Key Points of the Weekend

Is Thierno Barry finally delivering for Everton?

Thierno Barry has had a mixed time at Everton since he joined the club two summers ago as he's been praised for his work rate but criticized for not being clinical enough in front of goal.

He's beginning to prove his doubters wrong this season and especially recently as he's scored 3 goals in his last two games including a double against Coventry on Friday.

Is he finally delivering for Everton?

He's already scored 6 times in the Premier League this season which is two shy of the amount he got in the whole of last season in 8.

He's arguably under more pressure to score goals this season because he's the Toffees' only recognised striker following the departure of Beto in the summer and he appears to be relishing it.

He knows he's guaranteed to start every week and knowing that has given him the motivation to step out onto the pitch and prove his doubters wrong.

He's still relatively young at the age of 24 and he still has parts of his game he can work on including his finishing which he appears to have done so.

If he can keep up the current form he's in over the next few months, we'll definitely be saying that he's finally delivering for Everton.

Should Arsenal have had a penalty for Kai Havertz shirt pull?

Arsenal will feel that they should've had a penalty for a shirt pull on Kai Havertz in the first half of their game against Hull and it definitely looked like a clear shirt pull.

But the referee awarded offside against him instead because he was in an offside position when he went for the ball and when his shirt was pulled.

The decision to give offside at the time looked like the right call because he was in an offside decision at the time the ball was played into the box.

But he was clearly fouled at the same time and the law states that if a player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention to play the ball and is fouled before playing the ball, a foul is given because it took place before the offside call was given.

Because of this a penalty should've been given as the foul took place before the offside took place.

Do Man City miss Rodri?

Man City were beaten for the third successive game in the Premier League over the weekend where they were beaten 3-1 by Nottingham Forest and well beaten.

Defensively they looked disorganised and in midfield they lacked control as they gave the ball away on numerous occasions and were overrun.

Rodri was the player who provided the control in midfield in recent seasons but he's longer at the club after joining Barcelona in the summer.

Are they missing him in the midfield?

Rodri was a massive loss for City two seasons ago where he missed almost the entire season due to an ACL injury as City's season suffered as a result.

They didn't have an out and out no.6 in their team that season whereas this season they have two in Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi, who both joined the club in the summer.

Anderson has been a brilliant signing for City this season by showing at times that he can be a replacement for Rodri, but he's not on Rodri's level and doesn't control the game like the Spaniard did.

Bouaddi was signed as the player to replace Rodri but has started just twice and French football journalist Julien Laurens said on BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday that he should start. But he is only 18 years of age and is maybe still adjusting to the way City play and the intensity of the Premier League.

Stepping into Rodri's shoes was by no means an easy task because of the brilliant player he was for City during his time at the club.

But if City's midfield continues to get exposed like it was against Forest, we could in a few weeks be saying that Rodri has been a big miss.

Will victory over Chelsea be a turning point for Sunderland?

Sunderland have had a tough and challenging season so far as they've had European football to deal with and the latter has no doubt had a big impact on their season.

They ended their seven game winless run on Sunday by beating Chelsea 1-0 to move off the bottom of the table and within a point from safety.

Could this result be a turning point in their season?

The result will definitely give them confidence along with their performance because winning games and good performances are what give a team confidence.

But whether they will follow it up remains to be seen because of the struggles they've had with balancing both Premier League and European commitments.

As I mentioned earlier, being in Europe has had a big impact on their form this season because they haven't had the depth to compete on both fronts and have lost key players to injury.

Brian Brobbey is one player who has been a big miss when he's been unavailable as they've missed his work rate and physicality up top alongside his goals.

He showed what a difference he makes against Chelsea on Sunday by causing the defence all kinds of problems with his work rate off the ball and both his strength and physicality.

Dan Ballard has also been a big miss as they haven't been as tight at the back as they were last season. But he is on his way back and once he is, the Black Cats should return to having that secure defence which played a key role in the season they had last season.

Europe will definitely continue to have an impact on their results for the rest of the season but if they can get their key players back fit and perform like they did against Chelsea, their win at the weekend could be a turning point in their season.