Rodri, Mo Salah, and the Premier League cracker, so who are the title favourites now? – The Warm-Up

Some second half, huh. A penalty shout and worldie Ederson pass were the main talking points of the opening 45, but after the break Liverpool and Manchester City served up a right treat that will have us re-watching that Mohamed Salah goal throughout the international break, and the videos of Pep Guardiola going ballistic in front of a cooler than cool Mike Dean (he knows the James Bond gig is up for grabs y’see), but we’ll also be flip-flopping as we try to decide which one of these two or Chelsea really are the team to beat in the Premier League this season.

Advantage City after four points at Anfield and Stamford Bridge? Perhaps, but seven games in all have exposed some flaws and yet all look a cut above the rest. City may be third and joined on 14 points by Manchester United, Everton and Brighton below them, but it’s hard to see this top three changing as the months roll by and class tells out.

The only question will be who sits in first, who can grind out wins like Chelsea did on Saturday, who can pick up valuable away points like City did on Sunday, and who can create those moments of magic when it really matters most.

Reading around and scrolling through social media you’d have thought Salah and his goal-of-the-season contender proved to be the match-winning moment – quite rightly too with Jurgen Klopp describing it as a goal the Kop will remember for 50, 60 years – but when all is said and done and the ‘10 moments that defined the title race’ articles are being written, it could well be Rodri’s flying block to deny Fabinho which gets the mention it deserves. A pivotal play to prevent Liverpool picking up another two points and topping the tree heading into an international break that is pretty much disrupting the season just as things were starting to take shape.

Anyway, there’ll still be some fallout from the match this week as Liverpool investigate the spitting allegations, but in the months to come and the points that follow, we’ll be looking back and calling this a season-defining match – probably, maybe, but for which team we just don’t know yet. Possibly Chelsea.

Away from Anfield it was all happening in London yesterday in the Premier League. Crystal Palace battled back to earn a point with Leicester at Selhurst Park, Tottenham secured a much-needed 2-1 win over Aston Villa, but how about those Bees, eh?

Brentford beat West Ham at the London Stadium to outline just how tricky an opponent they are going to be this season, away as well as at home. If survival was the aim then they’re a third of the way there after just seven games, and with just one loss so far they’re looking more than comfortable.

It’s got the feel of a new club in a new league bounce, and one that can typically end with a 19th-place finish in the second season, but that is so far away to worry about that Brentford fans must be the happiest bunch among the Premier League crop right now.

Next up, albeit after the international break, Chelsea visit Brentford. Tasty.

Nope, we weren’t entirely aware the Hornets were doing poorly enough to warrant a managerial change either.

They are, *checks table*, 15th in the Premier League table with seven points, hardly a disastrous start, while on Saturday they, *checks fixtures*, lost 1-0 away at Leeds – hardly a disastrous result.

Poor old Xisco Munoz, whose name is the answer to a pub quiz question you’ll likely be getting wrong come Christmas.

"It's been a wonderful journey and it concluded in a way that I neither expected nor wished for," said Munoz, the man who did not expect what has become the expected under the Pozzi family’s ownership.

And so. Out with the old, in with the whoever next? Well, ladies and gentleman, introducing Watford’s manager for the month – Claudio Ranieri.

He’ll last as long as it takes to say dilly ding dilly dong, pick up a nice pay packet, and be the first of possibly two Watford managers dismissed in 2022. That’s about par for the course from the club, who make Chelsea’s ruthlessness look meek by comparison.

Thanks to Mister Chip, we learned this weekend just gone was the first for 18 years where Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid all lost on the same weekend. Some stat.

Given Barca’s plight the defeat at Atletico Madrid was predictable – Luis Suarez’s phone celebration no doubt haunting Ronald Koeman at night – but few would have predicted Real Madrid losing 2-1 at Espanyol, even fewer would have though PSG would lose 2-0 at Rennes with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria all starting and then failing to record a single shot on target, and virtually no one would have thought Bayern would lose at home, 2-1, to Eintracht Frankfurt. No one.

A freak set of results, an 18-year rarity, but no doubt a wake-up call for Real and Bayern in particular, who still top their respective tables but only on goal difference. PSG are still comfortably first with a six-point cushion, while Barca are, yikes, ninth and if they can afford it, looking for a new manager this week. So probably not then.

Only because it’s a debate that could take us through to the next set of Premier League fixtures. Mohamed Salah, the best in the world right now? Twitter is abuzz with talk of the Egyptian king leading the way on a weekend where Messi misfired and Cristiano Ronaldo stropped his way down the tunnel…

In light of the Paul Riley scandal here’s an important read from Ciara McCormack for the Guardian. She played in Denmark, Norway and Australia, represented the Republic of Ireland from 2008 until 2014, and has opened up about sexual abuse being rife in the women’s game:

A veritable lull. And that’s because it’s internationals week (we might have mentioned that already). So expect to see England’s Twitter posting those videos where Phil Foden’s arriving at St George’s Park with a Tesco bag and Gareth Southgate’s waiting to welcome Fikayo Tomori back, but apart from that, not much else really, and nowt tonight but for a Northern Irish Premiership match between Crusaders and Coleraine – apparently.