The damning stats behind Man United’s home collapse, why Arsenal’s Haaland taunts were small-time and the reason Aston Villa could be the perfect place for Marcus Rashford – PREMIER LEAGUE THINGS WE LEARNED

It was a fine Premier League weekend for north London as Arsenal had the last laugh against Manchester City and Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou pulled off a vital win away to Brentford.

Both Manchester sides finished with tails firmly between legs while the unstoppable train that is Liverpool breezed past another stop by dismantling Bournemouth.

Nottingham Forest put on a 7-0 clinic to embarrass Brighton in a result that saw some Seagulls fans beginning to question the suitability of boss Fabian Hurzeler.

And the David Moyes effect continued to rub off on Everton as they put hapless Leicester City side to the sword in a big result at the bottom.

Meanwhile, Wolves and Southampton claimed much-needed wins against Aston Villa and Ipswich respectively, piling huge pressure on Kieran McKenna’s side as they sank further from safety.

In the newest instalment of this weekly column, Mail Sport picks out five of the most interesting talking points to emerge from the Premier League’s latest round of matches.

UNITED’S HOUSE OF HORRORS

Walking out of Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon there was a group of fans vigorously debating how it continues to go so wrong at home.

The answer isn’t all that difficult: Manchester United are a soft touch.

Old Trafford used to be an arena where opposition players would turn up and be eaten alive either by their opposite numbers or the 65,000 passionate United fans who turned up knowing their team would eventually come out on top.

That is long gone. It’s a mirage, a nostalgic recollection of how things used to be.

So to see Crystal Palace deservedly add to Manchester United’s misery on Sunday was not to be surprised but alarmed at how those in positions of power seem to have no idea how to turn Old Trafford from a House of Horrors to one where the jump scare affects opponents again.

Defeat on Sunday made it nine games this season in which they have failed to score; five of those shut-outs were at Old Trafford and three have come on Ruben Amorim’s watch.

In fact, only Everton (12) and rock-bottom Southampton (10) have failed to score more in the Premier League this season than this United side.

Amorim walked into his press conference eager to not look too defeated by what he had seen but he doesn’t have a poker face to pull it off.

He looked a touch forlorn as he addressed questions thrown in his direction about why his team continue to look so anaemic in attack, on the day when Marcus Rashford was sent out on loan to Aston Villa and there is no guarantee of a deadline day replacement.

But the facts speak for themselves. Old Trafford is the stage where too many Manchester United players end up with stage fright.

Sunday’s defeat meant that United have lost seven of their first 13 league home matches this season, their joint-most at this stage of a league campaign, along with 1893-94 (also seven home defeats in 13).

Scrutinise further and you see that since the beginning of last season, only Wolves (16) have lost more Premier League home games than United’s 13.

There are other bad habits that urgently need addressing – the fact they have failed to score in the first half of 18 league matches this season, the most of any team in the competition, is incredibly alarming – but front and centre is that this is a team who are being given the runaround in front of their own fans.

Amorim can’t fix the myriad problems at United overnight but he’s got until the end of this season to show he can make this rag-tag group a more solid, coherent unit on their own patch, if for nothing else then to conjure some belief heading into 2025-26.

As it stands, opponents from top to bottom are licking their lips at a trip to M16.

ARSENAL TAUNTING MEANS ZIP WITHOUT A TITLE

To see Myles Lewis-Skelly copying Erling Haaland’s celebration, Gabriel taunting the Manchester City striker and the Arsenal PA playing Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Humbled’ at full-time after their mightily impressive 5-1 win on Sunday night is all fine and good, but it means nothing unless you back it up with prizes.

Arsenal have a habit of being overly performative when it comes to City. Celebrations always feel bigger, the taunting makes for great clickable content on social media and the consensus online is that City and their players have been ‘mugged’ off. More often than not Arsenal can’t just let their football do the talking when it comes to this fixture.

Haaland will be accused of being ‘rattled’ by some, reaping what he sowed in the reverse fixture to others.

The Man City walked off the pitch smiling and pointing to the golden badges on his City shirt – the ones reserved for the reigning winners of the Premier League and the FIFA Club World Cup. He had also earlier pointed at his golden Premier League badge during a brief conversation with Gabriel.

But Haaland can gloat as much as he wants and Arsenal can bite as often as they want because ultimately until they back it up by winning the league title or a major European title it’s a lot of noise.

Arsenal have come on leaps and bounds under Mikel Arteta and are Liverpool’s closest challengers in this title race. But they haven’t won a league title since 2003-04, haven’t won a domestic honour (outside of the Community Shield) since 2019-20, and have never got their hands on the UEFA Champions League.

Beating City in this fashion deserved the praise it has received but are Arsenal set up to beat City or win a league title? Goading a group of Treble winners when you’ve not got your hands on any trophy in years is small-time stuff.

The answer to what Arsenal see as their biggest prize will say all you need to know on the mentality of this Arteta side.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME FOR SLOT & CO

To put Liverpool’s win at Bournemouth into context this weekend, since Arne Slot’s side dispatched the Cherries at Anfield in late September, Andoni Iraola’s side had lost just once on their own turf.

Brighton got the better of them in a 2-1 win but in that run they saw off Arsenal, Man City, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest, and had established themselves as one of the forces to be reckoned with in the Premier League.

But then along came Liverpool to send a timely reminder that nobody loves life on the road as much as them. Wherever they pitch their tent it seems to bring sunshine.

Victory on the south coast on Saturday means they are now unbeaten in their last 14 away games in the Premier League (W9, D5). Only from January 2019 to February 2020 (21) have they had a longer run without defeat on the road in the competition.

Broken down even more succinctly, the Reds haven’t lost an away league game for 283 days – when they fell to defeat at Everton.

At Brentford where they won 2-0 they boasted 62 per cent possession and produced a staggering 37 shots. At Bournemouth it was 51 per cent possession and 19 shots.

Wherever they go Slot’s title favourites metaphorically kick their shoes off, put them up on the table and do as they please, to make them the league’s best away from their own patch.

Of course, their next road game happens to be a trip to Goodison Park so if any team was revved up to bring an end to their rivals’ dominance, it’s this reinvigorated David Moyes side.

YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME

Few connections out on Premier League pitches are as strong as the one between Anthony Elanga and Chris Wood for Nottingham Forest right now.

Elanga’s hat-trick of assists in Saturday’s 7-0 romp of Brighton meant that he has now assisted Wood 10 times in the Premier League, the most one player has assisted a single team-mate in the division since the start of last season.

‘We have that bond, the connection and he does superbly for me and it shows in the statistics,’ Wood said of his connection with Elanga.

‘A hat-trick of assists never goes unnoticed. The boy is on flames!’

Elanga has been a revelation for Forest this season and it is worth noting that only Mohamed Salah, Bukayo Saka and Ollie Watkins have provided more than his 17 Premier League assists since the start of last season.

If Nottingham Forest are to go the distance and finish in the top four, the telepathy of Elanga and Wood is going to be key to getting them over the line.

RASHFORD IS PERFECT FIT FOR VILLA

Wherever he ended up, Marcus Rashford was going to find himself fending off the doubters.

And while a loan move to Aston Villa is far from a sure-fire bet, it does feel like it’s perfectly set up for him to rediscover the form that earned him that mega £325,000-a-week contract at Manchester United.

For one, Villa play a 4-2-3-1 system and Rashford can slot into that left wing role, with Morgan Rogers on the other side.

Secondly, Unai Emery’s Villa side are set up for speed in transition and the Spaniard has a track record of improving attacking players – just look at Rogers.

Thirdly, he is in a fresh environment, away from the spotlight at Manchester United, where he should feel the love.

Much rests on Rashford, too, don’t get that twisted.

He has seen his name sullied in recent weeks, question marks around his standards and application in training and while Ruben Amorim dismissed the suggestion it would be ‘embarrassing’ for Manchester United if Rashford thrives at Villa Park, he does have the chance to make his parent club look a tad foolish all while they struggle to score goals.

What version of Rashford Aston Villa are getting will be hotly debated until he makes his debut but it is set up almost perfectly for him.

He wants to force his way back into the reckoning with England and few shop windows feel as beneficial to him as Aston Villa. Over to you, Marcus…