The Score: Spurs’ last chance, Arsenal’s fatal error and Forest relegation fears

This is The Score with Daniel Storey, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here. Hello and welcome back to The Score, my weekly column on the biggest talking points of the Premier League weekend. For the new season, we’ve given it a little revamp – with a new structure and some shiny bells and whistles at the end. Please let me know your (positive) thoughts on social media: @danielstorey85 If the quality of opposition – and Brighton were magnificent to a man – disallows this from entering the pantheon of great Premier League shocks, the manner in which Arsenal capitulated under serious pressure caught us all off guard. Anybody who tells you that they saw this defeat, in this way, coming is lying to your face. Arsenal could not cope with Brighton’s energy. There is no other explanation. Fabian Hurzeler’s team give the impression of a whirlwind when at their best, swarming you out of possession and then ducking and diving and swapping positions when they win the ball. That’s evidently slightly misleading: what looks like chaos is actually organised and pre-planned. It’s similar to how Eddie Howe’s Newcastle occasionally got into Arsenal’s face at St James’ Park. You whip up a storm on the pitch and in the stands and you take your chance that you will unnerve a champion team. It was instructive how Arsenal’s senior players (David Raya, Gabriel and Martin Odegaard in particular) were incapable of instilling calm in the rest. One explanation is that, after a year of a very settled team, there was some unfamiliarity in this Arsenal XI. Ezri Konsa is a new partner for Gabriel, who looks a lesser central defender without William Saliba and seemed unsure of whether to engage or fall back. Jurrien Timber was making his first start after injury and looked rusty. Arsenal lost the game in midfield because Bruno Guimaraes was wretched and he should have been substituted at half-time. It’s reasonable that the demands of Mikel Arteta’s football takes some time to acclimatise to, but Bruno looked heistant in possession and too easy to pass through without it. Arsenal are not used to being bullied (Photo: PA) With Odegaard further forward and ineffective, it left Declan Rice as effectively a one-man midfield. That’s never going to be enough with Brighton’s high energy. Rice’s frustrations was epitomised by his kick out that could easily have prompted a red card. The other theory is that Arsenal are simply not used to this happening and so struggled to adapt with Brighton running riot (an observation that was made about Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City from time to time). In the Premier League, they had trailed in only two away games in 2026 (Manchester City and Bournemouth). They are just not used to getting flustered. Conceding three goals in a match for the first time since 2023 is stronger evidence for Arsenal’s general relentless excellence more than it is a reason to panic now the streak has ended. Their closest title rivals are not going to be perfect, although we should welcome any handbrake at all placed upon a procession season. This is probably only a blip and, to paraphrase what Arteta said to open his post-match press conference, Brighton are a damn good football team. Still, we have a faint blueprint, even if it is never a guarantee and requires a double dose of bravery. This Arsenal team has proven that it is too good for you if you simply try to survive. The only hope is to bring the noise, use 60 per cent of your energy in the first 30 per cent of the match and try to firmly shove them off their stride. We need to talk about Forest’s home record The most baffling football team in the Premier League (and yes I’m almost certainly so emotionally invested that I can never think anything else). Forest have been really very good away from home over the last couple of years, but they will forever have a lower ceiling upon their performance than anybody involved would like if they remain incapable of improving their home record. In 2026, Forest have won one home league game (against Burnley, who are now bottom of the Championship). It is the main reason Sean Dyche was sacked, the main reason Vitor Pereira is no longer here and the main reason Oliver Glasner has not made his mark yet. Forest have played Leeds, Tottenham and Coventry at home and failed to score a single goal. Until that improves, they will remain in the relegation conversation simply because it has been so long since they used the City Ground to generate any meaningful momentum. Spurs fan mood dictates what happens next For now, Roberto De Zerbi will retain the trust and faith of Tottenham Hotspur’s hierarchy. As my colleague Michael Hincks wrote on Saturday, Spurs are pretty good in 81.5 per cent of the pitch – it’s the incompetence in both penalty areas that is costing them (and is quite a big deal). Tottenham fans are losing patience fast (Photo: Getty) The complication is that De Zerbi is reportedly the highest-paid manager in world football, his win percentage currently stands at 29 and his only victory this season – after that lavish spend – came against Charlton Athletic of the Championship in the League Cup. If the mood of “we’re actually playing OK” stands up to scrutiny, it becomes meaningless if you then crumple into a ball and only start playing again when the contest is over. The mood of the fanbase is instructive now. De Zerbi will stress the importance of time on the training pitch over the international break. Spurs’ next four home opponents are Coventry, Crystal Palace, Ipswich and Fulham. Supporters who left early on Saturday are waiting for something to cheer. It has been too long. That run is the chance – probably their last one. Even if Spurs are beaten at Manchester United, Chelsea and Leeds around the four home games. De Zerbi has to claw some goodwill with 10 points in those fixtures. Take seven or fewer and this quickly becomes another stagnation season. Manchester United are caught between two gears Watching Manchester United is a deeply infuriating experience, even for a neutral observer. Their basic problem under Michael Carrick is that they are at their most potent when the game is open and quick. Bruno Fernandes can drop into space. Marcus Rashford and Bryan Mbeumo can run beyond full-backs and Matheus Cunha can play more like an attacking midfielder than a nominal centre forward. The problem with that? United are incapable of playing a match in this gear without leaving themselves exposed in central midfield and defence. That is why they were so ponderous in the Manchester derby. Even with an extra player on the pitch, Carrick was still worried about the threat on the counter. He thus ceded territory to a team who hurt them anyway. For more on the very many reasons why I don’t think this is going to work out for Carrick, read more here. Gameweek 5 highlights Goal of the weekend – Manchester City vs Sunderland I’m not doing it and you can’t make me. I’m not picking one goal when what you must do is go and watch all eight goals from the Etihad. Antonio Semenyo, Jeremy Doku, Brian Brobbey and Enzo Le Fee were all brilliant and that barely covers half of it. One of the most entertaining and highest-quality attacking Premier League matches I’ve ever watched. Statistic of the weekend Brobbey is the fourth player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick against the side starting the day top of the table, after Robbie Fowler vs Aston Villa in November 1998, Dirk Kuyt vs Man Utd in March 2011, and Romelu Lukaku vs Man Utd in May 2013 (Opta). He really is very good indeed. Villain of the weekend – Emiliano Martinez (Chelsea) It’s not that Martinez is a bad goalkeeper. It’s that he has been promoted (and self-promoted) as the best in the world when he’s nowhere near it. He parries shots into dangerous areas, can make shots into the bottom corner better than they are and his kicking is often erratic. And we’ve seen all of that at Chelsea and under the brighter spotlight. Player of the weekend – Pascal Gross (Brighton) With apologies to Brobbey, Gross has run two magnificent Brighton wins in four days through his majestic positional sense, composure under pressure and frankly disturbing energy levels given his age. I thought Brighton were guilty of romanticism when bringing Gross back at the age of 34. I am an idiot.