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Premier League Gameweek 9 Winners and Losers: Arsenal Extend Lead, Liverpool’s Woes Continue

Sushan Chakraborty Written by Sports EditorSushan Chakraborty
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Premier League Gameweek 9 Winners and Losers: Arsenal Extend Lead, Liverpool’s Woes Continue

Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table on Matchday 9, going six points clear of Manchester City and seven of Liverpool. 

Bournemouth now sit in second place, four points behind the Gunners. Sunderland, meanwhile, have breached the top four after claiming a thrilling victory over heavyweights Chelsea.

Premier League Matchday 9 Results

Home Team Score Away Team
Leeds United 2-1 West Ham United
Chelsea 1-2 Sunderland
Newcastle United 2-1 Fulham
Manchester United 4-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Brentford 3-2 Liverpool
Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
Bournemouth 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-3 Burnley
Everton 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur

Join us as we take a look at the winners and losers from Gameweek 9 of the 2025/26 Premier League season.

Premier League Gameweek 9 Winners and Losers

Premier League Gameweek 9 Winners

Arsenal

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal took an important step towards their long-awaited Premier League title, as they claimed a slender 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium. Eberechi Eze scored the only goal for Arsenal in the 39th minute.

Following a deflection off a Crystal Palace player, the ball fell to Eze inside the penalty area. The ex-Palace man carved out a bit of space before dispatching a half volley, sending the ball into the bottom-right corner.

Arsenal maintained their focus from start to finish and conceded only one shot on target throughout the game.

Manchester City and Liverpool, meanwhile, both lost on Matchday 9, giving the Gunners a healthy advantage. It is still early days, but the title seems Arsenal’s to lose.

Burnley

Burnley made the trip to Molineux to face bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. It was a crucial game for both teams, as the Clarets needed to distance themselves from the relegation scrap, while Wolves searched for their first win of the season.

Burnley gave themselves a healthy lead inside the first half an hour, with Zian Flemming scoring twice. However, just before the break, Wolves nullified their advantage, with Jorgen Strand Larsen scoring a penalty in the 42nd minute before Marshall Munetsi’s equaliser in injury time.

Burnley took seven shots in the second half of the match, four of which were on target. They created just one big chance, which Lyle Foster converted in the fifth minute of injury time. The last-gasp victory marked Burnley’s first away win in the Premier League this season.

The win in Wolverhampton has taken Burnley to 16th place in the Premier League rankings, five points clear of the relegation zone. Wolves, meanwhile, remain 20th, with only two points to their name.

Ruben Amorim

Owing to Manchester United’s lacklustre form, the pressure had been building on manager Ruben Amorim.

Many critics had been urging Man United to sack the Portuguese coach, suggesting he was not up to the task. The market had also been buzzing with the Manchester United manager betting odds, with Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner topping the shortlist.

The last couple of weeks, however, have been transformative for Amorim, as the pressure is finally off him.

It has been a long wait, but Manchester United have finally strung together a three-game winning streak in the Premier League. After beating Sunderland (2-0) and Liverpool (2-1), the Red Devils picked up their third consecutive win against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Led by Bryan Mbeumo, whom Amorim brought in over the summer, United walked away with a 4-2 victory. Brighton gave the hosts a late scare, but United had more than enough room to see out the match.

Between Man United’s victory on Saturday and Liverpool’s defeat on Sunday, the Mancunians have now leapfrogged the reigning champions in the Premier League rankings.

With 16 points on the board, Amorim’s team are sixth in the Premier League rankings. They are only a point away from fourth-ranked Sunderland.

Sunderland

Keeping in line with the recent trend, most pundits predicted Sunderland would get relegated at the end of the season. Nine Gameweeks in, the Black Cats are only five points off the top spot and a whopping 10 points clear of the relegation  zone.

The Rokerites visited Stamford Bridge for their Gameweek 9 meeting with Chelsea on Saturday. The hosts had a bright start, as Alejandro Garnacho fired them in front in the fourth minute.

Despite conceding inside the first five minutes, Sunderland did not throw in the towel and got the equaliser in the 22nd minute. Wilson Isidor applied a clean finish to score for the visiting team.

Sunderland only had three shots in the second half, just one of which was on target. Chemside Taibe was on the business end of the delivery, with him sending the ball curling into the bottom-left corner.

Chelsea had 68% possession on Saturday, but Sunderland finished with a higher xG (1.31 to 0.87) and on the right side of the scoreline.

Micky van de Ven

Tottenham Hotspur bagged a routing 3-0 victory over Everton on Sunday, and Micky van de Ven emerged as the unlikely star of the show. Van de Ven scored two goals in the first half to take Spurs out of Everton’s reach.

In the 19th minute, Mohammed Kudus found Rodrigo Bentancur with a deep corner into the box. Bentancur headed the ball across goal, allowing Van de Ven to nod it into the back of the net.

The Dutchman scored his second goal in the first-half injury time. He pounced on Pedro Porro’s corner, beating Jordan Pickford, and headed it into the back of the net.

The Tottenham captain also completed the most passes (61) in the game, delivered three accurate long balls, made seven clearances, and intercepted the ball three times.

Van de Ven scored a staggering 23 points in FPL on Matchday 9, outscoring all his peers.

Premier League Gameweek 9 Losers

Liverpool

At the start of the season, Liverpool looked nailed on to defend their Premier League title. Arne Slot took his team to five consecutive victories in the Premier League, placing them at the top of the rankings.

On Matchday 6, Liverpool travelled to Selhurst Park for their match with Crystal Palace. The Eagles scored on either side of a Federico Chiesa goal to beat the English champions 2-1.

Liverpool have since lost four of their five games in all competitions, with three of those defeats coming in the Premier League. At the start of the October, they lost 2-1 to Chelsea, then lost 2-1 at home to Manchester United, and finally suffered a 3-2 defeat away at Brentford.

Liverpool were 2-0 down heading into first-half injury time. Milos Kerkez pulled one goal back in the fifth minute of added time to give the Reds some momentum heading into the second half.

However, much to the dismay of away fans, Virgil van Dijk conceded a penalty, which Igor Thiago put away to make it 3-1. Mohamed Salah applied a superb finish in the 89th minute to make it 3-2, but Brentford held on to secure the win.

Liverpool had 66% possession against Brentford and an xG of 2.30. Brentford had an xG of 2.75 despite having only 34% possession.

After dropping 12 points in their last four league games, Liverpool have crashed to seventh place in the rankings. They face Aston Villa next in the Premier League.

Enzo Maresca

FIFA Club World Cup winners Chelsea have been all over the place in the Premier League this season. They have had a couple of massive wins (5-1 against West Ham and Ajax), but have also looked surprisingly susceptible to direct attack.

Enzo Maresca’s side suffered their third defeat of the Premier League campaign on Saturday, as Sunderland came from behind to beat them 2-1. The Black Cats had little trouble breaching their defence, and got the winning goal through a straightforward long ball against the run of play.

Maresca has received a lot of flak for Chelsea’s late collapse, and understandably so. With Sunderland desperately looking for the winning goal, the Italian manager should have thought about the possibility of the opposition taking the direct route.

After the defeat to Sunderland, many fans on social media have been vocal about a change in the dugout. They believe Maresca has reached his ceiling and a fresh face is needed to take the club forward.

According to next Chelsea manager betting odds, former Barcelona manager Xavi is the favourite to succeed under-pressure Maresca.

FPL Managers Who Captained Erling Haaland

Over 6.5 million FPL managers gave the armband to Erling Haaland ahead of Matchday 9. With Aston Villa enjoying a five-game unbeaten run in the Premier League, Manchester City were in for a tough challenge at Villa Park. Fantasy managers still expected the Norwegian to add to his tally of 11 goals.

However, for the first time since Gameweek 2 of the 2025/26 Premier League season, Haaland failed to make any sort of impact. He only had an xG of 0.23 against Aston Villa, which is by far his worst return this season.

With Haaland struggling, Manchester City carried very little attacking threat against Aston Villa. As a result, Matty Cash’s 19th-minute strike was enough to secure a 1-0 victory for Unai Emery’s side.

West Ham United

West Ham United travelled to Elland Road for their Matchday 9 appointment with Leeds United on Friday night. Toiling in 19th place, the Hammers only had four points to their name. Leeds United, meanwhile, were also in the bottom half of the table, but on eight points and out of the relegation zone.

At home, Leeds put early pressure on West Ham, and went 1-0 up in the third minute. Brendan Aaronson intercepted Alphonse Areola’s poor clearance inside the box and scored from close range.

In the 15th minute, things went from bad to worse for West Ham United. Joe Rodon connected with Sean Longstaff’s corner and steered it beyond Areola.

The Hammers got themselves a lifeline in the 90th minute, as Jarrod Bowen superbly assisted Mateus Fernandes to make it 2-1. However, Leeds did not lose their cool after conceding and held on firm to come away with the win.

Sean Dyche and Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest secured a stunning 2-0 victory in their midweek UEFA Europa League clash against FC Porto. Fans saw the clinical victory — Forest’s first in 10 games — in Sean Dyche’s debut match as a good omen.

They were hopeful of another positive result in the clash against highflying Bournemouth. Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth, however, poured cold water on their hopes at Vitality Stadium, as the hosts picked up a routine victory.

Antoine Semenyo, who has been enjoying his career-best run this season, was not on target. But Marcus Tavernier and Eli Kroupi Jr. scored a goal each in the first half to fire the Cherries to a 2-0 win.

Interestingly, Dyche’s last game as Everton coach was at Bournemouth, which ended in a 1-0 defeat for the Toffees.

Dyche and Forest will be keen to bounce back and get out of the relegation zone when they host Manchester United on Saturday.

Sushan Chakraborty Written by Sports EditorSushan Chakraborty
Sushan Chakraborty has been writing professionally since debuting with 90min in 2017. He has since typed out thousands of articles, learning the trade from some of the smartest minds in the business. Now at Sportscasting, he is striving to whip up his best articles yet.
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