The title race took a strong swing in the direction of Liverpool in November, as Liverpool beat defending champions Manchester City 3-1 at Anfield, before a 2-2 draw for City at St James’ Park extended Jürgen Klopp’s side’s lead to 11 points going into December.
Tottenham’s struggles continued for the first half of the month, before Mauricio Pochettino was replaced with José Mourinho, which appears to have changed their fortunes in the following weeks. Pochettino was quickly followed into unemployment by Arsenal manager Unai Emery given his marching orders following a 2-2 draw at home to Southampton, while Quique Sánchez Flores made it to the end of the month but no further after a 2-1 loss at Southampton on the last day of the month marked the end of his time at Watford, his sacking being announced on December 1st.
Watford end the month bottom of the table, with Norwich and Southampton joining them in the relegation zone, though Everton, Brighton and Aston Villa are all within 3 points of the bottom 3, though all with better goal differences.
Premier League Round-up
- August 2019
- September 2019
- October 2019
- November 2019
Crime and punishment
Nobody ever wants to see a player get injured, so my thoughts went out to André Gomes as I watched him suffer a serious ankle injury against Tottenham at the start of the month.
A clumsy challenge from Son Heung-min brought the Portuguese midfielder down, but as he went down his foot got caught beneath him, resulting in a fractured and dislocated ankle. Son was clearly distraught at the injury his tackle had caused, but was then given a red card for the tackle – despite referee Martin Atkinson having appeared ready to produce a yellow card until noticing the injury. It was later confirmed that the severity of Gomes’ injury was taken into account, with the red card being given for endangering a player.
As much as I sympathise with Gomes, a red card for Son was an absolute joke. The challenge was clumsy and deserving of a yellow, but by no means dangerous, and the injury was simply the result of an unfortunate accident. In my opinion, a n injury to a player should not be accounted for when deciding on a punishment in these kinds of situation. A simple nudge in the back that is deserving of no more than a free kick could otherwise become a red card if the fouled player fell awkwardly and hurt themselves, meanwhile a much more cynical and dangerous challenge could only receive a yellow as it didn’t cause injury.
Thankfully, the red card was later overturned by the FA, while Gomes is expected to make a full recovery. Hopefully lessons will have been learned when a similar situation inevitably occurs again in the future.
And your winners… and new Premier League Champions…
It’s not even Christmas yet, but the title race looks all-but over. A 3-1 victory over the defending champions at Anfield was a big result in the title fight, but following Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Brighton and Manchester City’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle, the Reds have now opened up an 11-point lead after just 14 games.
While Liverpool have a history of letting a lead slip (sometimes literally, sorry Steven Gerrard!), I find it hard to imagine that it’s going to happen again this year. Liverpool are yet to lose a Premier League match this season and have only dropped points on one occasion, so even if City were to win every remaining game, it’s questionable if Liverpool would drop enough points to lose the lead.
The thing is, I don’t see City going the rest of the season without dropping more points. Leroy Sané has been a big loss to the attack despite the strength in depth there, while Gabriel Jesus doesn’t appear to adequately replace Sergio Aguero whenever the Argentina is missing. Worse though is at the back, where the failure to replace the outgoing Vincent Kompany has left them short at the back following Aymeric Laporte’s injury. Fernandinho is a quality player, but he isn’t a centreback, which teams are able to take advantage of, while he is then missed in the holding role, putting even more pressure on a questionable defence. Whether they wait for Laporte to return, or look to bring in another centreback in January, it could be that it is already too late.
I’m not a betting man, but if I was, then my money would be going the way of Liverpool.
Getting ridiculous
Southampton’s 2-1 win over Watford at the end of the month is a match that is going to stick in my mind for a while. While it was the match I watched during a long-overdue catch-up with an old friend, what I will remember it for is 2 of the worst decisions that I have seen all season.
I’ve thought for years that goalkeepers get too much protection and that was proved after Ben Foster tried to flick the ball past Danny Ings and, realising that Ings had the turn on him, pulled him down in the box. Instead of a penalty for Southampton, a free kick was given against Ings for leaning into Foster. Anywhere else on the pitch and against any other player, that would never go against Ings, so to see it here is ridiculous – thankfully it didn’t impact the result at the end.
That said, the only reason it didn’t impact the result was for a goal from Ings that should never have stood. As Moussa Djenepo rounded José Holebas, he appeared to stumble and stretch out an arm, with replays clearly showing him flicking the ball goalwards, allowing him to regain control of the ball and cut it back for Ings to score the equaliser. Under the new handball rules, it does not matter if Djenepo deliberately handled or not – any contact with the hand/arm by an attacking player in the build-up to a goal is considered a handball, so this should have been clearly ruled out. Unfortunately, VAR apparently didn’t pick up on this as they did not have all angles available to spot the offence. I don’t understand what the point of VAR is if they don’t have access to all available angles. I remain a firm supporter of VAR, but so far this season it’s been a shambles! With the nature of the business, every decision is important, as shown by Flores’ sacking the day after this loss. A “sorry, we got it wrong” after the fact is not good enough.
I bid you adieu…
November 2019 was a dark month for Premier League managers at top clubs. Mauricio Pochettino was shown the door at Tottenham and José Mourinho brought in to replace him, while Unai Emery was also shown the door at Arsenal, with Freddie Ljungberg taking over as interim head coach. Quique Sánchez Flores managed his last match in his 2nd spell at Watford this month as well, with his sacking being announced on December 1st. Meanwhile in Manchester, Ole Gunnar Solskjær remains on the precipice and I currently feel that it will be very difficult for him to make it to the end of the year still in charge at Old Trafford.
I understand why Pochettino was removed given the results this season, but I think that he has been in a similar situation to Solskjær, in that he has not received the support he needed from his club’s chairman. Emery however was not getting results despite bringing in expensive players like Nicolas Pépé, while the apparent lack of leadership, the incident with Granit Xhaka and the consistent failures to create a solid defence meant that his days were going to be numbered. Flores as well was no shock, given that Watford – a club already known for frequently changing their managers – were rooted to the bottom of the table. A 2-2 draw at Arsenal was a high point, but that was eclipsed by a 8-0 loss to Manchester City. With the way results were going, it was too big of a risk to stick with him if they wanted to avoid relegation.
José felt like a bit of a gamble, but things have started well for him at Spurs. Dele Alli has hit form again and results are going their way, even if 2 Premier League games in a row saw them almost throw away a 3-goal lead. United tonight will be a big test, but I’m sure that he will want to get one over on his former team, and I’m sure his players will be up for it too.
Who will be next: Solskjær, Marco Silva or someone else?
Finally, today is a first for my Premier League recaps as I have some content to include that I can take no credit for. Football has been a big part of me keeping in contact with my friend Chris since we stopped working together. A Spurs fan (he has provided all the pictures this site has used from White Hart Lane and the Tottenham Hotspur Staudium), I was very interested to hear his thoughts on Pochettino’s sacking and it was safe to say he had plenty. I joked to him that if he wanted to write something, I’d publish it for him, and within no time, I had an email waiting for me with what I’m about to show you.
Bear in mind that this was written on the evening after his sacking was announced, so José’s early success may have helped, but I think that we still stand by what he has written as the switch in managers looks to be a band-aid on a deeper wound.
Take it away Chris:
‘The Game is About Profit, Not Glory’ – why Tottenham’s issues lie at the top
In 2001, ENIC decided to purchase a controlling stake in Tottenham Hotspur F.C. from Lord Alan Sugar and Daniel Levy became chairman of the club. In these 18 years Tottenham have had 12 managers, an average net spend of £5.4 million per window and 1 league cup win.
As of writing, a quick search tells us that Tottenham Hotspur is the 9th most valuable football club in the world at an estimated $1.6 billion (Forbes; May ’19). ENIC paid an initial £21.9 million for the controlling stake (Telegraph; Dec ’00).
The Spurs way, ever since the ‘glory days’ headed by club legend Nicholson, has been ‘The Game is About Glory’ – in his great words, ‘It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory’. Should you ask any footballing fan what their definition of success is for their team, or any team, the last word that would come to their lips is ‘profit’.
On 27th May 2014, Tottenham appointed Mauricio Pochettino as Head Coach on an initial 5-year contract which started, what most football fans across the globe believed to be, the new era of Tottenham Hotspur. With the plans in full swing for a new, world class stadium, a strong, young and promising spine throughout the starting XI, the club needed rejuvenation and Pochettino seemed to be the answer.
In 5½ years, Pochettino has taken Tottenham to a new level. Leaving the club with the most wins by a Spurs manager in the post-war era (159), 4 consecutive top-four PL finishes and their first ever Champions League final, have ENIC, Daniel Levy and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. made a grave mistake? Tottenham have gone from being a club known for their inadequacy, ‘lack of guts’ and on the wrong end of the infamous ‘St Totteringham’s Day’ for so long, too long. There is one man responsible for changing that mindset, that gut, that desire and putting Tottenham on the global stage.
Not even 6 months after taking the club to their first ever Champions League final, the board of Spurs have taken the ‘brave’ and ‘difficult’ decision to part ways with their finest manager in many of our fans’ lifetimes. The first period of Pochettino’s tenure where he has faced criticism has been matched with rash, baffling dismissal instead of being matched with the support, investment and trust he has earned.
The performance of the team cannot be ignored in the recent past. The incredible Champions League run has eclipsed the Premier League performance of the club and, as of October 2019, Tottenham hat the joint most Premier League losses of 16, joint only with relegation-candidates Brighton & Hove Albion. This, however, was pre-warned by Pochettino who, within a press conference, was clear that having not signed any players from 31st January 2018 to 2nd July 2019, having significantly under-paid and important players not being offered suitable new contracts would result in ‘a painful re-build’. I have no doubt that this has been an expectation for Pochettino for some time who has had to work with limited investment deserving of his achievements over the course of his employment by Levy.
As of writing the shortest candidate for the job is Jose Mourinho. A natural winner when surrounded by money and a lot of it to pay the best players the best money for the biggest transfer fees. Is he, the fans (and Daniel Levy) naive to think that anyone is able to do a better job for the club than the man just fired? Only time will tell but, unless Levy and ENIC decide the game is about glory, rather than profit, it’s going to be a long road.
Eyes on the Ball 