1) Manchester United’s tired bodies holding them back
Ole Gunnar Solskjær said Manchester United had “three or four weeks to catch up to a few teams”, and how it showed. United could not get out to prevent crosses or track Brighton’s runners. Their lack of match sharpness is a consequence of their lack of a pre-season. It was interesting to hear Gareth Southgate say the players in his England squad in early September who had played in European competition until mid‑August were the fittest because they had, effectively, played all the way through. Solskjær has a different view and feels comfortable in advancing it as mitigation, essentially because it is not his fault, rather that of these unprecedented times. But the message is United cannot do the basics because their bodies will not let them. David Hytner
• Match report: Brighton 2-3 Manchester United
2) Burnley paying price for market failures
The transfer market is often painted as a one-size-fits-all answer for any team struggling for form. It is not, and Sean Dyche is proof that good old-fashioned coaching can improve a side as much as any signing. But good coaching can’t pad out a perilously thin squad, and at the moment Burnley’s failures in the market are coming back to haunt them. Since the team’s seventh-place finish three seasons ago, the only new arrivals to establish themselves in the first team have been Jay Rodriguez and Erik Pieters, neither of whom has been an unqualified success, while fees and wages have been wasted on Ben Gibson, Matej Vydra and Joe Hart. Dyche is aware of his problem: “We need players,” he said on Saturday. The transfer market doesn’t always hold the answer, but it can help. Alex Hess
• Match report: Burnley 0-1 Southampton
3) Ancelotti turning Calvert-Lewin into a proper target man
Amid his recent goal rush, it is easy to forget Dominic Calvert‑Lewin first broke into the Everton side as a winger. Only now is he coming of age as a centre-forward, a transformation driven as much by tactics as by technique. “He’s more focused in the box,” says the manager, Carlo Ancelotti, who has increasingly used Calvert-Lewin as a lone target man, with Richarlison in more of a support role. “He doesn’t spend a lot of energy outside the box.” This is borne out in the early numbers: while Calvert-Lewin is taking 4.3 shots per 90 minutes (compared to 2.9 last season), his passing stats and build-up play are well down, suggesting a player sharpening to a point: a forward increasingly focused on goalscoring. Against Crystal Palace he had only 35 touches, fewer than any other Everton player, even Jordan Pickford. But most importantly, four of them were shots. Jonathan Liew
• Match report: Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton