With the September internationals across the nook and deadline day approaching, this weekend felt oddly pivotal at such an early stage within the marketing campaign.
And with that in our thoughts, our Participant of the Week is …
Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool)
📸 Carl Recine – 2025 Getty Pictures
Commercial
There are some footballers who seize a second and by no means let it go. On a tense Sunday at Anfield, as Liverpool and Arsenal fought themselves to a standstill, Dominik Szoboszlai did simply that.
What started as a cautious, tactical duel resulted in a single flash of genius from a Hungarian who appears decided to make himself indispensable in no matter function Arne Slot asks of him.
The stage was good for drama: 83 minutes gone, the scoreboard locked at 0-0, nerves jangling in a floor that has witnessed its fair proportion of late winners. Up stepped Szoboszlai, not from his acquainted midfield perch however from the right-back berth he had been requested to occupy out of necessity.
He positioned the ball some 32 yards from purpose, struck it with that elegant, upright strategy of his, and watched because it bent and dipped previous David Raya.
Commercial
The Kop roared, Arsenal slumped, and Liverpool claimed the form of victory that looks like it’ll matter come spring.
This was no peculiar free-kick. It was Liverpool’s first direct set-piece purpose not struck by Trent Alexander-Arnold or Philippe Coutinho since February 2016. It was their newest such winner since Steven Gerrard in 2007.
it was, too, the longest-distance free-kick scored within the Premier League this season. One strike, and Szoboszlai had positioned himself in rarefied firm, his identify to be remembered alongside two fashionable Anfield icons.
However to cut back his afternoon to a single second would do him a disservice. Slot didn’t choose Szoboszlai at right-back for his free-kick capability; he picked him as a result of he trusted his intelligence, stamina and willingness to graft.
Commercial
The statistics justify that religion. Over the course of final season he was one among solely 11 gamers within the Premier League to document greater than 200 pressures within the last third and 300 within the center third.
He tried 240 counter-pressures – third within the division – and his common of 11.9 per 90 minutes ranked him simply behind Dominic Solanke and Marcus Tavernier. In different phrases, he runs, he harries, he wins the ball again the place it hurts opponents most.
Nor does he merely chase shadows. Szoboszlai is among the many league’s most potent transition gamers, concerned in 19 shot-ending quick breaks final time period, a tally bettered solely by Mohamed Salah, Cole Palmer, Matheus Cunha and Nicolas Jackson.
In a Liverpool crew that has lengthy thrived on fast surges from defence to assault, that high quality is priceless. Marry these numbers to the contact of artistry he displayed in opposition to Arsenal, and you’ve got a footballer who blends business with inspiration.
Commercial
No surprise The Guardian handed him a 9 out of ten, the very best mark on the pitch. No surprise Mikel Arteta admitted afterwards that his crew have been undone not by a tactical flaw however by a “magic second.” Even Raya, crushed from a distance the place he would possibly fairly anticipate to be secure, admitted that the ball swerved in a approach that left him helpless.
Szoboszlai, in the meantime, barely celebrated: a clenched fist, a roar to the evening sky, then straight again to his defensive station. It was a captain’s response from a participant who isn’t but captain.
If the Premier League is a theatre, then each matchweek provides its main man. In week three, there was no contest. Szoboszlai didn’t merely rating the purpose of the weekend – he produced the efficiency of it too, one which carried the statistical spine of relentless urgent and transition play, and the show-stealing flourish of a purpose that can dwell lengthy within the reminiscence.
Commercial
At 24, he already seems like a footballer who can outline Liverpool’s season.
📸 Alex Pantling – 2025 Getty Pictures