If you tuned into Match of the Day this weekend or watched five minutes of any Premier League match not involving Brighton, you would have noticed one thing: these matches are turning into a goddamn war zone.

Take Everton vs Chelsea as an example.

Tempers flared. Jordan Henderson tussled with James Tarkowski. Morgan Rogers also came to grab the former Burnley defender’s shirt, and seven yellow cards were dished out.

In 20 minutes after half-time at the Gtech between Brentford and Liverpool, six cards were handed out. Two red cards were given by full-time.

In total, we got 46 cards this weekend, and four of them were red. But it’s not just cards that highlight how physically intense the league has become.

Each challenge, tackle, or duel saps the energy out of moves, players and attacks.

It’s intriguing because there’s no team (besides Brighton) thrashing teams week in, week out; the big teams who have more of the ball are being made to fight tooth and nail for every win.

We’re lusting for special players to watch each week but they’re busy getting lamped the whole game.

So what does this mean for the league and how did it come about? Who is benefiting and what does it mean for the current tactical landscape?

The rise of the Premier League scrappers
Take a look at the top of the table just outside the top five, and there’s an interesting story developing.

Where you may normally see a Newcastle United, Aston Villa or a Big Six club, behind Liverpool are Brentford, Leeds United, Everton, Hull City and Ipswich Town. All are within three points of a probable Champions League spot.

These are teams that look like they should be in the bottom half but have physical players that fly into tackles and make games incredibly awkward by letting the opposition have more of the ball.

If you play teams that waste eons taking corners, free-kicks and throw-ins whilst happily knocking it long, the match will not be smooth, and so-called ‘better’ teams will barely be able to string together passing moves to build momentum and a head of steam.

The game will continue to simply be an awkward slog.

Against Leeds, Manchester United got so distracted by their physicality and aggressiveness in the tackles that they ended up playing the match at Leeds’ scrappy level.

In the first half they got the ball down and played, but they forgot they needed to do that in the second, and it resulted in them simply hoofing it to Bryan Mbeumo. Almost like they were in some combative trance.

Once you fall into that trap, it’s very hard to climb out if you don’t have a ball-dominant style of play to enable you to find gaps.

You also exert so much energy keeping up with the opponent’s aggressive energy that your attack is starved of stamina and becomes trigger-happy.

It isn’t entertaining to watch because the games are stop-start and the best players are largely thwarted.

But it is intriguing as teams with lower budgets have found a way to level the playing field whilst the big guns spend fancily on attackers who are limited by the league’s tactical circumstances.

Arsenal are fitting title holders
At some point last season, the tactical landscape shifted from managers wanting to imitate Pep Guardiola (Vincent Kompany, Russell Martin etc) to everyone embracing the blood and thunder of physicality, pace and power.

It’s no coincidence that Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal won the title when he embraced his team becoming physical specimens and defensive monsters.

So far this season, they’ve played Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Sunderland, all teams I consider to be in the top tier of ‘fighters’ in the league.

It helps to have the confidence of champions that they can find a way to basically win most of their matches, but the point is this: if you scrap with Arsenal, they’re willing to show you how and why they became who they are. And they don’t care if it’s rotten to watch.

Sunderland tried to bully them earlier this season, and it almost worked.

The Stadium of Light crowd, Brian Brobbey, constant free-kicks. But by the end of the game, they ended up with a red card, a defeat, and a six-player melee to boot.

Sure, the Gunners have plenty of depth and can use a substitution at the right moment to win most football matches, but getting tough is their most effective calling card.

Guardiola made his teams irresistibly good; Jurgen Klopp made his teams electrically good to suit the era they were in.

Mikel Arteta transformed his team into a side that will never get bullied and became the kings of set-pieces to perfectly represent the era that we’re living through. Or should we say enduring?

Is it pretty? God no.

Is it riveting to watch teams like Brentford bring Liverpool down to their belligerent level and watch one of Europe’s best wingers toil and struggle as a new signing away in a tough stadium? Hell yes.

The problem could be that the product’s entertainment value is dropping even if the competition is growing.

The Salahs, De Bruynes, Alexander-Arnolds and Kanes have gone, and all that remains are the Brobbeys, Igor Thiagos and Evanilsons.

There are, of course, anomalies (Brighton), but make no mistake about it: it’s the battlers that are winning the war just below the elite. Or in Arsenal’s case, right in amongst it.