Premier League Update: Five Games In, and Three England Nights at Wembley

The first international break of 2026/27 is here. Manchester City are perfect, Arsenal have just been beaten heavily at Brighton, and both Tottenham and Fulham are still waiting for a first win. Below is the full table after five gameweeks, plus a preview of all three England fixtures at Wembley this autumn.

Five rounds is not a season. It is, however, long enough to tell us who arrived in August ready.

The summer brought nine managerial changes and three promoted clubs. Settling was always going to take time. Instead we have a leader with a perfect record, a third-placed side with the best goal difference in the league, and two clubs on two points.

The Premier League now pauses until Saturday 10 October. Here is where everyone stands, and what comes next for England.

The table after five gameweeks

Every club has played five matches. The table below is correct up to and including Sunday 20 September.

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Manchester City	5	5	0	0	+8	15
2	Arsenal	5	4	0	1	+4	12
3	Brighton & Hove Albion	5	3	1	1	+11	10
4	Brentford	5	2	3	0	+6	9
5	Leeds United	5	2	3	0	+4	9
6	Liverpool	5	2	3	0	+3	9
7	Everton	5	2	3	0	+3	9
8	Hull City	5	2	2	1	+2	8
9	Newcastle United	5	2	2	1	0	8
10	Chelsea	5	2	1	2	-2	7
11	Ipswich Town	5	2	0	3	-4	6
12	Manchester United	5	1	2	2	0	5
13	Nottingham Forest	5	1	2	2	-1	5
14	Sunderland	5	1	1	3	-4	4
15	Crystal Palace	5	1	1	3	-5	4
16	Aston Villa	5	1	1	3	-5	4
17	Bournemouth	5	0	3	2	-2	3
18	Coventry City	5	1	0	4	-9	3
19	Fulham	5	0	2	3	-3	2
20	Tottenham Hotspur	5	0	2	3	-6	2

Thirteen points separate top from bottom. That is a wide spread this early in a season.

Erling Haaland leads the scoring charts on five goals. Alexander Isak sits just behind him on four.

Arsenal: champions given a reality check

A near-perfect first six weeks

Arsenal could hardly have defended their first title in twenty-two years more convincingly. Mikel Arteta’s side won every fixture they played across all competitions.

The run started with a 3-0 Community Shield win over Manchester City. Four league victories followed, over Bournemouth, Chelsea and Sunderland among them. Arsenal scored eight goals and conceded just one.

It all looked reassuringly familiar. Then came Saturday afternoon on the south coast.

What went wrong at Brighton

Arsenal lost 3-0 at Falmer Stadium. It was their heaviest Premier League defeat since May 2023, which also came against Brighton.

Pascal Gross and Charalampos Kostoulas both scored from distance in the first half. Chema Andrés, a 21-year-old summer signing, headed a third from a corner just before the hour.

The manner of it hurt most. Brighton pressed Arsenal right to their own goal line and won nearly every first and second ball. Playing out from the back became a liability rather than a weapon.

Kai Havertz had the best chance to change things and was denied one-on-one by Bart Verbruggen. Afterwards, Arteta congratulated Brighton, criticised his side’s technical errors and called it a big lesson to learn.

The midfield question

Arsenal signed Bruno Guimarães from Newcastle in August for a reported £75 million. The Brazilian joined a group already containing Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and captain Martin Ødegaard.

On paper, it is the deepest midfield in the league. At Brighton, though, the Rice and Guimarães pairing struggled to help the defenders escape pressure. Arteta was asked about that partnership directly after the match.

Big-money midfield signings usually need months rather than weeks. Even so, the balance is now a live talking point.

The striker question

Arsenal’s number nine debate has followed them since Viktor Gyökeres arrived. It has not gone away.

The Gunners create chances readily enough. Converting them at the rate champions need has been less reliable so far, and Bukayo Saka remains their most consistent source of goals.

Is the title race over already?

Not even close. Arsenal sit three points behind Manchester City having played the same number of games.

One September defeat tells you very little about May. What it did do was puncture the sense of inevitability and hand City top spot.

Arsenal return on Saturday 10 October at home to Leeds United. After three weeks to stew, that is a forgiving fixture.

Who has looked good

Manchester City: a seamless handover

Everyone asked the same question in the summer. What happens to City without Pep Guardiola?

So far, Enzo Maresca has picked up the baton without breaking stride. Five wins from five, thirteen goals scored, and a derby win at Old Trafford already banked.

Sunday’s 5-3 victory over Sunderland was the messiest of the lot. City conceded three at home and still won comfortably, which is exactly what champions-in-waiting tend to do in September.

Haaland is scoring freely and Rayan Cherki has settled quickly. A trip to Anfield on 11 October will be the first real test of whether this is sustainable.

Brighton: the best football in the division

Brighton sit third on points and first on goal difference. That tells you most of what you need to know.

Fabian Hürzeler’s side have scored sixteen goals in five matches. They put four past Aston Villa, five past Coventry and three past the champions.

They have lost once, 4-3 at Chelsea, so the defence still needs work. The attack, however, is the most watchable in the country.

Liverpool: Iraola’s quiet rebuild

Andoni Iraola’s first weeks at Anfield have produced no fireworks. That appears to be deliberate.

Liverpool are unbeaten and have kept three consecutive league clean sheets. They have just won at Bournemouth, against Iraola’s old club, through an Isak goal in a forgettable match.

Sixth place with nine points is not a title-winning return. The underlying pattern, though, is encouraging.

Isak has already scored more league goals this season than across the whole of the last one. Iraola inherited a squad needing structure, and structure is arriving.

Hull City lead the promoted clubs

Hull City have adapted fastest of the three promoted sides. Sergej Jakirović’s team have eight points and only lost for the first time on Saturday at St James’ Park.

That is a strong return for a club back in the top flight after nine years away. Ipswich Town sit on six points.

Coventry City are back after a quarter of a century. They lost their opening four, then won at the City Ground on Saturday. That result may matter more to Frank Lampard’s season than the scoreline suggests.

Brentford, Leeds and Everton

Three sides have quietly done exactly what they needed to do.

Brentford are unbeaten under Keith Andrews and have just beaten Chelsea 3-0. Leeds thrashed Newcastle 4-1 at Elland Road. David Moyes has Everton unbeaten and defensively stubborn at their new home.

Who has started badly

Tottenham Hotspur: two goals, two points

The most alarming numbers belong to Spurs. Roberto De Zerbi’s side have scored twice in five matches and sit bottom on goal difference.

Saturday’s 2-3 home defeat to Aston Villa at least produced goals. It also produced a third loss.

De Zerbi arrived to bring flair and possession. Instead, Spurs look uncertain in both boxes. A trip to Old Trafford on 10 October is not an obvious place to find a first win.

Fulham: still waiting

Álvaro Arbeloa has yet to win a Premier League match. Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United was a game Fulham should have taken.

They led through a Lisandro Martínez own goal. Matheus Cunha then equalised in the eighty-ninth minute with a deflected effort.

Performances have been better than results. Fulham created plenty against United and have competed in most fixtures. Two points from five is still two points from five.

Manchester United: the familiar malaise

Michael Carrick’s side are winless in three league games. They are also out of the Carabao Cup and will spend the break in the bottom half.

Twelfth on five points is hardly a crisis by recent United standards. The flatness of the performances is the real concern.

Bruno Fernandes remains the difference-maker with three goals, including a hat-trick against Ipswich. Everything around him needs work. Carrick was hired to bring stability and identity, and neither has arrived.

Aston Villa and Crystal Palace

Both finished last season in Europe. Both now sit on four points, in fifteenth and sixteenth.

Unai Emery’s Villa have scored just four goals all season, though the win at Spurs offered a first sign of life. Pierre Sage has endured a tough introduction at Selhurst Park, with Saturday’s goalless draw at Leeds at least stopping the bleeding.

Bournemouth

Bournemouth have drawn three and lost two. They sit seventeenth on three points, despite recording more shots on target than almost anyone before Sunday.

Their European campaign opened with a win at Real Sociedad. The process looks sound even if the league table disagrees.

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England at Wembley: three nights, three tests

Back in action after a landmark summer

England return to competitive football for the first time since the World Cup. Thomas Tuchel’s side delivered their best tournament finish since 1966.

They topped their group, beat Croatia along the way and lost a late semi-final to Argentina. Bukayo Saka then scored a hat-trick as England won the third-place match against France 6-4.

This autumn brings a UEFA Nations League campaign in League A, Group Three. England face Spain, Croatia and Czechia across six matches, three of them at Wembley.

The calendar has changed too. An extended September and October window delivers four fixtures in eleven days, leaving only two international breaks before the new year.

Tuchel named a twenty-seven-man squad on Friday. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer both return after missing the World Cup, and Jarrad Branthwaite earns a first call-up under this regime. Phil Foden, Ollie Watkins and Noni Madueke all miss out.

Wembley one: England v Spain, Saturday 26 September

This is the hardest possible opener and the most compelling of the three nights. Spain arrive as world champions.

They beat Argentina 1-0 in the final in New Jersey through a Ferran Torres goal in extra time. Remarkably, they conceded once across the entire tournament. Their unbeaten run stands as a European record.

For England, this is a chance at redemption. Spain have been the defining obstacle for this generation of players.

A full Wembley against the best team on the planet is exactly the sort of occasion the stadium exists for. How Tuchel sets up will tell us plenty about his route towards Euro 2028.

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Wembley two: England v Czechia, Tuesday 6 October

The window closes at Wembley against Czechia. England will already have faced them in Prague eight days earlier.

Playing the same opponent twice in a fortnight is a quirk of the compressed format. It makes this a points-gathering night rather than a marquee occasion.

Group position could still be finely balanced, though. England travel to Rijeka on 3 October for a match played behind closed doors after a UEFA sanction, so no travelling support will see it.

That makes 6 October the first chance for supporters to react to whatever happens in Croatia. It is also the last sight of this squad in London before November.

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Wembley three: England v Croatia, Thursday 12 November

This is the group’s penultimate match, and potentially the one that decides it. Croatia were England’s first World Cup opponents, beaten 4-2 in a group game that set the tone for the tournament.

They went on to reach the knockout rounds themselves. Croatia remain awkward opponents with genuine tournament pedigree.

By November, England will have played four group games and will know exactly what they need. A trip to Spain follows three days later. A result under the arch could therefore decide whether England reach a Nations League quarter-final in March.

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What is at stake

Quarter-finals for the leading League A sides take place in March 2027. The finals follow in June.

There is a sting at the other end. Under the restructured format, sides finishing third or bottom in a League A group can face a promotion and relegation play-off, or automatic relegation to League B. It depends on how they compare with the other groups.

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What comes next

The Premier League returns on Saturday 10 October. Arsenal host Leeds, Manchester United welcome Tottenham in a game both badly need, and Sunderland face Brighton.

The headline act arrives a day later. Liverpool host Manchester City at Anfield in what already looks like the fixture of the autumn.

Given how the first five weeks have gone, three weeks off may be exactly what half the division needs.

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