Andoni Iraola has offered a more measured assessment of Dominik Szoboszlai’s latest setback, while also confirming that Jeremie Frimpong will not be back until after the November international break.

Szoboszlai was forced off after around half an hour after the thigh problem that had already ruled him out of Liverpool’s previous two matches flared up again. Iraola had initially feared the midfielder could be missing “for some time”, but his latest comments were more encouraging. A return for Tuesday’s Champions League meeting with Villarreal is not possible, yet the manager stressed that the injury has not been made worse.

“It’s not a new injury, it’s in the same place as last week, he has not worsened the injury, but we have to be a bit more patient until he recovers fully,” Iraola warned.

“It is not like we now have to wait a lot of time to come back.”

Frimpong’s situation is less straightforward. The fullback played only six minutes against Brentford, going off shortly after his halftime introduction after previously being rested following the midweek trip to Austria.

“Jeremie has a new muscle injury and we will have to wait until he recovers,” Iraola reflected. “It’s going to be difficult I think before the international break.”

With fixtures coming thick and fast, Iraola said he will need the full squad at his disposal and may continue to rotate heavily. He pointed to the win over LASK as an example of how changes can still produce a strong result, and suggested he is weighing up further alterations for Villarreal.

“I am thinking of putting the best starting XI that I can against Villarreal,” he told assembled media. “But maybe it is not the one that you are thinking, because some players are not fresh enough.

“Probably it is better if someone is more fresh to start but I am analyzing the game, how can I put a good starting XI and think in the second half, how can we affect [the game] with the changes?”

The background to those selection calls is clear in the fatigue data supplied by Simon Brundish. Alisson, Florian Wirtz, Jérémy Jacquet, Ronald Araújo and Alexander Isak all feature among the players monitored, with the Fatigue Index described as a scale from 0-100, and anything above 65 placed in the red zone. Brundish says the model combines nine different statistics linked to previous injuries, together with each player’s own record, to provide a loose guide to those most at risk of breaking down.

It is the kind of start every manager hopes for after a summer of preparation: momentum, control and a perfect record to open a Premier League season. Since the competition began in 1992, several sides have produced dream runs that hinted at title glory, only for history to remind everyone that August and September do not decide championships.

One of the most recent examples came from Manchester City in 2023-24. Rodri’s late goal at newly promoted Sheffield United kept their start on track after opening with two wins, and Pep Guardiola’s team then beat Burnley and Newcastle United without conceding before overcoming Fulham and West Ham United. Their run ended at Wolverhampton Wanderers in Gameweek 7, with Arsenal defeating them the following week as well. Even so, City then went on a remarkable 23-match unbeaten stretch, including 11 straight victories to close the season and claim a fourth successive title.

Liverpool’s 2018-19 start under Jürgen Klopp carried similar promise. With Alisson and Fabinho arriving in the summer, the Reds won their first six league matches, including victories over West Ham United, Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion without conceding. A statement win at Tottenham Hotspur followed before Chelsea ended the perfect start at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool would not lose again until Jan. 3, yet a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium proved decisive, and they finished on 97 points without the title.

Guardiola’s first Manchester City campaign also featured six straight wins, although doubts soon surfaced. Their record included just one clean sheet, and a 2-0 defeat at Spurs pointed to problems that later showed up regularly. City dropped as low as fifth in January before recovering to third and securing Champions League qualification, setting the stage for the ‘Centurions.’

Chelsea’s early run under Carlo Ancelotti was built on a similar pattern of fast starts and later pressure. Didier Drogba’s strike helped them beat Hull City on opening weekend, and they followed with six straight victories, capped by a familiar win over Spurs at the Bridge. After two defeats in their next three matches and a draw with Blackburn Rovers in March, seven wins from the next eight, including a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford, carried them to the title by a single point.

Newcastle United’s 1994-95 season under Kevin Keegan was explosive from the outset. They scored 22 times across their first six wins and remained unbeaten until Gameweek 12, with the ‘Entertainers’ capturing the imagination even if the finish fell away. A miserable winter followed, and Newcastle ended the campaign in sixth.

This season, another perfect start has arrived at Manchester City. With seven wins from seven, including victories at Man Utd and Liverpool and high-scoring wins over Sunderland and Ipswich Town, they have again set the early pace, even with off-field scrutiny hanging over them.

Statistics can flatter a player long after the finer details of a match have been forgotten, and Florian Wirtz provided a clear example on Saturday. A single eye-catching number suggested a towering display, but the reality was more complicated than that.

Wirtz did not produce the kind of performance that the raw data seemed to imply. He was useful rather than devastating, and his influence only grew after Yehor Yarmoliuk was sent off just before half-time. Even then, much of the credit attached to Wirtz came from a statistic that deserves a closer inspection.

For much of the game, the Liverpool No. 7 was asked to probe a compact Brentford defence. He drifted into the right halfspace, looking for gaps, but too often his contributions became sideways or backward passes that led to speculative efforts. That pattern defined many of the chances he was credited with creating.

One of the most striking details was that several of those chances came from corners, a reminder of Liverpool’s wider set-piece problems this season. They remain one of only four Premier League sides yet to score from a set piece, despite having collected 18 last season under Arne Slot.

There was still merit in Wirtz’s play. He showed neat touch and awareness in the move that led to Víctor Muñoz’s equaliser, helping move the ball into a dangerous area before Muñoz finished. It was not a straightforward assist in the purest sense, but it did matter at a time when Liverpool were still behind and struggling to break the rhythm of the match.

Wirtz’s official return from the game is his latest reminder of how deceptive modern numbers can be. His 11th assist since joining Liverpool last summer has him second only to Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki for open play assists among Premier League players over the same period, yet the wider picture still asks more questions than it answers.