Published : 04 Sep 2026, 11:12 PM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:47 AM
Two matches into a Premier League season is far too early for definitive conclusions. It is not too early, though, for questions.
Some concern clubs still searching for their first win. Others involve teams that have not dropped a point.
And after a transfer window in which Premier League clubs spent a record £3.46 billion, several managers are heading into the weekend with radically altered squads and very expensive decisions to make. Manchester City alone spent £458 million, while Tottenham committed £303 million.
Here are five questions worth keeping an eye on across the weekend.
Can Chelsea Make Arsenal Play Their Game?
Sunday gives the Premier League its first heavyweight clash of the new season — and perhaps its first real indication of how seriously Chelsea should be taken as title challengers.
Both London rivals arrive with six points from six. Yet they have taken markedly different routes there.
Champions Arsenal followed their opening win with a controlled 1-0 victory at Aston Villa as Bukayo Saka supplied the decisive goal in a performance that required patience rather than fireworks.
Chelsea have been rather less restrained. Xabi Alonso's side followed a 3-2 win at Fulham with a breathless 4-3 victory over Brighton, scoring seven times in two matches but conceding five.
That is what makes the Emirates meeting so intriguing.
Chelsea have shown they can thrive when games stretch, with Cole Palmer, João Pedro and Pedro Neto among the players capable of exploiting space quickly. Arsenal have spent much of their rise under Mikel Arteta becoming very good at denying opponents exactly that kind of game.
Chelsea also have a more immediate historical problem: they are winless in their past 11 meetings with Arsenal.
So the question is not merely whether Chelsea can beat the champions.
Can they force Arsenal into the kind of match Chelsea want to play?
If they can, Alonso's early revival will suddenly look considerably more significant.
Liverpool Have Rebuilt Again. When Do the Wins Arrive?
Liverpool have hardly started badly.
They have not started particularly well either.
Two 2-2 draws under Andoni Iraola — first at Newcastle and then at home to Nottingham Forest — have left the former champions searching for their first league victory under their new manager.
There have been encouraging signs. Iraola's high-energy football is already visible, Alexander Isak has scored and Victor Muñoz rescued the Forest draw with an excellent late equaliser.
But Liverpool have also conceded four goals and twice needed late interventions to avoid defeat.
Now the transfer window is closed and another enormous investment has arrived in Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain. Iraola himself said the end of the window should allow Liverpool to turn their full attention towards results.
That makes Friday's visit to newly promoted Ipswich different from the opening two fixtures.
This is the kind of match Liverpool are expected to win.
Ipswich were beaten 5-2 at Manchester United last weekend, while Liverpool's spending and attacking options leave Iraola with few reasons to play down expectations.
Nobody should be judging a new manager after three matches.
But for a club with Liverpool's ambitions, transition becomes much easier to tolerate when there are wins alongside it.
Portman Road therefore presents a simple question: when does Iraola's Liverpool start converting its promise into points?
£303mn Later, What Exactly are Tottenham Building?
Few managers received a louder vote of confidence over the summer than Roberto De Zerbi.
Tottenham spent more than £300 million rebuilding a squad that had finished 17th in consecutive seasons. Sandro Tonali, Savio, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke were among the arrivals, while Omar Marmoush added another attacking option.
Two league games later, Spurs have no points and no goals.
The 3-0 opening defeat at Brentford was dire. There was more encouragement against Newcastle, particularly during the first hour, but familiar fragility returned as Spurs lost 2-0 and watched another home crowd drift towards the exits.
De Zerbi's own assessment cut to the heart of the problem: “you can't buy mentality in the transfer market.”
That is why Saturday's trip to Nottingham Forest is worth watching beyond the result.
The squad has been changed. The manager has been backed. There is pace and technical quality throughout the side.
What Tottenham have not yet shown is an obvious identity tying it together.
De Zerbi was hired in large part because his teams are supposed to have one.
Two defeats should not alter a long-term project. But after £303 million of spending, supporters will reasonably want to start seeing what the project is supposed to look like.
How Does Manchester City's New Midfield Fit Together?
Manchester City have won both of their opening league matches.
Their most important work may only now be beginning.
Rodri has gone. So have several other familiar components of the Guardiola era. Pep Guardiola himself has departed, leaving Enzo Maresca to reconstruct a team that finished seven points behind Arsenal last season.
City's response has been extraordinary.
Elliot Anderson arrived for up to £116 million. Ayyoub Bouaddi cost £86 million. Then, on deadline day, City paid a reported £125 million for Enzo Fernández, taking their overall summer expenditure towards £450 million.
Those are not three versions of the same midfielder.
Fernández can dictate possession and progress the ball. Anderson offers carrying power and intensity. Bouaddi brings another technical option, while Nico O'Reilly and even Marc Guéhi have been used in deeper midfield roles during Maresca's early weeks. Guéhi actually scored from that position against Bournemouth on opening weekend.
Coventry at home should not be City's sternest test of the season.
That is precisely why it could be revealing.
Maresca has the opportunity to begin showing which combinations he trusts, who sits deepest and how City intend to replace the security Rodri provided for so long.
The question is no longer whether City have bought enough midfielders.
It is how all those pieces are supposed to fit together.
Hull Have Won Twice. Do They Dare Change Anything?
Imagine winning your opening two Premier League matches without conceding a goal — and then spending deadline day giving the manager seven more players to incorporate.
That is Hull's unusual problem.
Sergej Jakirovic's promoted side stunned Manchester United 2-0 on opening weekend before beating fellow newcomers Coventry 1-0, leaving them second only to Manchester City on goal difference after two matches.
There has been nothing especially flashy about it.
Against Coventry, Hull accepted that their opponents would have plenty of possession, defended their penalty area diligently and relied on goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis when required before Liam Millar struck on the counterattack late on.
Oli McBurnie credited their organisation and defensive discipline afterwards.
Then came the transfer deadline.
Hull added seven players to a squad that was already producing results, part of an extraordinary spending drive by the three promoted clubs that pushed their combined summer outlay beyond £400 million.
More talent should make Hull stronger over a 38-game season.
In the short term, however, Jakirovic has a fascinating selection problem before Aston Villa arrive on Saturday evening.
How quickly should the newcomers enter? Who makes way? And how much do you alter a system that has just delivered two wins and two clean sheets?
For once, the promoted team's dilemma is not how to fix a bad start. It is whether strengthening the team risks disturbing what is already working.
