Eddie Howe's intervention saw Newcastle United earn a point at Arsenal, Liverpool couldn't handle Brentford's direct football and Pep Guardiola outperformed Graham Potter in London. Here's five lessons we learned from the latest round of the Premier League...

1) Howe system change stems Arsenal flow

Newcastle United were almost completely overpowered in a dominant first 15 minutes from Arsenal, who easily carved the visitors open and should have been able to take advantage, mainly because Newcastle were too aggressive in attempting to press. Perhaps wishing to leave an early mark, they ran too hard at the Arsenal back line, which allowed Mikel Arteta's side to sharply evade the press and reach the final third in numbers.

Eddie Howe managed to stem the tide in two key ways. Firstly, his team stopped pressing so hard and fell into a compressed midblock that squeezed space through the centre of the pitch, suffocating Martin Odegaard and therefore slowing Arsenal down into harmless sideways passing. But more significantly, Howe moved from the initial 4-3-3 into a flat 4-5-1, with Miguel Almiron and Joelinton dropping right back. The tireless defensive work of Joelinton stopped Bukayo Saka in his tracks.

By the end, we had further evidence that Arsenal badly need new players, although Arteta could have made more changes earlier; bringing on Kieran Tierney for Granit Xhaka would have given Arsenal greater width on the left (Oleksandar Zinchenko was dipping infield, helping Newcastle stay narrow) and Fabio Vieira could have been utilised on the right.

2) Liverpool bullied as midfield is again too light

Brentford were simply their usual selves here, and so were Liverpool. The hosts used their bullish brand of long-ball football to shrug Liverpool aside, arriving first to second balls and winning all the aerial 50-50s to set themselves away on the counter-attack. Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo were thuggish in their approach and it simply blew Liverpool away, once again exposing their lightweight midfield.

The first goal came from a corner won via a simple counter through the two forwards combining, and the other two goals came from crosses into the box. These are basic things from a Liverpool perspective that speak to the hesitancy creeping in without strong leaders in defence, but it is also the result of Jurgen Klopp's tactics.

Klopp has moved away from a 4-2-4 to some extent although Harvey Elliot is in a hybrid role that generally sees him roam too far from Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara, leaving these two with far too much ground to cover when opponents like Brentford launch a counter-attack. Liverpool need a stronger player in the middle who can sweep up the loose balls and stand firm in the challenge, and without one – without Georginio Wijnaldum – they seem destined to finish outside the top four.

3) Villa formation change shows Emery's tactical detail

Unai Emery obsesses so much over the details of his opponents' strategy that he either comes up with the perfect plan or, looking too closely, misses something obvious and gets it all wrong. We saw both sides of that in the 1-1 draw with Wolves, a classic game of two halves.

Aston Villa lined up in a flat 4-4-2 formation with Matty Cash on the right of midfield, which felt like an overly negative system that worried too much about Wolves' creative threat. Julen Lopetegui's possession-centric 4-2-3-1 clearly requires three central midfielders to be combated without being overrun, and indeed Wolves completely dominated before the break.

Emery was quick to react, moving to a 4-2-3-1 for the second half with Emiliano Buendia supporting Boubacar Kamara and Douglas Luiz – an instant fix that allowed Villa to grow back into the game. Danny Ings was exceptional, scoring one and playing a brilliant through ball for Leon Bailey's late open-goal miss, but he was only able to flourish because Villa finally had enough numbers in the middle of the park to battle Lopetegui.

4) Guardiola amends initial formation error before subs win it

Manchester City began the game with a classic case of Pep Guardiola over-thinking. Possibly assuming Chelsea would use a back three, and certainly reacting to concern his team is struggling against low blocks recently (Graham Potter sits his team deep against the bigger teams), Guardiola deployed a 3-2-5 formation with Joao Cancelo and Phil Foden as wingers. Off the ball, it became a 4-4-4-1-1 with Rodri moving from central midfield to central defence.

It was very odd, and Rodri's positioning allowed Chelsea to dominate the first half. For the second, Guardiola corrected the issue by normalising his formation and putting players in their more natural positions, with Bernardo Silva terrorising Marc Cucurella on the right side as Rodri began to wrest control of the contest permanently stationed centrally. Once Chelsea were pinned, with Man City pressing far more aggressively since the restart, Guardiola went for the kill.

He brought on £160 million worth of wingers in Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez, who within four minutes combined to score the winner, although it was Kevin de Bruyne who made the chance - by drifting over to the left flank, having noticed that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was not tracking back. Guardiola might have started with an error but his in-game management resolved it expertly.

5) Zakaria shows huge promise for future of Potter-ball

The best player on the pitch was undoubtedly Chelsea's new central midfielder Denis Zakaria, who has excelled since been brought into the team by Graham Potter. His press resistance is world-class, and Zakaria's passing under pressure and capacity to wriggle away from danger in the dribble (he completed three dribbles, more than any other Chelsea player) was the main reason his side won the territorial battle in the first half.

Alongside Matteo Kovacic he formed the basis of a measured of possession football that almost gave Chelsea the performance they wanted against Man City despite two early injuries derailing Potter's initial plan. Like Moises Caicedo or Enok Mwepu, Zakaria's verticality in possession and weaving close control can form the foundation of Potter's tactics at Stamford Bridge.