ALEX CROOK PL GW5 TAKEAWAYS: Ever Green Gross & Moyes Miracles

After another entertaining weekend of Premier League action, Star Sports football ambassador ALEX CROOK is back to discuss his main takeaways from gameweek five…

⭐ STARSPORTS.BET PREMIER LEAGUE OUTRIGHT AND SPECIAL MARKETS ⭐

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🕊️ EVER-GREEN GROSS LEAVES ARSENAL PIG SICK

Pascal Gross continued to roll back the years as Brighton pulled off the surprise result of the season so far by thrashing Arsenal 3-0.

Manager Fabian Hurzeler described the German as ‘like a fine wine’ after four goals in his past five games but it was more of a champagne performance from the superb Seagulls.

Arsenal simply could not handle Brighton’s relentless attacking nor the aggressiveness of their press.

Right at the heart of a stunning team display, which some Brighton fans labelled the best in the club’s 125-year anniversary, was the 35-year-old Gross.

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✋ HIGH FIVE FOR JACKSON

Considering the two teams had scored just one goal between them in their first four league games, Tottenham and Aston Villa served up a very entertaining affair.

Villa’s 3-2 victory leaves Spurs rock bottom heading into the first international break and means Unai Emery has won more games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium than the hosts’ last THREE managers combined.

Someone else who relishes his trips to north London is Villa striker Nicolas Jackson.

The Senegalese international has now netted five of his 25 Premier League goals against Spurs and was a real handful for the home defence.

With Jackson in the goal-scoring groove, brighter days should be ahead of last season’s Europa League winners.

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🔵 DAVID MOYES WORKING MIRACLES ON MERSEYSIDE

Everton head into the three-week hiatus in the giddy heights of fifth place in the Premier League table.

The Toffees’ unbeaten start to the season is even more impressive given an uninspiring transfer window in which they missed out on a number of top targets.

Had Folarin Balogun’s deadline day move from Monaco not collapsed it is doubtful Thierno Barry would be David Moyes’ number one striker.

Barry is making the most of his reprieve and scored his fifth goal of the season in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Ipswich before having another controversially scrubbed out for offside.

Miracle-worker Moyes has made his team hard to beat having kept five clean sheets in seven games in all competitions.

If Barry can keep taking chances at the other end, then a surprise European tilt could be on the cards.

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🔴 LIVERPOOL ACE JACQUET AN UPGRADE ON KONATE

Nobody is really talking about Liverpool as title contenders, but the Reds are unbeaten after their first five league games under Andoni Iraola.

Iraola celebrated his return to old club Bournemouth with a hard-fought 1-0 win courtesy of Alexander Isak’s second-half strike.

The 2025 champions have also kept three successive clean sheets for the first time since that title-winning season.

And while Isak was the match-winner, it was 21-year-old defender Jeremy Jacquet who was the real man-of-the-match.

It was Jacquet’s £60m arrival from French club Rennes that persuaded Liverpool to allow Ibrahima Konate to leave on a free transfer, and at the moment he is looking like an upgrade.

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⚽ HAT-TRICK HERO BROBBEY IN ELITE COMPANY

The best game of the weekend was undoubtedly Manchester City’s 5-3 triumph over Sunderland.

It was chaos at the Etihad but great fun for the neutral and for Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey.

The Dutch destroyer became only the fifth player in Premier League history to score a treble for the losing team and the first in 19 years.

Brobbey shares that little piece of history with Dwight Yorke, Dion Dublin, Roque Santa Cruz and Matt Le Tissier (who amazingly managed the feat twice).

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📋 TEAM OF THE WEEK

Suzuki (Villa)

Kayode (Brentford), Struijk (Brighton), Tarkowski (Everton), Hall (Newcastle)

Gross (Brighton), King (Fulham), Manzambi (Villa)

Jackson (Villa), Brobbey (Sunderland), Schade (Brentford)

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Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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