Premier League reaction, analysis and your views
Arsenal beat Crystal Palace to extend lead to four points
Manchester City down to fifth after losing at Aston Villa
Chelsea and Liverpool also lose over the weekend
Bournemouth beat Forest to rise to second, Tottenham up to third after winning at Everton
Struggling Wolves still without a win at losing to Burnley
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Are Liverpool and Manchester City still Arsenal's main challengers? No, because neither of them are in second place. We need to stop disrespecting "smaller" teams who are high up the table on merit. If Liverpool and City want to be called challengers, they need to start winning games. Simple as that.
Callum
Aston Villa 1-0 Man City
Aston Villa 1-0 Man City
Image source, Getty ImagesManchester City had started to gather momentum after recovering from back-to-back defeats - to Tottenham and Brighton - in the opening month of their season.
Pep Guardiola's side bounced back with a resounding 3-0 win at home to rivals Manchester United before battling to a 1-1 draw at Arsenal.
Three consecutive wins followed - against Burnley, Brentford and Everton - before they suffered their third defeat of the season at Aston Villa.
Man City's first nine games:
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Let's NOT forget that the season ends in May 2026 - not Halloween week! City, Liverpool, Bournemouth, AV, AND Spurs are all in with a shout but - big 'but ' - the festive/new year periods are a better marker than now. Time will tell.
Carolyn
Aston Villa 1-0 Man City
Aston Villa's impressive home record was not lost on manager Unai Emery in his post-match comments to BBC's Match of the Day:
"Our fortress. Villa Park. We are feeling here so, so good. The positive energy to us was fantastic. We needed to show our wishes and commitment, and our capacity to play.
"I think everything trying to get together, the positive energy, the quality of the players, the tactics that we did and the effort. I am so proud. How the supporters are pushing us is very, very important."
Villa feeling good at 'fortress' Villa Park - Emery
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I'm a Manchester City fan but I just want to take a second to say well done to Villa last night. A lot of talk of us "dropping behind" but Villa were simply the better team. Nullified our attack and created better chances, Brilliant atmosphere at Villa Park too, Kudos.
Harry
Aston Villa 1-0 Man City
Pep Guardiola had warned in the run-up to Sunday's defeat at Aston Villa that it was one of the hardest games his Manchester City side would face this season.
That opinion was certainly not baseless.
Aston Villa have now lost just two of their past 24 Premier League home games since the start of last season (won 14, drawn eight).
No ever-present side has lost fewer home matches in the competition across that period (Liverpool and Arsenal, also two).
Image source, Getty ImagesAston Villa 1-0 Man City
Man City performed well but fell short on their finishes - Guardiola
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been very positive about his side's form over the past month and remained optimistic about the current squad's potential.
His mood was in stark contrast to much of last season, when the six-time Premier League winner cut a frustrated figure as he attempted to manage a squad transition.
Despite sitting fifth after nine games, as we have seen City remain second favourites for the title according to Opta's latest predictions.
And Guardiola remained upbeat after Sunday's loss.
"We made a lot of chances, but unfortunately, we couldn't score. It was the finishing, but overall, the performance I am happy with," he told the BBC.
"We performed really well. After we dropped a little, in general, the second half was much better. In general, our game was good."
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I don't like Arsenal or Arteta. But you've got to admire the work that's gone into building sustainably over 6 years. They've built a team that doesn't leak goals, so knowing one goal will often win games, it can also create a mental block for the opposition.
Paul
Aston Villa 1-0 Man City
Shamoon Hafez
Football news reporter at Villa Park
Highlights: Cash secures win for Villa against Man City
Manchester City's nine-match unbeaten run was ended at Villa Park as Unai Emery celebrated three years as Aston Villa manager with a hard-fought victory.
After a mixed start to the season, which continued with a shock defeat by Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League on Thursday, the battling victory over City was Villa's fourth on the bounce in the Premier League.
Matty Cash's precise left-foot finish from the edge of the box after 19 minutes was enough for Villa to take all three point and climb to eighth in the table - one point behind fifth-placed City.
Could it finally be Arsenal's year? That conversation has moved on somewhat in recent weeks to: Who could challenge Arsenal for the title?
The latest predictions from Opta's Supercomputer - which looks at the games each side has left and predicts the percentage chances of them finishing in each position - has the Gunners as clear favourites.
Mikel Arteta's side are now given a 67.34% chance of finishing top.
While Manchester City and Liverpool may have dropped out of the top four, but they are still second and third favourites to win the title.
Fourth-placed Sunderland, meanwhile, are given a 0.0% chance of doing a Leicester despite their promising start. The promoted side's most likely finishing position remains 14th (13.37%).
Image source, OptaBefore we move away from Arsenal and on to their faltering title rivals, here's a look at what's coming up for the Gunners as they seek to maintain their early advantage.
Arsenal are featured in three competitions in the upcoming weeks, with games against Brighton and newly promoted sides Burnley and Sunderland to come in the Premier League.
The Gunners end November with a north London derby, the visit of German giants Bayern Munich, before a trip to Chelsea.
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Opposition fans want to make Arsenal success about the end, that way they can dismiss the journey, but that’s what football is about, enjoying the moments of which we had many over last few seasons.
Martin Hammond
Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
Theo Walcott
Former Arsenal forward on Match of the Day 2
Arsenal can do a bit of everything now. The whole team has a fear factor.
People are just afraid of them and it is great to see.
It's starting to now be normal that they don't concede goals.
They will have a bad patch and last year it was too many draws, but I don't think that's going to happen this year.
There is belief in the whole club now.
Unsurprisingly, Arsenal rank top in the Premier League this season for goals scored both from corners and free-kicks.
Their ability to capitalise on set pieces was analysed by the Match of the Day 2 team last night.
'Arsenal are winning games in all kind of different ways' - Walcott
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As an Arsenal fan, there is still opportunity for dropped points. 0-0 draws in the last two games (Fulham and Palace) were highly plausible. I’m in awe at our defensive and set piece work, but I’m excited that there’s still room for improvement in open play.
Billy B
Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
It is Arsenal's rock solid defence which has provided the foundation for their strong start.
The Gunners rank top of the league in a host of defensive metrics after nine games, including:
Image source, Getty ImagesArsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said he valued his side's win over Crystal Palace more "than any other victory this season".
And, with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City all losing, the Spaniard admitted Arsenal have "a big opportunity".
Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace: Eberechi Eze goal was 'unbelievable' - Mikel Arteta
Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
We will start our Premier League weekend review with Arsenal, after Mikel Arteta's side opened up a four-point gap at the summit with victory over Crystal Palace.
Not only that, but the Gunners are six points clear of Manchester City and seven above Liverpool - the two clubs who have managed to ruin their title ambitions over recent years.
Eberechi Eze's excellent, acrobatic finish following another well-worked set-piece routine was enough to secure a 1-0 victory.
It means Arsenal have still only conceded three goals in winning seven of their nine league games this season.
Image source, Getty ImagesOf course, as Arun alludes to there, while things are on the whole looking very fun and competitive, one team has managed to assert themselves at the summit.
Arsenal, runners-up in each of the past three seasons, have a significant early advantage over the sides most would consider to be their main title rivals as they look to end what will be a 22-year wait for the title.
Is this set to be their year at last? There's a long, long way to go, but the early signs look very promising...