Shocking reds, late winners and the Isak derby: Best games of the 2025-26 Premier League season

Newcastle 2 - 3 Liverpool, Aug. 25

In August 2025, the Premier League season seemed to hinge on one player: Swedish striker Alexander Isak. Newcastle had him, Liverpool wanted him and transfer negotiations between the two clubs had stretched on fruitlessly through the dog days of summer.

Isak, desperate to join Liverpool and fed up with negotiations, refused to play for Newcastle as the Premier League season began. His absence hung over this fixture like a thick fog. How would Newcastle perform without his services? How would Liverpool?

Quite well on both counts, as it turned out. The two teams played out a heated fixture in front of Newcastle's raucous home fans. It was a messy, fast-paced game that proved neither side needed Isak to stake its claim on the Premier League. The Swede did eventually join up with Liverpool, but he arrived out of shape and unfocused following his self-imposed exile. Newcastle is better off without him; based on this stunning win, Liverpool probably would've been better off without him, too.

Sunderland 2 - 2 Arsenal, Nov. 8

Every Premier League pundit predicted Arsenal would be a top team in 2025-26, but no one predicted that newly promoted Sunderland would be right up there with it. Why would they? Every single promoted team went straight back down to the Championship again in 2024-25. There was no reason to believe 2025-26 would be different.

Sunderland had other plans. The team came at the Premier League with full force under the watchful eye of coach Regis Le Bris and the iron foot of midfielder Granit Xhaka. This draw against Arsenal wasn't its most impressive result, but it was its most impactful: striker Brian Brobbey's last-gasp equalizer told pundits everywhere that the team's success was no fluke.

Man United 0 - 1 Everton, Nov. 24

On paper, this was a routine Everton win over a struggling United side. In reality, it was anything but. Everton played this game with 10 men after midfielder Idrissa Gueye was red-carded in the 13th minute...for attacking his own teammate. 

Everton hanging on to win was wild; Everton laughing off the drama and welcoming Gueye back into the fold with open arms was wilder still. "I like my players fighting with each other if someone doesn't do the right action," Everton coach David Moyes shrugged. "There's no problem. We move on."

Aston Villa 2 - 1 Arsenal, Dec. 6

Aston Villa began the 2025-26 season in trouble: It took four games to score a single goal and five to earn its first win. It looked like a precipitous fall for one of the strongest sides of the past two seasons.

Villa coach Unai Emery wasn't worried. He backed his players to find their rhythm, and find the rhythm they did. By autumn, his once-hapless Villa side was racking up wins against title contenders without breaking a sweat; by winter, it was a genuine title contender itself. This plucky, hard-fought win over Arsenal proved it.