A star is born at White Hart Lane
Our columnist picks out the five main talking points of the weekend
1. Asia has a new star
Harry Kane ended his goal drought and Christian Eriksen's performance had a certain flashiness to it, but Son Heung Min stoked Tottenham's fire against Manchester City.
The South Korean ran the engine room. He's still only 23 and yet it was man against the boys Fernandinho and Fernando.
They chased him like a dog chasing its own tail, with a similar outcome and sense of public embarrassment.
At the base of an attacking diamond that included Eriksen on the left, Erik Lamela on the right and Kane at the apex, Son was outstanding.
His industry was obvious, but it's important not to bury the South Korean beneath lazy cliches about Asian work-rate.
Son can really play. His neat interplay with Kane will allow the striker to score on a regular basis again, with the young Englishman already complementing the creative force behind him.
Tottenham's stars all delivered in their second-half masterclass of attacking football against City, but none shone brighter than Asia's Son.
2. Don't confuse quantity with quality
With the obvious exception of jubilant Manchester United supporters, few are being fooled by the erratic start to the Premier League season.
Rare quality is in short supply. Louis van Gaal's transitional side are looking good, thanks in large part to skittish behaviour of their rivals.
Taking nothing away from United's steady, but largely unremarkable, rise to an early peak, consider their line-up.
How many would usurp any of United's title winners in their pomp?
David de Gea would get in of course and then, well, erm, that's probably it. Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney can't trump their younger selves, Anthony Martial is young, gifted, but too new to pass judgment, Juan Mata remains a model of inconsistency and the back four are still in search of their best back four.
Without hitting their stride, without finding a regular playing pattern and without an obvious goal supply beyond a promising teenager, United find themselves top of the table.
That doesn't say much about van Gaal's men, but it says a hell of a lot about their inconsistent competition.
Commentators are combusting at the prospect of the most open race in years, but so is an egg-and-spoon dash between wheezing parents on a school sports day.
3. Defend! Clear the ball!
One of the most popular chants at Jalan Besar and S.League games has always been, "defend, clear the ball", which offers no ambiguity. The instructions are pretty clear.
But try telling that to the bumpkin billionaires making fine messes of their title challenges.
Manchester City's house of cards tumbled down with just a little puff from Tottenham's midfield.
Fernandinho and Fernando proved yet again that their names are about the only similarities the two middle men share, displaying the familiarity of a couple on a blind date.
Nicolas Otamendi finds himself in the unenviable position of being a class act surrounded by clowns. Vincent Kompany is needed quickly to restore order.
The same could be said of both Arsenal and Chelsea, but their options are less obvious. Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker both started at Leicester and Chelsea's only alternative is John Terry. At City, Chelsea and Arsenal, pace is proving hard to come by at the back.
4. Rodgers still leads sack race
The fickleness of the annual sack race surpassed itself at the weekend.
Before kick-off, Steve McClaren was on his way. After an hour, he was the Messiah and Mourinho was a very naughty boy.
By full time, both men had earned a reprieve and Brendan Rodgers was destined for the chop because the Liverpool manager is getting sacked every week.
But Rodgers (below) still leads the way, despite the narrow victory against relegation contenders Aston Villa.
His biggest enemy remains himself. When his boys beat a poor side, he might have been better served acknowledging the fortuitous nature of the win while promising to address the nagging, defensive flaws in training.
Instead, he said: "I am the same guy who nearly won us the league, but better."
Now, that's funny. That's laugh-out-loud funny. That's Ricky Gervais, as clueless middle manager David Brent in The Office, funny.
Despite a damning record that shows seven defeats and just 16 goals scored in Liverpool's last 16 league games and the Reds usually veering between terrible to merely tedious, Rodgers is nothing if not defiant.
He's also a tad deluded. Whether Reds fans still find him funny is a moot point. As Christmas creeps closer, Rodgers will learn if Liverpool's American owners have a sense of humour or not.
5. West Ham same but different
Last week, the round-up concluded by extolling the virtues of West Ham.
On a middling budget, they retired the parked bus and played with panache and counter-attacking verve to win at Manchester City.
Against Norwich, they were rubbish. After defeating Arsenal, Liverpool and City on the road, Hammers coach Slaven Bilic said there was now an assumption that they should beat Norwich at home. Well, yes.
Instead, a team with one of the best away records continue to have one of the worst at home, which is ludicrous.
The more things change at West Ham, the more they stay the same. The Hammers still make less sense than Donald Trump's hairstyle.
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