EPL Review: Casemiro is cooked, Salah continues to evolve

Following every weekend of Premier League action, theScore examines the most important developments and biggest talking points to emerge from the slate of matches. Below, we dissect Matchweek 3 of the 2024-25 season.

Casemiro’s very bad day 😬

Manuel Ugarte can’t step into Manchester United’s midfield soon enough.

Casemiro, the man Ugarte will likely replace in Erik ten Hag’s starting lineup after the upcoming international break, delivered an all-time stinker in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Liverpool at Old Trafford. The Brazilian gave the ball away with a weak pass that created Liverpool’s first goal, and he lost possession in his own half to gift the Reds their second tally seven minutes later. The home crowd audibly groaned whenever he had the ball, especially as he turned it over or put it out of play aimlessly just about every time he touched it. Mercifully, he was substituted at halftime. Casemiro was so bad, in fact, that Ten Hag felt Toby Collyer, a 20-year-old without a Premier League minute to his name, gave his team a better chance coming out of the break.

Casemiro may as well have been playing for Liverpool on Sunday.

Questions about whether it was wise to spend upward of £60 million on an aging midfielder were justified when Manchester United signed Casemiro two years ago. That fee and contract were always going to age poorly. But even the biggest skeptic couldn’t have envisioned the five-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid falling off a cliff like this. At only 32, he looks incapable of even moving around the pitch.

A drop in his performances was inevitable. Age, yes, but he was also leaving a fine-tuned Madrid midfield where he, Luka Modric, and Toni Kroos had an intrinsic understanding of their respective roles, built over several years. There’s none of that cohesion at Old Trafford, where Manchester United are an objectively worse team. Still, his rapid decline has been tough to watch.

Ugarte won’t fix everything by himself – United’s issues are structural and deep-rooted, and Ten Hag, despite ample time, has proven incapable of actually fixing them – but at the very least, he can’t be this bad.

Quick free-kicks 📝

Rice caught red-handed: The most controversial moment of the weekend saw Declan Rice sent off for his role in a bizarre sequence when he deliberately poked the ball away from Brighton’s Joel Veltman, who was trying to take a quick free-kick in Saturday’s 1-1 draw. The ball gone, Veltman instead kicked Rice, who ended up on the ground writhing in pain. It got worse seconds later when he was shown a second yellow for delaying play, something officials have been instructed to enforce more severely this season. Mikel Arteta’s anger was understandable, as were his calls for consistency with decisions, but, ultimately, the call to send Rice off was correct, even if the manner in which it happened was unusual. The influential midfielder will now be suspended for the north London derby after the international break. With new signing Mikel Merino injured, Arteta already has a headache to deal with.

Imperious Man City: Seeing the four-time reigning champions atop the Premier League table with a perfect record after three matches is no surprise. Far from it. But, it’s more than a little disheartening if you’re an Arsenal or Liverpool supporter and had genuine hopes of this finally being the season Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut took its foot off the pedal. City, known to start somewhat slowly before flipping a switch in the second half of the season and burying the competition, already look unbeatable. Erling Haaland has back-to-back hat-tricks, PFA Player of the Year Phil Foden has only played 45 minutes, and Rodri, arguably the best midfielder alive, hasn’t been on the pitch for a single second yet. How, exactly, do you stop this team?

Everton’s collapse: We wrote in this space last week that Everton’s first two matches of the season couldn’t have gone much worse. Yeah, about that. Things can always get worse. Cruising at 2-0 up in the 87th minute, Sean Dyche’s team capitulated in humiliating fashion against Bournemouth, conceding three goals, including a 96th-minute winner, to stay pointless. Dyche ripped into his team, lambasting his players for “not doing the hard yards and the basics” needed to see out the win. Things are bleak for the Toffees right now. How does Dyche turn this sinking ship around? There aren’t any obvious answers.

Star performer 🌟

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

This could very easily have gone to Haaland once again – that will likely be a common theme this season as he continues to find the net with frightening regularity – but Salah’s brilliant start to the campaign warrants praise.

The Egyptian helped Liverpool pick Manchester United apart Sunday, starring at one of his favorite venues and continuing to feast on the Red Devils. Salah, who scored once and assisted on both of Luis Diaz’s goals, now has 10 tallies in nine appearances for Liverpool at Old Trafford in all competitions. He’s been directly involved in 18 goals against Manchester United in the Premier League, more than any other player.

Watching him tee up Diaz twice – first by standing up an inviting cross at the back post, and then by picking him out quickly and precisely inside the penalty area – was an important reminder of his aptitude as a creative force, something that can, at times, be overlooked because of his scoring ability. For someone who has faced (inaccurate) criticism in the past for being too selfish on the ball, Salah morphing into more of a creator in the latter stages of his career would be an intriguing development. Like so many of the best players in the game, he continues to evolve.

Best XI 😎

(Courtesy: FotMob)

Highlight of the weekend 🎥

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde uncorked a wicked strike for Wolves this weekend, and Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze curled an effort into the corner with aplomb against Chelsea, but we’re going with Liam Delap’s ferocious goal in Ipswich Town’s eventual 1-1 draw with Fulham. Come for the solo run and finish, stay for the eruption of the Portman Road crowd. Lovely.

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Stat of the weekend 🔢

Sorry, Everton.

Social media moment 📱

We’re dipping into the Championship this week, where Leeds United knew exactly what they were doing with this announcement of Wilfried Gnonto’s contract extension.

Where we stand 👀

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