Leicester City thumped Southampton 9-0. Christian Pulisic bagged a hat trick against Burnley. Liverpool came from behind to beat Tottenham. This past weekend in the Premier League was just full of talking points, wasn't it? With so much to talk about, let's get right to it. Here are my five fantasy takeaways from Matchweek 10:
How good is Pulisic?
A hat trick, in just his fourth Premier League start ... that's pretty darn good. Pulisic also took a team-high five shots in Chelsea's 4-2 victory at Burnley, and was tied for the team lead in chances created with three.
This was no fluke, either. Pulisic also had an assist, two shots and three chances created in Chelsea's 1-0 Champions League win over Ajax three days prior, despite only coming on in the 66th minute. He already had two Premier League assists, including one off the bench against Southampton earlier this month. This has been just a small sample size, as Pulisic has only played 403 Premier League minutes so far. Plus, this was his first start since Aug. 31. However, he's definitely earned a few more, at least.
How good was Leicester?
Nine goals is obviously very impressive. Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez both got hat tricks. The other goals were scored by James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Ben Chilwell. However, eight of those nine goals were scored after Southampton's Ryan Bertrand was sent off with a red card in the 12th minute. Leicester City's xG (expected goals) total, according to TruMedia's model, was only 4.90. While that's very high for a single game, it's still well below the total the team actually produced.
Leicester is still only 10th in the league in xG on the season at 14.98, way below its actual goal total of 25. I'd be careful about Perez in particular, as those were his first three goals of the season. Before this, he'd only taken six shots in his first eight appearances combined.
Chances galore
Liverpool fell behind Tottenham in the opening minute on Sunday after a rather fluky goal by Harry Kane. Son Heung-Min's shot took a heavy deflection, the ball then ricocheted off the crossbar, and it fell right in Kane's lap. Liverpool then went on to pretty much dominate the game. They had 67.5% possession, outshot Tottenham 21-11 (including 13 shots on target), and outscored them in terms of xG 2.62-1.30 -- including Mohamed Salah's penalty kick.
Salah took a team-high seven shots, and Trent Alexander-Arnold had seven chances created. Salah is now tied with Raheem Sterling for the league-lead in shots with 33. Alexander-Arnold is now the league leader in chances created with 37, one more than Kevin De Bruyne. As for Tottenham, Kane's goal came on his only shot of the game. It's the fifth time in 10 Premier League appearances this season that Kane has finished with just one shot.
Mixed emotions
Speaking of Manchester City's stars, Sterling scored his seventh goal of the season in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday, and De Bruyne picked up his ninth assist. He now has five more assists than any other player in the league. Sergio Aguero was rested for the second consecutive weekend and is still on eight goals, one behind Vardy, the new league-leader. Gabriel Jesus started in place of Aguero and was unlucky not to score. He took four shots, including one narrow miss in the first half and another that was cleared off the line by Tyrone Mings. He also added a late shot that pinged the crossbar. Jesus has only played 387 minutes so far this season, but he's averaging 6.05 shots-per-90 -- the most of any player in the league who's played at least 90 minutes.
All that said, Man City still looks to be a little shaky at the back. A John Stones error nearly led to an Aston Villa goal on Saturday. Villa got 11 shots against Man City -- including five on target -- and had an xG total of 1.28. Ederson had to work for his clean sheet. In Man City's first 10 games last season, Ederson only had to make 14 saves while compiling seven clean sheets. Over the first 10 games this season, he's had to make 27 saves (nearly twice as many) and has two fewer clean sheets.
Encouraging signs
In a 3-1 win at Norwich City on Sunday, Manchester United scored multiple goals in a game for the first time since the season opener. Marcus Rashford had a goal and an assist. Anthony Martial also scored. In truth, both of them probably should have had a brace as the pair each had a penalty kick saved by Tim Krul. Manchester United took 21 shots and had an xG total of 4.49 (including the two penalties).
Granted, this came against Norwich, who have now conceded 24 goals in 10 games. Only Southampton (25) has conceded more. Norwich also has, by far, the worst defensive record in the league xG-wise, at 23.57 xG conceded. However, there's still reason for hope here. Rashford (6) and Martial (4) combined to take 10 shots in what was Martial's first league start since Aug. 24 due to injury. He's now scored in four of his five starts (across all competitions) so far this season. Perhaps his presence will ease some of the burden on Rashford and help get the duo clicking offensively again.