Welcome to the briefing, where we meet every Monday this season The athlete will discuss three of the biggest questions arising from this weekend’s Premier League football.

This weekend, Newcastle were swept off the pitch, Everton picked up their first point, Brentford scored again in the first 30 seconds but lost, and Aston Villa made a thrilling comeback against Wolves.

Here we ask you how surprised you were that Manchester City vs Arsenal was actually an entertaining game, what Rodri’s knee injury means for City, what the argument is against overworking players and whether Chelsea are actually any good.

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Who would have expected the Manchester City vs Arsenal match to be so exciting?

One of the reasons the idea of ​​a real rivalry between Manchester City and Arsenal has been so difficult to accept is that matches between the two clubs have been rather boring over the last few seasons.

Last season, the matches ended 1-0 and 0-0, with only six shots on goal in both games. The season before that, although there were more goals, the games were one-sided in City’s favour, especially the game at the Etihad.

So expectations were low for this game. Two coaches cut from the same cloth, obsessing over details and trying to stop their opponents, whose teams had conceded a total of four goals before this game. Most of us were prepared for a game that would be endured rather than enjoyed.

So it was a pleasant surprise.

The first half was wild entertainment, like two animals going at each other properly rather than carefully circling each other without meeting. Erling Haaland’s goal was brilliantly set up and scored, Riccardo Calafiori’s shot was as magnificent as it was unexpected, while Gabriel’s header was emotionally thrilling, a goal scored through physicality and will as much as technique.

This goal was made even more entertaining by the way Kyle Walker distracted the Brazilian, only to immediately lose sight of his opponent at the corner. However, when the camera zoomed in on Walker muttering, “It’s my fault, my fault,” you did feel a little sorry for him.

The second half was completely different. Some will argue that Leandro Trossard’s sending off ruined the spectacle and although it would have been better to see how things unfolded with 11 players on each side, the second 45 minutes were entertaining in a different way.

It’s fascinating when one team is defending absolutely and the other is trying everything to break through. It’s not pretty, it’s basically the same event repeated over and over again, you don’t want more than half of it, but the battle of attrition can still be exciting.

There were also moments of controversy and aggression, from Trossard’s red card to Pep Guardiola venting his frustration from his seat to Haaland hitting Gabriel on the head with the ball after John Stones’ late equaliser. Again, these are not the central elements of a satisfying football match, but when you put them all together, they add something else, the thrill of something extra.

Will this ultimately mean anything for the title race as a whole? Who knows. But it will at least allow us to approach the return leg (currently scheduled for February – ideally they would like it closer to the end of the season) with a sense of genuine anticipation, rather than taking a deep breath and preparing to just get through it.

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Does Rodri’s knee confirm his statement that the players are overworked?

At the time of writing, no one knows the severity of Rodri’s injury, which he sustained in the first half against Arsenal.

When Pep Guardiola was asked about this in his post-match press conference, he said: “I don’t know yet. Rodri is strong. When he leaves the field, he has felt something. Otherwise, he stays there.”

It doesn’t look good, but while we can’t speculate how long he will be out, we can say that if he is out for a longer period of time, it would be a major factor in the title race. Along with Erling Haaland, he is one of City’s two irreplaceable players.

It is no coincidence that City’s performance dropped significantly after his departure: without his injury, they would probably have won the game, not least because they would have had much better scoring chances had he, rather than Ruben Dias, taken some of the 25-yard shots in the second half.

We cannot speculate directly about the cause of Rodri’s injury either. It was a relatively harmless incident. As he was fighting for the ball at a corner, he seemed to step heavily on his right leg and his knee buckled beneath him.

However, we cannot rule out that his workload played a role. And it could be an unfortunate and unwelcome Exhibit A should he again argue that players could go on strike in protest at the number of games they are scheduled to play.

“Someone has to take care of us because we are the protagonists of this, let’s say, sport or business, whatever you want to call it,” he said earlier this month.

“It’s not always about money or marketing. It’s about the quality of the show. In my opinion, I’m better when I’m not tired. If people want to see better football, we need to rest.”

What he didn’t mention is that you are more susceptible to injury when you are tired or when your muscles or ligaments are overused and not rested.

Again, we don’t know what kind of injury Rodri has, how long he might be out for and what the cause was, but he played 50 games last season and then a full international tournament before returning to play for City less than a month later. City’s players have another long way to go this domestic season before they are expected to play in the Club World Cup next summer and after that the cycle starts again.

Unfortunately for him, his knee may have confirmed his statement.

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Is Chelsea… good?

It is probably time to separate Chelsea as a football team, as a collection of players and coaches who take to the field every week, from Chelsea as an organisation, as a company that exists in a completely different reality.

The latter seems chaotic: the various parties involved appear to be informing each other’s media, arguing about who should be the coach, buying players seemingly at random and selling hotels to themselves.

The former, however, seems to be… well, actually pretty good.

Since mid-February, Chelsea have lost just two of 20 Premier League games. The only two teams they have beaten have been… Arsenal and Manchester City. They have picked up 42 points from those 20 games. The only teams with more points have been… Arsenal and Manchester City.

In this young season, they lost to City on the opening day, despite not even playing particularly badly. The game was also slightly overshadowed by the strange situation surrounding Raheem Sterling, a situation that was at least partly caused by the other side of the club, the owners.

Since then, they have crushed Wolves, admittedly weren’t exactly brilliant in the draw with Crystal Palace, struggled to beat Bournemouth and most recently made short work of West Ham.

So are they really good? If not, then Enzo Maresca’s team – who was thrown into a cauldron of chaos in his first Premier League job – are doing much better than one would expect given the current situation.

Nicolas Jackson is scoring goals, Cole Palmer continues to be excellent and Moises Caicedo is finally starting to look like the player they thought they were signing.

Because of the other problems, it will take a while before Chelsea’s competence becomes widely known. In purely football terms, however, things are looking up.

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Soon

• If the Premier League wasn’t exciting enough for you, here come the Carabao. The big boys are gracing the competition with their presence for the first time this week, presumably driven in by footmen in elaborate golden carriages. The most interesting game is probably Wimbledon v Newcastle – the Carl Cort Clasico – but Chelsea v Barrow, Manchester City v Watford and Liverpool v West Ham in the only all-Premier League game are also in action.
• Then there is our old friend, the Europa League, which has some exciting duels in store. On Wednesday, Manchester United will face Twente in the Steve McClaren derby, Nice will face Real Sociedad and Galatasaray will face PAOK, which could be exciting.
• On Thursday, Tottenham host Qarabag as Ange Postecoglou continues his hunt for the promised trophy in his second season, while Ajax host Besiktas and Roma play Athletic Bilbao.
• What to watch out for this week: the outcome of the investigation into a truly bizarre incident at Preston’s game against Blackburn this weekend, in which the former’s striker Milutin Osmajic is accused of biting Owen Beck, on loan at Blackburn from Liverpool.
• Oh, and speaking of investigations, the Manchester City 115 charges thing is still ongoing. Don’t expect to hear anything really definitive from it, but be aware that it’s still happening.

(Top photos: Getty Images)