English Football Weekend: Wednesday Go Top, Hull Stay Unbeaten & West Ham Win Again

Five league games. Four wins. Top of League One.

Sheffield Wednesday's start to life back in the third tier is turning into one of the early stories of the season.

The Owls won again at Peterborough on Saturday, while promoted Hull City continued their remarkable unbeaten return to the Premier League.

Elsewhere, Manchester City and Arsenal maintained perfect starts at the top, Liverpool finally won under Andoni Iraola, West Ham made it two Championship victories in five days and Swansea stayed top despite being held by Wrexham.

And at Turf Moor, a familiar name has just returned to English football.

Here's what mattered.

Wednesday are top of League One

Sheffield Wednesday travelled to Peterborough on Saturday having won three of their opening four League One matches.

They came home with another three points.

Wednesday won 2-1 at Peterborough, Yan Valery scoring the winner in the 79th minute after Ben Woods had cancelled out Josh Feeney's first-half own goal.

Four wins from five. Twelve points. Thirteen goals scored. And, after Huddersfield were held, top of League One.

That is a considerably better September conversation than supporters could have expected after relegation.

Wednesday's only league defeat remains the 1-0 loss to Bradford at Hillsborough. Since then they have scored seven against Bromley, won at Wycombe and now won at Peterborough.

Nobody needs reminding how long a League One season is. But you would rather be looking down from first than looking up from tenth.

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Hull still haven't lost - or conceded

Hull City's return to the Premier League continues to get better.

The Tigers beat Manchester United 2-0. Then they won 1-0 at Coventry. On Saturday, Aston Villa came to the MKM Stadium.

Hull City 0-0 Aston Villa.

It might not sound as exciting as the first two results, but look at what it means.

Three Premier League matches. Seven points. Three clean sheets. No goals conceded.

Hull had to defend properly this time. Villa created opportunities and finally managed their first shot on target of the season, but goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis helped preserve another clean sheet.

Hull even came close to nicking it when Mohamed Belloumi hit the woodwork late on.

For a promoted club, seven points from the first nine available is an outstanding start.

Villa's problems are rather different. They have taken only one point from three matches and are still yet to score a Premier League goal this season.

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Coventry push City - but still wait for a point

Coventry's introduction to the Premier League has been almost the opposite of Hull's.

First Arsenal. Then Hull. Now Manchester City.

The Sky Blues went to the Etihad and lost 1-0, Erling Haaland scoring the only goal.

There is no shame in losing by one at Manchester City, particularly when Coventry stayed in the contest and threatened late on.

But the table does not award points for respectable defeats.

Three matches. Three losses. No goals scored.

Coventry now need to turn promising moments into something tangible.

Manchester City, meanwhile, have won all three league matches and sit at the top end of the table. Haaland's winner was his 300th club goal.

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Ipswich run into an early Isak storm

Ipswich's Friday night began badly and never really recovered.

Liverpool went to Portman Road looking for their first Premier League victory under Andoni Iraola.

Alexander Isak effectively settled the issue inside nine minutes.

He scored in the sixth minute. Then again in the ninth.

Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool.

Both goals were assisted by Cody Gakpo and Liverpool were able to control the match from there.

For Ipswich, this is now two consecutive defeats after their excellent opening win against Sunderland.

That's the Premier League lesson promoted sides receive very quickly.

A brilliant result can be followed immediately by an afternoon - or Friday night - where the opposition barely gives you time to settle.

Liverpool supporters will care considerably less about that.

After two opening 2-2 draws, Iraola has his first league victory.

Arsenal and City are perfect

The champions aren't hanging around either.

Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Emirates on Sunday despite Morgan Rogers putting Chelsea ahead inside two minutes.

Kai Havertz equalised before Martin Odegaard completed the turnaround.

That gives Arsenal three wins from three.

Manchester City have three wins from three too.

September is far too early to turn the Premier League into a two-horse race, but the two perfect records are already sitting there for everybody else to look at.

Manchester United had a considerably more frustrating Sunday.

They led Everton twice through Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko but were held 2-2, Ainsley Maitland-Niles scoring a stoppage-time equaliser for Everton.

West Ham have suddenly found the winning habit

A week ago West Ham were still waiting for their first Championship victory.

Things look rather different now.

After beating Wolves 4-2 in midweek, the Hammers followed it with a 3-0 home win over Derby County on Saturday.

Joel Piroe scored after only six minutes.

The match remained 1-0 until late on, when substitutes Edvin Austbo and Mohamadou Kante made the scoreline considerably more comfortable.

Two home matches. Seven goals. Six points. Five days.

West Ham's Championship season suddenly has some momentum.

Swansea stay top

Swansea had the chance to stretch their Championship lead on Saturday night.

Wrexham had other ideas.

The all-Welsh meeting finished Swansea City 0-0 Wrexham.

It was not a classic, but it kept Swansea unbeaten and left them top of the Championship with 11 points from five games.

Middlesbrough moved second after Will Lankshear's seventh goal in seven matches gave them a 1-0 win at QPR.

Bristol City are also on ten points after a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory at Burnley, Rob Dickie equalising in the 82nd minute before Yu Hirakawa won it in stoppage time.

Burnley's bad start brings a familiar face back

Burnley are already under pressure.

Their defeat to Bristol City left them without a league win after five Championship matches.

Then on Sunday came one of the weekend's more interesting developments.

Jamie Vardy has joined Burnley.

The 39-year-old has signed until the end of the season after spending last season in Italy with Cremonese.

Vardy returning to the Championship feels appropriate somehow.

His journey from non-league football to Leicester, a Premier League title and England became one of English football's great modern stories.

Now he has another job.

Help Burnley get moving.

Whether a 39-year-old striker can transform their season is another question entirely.

But nobody is going to accuse the signing of being boring.

Charlton finally brought down to earth

Charlton's brilliant unbeaten Championship start ended rather emphatically.

Stoke City beat them 4-0 at the bet365 Stadium.

Justin Devenny scored twice, while Ethan Galbraith and George Hirst also found the net.

Charlton had taken ten points from their opening four matches.

Football's way of congratulating you for that? Four goals at Stoke.

Welcome to the Championship.

Millwall also bounced back strongly, beating Bolton 4-0 at The Den. Lyndon Dykes scored twice and both sides finished with ten men.

League Two provides another Saturday of chaos

There wasn't much separating anyone in League Two before the weekend.

Saturday did little to simplify things.

Chesterfield and Barnet drew 3-3.

Crewe and York drew 1-1.

Exeter and Walsall finished 0-0.

Accrington beat Crawley 3-2.

And Gillingham produced the division's biggest away win of the afternoon, beating ten-man Rochdale 4-1.

James Brophy scored twice as Gillingham collected their first league victory of the season.

It's early September and League Two already looks like one of those divisions where three good Saturdays can move a club halfway up the table.

Exactly how supporters like it.

The tables are starting to mean something

We're still in the dangerous early-season period where one win can transform a league position.

But five EFL matches and three Premier League games are enough for a few genuine stories to emerge.

Wednesday really have started well.

Hull really are unbeaten.

Swansea really are top.

Coventry really do need their first goal and first point.

And Burnley really have just signed Jamie Vardy at 39.

The football routine is fully back now too.

Early trains. Packed pubs. Checking the team at two o'clock. Watching somebody else's result change the table while you're still trying to get out of your own ground.

That is the bit around football that On The Terrace is built on.

The Football Casual T-Shirts & Terrace Clothing collection covers the trainer and terrace side of matchday culture, while the Northern Monkeys collection takes a less serious look at the same world.

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And right now, if you're a Wednesday or Hull supporter, checking the table might be the most enjoyable part of Monday morning.

Long may that last.