ten games into the season, they had conceded only three goals and looked set to challenge Chelsea’s record of 15 let in all season. Ultimately, they fell well short of that, but the early signs this term suggest they can go have a proper go at that record this time around.

After two games, they have allowed their opponents only 11 shots, worth a total of just 0.54 xG. Villa didn’t even manage a shot on target, after Coventry had had only one. The average xG of each shot Arsenal are facing is 0.05 xG, which is very close to the quality of the chance with which Villa’s Emiliano Buendía hit the crossbar on Monday, which was by far the closest they came to scoring. And if it had gone in, it may have been ruled out after a VAR review over an obvious-looking foul in the build-up.

Arsenal look stronger at the back than they did last season, and they are managing without key man William Saliba, too. It’s ominous viewing for their rivals.

Hull Are Safe

Nobody saw this coming. Before a ball was kicked this season, Hull were widely seen as more likely to break Derby County’s famous points record than they were to stay up.

But two games in, they are one of only four teams, along with three sides who could well contest the title race, with a 100% record. And, along with Arsenal, they are one of only two teams yet to concede a single goal.

In Premier League history, only 39 sides have begun a season with two wins from two while keeping two clean sheets. Of those, only one went on to be relegated.

That team was an extreme, an anomaly, surely never to be repeated: in 2017-18, West Brom endured a miserable run after winning their first two, with just one win from their next 31 matches as they went on to finish bottom of the table.

Hull are clearly capable of surprising us. They may well do so again soon enough. But a turn of form as terrible as that is surely not on the cards.

With six points already, they are 15% of the way to the magic 40 mark after just 5.3% of the season. They may be safe already.

Chelsea Are This Season’s Entertainers

Two Premier League matchdays into the Xabi Alonso era and Chelsea have two wins from two, while their games have seen more goals (12) than any other team in the division.

Sunday’s 4-3 win over Brighton was hardly a rollercoaster of emotions; after 32 minutes, they were 3-0 up, and the game was never truly much of a contest.

In the attacking positions, they are as exciting as any side in the league. They have a wonderfully talented front three and, for the second match running, all three of Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and João Pedro got at least one goal or assist.

But they also showed for the second week running that they have significant defensive problems and, with new signing Emi Martínez between the sticks this weekend, that those problems weren’t only brought about by having Robert Sánchez in goal.

Despite racing into a three-goal lead, they let Brighton back into the game, and although the deficit was only reduced to one goal for nine minutes in the second half and then again in the 95th minute when the game was over, this wasn’t as comfortable a win as it could or should have been. A better-built side would have seen the game out with less issue.

Chelsea have been a lot of fun so far under Alonso, and they are showing signs that they could be the team to watch if you want entertainment this season.

Possession Isn’t Important Anymore

An interesting pattern is emerging in the Premier League: teams are winning more consistently with less possession than their opponents.

Teams with more than 50% possession are winning 30% of their matches. Teams with less than 50% possession, meanwhile, are winning 50% of the time.

This weekend, Chelsea beat Brighton with just 25.9% possession, completing only 146 passes, their lowest in a Premier League game in Opta’s record books (since 2003-04). Newcastle won at Spurs with 42.5% of the ball. Hull won at Coventry with 31.5%. Sunderland beat Fulham with 41.4%.

So, is the era of possession football over?

Probably not. The best two teams in the league, Arsenal and Manchester City, have won both of their games with over 60% possession. When teams can control games by keeping the ball, it is best to do so. If you’re good enough to see out a win by retaining possession, you may as well do so.

But for many Premier League sides, this isn’t possible against some of the best pressing units around, and so concentrating on maintaining solid defensive shape and launching fast counter-attacks can provide more fruitful routes to goal.

It’s still early days, and this may well just be a quirk of the first two weeks of the season, but it’s one to keep an eye on to see if this pattern continues.

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