The most eventful weekend by far in London’s season threw out many memorable storylines (not to mention a few off colour headlines) and by Saturday night saw five London clubs in the top seven.

For the second week running, there were two London derbies in the Premier League and neither failed to justify their star billing.

USA defender Chris Richards had an absolutely outstanding performance for Crystal Palace at the London Stadium which ensured his side carried their amazing and under-covered unbeaten streak to 17 matches. That is quite an extraordinary record for a club like Palace.

They are unbeaten in nine matches this season across four competitions and of course finished their last campaign without defeat in their last eight, including that FA Cup final win over Manchester City.

Richards made a series of goal saving tackles notably in the 42nd minute when West Ham’s Callum Wilson was about to break clear away. Just 21 minutes later, he cleared Paquetá’s looping header off the line to stop a certain goal.

He also made several key defensive headers and it was the American’s pass to Adam Wharton that set up Tyrick Mitchel’s winning goal. It was an all-round sterling performance by the US international that saw the Eagles grab their first derby win of the season.

Embed from Getty Images
[Tyrick Mitchell (left) celebrates Crystal Palace’s winning goal with American Chris Richards during their Premier League victory over West Ham United at London Stadium on September 20, 2025.
(Photo by Mark Leech/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)]

For the Hammers, it was their third straight home defeat in a London derby.

In the other derby, Fulham beat Brentford 3-1 in a very entertaining game with some strange goals.

The home side went behind to a Mikkel Damsgaard goal before striking twice inside 100 seconds to take the lead. Fulham keeper Bernd Leno decided to play the ball short to Josh King who had his back to the outfield and was right in the middle of the pitch width-wise.

He was easily robbed when he panicked with Brentford players homing in on him. He swept a hurried pass to his left, underhit it and the Dane took full advantage.

Fulham are guilty of giving away goals like this far too often and it’s time Leno was told to boot the damn thing upfield when faced with a high press.

Fulham’s first was a messy goal after the Bees were guilty of playing too much pinball in their own six yard box, but the second was a superb sweeping move with Brentford’s nemesis Welshman Harry Wilson, finishing superbly.

It was his seventh goal for Fulham against the Bees and the act of him scoring against Brentford, now even has its own song.

The third goal was comical. Ethan Pinnock looked on as he expected his defensive colleague Nathan Collins to head a left wing cross away. When he didn’t, Pinnock tried to duck so the ball would sail away harmlessly.

Sadly for the experienced centre half, the ball landed on the back of his neck and looped into his own goal.

On Sunday, Arsenal showed a never give up attitude to obtain a vital 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City, for whom Erling Haaland had scored very early. The Gunners pulverised their illustrious visitors and Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage time equaliser was well deserved.

To give some idea of Arsenal’s dominance, they had 67% of possession, twelve shots and forced eleven corners. They made 582 passes to City’s 300. Despite the dropped home points, their fans can grasp onto many straws of optimism that they can push Liverpool for the title.

In the other London v Manchester clash, there was no shortage of talking points.

Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez hared off his line in the 5th minute and felled former Brentford striker Bryan Mbuemo. It was as clear a red card as it was a dirty and even more utterly dumb tackle, with almost the entire game to go.

Referee Peter Bankes had little option to send the keeper off and Filip Jörgensen was introduced to stand between the sticks. Poor 18-year-old Estevao’s debut was ruined by being the outfielder withdrawn. Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca also removed Pedro Neto and introduced the former Fulham defender Tosin Adarabioyo. This came back to haunt him.

Despite the defensive bolstering, Chelsea did not even survive ten minutes a man down, Bruno Fernandes opening the scoring in the 14th minute.

Inexplicably, with a 1-0 deficit, Maresca then removed his third creative player with Cole Palmer leaving for the more defensively minded Andrey Santos. It did however later transpire that Palmer was carrying a knock while starting his first league game since August after injury.

Even so, that made the earlier removal of both Estevao and Neto look a little over cautious with so long to play. Surely a rusty and recovering Palmer might have been a better candidate to leave after the early red card – and certainly not both the others?

Casemiro added a second before half time as Chelsea seemed to disintegrate at Old Trafford – again.

Then it became even weirder!

Casemiro received a second yellow with a foul that would always have been a first yellow card had the offending player not been already carded; but would only have received a second yellow if the referee was looking for a make up call for a previous red to the opposition.

London Derby Table as it stands on September 21, 2025 with only Arsenal yet to have a derby game

But although admittedly soft, it did fall into ‘yellow card territory’ and suddenly Chelsea had been gifted an opening. However the absence of all their creative engine was now a huge disadvantage although Trevoh Chalobah managed to pull a late goal back for the Blues.

Chelsea remain winless in their last 14 visits to Manchester United.

Tottenham Hotspur commendably came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Brighton. Richarlison scored just before half time and a late comical own goal saved the North Londoners from defeat.

Mohammed Kudus fired in a hopeful cross from the right and found Seagulls’ Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke with his weight hopelessly on the wrong foot. He could only watch on helplessly as the ball looped off his knee into the Brighton net.

Spurs did have 64% possession and won ten corners to two and on balance deserved something out of the game.

There are no London derbies next week so the table above will remain unchanged until October 4th’s Arsenal v West Ham game.

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