Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column where Nick Wright uses a mix of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from across the Premier League. This week:
🔴 Jota boosts Slot for Spurs test🔥 Fulham flourish despite Palhinha's departure ⏲️ The evolution of Tierney, Zinchenko and Arsenal
Jota's return gives Slot options
Arne Slot was rightly praised as his tactical adjustments helped ten-man Liverpool salvage a 2-2 draw against Fulham. But it helped that he could call on Diogo Jota. “He did so well to score,” Thierry Henry said of his equalizer on Monday Night Football.
The goal was typical of a player with an incredible talent for finding space, as Jota positioned himself between the lines in the build-up to the chance before firing, untracked, into the gap between Issa Diop and Jorge Cuenca to clear Darwin's pass Nunez to receive and then finish. .
Jota was on the field for just six minutes, in his first appearance in two months after a muscle injury. But the 28-year-old has a habit of scoring big goals. His return to fitness – he also played off the bench in Wednesday's Carabao Cup win over Southampton – is a good boost.
The fact that it was fellow substitute Nunez who had set him up provided further encouragement. Nunez followed his assist with a first goal in a month when he scored the opener in the win at St Mary's Stadium. Slot will hope that these are signs that a corner is turning.
With Federico Chiesa also back from injury, the Liverpool boss will have a full complement of attackers to choose from for the first time. Mohamed Salah, of course, continues to lead the way, with a remarkable total of sixteen goals and thirteen assists in all competitions.
But he is not the only one contributing and they will all be needed for what lies ahead. Sunday's visit to Tottenham, live on Sky Sports, kicks off a run of four Premier League games in 15 days and Chelsea have piled on the pressure by closing the gap to two points.
The stakes are high, even at this early point in the season. But Liverpool now have a big player to fall back on in Jota and the added unpredictability of a full squad of attackers.
Their strength in depth could be a crucial factor in the title race.
No Palhinha, no problem for Silva
Fulham play Southampton on Sunday after taking points from Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham during a four-match unbeaten run. Their strong start to the season is all the more impressive considering they lost their most important player in the summer.
Joao Palhinha's departure to Bayern Munich left a huge void, but Marco Silva's ability to develop his side means the Portuguese international, a wrecking ball of a midfielder who has made more tackles than any other Premier League player in the last two seasons, player whatsoever, has not been missed.
The signing of Sander Berge from Burnley has helped. But replacing Palhinha's extraordinary defensive work required a collective effort, with Sasa Lukic also impressive. The duo have formed an effective partnership of late as part of a revamped midfield.
It was Silva's willingness to adapt that brought Palhinha to the club in the first place. Like him, he came in to replace Jean Michael Seri, a highly technical but lightweight playmaker, as the Fulham boss accepted the need for more physicality to survive in the Premier League. following their promotion from the Championship in 2022.
It turns out they not only survived, but thrived. Sunday's opponents Southampton, nine points from safety at the bottom of the table and without a manager following the sacking of Russell Martin, wish they had adopted a bit of pragmatism themselves.
Tierney is a reminder of Arsenal's evolution
Kieran Tierney made his first appearance for Arsenal since May 2023 in the Carabao Cup win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening, but his time at the club is nearing an end. The Gunners will listen to offers for him in January, with his contract expiring in the summer.
He will undoubtedly have plenty of options. The left back has been plagued by injuries, but at 27 he still has a lot to offer. His quality was recalled with the low cross from which Raheem Sterling should have scored against Palace after the break.
Signed for a £25m contract from Celtic just months before Mikel Arteta replaced Unai Emery as manager in 2019, Tierney was for a time one of Arsenal's best players; a key part of the team that is the team that won the FA Cup in 2020, even though it played to the left of a back three. He was seen by some as a potential captain.
But looking back on those early years under Arteta, leading up to his fifth anniversary in the role, was a reminder of how much the team has evolved. Arsenal are unrecognizable, both in terms of personnel and playing style. Tierney's qualities became redundant with the arrival of defender-cum-midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko in 2022.
Zinchenko, like Tierney, could soon be seen as another casualty of the team's evolution. Arteta's favorite left-back is now Riccardo Calafiori, a player who has the physical stature of a centre-back and the technical quality to operate in midfield.
And so it goes on. Tierney is not exactly Arsenal's longest serving player. That's Bukayo Saka. But while Saka is synonymous with the new era, Tierney is the last link to the previous one.
Live radar: what's on Sky this weekend?
Arsenal travel to Crystal Palace for the Saturday Night Football match, with coverage from 4.30pm ahead of the 5.30pm kick-off on Sky Sports Premier League and the Main Event.
On Super Sunday, rivals Fulham and Southampton will face off in the early game, starting at 2pm, while Tottenham and Liverpool will face each other at 4.30pm. Coverage of that double-header starts at 1pm on Sky Sports Premier League.
Read last week's Radar column
Last week's column focused on how Ruben Amorim's Manchester United were able to exploit Manchester City's defensive vulnerabilities before doing just that at the Etihad Stadium. Daniel Munoz's runs in the box for Crystal Palace were also looked at.
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