Image from the Premier League

After another international break of Euro qualifications, broken records and racism scandals, the Premier League returned with some crucial matches in the race for top four, the escape from relegation and, for some managers, much needed results to escape the sack. Here are the results from this weekend’s action:

Everton vs West Ham 2-0
Aston Villa vs Brighton 2-1
Wolves vs Southampton 1-1
Leicester City vs Burnley 2-1
Chelsea vs Newcastle 1-0
Tottenham vs Watford 1-1
Bournemouth vs Norwich 0-0
Crystal Palace vs Manchester City 0-2
Manchester United vs Liverpool 1-1
Sheffield United vs Arsenal 1-0

Here are the grades:
EVERTON 8.5/10
Desperately needed win for Marco Silva’s side. Perhaps poor defending and goalkeeping for Bernard’s goal but Everton kept going and Sigurdsson’s goal was sublime. Iwobi looks very comfortable in the no.10 role and Davis looks better than Schneiderlin has recently. Could be the win to kick start their season.

WEST HAM 5/10
Poor again. After the win against United, they have properly slumped. Felipe Anderson does not look like the same player as he did last season and while Yarmolenko is a good alternative to Hernandez and Arnautovic, the Hammers miss the pair dearly. Letting Kouyate and Obiang leave seems like a mistake too as Rice and Noble don’t look comfortable together.

ASTON VILLA 7.5/10
Another good performance from Villa who no one gave a chance. Grealish is looking top quality and Tottenham should have pressed for him a bit more in the summer. Dramatic winner from Targett too to send Villa Park into delirium.

BRIGHTON 5/10
Stupid red card to give away but kept themselves in the game until the last minute. Not too much of a disappointing result but given their 3-0 win against Tottenham a fortnight ago, it seems like a surprising result.

WOLVES 6.5/10
Like Brighton, after beating Manchester City, you would expect Wolves to dismantle Southampton with ease. Jiminez looks back to his best and could have had a hattrick if not for VAR but finally opened the scoring with a good goal.  They will hope for another win in the Europa League after a shock win at Besiktas last time out.

SOUTHAMPTON 6.5/10
Southampton may feel a bit lucky to come away with a point but they’ll take it. Danny Ings is a quality striker and the Saints will hope he remains fit all season because, if so, he will score 15+ goals for them and drive them out of relegation candidacy.

LEICESTER 7/10
A bit lucky but Leicester’s top four run continues as they drop back to third after City’s win but will feel they have what it takes to stay there. They have a great squad and have made it very cheaply in comparison to the Big Six. They have a good run of games now and could extend this run quite easily.

BURNLEY 6/10
Unlucky with the late minute VAR call but Burnley were a bit all over the place defensively anyway – something unassociated with Sean Dyche’s side. Wood is a quality player and will always be a threat. They should not be having any problems with relegation this season but what will be next for them?

CHELSEA 7/10
It took the Blues long enough! A great finish but Chelsea were knocking on the door all game but couldn’t find the net. Kovacic and Pulisic were excellent impact players that day and changed the game for Chelsea.

NEWCASTLE 6/10
Unlucky but they were toothless again. Saint-Maximin is a dangerous player but Joelinton doesn’t make enough chances himself. He is a £40m player and so should score so much more than he has done. This could be Newcastle’s downfall as Carroll offers practically the same thing.

TOTTENHAM 4/10
What is happening at Spurs? They definitely did not deserve to win the game but Alli managed to steal them a point and they have to build off this or they are in for trouble. Eriksen and Alderwiereld look set to leave, there are even transfer rumours of Kane and Alli leaving too. Could Pochettino go too? We will see…

WATFORD 7/10
Hard luck for Watford as they deserved something from this. Should they have had a penalty? I think so but this could galvanise a comeback from the dead for the Hornets. Only time will tell if it was Watford’s resurgence or Tottenham’s fall from grace

BOURNEMOUTH 5/10
With all the firepower Bournemouth has, you would expect them to get four from this injury-hit side. But they failed to break the deadlock. I doubt this shows signs of concern but they will want to bounce back next week with United approaching the week after.

NORWICH 7/10
You would have to give credit to Norwich after a disastrous performance to Villa. They kept a clean sheet with all their injuries and honestly they could have won the game had Ramsdale not been on top form.

CRYSTAL PALACE 5/10
Unlucky but overwhelmed in the end. Ederson was forced into good saves but City did what City does best. Palace have more important games coming up and will want to get back to winning ways soon.

MANCHESTER CITY 8/10
Easy-ish win for City even when they aren’t at full strength. Quickfire double and they controlled the game for the most part. Should cruise in the Champions League and have a good run of games until the big clash with Liverpool before the international break and will hope to maintain the six point gap if not decrease it.

MANCHESTER UNITED 8/10
A great performance which makes the result leave a bitter taste in United fans’ mouths. Although a draw is not the result most fans will say was wanted, the majority were expecting United to get totally battered. Daniel James and Marcus Rashford were electric, Fred, Pereira and McTominay were aggressive and quick on the ball and overall De Gea was not truly tested once during the game. It was a lack of concentration that led to the equaliser but you would hope that against Partizan and Norwich, United can come away with vital, morale-boosting wins to build on this positive result.

LIVERPOOL 5/10
You have to say, this was one of Liverpool’s worst performances so far. They were toothless due to United nullifying their fullbacks and Van Dijk and Matip looked all over the place with the pace of United’s front two. The midfield subs made the difference and Lallana may just have saved his Liverpool career. Liverpool have a tough set of games coming up with away and home matches against Genk sandwiching a Premier League match against Spurs and a Carabao Cup tie against Arsenal. You would expect Liverpool to win four out of four but honestly, if they perform like they did at Old Trafford, they could be in for a shock.

SHEFFIELD UNITED 9/10
A great win for Sheffield United as they kept out a rampart Arsenal attack. They may have been lucky with the penalty call but they deserved the three points overall.

ARSENAL 4/10
Well, this was not on the script. Pepe must feel a lot of pressure on him for missing practically an open goal. Aubameyang was basically a ghost and their defence is still an issue. I don’t understand why Torreira isn’t playing over Xhaka and why Ceballos does not start regularly. They are both far better players than the one’s in their place. Baffling.