Premier League Matchweek 4 defensive stats: Most tackles, interceptions, clearances and more

Matchweek 4 of the Premier League season delivered another thoroughly entertaining round of fixtures.

Champions Arsenal and Manchester City both maintained their 100% starts to the campaign, the former winning 2-0 at Sunderland and the latter beating local rivals Manchester United 1-0 away from hope despite playing most of the game a man down.

There were also wins for Nottingham Forest (1-2 vs Aston Villa), Ipswich (3-2 vs Crystal Palace), Brighton – who recorded the most emphatic victory of the campaign so far, triumphing 5-0 at Coventry – and Leeds (4-1 vs Newcastle).

Elsewhere, Hull continued their impressive start to life back in the top flight with a 2-2 draw away to Chelsea, and Fulham picked up their first point of the Alvaro Arbeloa era with a 0-0 draw at Liverpool.

All in all, there were 29 goals across the 10 Premier League games this weekend, so defenders were kept on their toes.

Here, we take a look at the top performers in various key defensive metrics during Matchweek 4…

Premier League most tackles: Timber and Truffert get stuck in but with differing results for their teams

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two player tied for the most tackles in Matchweek 4 were a defensive midfielder (Quinten Timber) ana full-back (Adrien Truffert), both making eight.

Timber produced an all-action performance on and off the ball – also completing three dribbles – as 10-man Palace almost held on for a point against Ipswich.

Truffert, typically covering plenty of ground up and down the left flank for Bournemouth, helped keep Brentford at bay in a 2-2 draw.

Vitalii Mykolenko was next in the tackling charts with seven as Everton held Tottenham to a goalless draw, while four players made six tackles.

Premier League most interceptions: Janelt always in the way as Brentford block Bournemouth’s path

Taking his season total to 16 with six interceptions in Brentford’s draw at Bournemouth, Vitaly Janelt is far and away the leading Premier League player in that category so far this campaign.

The defensive midfielder has cut out at least six more passes than any other player in the competition.

Three players made four interceptions this weekend, two in draws – Virgil van Dijk and Antonio Silva – and one en route to victory – Issa Diop.

Premier League most clearances: Botman busy as Newcastle spend the night under the cosh

Newcastle suffered their first loss of 2026/27, going down 4-1 away to Leeds on Monday – but it might have been even worse if not for Sven Botman’s Matchweek-high 14 clearances.

In doing so, the centre-back – who made five of those clearances with his head – doubled his tally for the season to 28.

Elsewhere, Ousmane Diomande marked his first Premier League start with a strong all-round display at the heart of Forest’s back three as they triumphed 2-1 at Villa, making three clearances as well as completing all but one of his passes.

John Egan was the other player to hit double figures in Matchweek 4, with 10 clearances in Hull’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea – while three players notched nine clearances, David Affengruber and Jannik Schuster in helping their sides to a point, and Chris Richards in defeat.

Premier League most aerial duels won: Gabriel gets up and gets the ball

One of the very best defenders in the world right now, Gabriel was – not for the first time – top dog in the air as Arsenal shut out Sunderland to win 2-0.

The man who was so important to the Gunners’ title success last term contested eight aerial duels on Saturday – and won the ball in seven of them.

Four players won six aerial duels this weekend – three of them (Wesley Fofana, Bobby Thomas and Aurele Amenda) doing so out of seven contested, though Thomas and Amenda were still on the end of a drubbing with Coventry.

Premier League most defensive third regains: Nunes routinely recovers possession as City clinch memorable victory

Erling Haaland got the plaudits for his exquisitely finished winning goal, but Matheus Nunes was just as key to Man City’s against-the-odds triumph over Man United at Old Trafford.

The right-back won the ball back seven times in his own defensive third as City thwarted their local rivals, who ultimately only managed three shots on target despite their numerical advantage.

Nunes also boasted a 100% success record in duels, winning four on the ground and one in the air.

Five players posted six regains in the defensive third, though none of them ended up on the winning side.

Top FPL defenders in Matchweek 4: Leeds’ Bogle leads the way

If you were among the 2.8% of Fantasy Premier League managers who had Jayden Bogle in your team, you’ll be very happy today.

On the scoresheet for the second Matchweek running, the Leeds wing-back racked up 15 points this time out.

He was followed by Ipswich full-back Leif Davis (selected by 6.1%), who was involved in all three goals (one goal, two assists) in his side’s victory at Palace, collecting 14 points.

And anyone who put their faith in Lewis Dunk (featuring in just 1.5% of FPL teams) was handsomely rewarded: the Brighton skipper found the net with an absolute rocket against Coventry and picked up 12 points this weekend.