Mikel Arteta went wide to stun Unai Emery at Aston Villa, Bruno Fernandes' positional shift is inspiring Manchester United and Ruben Selles aced his audition at Chelsea. Here's five lessons we learned from the Premier League weekend...

1) ARSENAL MOVE WIDER TO UNLOCK NARROW VILLA SHELL

The first hour of the match at Villa Park looked like the complete unravelling of Arsenal, and just because they found a way to regain composure does not mean their wobble is over. There were strangely large gaps appearing between their midfield and attacking lines as some players pressed and others didn't, creating the kind of disjointedness that Mikel Arteta will have found unacceptable. This was most prominent ahead of Aston Villa's opener:

But Arsenal managed to recover from this by switching up the play. For too long in this match they were worryingly narrow, using their two interior full-backs to keep things in an overly-congested central area of the pitch, just as they had done against Brentford and Everton. Like these two, Villa are very good at blocking the middle and crowding it with bodies, but unlike in those two fixtures Arteta found a way to rejig things.

For the final 20 minutes Arsenal started sliding passes in between Villa's full-backs and centre-backs to get the ball in behind in wide areas, a tactic you don't see often from Arteta but one that is essential to breaking down this kind of team. It forced Villa deeper and deeper, moving them into uncomfortable positions until Jorginho found space for that late strike.

Arteta needs to make sure the confidence boost of this late win refocuses Arsenal for their off-the-ball work, because they simply cannot allow the slackness of that first half to be repeated.

2) SOUTHAMPTON'S NEW LONG-BALL APPROACH RUFFLES CHELSEA FEATHERS

Ruben Selles spoke openly in the week about his desire to take the Southampton job full-time and he stands a good chance of doing so after an excellent tactical battle-plan won the points at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea were dreadful – see below – but praise must first go to the aggression and compactness of Selles's 4-4-2 model, which was very similar to how Ralph Hasenhuttl would set this team up.

Holding a defiant midblock, Selles instructed his players to apply pressure only in the middle third of the pitch, which unsettled Chelsea's rhythm by denying them space through central midfield. But the major twist on the Hasenhuttl blueprint was the use of new striker Kamaldeen Sulemana as a target man: Saints hit long and high balls up to him whenever possible and Sulemana was outstanding at plucking them out of the air, holding off the defender, and laying a simple ball to one of his team-mates.

Wide midfielders Mohamed Elyounoussi and Stuart Armstrong were instructed to hold narrow positions, providing the close support that Sulemana needed for his lay-offs, which gave Southampton plenty of ground in the Chelsea half, further ensuring Graham Potter's possession could not pin the visitors back.

3) POTTER-BALL TOOTHLESS AGAIN

Southampton greatly benefited, of course, from another dreadful performance from a Chelsea team that have won just two of their last 14 Premier League games. Among increasing calls for Graham Potter to be sacked, it is becoming more and more difficult to defend his teams as they perpetually struggle to create chances.

Enzo Fernandes and Matteo Kovacic were crowded out far too easily in this match, unable to put passes together in any meaningful way and indeed ensuring that, for the most part, Chelsea simply passed the ball around the back before losing it. Potter's team only started to put Saints under pressure in the second half when Raheem Sterling and Mykhailo Mudryk were introduced to bring directness in the dribble, as Chelsea used very simple tactical methods to work at the stubborn Saints resistance.

This follows an emerging pattern. Potter is doing simpler things each week, stripping back the very tactical complexity that landed him the role in the first place in order to improve results in the short term. It doesn't seem to be working, and unless something dramatic shifts he won't be in the Chelsea job for much longer.

4) QUICK TRANSITIONS AIDED BY FERNANDES' NEW ROLE

Erik ten Hag is gradually improving Manchester United's automatisms – the set plays drilled in training that allow a team to string together passes without thinking – and these were very obviously on show in the 3-0 win over Leicester City. After riding their luck a little in the first half, Man Utd increasingly looked confident when pinching the ball in the centre and beginning a sharp vertical transition, which was a Ten Hag specialty at Ajax.

More recently, these have improved at United thanks to Bruno Fernandes's new role on the right wing. Tucking in, he occupies the right half-space, an area that is more likely to be left open by opponents than the traditional number ten area. With Wout Weghorst's movement distracting Leicester away from Fernandes, he was able to grab two assists to help Marcus Rashford's good form continue.

5) LIVERPOOL CONTINUE WITH RENEWED DIRECT POLICY TO BEAT NEWCASTLE

Considering how hesitant Liverpool have been this season, Jurgen Klopp will be delighted they used the momentum from their strong showing against Everton last weekend to put this match to bed within 22 minutes, when a Nick Pope red card sealed Newcastle's fate and arguably put Liverpool in control of the race for the top four.

From the outset Liverpool were playing long passes into forwards willing to make runs on the shoulder of the last defender. Darwin Nunez's opener came from a clever Trent Alexander-Arnold pass that it's hard to imagine him attempting a few weeks ago, while Pope's red card was the result of Alisson Becker kicking quickly after claiming the ball from a corner. Mohamed Salah was alert to it, suggesting Klopp has been keen to stress the importance of disrupting the opponent through directness.

It is how Liverpool first rose to dominance under Klopp and it is the route out of their difficulties this season. The timing of the revival is perfect, too: a similarly energetic showing on Tuesday can overwhelm a stuttering Real Madrid in the Champions League.