Five games are nowhere near enough to define a Premier League season, but they are enough for the first assumptions of August to begin colliding with reality.
The opening phase of the campaign ended with Manchester City alone at the top, Arsenal’s perfect league record gone and several clubs already performing rather differently from pre-season expectations.
There is plenty of time for all of that to change. This international break is longer than usual, with the September and October windows combined into one international period. Premier League football does not return until 10 October.
That makes this a useful moment to take stock. Here are five things the weekend told us.
1. Manchester City are winning even when they lose control
Five Premier League games. Five Manchester City victories.
That sounds like a story of complete control, but Sunday’s extraordinary 5-3 win over Sunderland was anything but.
Brian Brobbey scored a hat-trick for the visitors as Sunderland repeatedly threatened to turn the afternoon into a major upset. Enzo Maresca’s side were exposed defensively and needed Erling Haaland’s late fifth goal before the contest was finally settled.
Yet City still found a way.
Antoine Semenyo scored twice, while Rayan Cherki and Enzo Fernández were also on target before Haaland completed the scoring. City have now won their opening five Premier League matches and enter the break three points clear at the top.
There was plenty for Maresca to examine despite the victory. Sunderland demonstrated that City can be disrupted and their defence can be attacked.
The less encouraging part for everybody else is that Sunderland did all of that and still went home having conceded five.
2. Brighton’s win over Arsenal felt bigger than an early-season upset
Arsenal arrived on the south coast having won their opening four Premier League matches and seven games in succession in all competitions.
They left after a 3-0 defeat which brought their perfect start to an abrupt end.
Brighton were excellent.
Pascal Gross opened the scoring before 19-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas doubled the advantage, with Chema Andrés adding a third after the interval.
The result deserves attention beyond what it says about the champions.
Brighton have developed a habit of absorbing significant changes without surrendering their identity or ambition. This was another example of a team prepared to attack one of the strongest sides in the country rather than merely trying to contain them.
Five games cannot establish a European challenge. They can establish that Brighton deserve to be taken seriously again.
3. Brentford continue to make a habit of confounding expectations
Friday night’s 3-0 victory over Chelsea might have been presented primarily as another warning for Xabi Alonso. It deserves to be viewed from the other direction too.
Brentford remain unbeaten in the Premier League after five matches.
Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago and substitute Fábio Carvalho scored as the Bees overwhelmed Chelsea after half-time.
There is something familiar about the wider story.
Brentford have repeatedly had to respond to the loss of important players and staff since reaching the Premier League, yet have continued to find ways of remaining competitive.
Keith Andrews’ side are doing more than surviving another transition. Their start suggests they can make life extremely uncomfortable for clubs with considerably greater financial resources.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have a rather different three weeks ahead of them. They have taken only one point from their last three league matches.
The break gives Alonso time to address the problems. Brentford can spend the same period reflecting on just how good their own start has been.
4. The promoted clubs have not arrived simply to make up the numbers
Recent Premier League seasons have encouraged a gloomy assumption about promoted clubs: enjoy the promotion, then prepare for a year-long struggle against relegation.
The opening five matches have offered some resistance to that idea.
Leeds United enter the international break fifth and unbeaten after Sunday’s goalless draw with Crystal Palace.
Hull City’s unbeaten start finally ended with a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle, but they have already demonstrated that promotion need not mean immediate submission.
Coventry City supplied one of the weekend’s best stories by winning 1-0 at Nottingham Forest. Jay Dasilva’s goal delivered Coventry’s first Premier League victory since their 25-year absence from the top flight began.
None of those clubs has achieved anything yet. Five games provide no guarantee of survival and difficult periods will come.
But there is a significant difference between fighting relegation from the opening weekend and establishing early evidence that you belong at this level.
Several of the promoted sides have already managed the latter.
5. Manchester United and Tottenham have three weeks they badly need
An international break can interrupt momentum. For Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, interruption may be exactly what is required.
Matheus Cunha’s deflected 89th-minute equaliser rescued a 1-1 draw for United at Fulham on Sunday and prevented Michael Carrick’s side suffering a third defeat in the space of a week.
United again struggled to turn periods of pressure into control. They have five points from their opening five league matches.
Tottenham’s position is even more striking.
Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat by Aston Villa left Spurs without a league victory and they ended the weekend bottom of the Premier League.
There is little value in declaring a season a crisis after five games. There is equally little value in pretending poor starts do not matter.
Both clubs now have an unusually long period without Premier League football in which to assess what has gone wrong.
There is an intriguing twist when domestic football returns: Manchester United and Tottenham meet at Old Trafford on 10 October.
A strange opening chapter
The Premier League will look different when it returns in October. Injured players may be back, managers will have had time on the training ground and the early table will begin to carry a little more weight.
For now, Manchester City have established the clearest marker. Five matches, five wins and a three-point advantage is an impressive beginning to the post-Pep Guardiola era.
But perhaps the more interesting story of the opening weeks is how little else has followed the expected script.
Brighton have made an excellent start. Brentford and Leeds are unbeaten. Coventry have a Premier League victory again. Tottenham are bottom, while Manchester United and Chelsea already have uncomfortable questions to answer.
Five games cannot tell us how the season will finish.
They have made the wait until October considerably more interesting.
