Erik ten Hag's tactical shift led Manchester United to victory over Liverpool. Newcastle's home support played a role in the thriller with Manchester City. And Steven Gerrard is out of ideas at Aston Villa. Here's five lessons we learned from the past Premier League weekend...

1) Ten Hag changes tactics to surprise Liverpool

For all the post-match analysis praising Manchester United's desire and work-rate, with yet more misplaced focus on running stats (which generally just show you which had team less of the ball, and therefore had to run further), the 2-1 win over Liverpool was all about the dramatic tactical changes made by Erik ten Hag.

He knew that Liverpool would dominate possession and acted accordingly; sitting his team in a midblock and rarely pressing onto the visitors, as well as ensuring David de Gea consistently hit it long from goal kicks. Effectively, he copied the direct and defensive model deployed (sometimes successfully) by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, abandoning his high-pressing and short-passing tactical philosophy in the process.

It is curious how few people have focused on this change. Beating Liverpool is a huge moment for Ten Hag's authority in the dressing room, but holding 29% possession – their second lowest share at Old Trafford over the past ten years – is not the template for the future. Counter-intuitively, bigger challenges lie ahead.

2) Klopp's midfield problems show they badly need new signings

Tactically, the defining feature of this contest was the configuration of Liverpool's midfield. Harvey Elliot was very good at progressing the ball through the lines, but he was not able to cover ground behind well enough to screen the counter-attacks – and Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were significantly worse. Put simply, this midfield three is nowhere near good enough if Liverpool are to challenge for the title.

Without Fabinho there is nobody to properly cover, meaning as soon as Liverpool lose the ball the opponent can transition quickly. Without Thiago Alcantara, there is nobody with the press-resistance to keep Liverpool in control of the ball. It meant that Man Utd could easily shuffle the ball out wide to Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho to launch breaks, with Elliot and Milner caught ahead of the ball and Henderson lacking the intelligence to do what Fabinho does.

Milner in particular looked his age, while as a three they just could not find each other, lacking the sharpness and technical ability to recycle the ball and pin United back. Jurgen Klopp never replaced Georginio Wijnaldum, and now the injuries are piling up Liverpool look significantly short in this area. The Premier League title is already out of reach.

3) Man City get sucked in by Newcastle as Walker struggles with role

After the game Pep Guardiola bemoaned his team playing too quickly at St. James Park, and indeed it did appear that Manchester City were sucked in by the atmosphere and the way Newcastle took the game to the visitor. City were too quick, dribbling directly at their opponents and getting over-excited by the big transitional gaps that appeared as Newcastle's own heavy attacks broke down.

This is a problem for Guardiola because it made the game stretched and disordered, in turn meaning Newcastle got chances to counter-attack once an improvised and elongated City team lost the ball. Instead, Guardiola needs his team to slow things right down, recycle possession, and then wait for everyone to get into their meticulously-prepared shape; one that covers every position to shut down the counter-attacks at source. In other words, this was an exciting game because Man City stopped playing like a Guardiola team.

As a result of this end-to-end carnage, some of Guardiola's most unusual tactics didn't work. Kyle Walker operated as a central midfielder in this match, which left that right-hand channel completely open for Newcastle to shuttle the ball out to Allan Saint-Maximin. Joelinton was brilliant running off the back of the advancing Man City midfield and was the key dribbler in getting Newcastle up the pitch.

One issue to keep an eye on: Erling Haaland's presence as a traditional nine, rarely coming short for a pass, may have contributed to Man City's loss of control. Ilkay Gundogan did appear to sit too high in an attempt to link with Haaland, removing players from central midfield and creating a gap for Newcastle to exploit.

4) Marsch's pressing badly unsettles Chelsea midfield

The performance of the weekend saw Leeds United show, arguably for the first time, just how much Jesse Marsch is changing things despite the club retaining its core ideas from the Marcelo Bielsa era. Their pressing from the front is no longer man to man, which pulls the team dangerously out of shape, but instead is an intense form of swarming key players; setting traps with multiple players charging at an opponent from all sides.

This led to the Edouard Mendy error for the first goal and generally disrupted Chelsea, whose struggles were at least partly the result of Thomas Tuchel picking Jorginho and Conor Gallagher in central midfield. Both players struggle when placed under pressure and it showed, with Leeds able to constantly pinch the ball and charge into the final third.

However, it is notable that Leeds United held just 39% possession. Whereas Bielsa would demand ultra-aggressive defending all of the time, Marsch has normalised Leeds by accepting his team need to retain their shape and drop back when the first wave of pressure has not worked. Leeds pick their moments better now, to both conserve energy and ensure they are not caught out in the transition.

5) Gerrard's consistent formation suggests a worrying lack of ideas

Aston Villa once again used a Christmas Tree 4-3-2-1 formation for this game, and then once again changed things up by switching to a diamond 4-3-1-2. There is a reason why almost no other big club in the modern game uses either of these formations. Both are too narrow to lead to long-term possession control and both rely far too much on the same two or three moves to get width.

It was a particular problem for Villa on Saturday because Crystal Palace are superb at squeezing the space in central midfield and winning multiple tackles in this area. It is damning that Steven Gerrard did not realise this and change his system accordingly, leading to a predictable victory for the hosts as Wilfried Zaha dominated in the space behind Matty Cash – in those very open wide areas.

Equally worrying is how Villa only ever make space with the same move: a pass into midfielder, the simple pass back where it came from, then a quick switch out to the advancing Cash. It looks good when it works, but Villa need a lot more in their locker.