EPL Hits and Misses: Saints on the fast march as Aguero demolishes Spurs

HITS

Southampton
If their recent run hadn't convinced anyone that Ronald Koeman's side were seriously pushing for a place in Europe, their 8-0 demolition job of Sunderland must certainly have done so by now. Talk about a club in crisis has all but evaporated as Koeman's Dutch revolution at St Mary's has been nothing short of astounding. Much has been made of the Saints' losing a host of key players like Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Luke Shaw in the summer along with manager Mauricio Pochettino, but Koeman and his band of replacements have taken to the English Premier League like a duck to water. The rise of Graziano Pelle, who so nearly got his first EPL hat-trick, from a relative unknown to a full-fledged Italy international since his arrival in England has been phenomenal while Dusan Tadic has been a more than able replacement for ex-captain Lallana in a creative midfield role. And of course, they're not the only ones who deserve praise. While Pochettino's Southampton team was a good team to watch, Koeman's Saints have taken things to another level.

Sergio Aguero
Branded by Football365 editor Sarah Winterburn as the EPL's best player of the moment and it's hard not to see why. The Argentine single-handedly destroyed Spurs in a 4-1 win at the Etihad with a masterclass display of ruthless finishing (just ignore that missed penalty) to brush aside Carlos Tevez as City's top scorer in the Premier League era and move to the top of the EPL's minutes-per-goal table with one goal every 108.3 minutes - ahead of Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy. If he can stay fit and help City to defend their league title, Kun could easily be a shoo-in for the EPL's Player of the Year this season.

Jose Mourinho
A hard-fought win without Diego Costa. He might be irked with Spain, but least Jose knows his team can cope without their beastly goal machine.

Gabriel Obertan & Alan Pardew
The Frenchman is probably not the saviour Pardew needs to dig Newcastle out of their current shambles, but Obertan deserves credit for a good strike that gave the Magpies their first league win of the season.

Mohamed Diame
Did Steve Bruce land one heck of a bargain in Diame? While his arrival at Hull on deadline day from West Ham was put in the shade by club record signing Abel Hernandez, Gaston Ramirez and Hatem Ben Arfa, the Senegalese midfielder has been in stonking form for the Tigers with four goals in five games. And they weren't shabby strikes either, with the one-time Arsenal target scoring his latest against the Gunners after he bullied Mathieu Flamini off the ball with a Yaya Toure-esque run to chip Wojciech Szczesny​. Arsene Wenger must be fuming for missing out.

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West Ham
Your eyes aren't deceiving you - West Ham are in the top four. Often criticised for boring hoof ball tactics, Sam Allardyce deserves credit for getting the Hammers playing well and for buying some good forwards in Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho.

Everton
Once again among the winners with a solid 3-0 spanking of Aston Villa ahead of a midweek sojourn to France to play Lille in the Europa League.

Liverpool
Living a charmed life, but can luck see them through past Real Madrid?

MISSES

Sunderland
Disastrous defending. At least the players know it going by Vito Mannone's intentions to give the Black Cats fans who bothered to make the trip to St Mary's their money back.

Santiago Vergini
An own goal that's right up there with some of the best. Perhaps Diego Poyet might consider getting Vergini to teach his goal-shy forwards a thing or two about finishing - at the right end of the pitch.

Tottenham
When Nacer Chadli is your team's top scorer, you know you have a problem. While Mauricio Pochettino has claimed that he has a bloated squad that needs trimming, it has been clear for some time that Spurs have needed a quality striker capable of delivering the goals that the north Londoners need to take them to the next level. Watching Sergio Aguero tear his side apart, Pochettino must have left the Etihad Stadium wishing he had the luck of inheriting a gem of a forward like his fellow Argentine. Of course, it certainly didn't help that his defence contrived to concede three penalties at the home of the champions.

Arsenal
Late goals to salvage a result from defeat are usually a hallmark of champions, but Arsenal clearly should be doing better than needing such against a team like Hull at the Emirates. Even though we finally got to see more of Alexis Sanchez with his goal and assist against the Tigers, Arsene Wenger's failure to strengthen his defence and defensive midfield in the transfer window have once again become all too apparent. Gunners fans might be howling for a foul by Mohamed Diame in the lead-up to his equaliser, but once again Mathieu Flamini was responsible for a gaffe leading to an opposition goal. Two wins in eight games with 11 goals conceded simply isn't good enough for a team of Arsenal's standing.

Mario Balotelli
He's been quite rubbish since his return to the EPL - and the Liverpool fans are losing patience. That £16 million ($32.8m) gamble isn't looking like a good one right about now.

Aston Villa & Swansea
Four straight defeats for Villa and five games without a win for Swansea have seen both teams lose their early-season shine as they both plunge into mid-table.

QPR
Scorers of four goals in a five-goal match and they still can't win. Harry Redknapp's boys are certainly making things hard for themselves.

Burnley
QPR might still be propping up the league table, but Burnley look the more limited side.