Tag: Manchester United

Premier League 2021/22: November

Premier League 2021/22: November

It feels like only days since I was posting about October’s football, but now I’m back on track and it’s time to look at November in the Premier League!

The month started with Nuno Espírito Santo being removed from his role at Tottenham, and that started off a crazy month of 4 managerial casualties, with Dean Smith (Aston Villa), Daniel Farke (Norwich City) and Ole Gunnar Solskjær (Manchester United) all being relieved of duty, with Antonio Conte, Steven Gerrard, Dean Smith and Ralf Rangnick filling these roles and Eddie Howe also finally being named as Newcastle’s new manager.

On the pitch, Chelsea finished the month top of the table, but draws at home to Burnley and Michael Carrick’s Manchester United allowed their rivals to close the gap, with Manchester City going a perfect 3/3 and Liverpool recovering from a 3-2 loss at West Ham with a pair of 4-0 victories. Newcastle still may not have been able to get a win in November, but 3 draws and a 2-0 loss to Arsenal kept them in touch with their rivals as they remained bottom of the table, with Burnley and Norwich joining then in the danger zone.

The race is on!

The race for the Golden Boot: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – 11 goals; Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) – 9 goals; Sadio Mané (Liverpool) & Diogo Jota (Liverpool) – 7 goals

The race for the Golden Glove: Édouard Mendy (Chelsea), Alisson (Liverpool) & Ederson (Manchester City) – 7 clean sheets; Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal) – 6 clean sheets; Alex McCarthy (Southampton) & Robert Sánchez (Brighton & Hove Albion) – 5 clean sheets

Managerial moves

As detailed above, this was a big month for manager changes, with an international break giving a number of teams a chance to get a new manager in and have some time with the team before playing a match, while it also leaves a manager a handful of matches to evaluate their team ahead of the January transfer window. Throughout the month, the following managerial changes were made:

  • Newcastle, who had already sacked Steve Bruce last month, brought in Eddie Howe, moving on from interim manager Graeme Jones
  • Tottenham replaced Nuno Espírito Santo with Antonio Conte
  • Aston Villa replaced Dean Smith with Steven Gerrard
  • Norwich City replaced Daniel Farke with Dean Smith
  • Manchester United replace Ole Gunnar Solskjær with Ralf Rangnick, with Michael Carrick taking temporary charge until his arrival

So how are these working out?

Things are going in the right direction at Newcastle. A 2-0 loss at Arsenal would never have been a match where they realistically targeted points, and while I’m sure they would have preferred a win against Norwich, draws against the Canaries and Brentford could have very easily been losses earlier this season, and at time of writing they have now earned their first league win of the season at Burnley. This team needs to get better at the back, but they are clearly going in the right direction.

While he wasn’t given much time, Nuno sadly always felt like someone who got the job because everyone Spurs really wanted wasn’t available or willing to join. And he was immediately dealt a questionable hand with Harry Kane missing early games as his future was decided, and then forgetting how to score once he was back on the pitch. However with Conte now in, it feels like this is what Spurs really wanted in the summer, and while things may not have been perfect, 4 points from 2 games in November (their match at Burnley was postponed due to snow) suggests that things may be going in the right direction.

This was always likely to be a tough season for Villa after losing Jack Grealish, but this was a team who, with only 10 points, were running dangerously close to a relegation battle if the teams below them began to improve. Steven Gerrard may have been a risk due a lack of experience but he has done well at Rangers and a move to a Premiership team seemed the next logical step towards eventually becoming Liverpool manager. And sometimes what a great player who has not long left the game lacks in managerial experience, they can make up for in the empathy they can have for the team. Whatever the case, 2 wins from 2 in November has been the perfect start to life in the Premier League.

At Norwich things desperately needed to change. It was getting to the point that strikers Teemu Pukki and Josh Sargent would more likely miss than score if given an open goal and put just an inch out from the line in the middle of the goal. But much more damning was how Billy Gilmour was brought in on loan from Chelsea after an impressive summer at the Euros and then rarely played, as Farke preferred to grow the players on permanent contracts with the club. It would seem that there was a difference of thinking, and with the poor results, change was clear. In picking up Smith just days after his sacking by Villa, they have a manager with Premiership experience who you will hope will be driven to do well after having just been sacked. The return of Gilmour and Todd Cantwell brought immediate success with a win over Southampton, and while their strike force may still look questionable, 5 points from 3 games under Smith in November is a step in the right direction.

And finally we come to Old Trafford. I’m a big fan of Solskjær but something had to change. It’s just a shame that the manager is the one who pays the price while Ed Woodward still gets a long drawn out farewell after ruining the club for seasons, while yet another manager falls due to having to balance Paul Pogba’s incredible cost with an attitude that will see him put in effort for about 3 games a season. Rangnick seems a good move on paper, but as he is only being given a contract until the end of the season, how much support will he get in the January transfer window if he feels that he needs a new player or 2?

Time will tell, but right now it seems that all the month’s managerial moves were the right call.

Proving the doubters wrong

“Elsewhere, signing Aaron Ramsdale for more money than the vastly superior Emiliano Martínez was sold for is just bad business.”

– Premier League 2021/22: August

While I still think that the business side of this whole story is a little questionable, I must admit that I have been proved wrong by Aaron Ramsdale. Despite the club’s relegation, Ramsdale looked promising for Bournemouth, but appeared to regress last season for Sheffield United despite being named their player of the Year. Being signed by Arsenal for a fee of up to £30m, I felt that he was going to be playing the role of an expensive back-up to Bernd Leno.

However that has not been the case and I must apologise to Ramsdale, as his form as the Arsenal starter has been incredible. He finds himself just 1 clean sheet off the pace in the race for the Golden Glove, and while part of that is also down to an improved defence, he is pulling off top class saves with regularity and this is likely helping to improve the defence as he is giving them more confidence.

And this leaves Gareth Southgate with an interesting decision to make for the World Cup. Jordan Pickford is his man but still rarely shows the same level of reliability for Everton as Ramsdale has been. Meanwhile Dean Henderson finds himself stuck behind a resurgent David de Gea—don’t be shocked to see him go out on loan to another club in January—and Nick Pope is in a struggling Burnley team.

To me, Ramsdale should be at least the back-up to Pickford by this point, but I would give Ramsdale the starting spot for any more matches this season in order to get him and the defence working on the same page and give him every chance of beating out Pickford. Even if he doesn’t quite manage that, he would at least be in a position to seamlessly take over should Pickford get injured or suspended during or right before the tournament.

Team of the Month

Manchester City

While Chelsea may have finished the month top of the table, it’s City who get the Team of the Month ward. The Sky Blues went 3 wins from 3 in November to finish just 1 point behind the league leaders, scoring 7 goals to just 1 conceded.

Granted Manchester United’s form was poor, but a trip to Old Trafford could have been a banana skin and yet they dominated the derby, while also beating Everton and a West Ham team that defeated Liverpool. And all that without a recognised striker (Gabriel Jesus the only one who could be considered such, if he wasn’t starting on the wing), and with Kevin De Bruyne only playing in the Manchester Derby.

City are just going from strength to strength and at this rate, I won’t be surprised to see them top at Christmas.

 

Premier League 2021/22: August

Premier League 2021/22: August

Football may not have quite come home this summer, but the Premier League has returned, along with grounds full of cheering fans!

Kicking off midway through the month, we have had 3 rounds of football before the first international break of he season, and boy did it leave the table in an interesting place. Champions Manchester City opened up their campaign with a loss to a Tottenham side who were not even playing star striker Harry Kane as they tried to avoid loving him to the sky blues, while newly-promoted Brentford defeated Arsenal in Friday night’s opener. And for the two North London rivals things just continued in the same manner, leaving Spurs top of the table with the only 100% winning record, while the Gunners find themselves dead last, one of 3 teams yet to earn a point.

The race is on!

The race for the Golden Boot: Michail Antonio (West Ham) – 4 goals; Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton) & Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) – 3 goals

The race for Playmaker of the Season: Paul Pogba (Manchester United) – 5 assists; Michail Antonio (West Ham) & Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City) – 3 assists

The race for the Golden Glove: Hugo Loris (Tottenham Hotspur) – 3 clean sheets; Édouard Mendy (Chelsea), Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Manchester City) & David Raya (Brentford) – 2 clean sheets

Heading for trouble

Remember how both last season and during the summer professional football continued to show that it doesn’t care about player safety when it comes to concussions? Well it appears that narrative will continue this season.

The game: Chelsea’s 0-2 win at Arsenal. Reece James went up to compete with Nuno Tavares for an aerial ball and the pair made contact, with James flopping to the ground on landing, before lying there unmoving in a star shape. To everyone watching, it looked like James had been knocked out, but after the game was stopped and he received medical attention, the Chelsea fullback was allowed to play on. The incident conveniently didn’t even appear in the Match of the Day highlights.

Now if James was knocked out (more on this shortly), then it is absolutely disgusting that medical professionals allowed him to play on. Contact sports like rugby and American football continue to sponsor research that shows the danger of head injuries, and yet football—a game where you are legally allowed to play the ball with your head—continues to bury its head in the sand, which will likely have fatal (and expensive, to use language the people in charge may actually care about) consequences.

Of course, if you ask anyone at Chelsea, James never lost consciousness, with Thomas Tuchel saying that he stayed down as he was afraid that he had broken a tooth. Now watching the footage of James staying down, that is not how I imagine someone reacting if they think they’ve broken a tooth. Especially given the visible worry of players and officials, it feels like James would have had more of a reaction if this was the issue. It feels like a poor excuse to cover for the fact that they risked their players life. And if it is true, then you have to ask why acting as if you’ve been knocked out is acceptable.

Hopefully this is the last time we see an event like this, but given recent history, I very much doubt it!

Wingman

It’s been a strange old summer for Manchester City. The defending champions successfully brought in Jack Grealish, but with Sergio Agüero no longer at the club and Gabriel Jesus apparently not fully trusted as the lead striker (judging by the amount of times the team played without a recognised number 9 last season), many would argue that their summer spending was somewhat of a failure as they failed to come to terms with Spurs for Harry Kane and similarly failed to bring in a striker, which was even more noticeable given the signings some of their rivals made (more on that later).

So with no new striker signed, it has been interesting to see how City have began the season up front, with Ferran Torres in the middle of a front three, with Grealish on the left and Jesus on the right. And yet it’s working. Jesus has had a brilliant start to the season, causing all manner of problems for defenders on his side and putting in a number of super dangerous crosses, which should have led to more than 3 assists so far, while he has also been able to come in from a wider position to cause trouble in the box, or move more centrally once substitutions are made.

While I still think that City will regret not bringing in a bigger striker before the season is out, it looks like Gabriel Jesus may just have found the opportunity to become a regular in the starting XI.

Building for success

It’s been a mixed summer transfer-wise for the big six. But who has been put in the best position by their summer’s business.

While Jack Grealish is in my personal opinion an upgrade on Raheem Sterling, he is arguably a luxury in a position where City already have plenty of options, especially with Jesus now playing a wide position. Much more important was getting a star striker in. Harry Kane would have been the perfect option, as someone who can play as a classic 9 but also has the skill to play a little deeper, so to miss out on him could be costly. That said, with the depth they have elsewhere in the squad, don’t be shocked to see them still remain favourites for the title.

Moving across the city and Manchester United have had a busy summer! Though Dan James will be a loss, the Red Devils had already secured his replacement in Borussia Dortmund starlet Jadon Sancho, while the arrival of Raphaël Varane should go a long way to solidifying things at the back, something the team has needed for years! But to then end the transfer window by bringing back the prodigal son in Cristiano Ronaldo was a masterstroke. Not only will his return pump up a crowd that is already excited to be back, but his talent belies his age and he will be such a threat leading the line and at set pieces. But what United also benefit from now is leadership. In Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani—who has vacated the 7 shirt to let Ronaldo have it back—United now have 2 world class strikers to teach Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood the finer points of the position whilst also ensuring the supply men are putting the ball in exactly the right position. But more than that, the leadership of those 2 and Varane, combined with a high number of top class players will hopefully bring out the best in Paul Pogba, whose prodigious talent has too often been outweighed by a lack of effort. They may still be a man short in the midfield, but this looks like a team that can compete for the title once again.

United aren’t the only team who look really set to challenge now, though. Chelsea looked a real threat under Thomas Tuchel last season, and the only thing that appeared to be missing was an elite striker, with Timo Werner struggling to get the results his effort deserved and Tammy Abraham never quite convincing. However, a return for Chelsea’s own prodigal son in Romelu Lukaku has given them the missing piece and I think that they will be genuinely pushing for the title this season.

As for Spurs, they’ve had some ins and outs, but arguably their most important piece of business was keeping hold of Harry Kane. They have started the season well with 3 clean sheets helping them earn 3 wins, but having a player of Kane’s quality around for another season is huge. Will it be enough for them to compete with some of the other teams for a top 4 spot? Only time will tell.

Liverpool’s summer has been largely quiet, with their one signing being defender Ibrahima Konaté. It’s a lot of money for a young defender and has the potential to be a bust, but if he can live up to expectations, he and the returning Virgil van Dijk could become one of the strongest—if not the strongest—centreback partnerships in the league. However, with the loss of Georginio Wijnaldum and no new names coming in up front (unless you count some of the younger players beginning to take a slightly larger role), there is a risk that things could get stale further up the field. With Chelsea and United both strengthening, I expect a top 4 finish but I think they will fall short in the title race.

And so we reach Arsenal, and what do I really say here? While they managed to sign Kieran Tierney and Emile Smith-Rowe to new contracts and sign Martin Ødegaard following a successful loan spell last season. However while Ben Smith looks a promising young player, £50 million is far too much for a young defender with just 1 season of top flight football under his belt, especially when previous seasons have continually shown the Gunners to have defensive frailties regardless of who plays in the defence. Elsewhere, signing Aaron Ramsdale for more money than the vastly superior Emiliano Martínez was sold for is just bad business. Arsenal have had a shocking start to the season, which hasn’t been helped by ongoing COVID issues, but even before the first 3 rounds, I would have struggled to envision the Gunners getting anywhere near a Champions League spot. If things don’t turn round soon, Mikel Arteta will be in trouble.

Team of the Month

Tottenham Hotspur

While West Ham were certainly in contention after scoring 10 goals in 3 games to finish the month second in the table, in the end I had to go for Spurs. Not only have they started the season with 3 wins from 3, but they are yet to even concede a goal! Meanwhile, they have barely used Harry Kane so far as it looked like just a matter of time before their star player left, and yet they still managed to pull out the wins, including what must have been an especially sweet victory over defending champions Manchester City in Round 1.

They certainly weren’t perfect and need to start finishing more of their chances, but after a positive start, keeping hold of Harry Kane will be a huge boost, which they can use to push on this month.

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Premier League 2020/21: April

Premier League 2020/21: April

So April was a quiet month for the Premier League, eh?

Ha! If only.

While the league came under attack from the supposed Big 6’s attempts to get more money for their owners – an event which backfired tremendously for everyone involved – the league season continued with some more thrilling matches. Manchester City may have lost to Leeds during the month, but with rivals Manchester United also dropping points to the same opposition at the end of the month, the Sky Blues find the league title within reach, with them likely to claim the title in their next match at time of writing. At the other end of the table, Sheffield United were officially confirmed as the first team to be relegated from the league, on the same day that Norwich were confirmed as the first team to secure promotion to the Premier League.

The race is on!

The race for the Golden Boot: Harry Kane (Tottenham) – 21 goals; Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – 20 goals; Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) – 16 goals

The race for Playmaker of the Season: Harry Kane (Tottenham) – 13 assists; Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) & Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) – 11 assists; Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) – 10 assists

The race for the Golden Glove: Ederson (Manchester City) – 17 clean sheets; Édouard Mendy (Chelsea) – 15 clean sheets; Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)– 14 clean sheets

A step too far

On 18ᵗʰ April, the Premier League came under attack as the “Big 6” (Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur) announced that they were part of a group of 12 clubs (along with AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid) who had agreed to form a new breakaway midweek league, the European Super League, rather than continue with the planned UEFA competitions that are in place. It was very clear that this was a move to make the rich clubs richer while the poor clubs were left out.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Not only did it come completely out of the blue, with players and managers as shocked as fans and equally against the decision, but it came on the same day that Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw by a Fulham side who will potentially be playing in the Championship next season. In fact, if we looked at the matches on that day or 2 days either side, there were 7 matches between a member of the Big 6 and one of the lowly teams not welcome with the big boys, resulting in just 3 wins for the Big 6 and 4 draws. Of course, within days all the teams had pulled out and were forced to make grovelling apologies.

The Premier League is the best league in the world, not because of its officiating (clearly), but because each team has a legitimate chance to beat any of the other 19 on their day, whereas the Bundesliga has been won by Bayern Munich for the last 8 (soon to be 9) seasons and La Liga has had the same top 3 (in varied order) for the last 9 seasons. The fact that managers and players unequivocally came out against the ESL shows just how loved the Premier League is.

The only people who seem to have been on board with the decision were the fat cats owning each club. And this is no surprise. As football has become more and more of a business, we have seen more clubs just become the shadow of their former selves as they just become a way of adding another 0 to the owner’s personal wealth. Hopefully, this show of solidarity from fans and club personnel alike will be a sign to the fat cats that they can’t have their own way, and hopefully lead us to a time when clubs are owned by those who care…

Special appointment

One giant story that went almost under the radar due to the ESL announcement was the removal of José Mourinho from his role as Spurs manager. The sacking came 2 days after Spurs came from behind to draw at Everton, but less than a week before they would face Manchester city in the Carabao Cup final. Former player Ryan Mason – who was forced to retire early due to a serious head injury – was moved from his role with the Academy into the interim head coach role until the end of the season, becoming the youngest manager in Premier League history, at 29 years old.

But beyond that, who will get the job? Mason is a Spurs man through and through, but it doesn’t sound like he is in contention due to this lack of experience, though it would be interesting to see if this would change if he has a super successful end to the season.

Rafa Benitez would be an ideal choice and is currently available, but I can’t see him moving to Spurs given how reluctant Daniel Levy is to get the chequebook out. Rafa was asked to work miracles with no financial support at Newcastle, and I can’t see him wanting to go into a situation where he is expected to compete against United, City, Liverpool and Chelsea on the pitch but not in the transfer market.

The odds on Antonio Conte taking over have dropped significantly over the last week, and he would be an attractive option, with Premier League experience and experience of teams with high expectations. But would Conte consider a move from perennial title chasers Inter Milan to a Spurs team who are probably pushing for top 3 at best an attractive move?

Eddie Howe is a young English manager who won plenty of plaudits during his time at Bournemouth, playing attractive attacking football. However deficiencies in defence eventually cost him and he has been without a club since, which does raise some flags. He remains the favourite to take over at Celtic, and a couple of strong seasons there could put him in good standing next time around, but not right now.

Sticking with young English managers and Scott Parker may be facing relegation with Fulham, but the team s unrecognisable now to the mess they were at the start of the season. He is a smart manager with expectations of his players, but again probably needs some more experience before a move to a big club.

Ralph Hasenhüttl has impressed on the whole at Southampton and it seems a matter of time before he gets a more prestigious appointment, but for a manager with only 2 appointments of note (Southampton and RB Leipzig) who has never managed a winning percentage of 50% or above, a move to a team like Spurs may be to big of a jump.

Brendan Rodgers and Nuno Espírito Santo are probably the most attractive managers in the Premier League right now, but this season has maybe shown a reliance on a couple of star players, with Wolves struggling following he sale of Diogo Jota and injuries to Raúl Jiménez and Pedro Neto, while Leicester have also struggled with key players missing.

Let down

And finally to a subject that seems to come up far too often: player safety surrounding head injuries. This time we journey back to the start of the month, as Leeds hosted Sheffield United. Sheffield right back George Baldock suffered a head injury and even from the television footage, it was clear that he appeared to be suffering concussion symptoms. Yet after the quickest of trials at the side of the pitch, Baldock was allowed to play on, only to go down again moments later and finally be removed from the match.

I may not be a medical expert but it was clear to me that Baldock was in no fit state to continue after the original incident. By being allowed to play on, Baldock was put at serious risk. So much work is being done in sports like rugby and the NFL to combat head injuries and protect players, yet football—a sport in which you can legally use your head to play the ball—once again seems far behind.

These players may be getting paid substantial sums to play in the Premier League, but their safety and wellbeing is being put at risk, and I worry that if something doesn’t change soon, it will take a serious and life-changing incident for the league begin caring about concussions and head injuries.

Team of the Month

Manchester United

This was very much a two horse race this month, with only Manchester United and West Ham managing 3 wins in the league this month. While West Ham’s 3 wins were probably against a stronger set of opponents, United’s win at Spurs highlighted their turnaround from the mauling they received earlier this season, and they also finished the month with a slightly higher number of points due to a draw at Leeds versus a loss at Newcastle, while they also had to do this around their Europa League campaign, which saw both legs of the quarterfinal against Granada and the 6-2 victory in the first leg of the semifinal against Roma.

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Premier League 2020/21: September

Premier League 2020/21: September

It feels like only yesterday that we finished the 2019/20 season of the Premier League but we’re already back up and running with many teams already 3 matches into the 2020/21 season.

4 teams made it through September unbeaten: defending champions Liverpool, local rivals Everton, Leicester City and Aston Villa (who have only played 2 games), while newly-promoted Fulham find themselves without a point in 3 games, alongside Sheffield United and Burnley (though the Clarets have only played 2 games).

As with last season, I’m back again to give my big thoughts from each month’s action and stories. I will also be unveiling a few new features for this season’s articles. So without further ado, let’s get to the football!

The race is on!

The race for the Golden Boot: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton) & Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) – 5 goals, Son Heung-Min (Tottenham) – 4 goals

The race for Playmaker of the Season: Harry Kane (Tottenham) – 5 assists, 7 players on 2 assists

The race for the Golden Glove: Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa) – 2 clean sheets, 11 players on 1 clean sheet

A welcome improvement

After last year’s farce, I was worried about how well VAR would work given the limited time between seasons, but – and I hope I’m not jinxing anything by saying this – things appear to be going much better this season. Personally, I put this down to 2 main factors.

First of all, it seems that when it comes to checking offsides, we’re not getting the ridiculous checks to see if the attacking player is offside by the narrowest of margins. I’m not sure whether this is down to attacking players holding their runs a little more to ensure they are onside, or if there has been some directive that VAR hasn’t got to atomic levels of precision when checking an offside (or maybe a bit of both). Regardless, getting rid of these incidents is saving so much time and making the system look much less pathetic when making its decisions.

Secondly, the VAR is now being used properly by having many of the subjective decisions checked by the referee. Part of the VAR system has always included a pitchside monitor for the referee to use, but it was largely ignored last year as those in the booth made all the decisions. Using the pitchside monitor leads to a much better experience as there is the consistency of the same person making the decisions as during the rest of the game. VAR is not a way to catch the referees out and berate them for getting the initial decision wrong, instead it is there to give them an opportunity to view an incident again to ensure they are making the correct decision.

Having followed a number of sports for years that utilise video replays, I know how effective VAR can be if used right. Hopefully we are now seeing things go in the right direction.

Poorly handled

While VAR seems to be improving, the way that handballs are being dealt with this season is absolutely ridiculous!

The Premier League went against the curve last year with how they refereed potential handballs, but this year they have had to come in line with the other leagues around the world. And it has shown to have an impact, with a massive rise in the number of penalties for handballs in these early rounds.

Now firstly, I want to say that I do agree with bringing the Premier League in line with other leagues. Football is one sport and to me all the leagues should be in line with each other as it creates a consistency to the product.

However, the way that the law is being refereed is an absolute joke! The idea of what constitutes a handball relies on the arm being outside a standardised silhouette of someone standing with their arms by their sides. However, this same silhouette is used for all circumstances, including a player jumping for the ball. Try jumping for the ball while keeping your arms by your sides and you won’t get very high and will look ridiculous, but this means that as soon as a player uses their arms to help propel them into the air, they’re giving away a penalty if the ball hits their arm. But then things get even more ridiculous as Gabriel escaped a handball penalty against West Ham when the ball struck his arm away from the body, only for nothing to be given as the ball struck his upper arm where his sleeve is – which apparently doesn’t constitute a handball!

Something needs to change. Is the answer to say that any contact between the arm and the ball is a handball, similar to how any contact with the foot or the back of the stick is an offence in hockey? Or do we need more situational parameters set as to what constitutes a handball in different circumstances – eg challenging in the air, going to ground to make a challenge, protecting body with arms? That’s for people who get much more than me to decide, but something has to change.

Immediate impact

Is there anyone who would argue right now with the opinion that James Rodríguez has been the signing of the summer?

The Colombian, signed from Real Madrid, has had an immediate impact at Goodison Park, providing the range of passing and movement to find holes between the midfield and defence and create space for Richarlison to run into, while also being a goal threat himself on the edge of the box.

After his World Cup heroics, it looked like he would be fighting with Messi and Ronaldo for the Ballon d’Or for years to come, but he was just anther big name at Real and eventually fell out of favour, leading to a loan spell at Bayern Munich. However coming to Goodison Park and reuniting with a manager that has a good history with him is really bringing out the best in him and I think that we are going to really see that quality for Everton this year.

Perhaps he is the missing piece that can see the Toffees compete for Europe again.

Same old story

While Everton may have brought in just the player they needed in the offseason, Manchester United are looking pathetic in the transfer market once again.

Not only are they struggling to offload the players deemed surplus to requirements, but the only signing they have made is Donny van de Beek, who appears to be giving some depth to midfield rather than fixing some gaps in the starting XI. The Jadon Sancho transfer saga is dragging on and it’s not hard to imagine United missing out on their man, while they are also in desperate need of an upgrade at centreback and on the left side of defence.

The problem is that this isn’t a one-off, but just another example of Ed Woodward’s inability to deal effectively in the transfer market. Manchester United remains one of the biggest names in football, but the lack of success has not been helped at all by an inability to bring in the players required on a consistent basis. When you look at the signings that Chelsea and Arsenal have made for this season and the players Liverpool have brought in to to strengthen their squad – hell, even Spurs have actually had a decent transfer window with Højbjerg, Doherty and Bale arriving – United need to be doing better if they want to consistently finish in the Champions League places and look to compete for the title again.

Team of the Month

Leicester City

I wasn’t intending to just pick the league leaders for the first month, but when I looked deeper into things I had to pick the Foxes.

An away match at newly-promoted West Brom is far from the hardest way to open a season, but it could still very easily be a banana skin, yet Leicester came away with a 3-goal win despite having a goal disallowed. They followed this up with another goal-heavy win over Burnley, and ended the month with an incredible 2-5 victory at the Etihad where they completely outplayed Manchester City.

And all this while having limited options at centreback and having to use a midfielder there at times! You couldn’t ask for a much better start to your campaign!

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Premier League: July 2020

Premier League: July 2020

The longest Premier League season in history finally came to an end on the 26ᵗʰ July and what a season it was. This season gave us a newly promoted team pushing for Europe, teams turning their season around in the January transfer window, Manchester City being banned from European competition for breaking Financial Fair Play rules then being welcomed back with open arms because the sport is too corrupt to really punish any team with money, a global pandemic causing a 100-day pause to the season, controversies caused by the systems brought in to eradicate controversies, almost daily football for the final weeks of the season, and finally the first Premier League title for Liverpool.

It seemed somewhat fitting that the Reds found themselves on 96 points as they lifted the trophy to celebrate their first top flight title in 30 years. But the Reds will prepare over this shorter offseason for a much tighter challenge next ear as a number of their rivals look to bounce back. Meanwhile at the other end of the table, a win on the final day of the season was not enough to save Bournemouth as they joined Watford and Manchester City in being relegated to the Championship.

Premier League Round-up

Fond farewell

I may be a Manchester United fan, but even I won’t let any bias get in the way of admitting that we are losing a truly incredible talent from the league in the form of Manchester City midfielder David Silva.

The Spaniard is leaving Manchester City after 10 seasons with the club, and has been a key figure part of the team that has won 4 Premier Leagues, 2 FA Cups, 5 League Cups and 3 Community Shields. While he has chipped in a highly impressive 77 goals in 434 appearances for Manchester City, it is his 124 assists and numerous other goals where he as instrumental in the build-up that he will be remembered for.

The league may never have seen the talent of Lionel Mess, but with a player like Silva who has such incredible control and an eye for a pass, favourable comparisons to the stars of Pep’s old Barcelona are certainly fully deserved. Even with the arrival of Kevin de Bruyne in recent seasons, it may have taken some of the focus off of Silva, but it has not negatively impacted his impact on the team or the league. And with his style of play, he still has a few seasons of elite football in him at 34. Whoever picks him up is onto a winner.

VAR’s worst day

Thursday 9ᵗʰ July was a day that will live long in infamy for VAR, as the Premier League had to make statements confirming that the system brought in to improve the accuracy of the officials’ decisions had made mistakes in all 3 matches played that day.

In Manchester United’s 0-3 victory over Aston Villa, United were awarded a penalty after Bruno Fernandes was supposedly tripped just inside the box by Ezri Konsa. A VAR review clearly showed that if anything, it should have been a Villa free kick as Fernandes in fact stood on Konsa’s foot, but despite this the penalty decision stood.

It was another penalty that was wrongly allowed to stand in Everton’s 1-1 draw with Southampton, as the Saints were awarded a penalty for a foul by André Gomes on James Ward-Prowse, only for the VAR review to show that Ward-Prowse simply fell into Gomes… and still allow the penalty to be taken!

Finally in Bournemouth’s goalless draw with Spurs, the Cherries were lucky to avoid giving away a penalty after Josh King clumsily bundled Harry Kane over at a corner. No penalty was given and following a review, the decision inexplicably stood.

The one good thing from these incidents is that the league came out and admitted that the decisions were wrong, but now they need to sort out the system ahead of next season. And I can suggest a simple amendment: for all subjective decisions, make the referee review it on the pitchside monitor and make the decision rather than gormlessly standing around in the middle of the pitch. If they’re still getting the decisions wrong, then they clearly aren’t ready to referee in the supposedly best league in the world.

Faith pays off

Remember back in the opening months of the season when everyone was clamouring for Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Frank Lampard to be removed from their roles as managers of Manchester United and Chelsea? Well I hope those morons feel stupid now, as the season ended with them in 3ʳᵈ and 4ᵗʰ respectively.

It takes time to establish yourself on a team, and then you are limited by the players at the club. Luckily for Manchester United, they finally admitted that the quality of player wasn’t there for the manager and brought in Bruno Fernandes, who revolutionised the team in the second half of the season, while the front 3 they eventually settled on (Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford) have more goals over all competitions than Liverpool’s much-vaunted Sané, Firmino, Salah trio – and their season still isn’t finished with Europa League matches still to be played! Chelsea meanwhile managed to rely on youth to overcome the loss of Eden Hazard and the transfer ban.

Of course, neither team is the finished article and they both finished well behind both Liverpool and Manchester City. Both teams need to do some good work in the transfer window to compete for the title – Chelsea have definitely started well – but the future looks bright for these 2 teams.

feat football prem league logo blue

February 2019 in the Premier League

February 2019 in the Premier League

Hey there Premier League fans, thank you for you patience and sorry it has taken so long to get this written. The Six Nations largely took over my life over the last couple of months and typically my (usually quiet/non-existent) social life actually had some stuff going on to leave me with even less time. I promise you won’t be waiting anywhere near as long for my thoughts on March’s action.

Manchester City took the league lead back from Liverpool and 3 wins means that they are now in the driving seat (having a game in hand) over their title rivals, who dropped 4 points with draws at West Ham and Manchester United. The draw against Liverpool and 3 other wins continued United’s renaissance under Ole Gunnar Solskjær and a top 3 spot is beginning to look a real possibility. It was not all positive news though, as 2 more managers were let go in February: Claude Puel was dismissed by Leicester following an embarrassing 1-4 loss at home to Crystal Palace, while Claudio Ranieri lasted just over 3 months at Fulham.

Role models

Premier League footballers are watched by millions of people every week including thousands of children. They are some of the best players in the world playing in arguably the best league in the world. As such, they are arguably in a position where children will look up to them as role models.

So imagine my disappointment when I saw Burnley’s Ashley Barnes going absolutely crazy at a lineman after he was accused of diving to try winning a penalty. Yes, diving is disgusting and needs to be kicked out of the game, but this was a terrible call as he was clearly caught by Southampton keeper Alex McCarthy. It’s understandable that Barnes would be angry at not being awarded a clear penalty – the penalty given to them later in the game was their first in 68 league games – and in fact being given a yellow for diving, but that to me does not excuse the way he reacted to the officials and I am shocked he was not given a second yellow for this reaction.

This was not the first incident this season of players disrespecting officials as just the week before, Wilfried Zaha was given a second yellow card for dissent after sarcastically applauding the referee who had just booked him against Southampton.

There is no place for either of these reactions in football. Officials have a hard enough time doing their job and getting the right decision (more on that in a moment) without players and fans giving them abuse. Players need to control their emotions and cut out this behaviour as it will just lead to children doing the same in grassroots football, which will stop people wanting to become an official.

Costly decision

It takes just one second to potentially change the outcome of a game completely. During Brighton’s home match with Burnley, the Seagulls found themselves 0-2 down but on the attack with about 15 minutes left. The attack came to an end as Burnley’s Jeff Hendrick appeared to handle the ball, but this was missed by the officials. Burnley countered and Ashley Barnes beat the offside trap on halfway before being fouled by keeper Mathew Ryan in the box, scoring the penalty for a 0-3 lead and eventually a 1-3 victory.

Instead of a Burnley penalty, this should have been a Brighton penalty and the core would have likely been 1-2 rather than 0-3, which with 15 minutes left could have completely changed the result.

VAR is making its way to the league next season and while not everyone is sold on it yet, this is a perfect example of just how important it can be to get the right decision.

Penalty points

Leicester’s 3-1 loss at Tottenham threw up an interesting moment as the Foxes were awarded a penalty when 1-0 down. Demarai Gray had been given the start ahead of Jamie Vardy as Claude Puel wanted to develop other options, but as soon as the penalty was awarded, Vardy came on to replace him and take the penalty. Things didn’t work out for them though as his shot was saved by Hugo Lloris. This moment left me with a couple of questions:

  1. Why say you want to develop other options and then go back to the tried an tested for something that should be as guaranteed as a penalty. This could instead harm Gray’s development and confidence.
  2. Should Vardy have been able to take the penalty?

This second one is interesting to me as though there is nothing against it in the rules, it does not feel right to me. Much like how a team cannot substitute their keeper at full time for a penalty shootout but must instead bring them on before the end of extra time, I feel that the penalty should be taken by someone who was on the pitch when the penalty was awarded. As well as feeling right, it surely makes sense tactically as well as otherwise a player’s first touch of the ball is them taking the penalty, which as Vardy showed is not necessarily going to be good news for them.

A great turnaround

Manchester United’s 0-0 draw at home to Liverpool would probably be considered a good result for them looking back at how the first half of the season went, but when you look into the match even further you realise just how good the result was.

With Nemanja Matić already missing through injury, United’s midfield was dealt a blow about 20 minutes in as Ander Herrera left the pitch with an injury to leave United with a midfield pairing of Andreas Pereira and Scott McTominay. Things got even worse as Jesse Lingard had to replace the injured Juan Mata about 5 minutes later and then himself left the pitch injured just before halftime, being replaced by Alexis Sanchez. Marcus Rashford had also been struggling with an injury from around the same time as Herrera’s injury but with no subs remaining had to play the rest of the game.

Granted, Liverpool lost Roberto Firmino to injury as well in the first half, but that still left them 2 available subs in the second half, so for United to hold on with 10½ men against the title contenders and in fact almost win it (Joel Matip’s own goal was disallowed due to Chris Smalling’s offside) shows just how far United have come under Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

Sarri v Kepa

Chelsea may not have had a league game in Round 27 as they were losing on penalties to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Final, but they were still making waves that would continue into the next round of matches.

As extra time edged towards penalties, Maurizio Sarri chose to replace Kepa Arrizabalaga – who had gone down with cramp twice in the extra period – with Willy Caballero, who is known to have a good record against penalties. Kepa however refused to leave the pitch, leading to Sarri having to back down and be moved away from Kepa after the whistle.

While this was a public embarrassment, Chelsea media moved quickly to play the incident down, with Kepa’s statement saying that it was a misunderstanding and he was making it clear that he was fit enough to continue. Sarri’s actions in their next league match against Tottenham said otherwise though, as he dropped Kepa in favour of Willy Caballero. When asked about the change of keepers, Sarri stated:

“Kepa made a big mistake and so it was only a message for the whole team, all the dressing room”

While I completely agree with the decision to drop Kepa under normal circumstances, the fact that this went completely against the public line taken by Chelsea may have put him on shaky ground (as if he wasn’t already with the performances and results his team were getting) and showed that when push came to shove in the match, player power beat out the manager. If Sarri makes it beyond the end of this season, I will be shocked!

Top 6 prediction

  1. Liverpool
  2. Manchester City
  3. Manchester United
  4. Tottenham Hotspur
  5. Arsenal
  6. Chelsea

 

December 2018 in the Premier League

December 2018 in the Premier League

Happy New Year all!

It may seem odd to say that a league spanning from August to May can be decided in one month, but with 7 rounds of football in December and some huge results, the Premier League title may have been all-but wrapped up the title for Liverpool by the end of the festive period.

Elsewhere, two managers followed Slaviša Jokanović into unemployment with Mark Hughes being replaced at Southampton by Ralph Hasenhüttl and Ole Gunnar Solskjær replacing José Mourinho at Manchester United.

Pushing forward

I have some real sympathy for Sean Dyche. His Burnley side have not been awarded a penalty in the Premier League since 15th April 2017 against Everton, despite a number of incidents since that looked like they should have resulted in the referee pointing to the spot. The latest incident came in their 3-1 loss to Arsenal, where Kevin Long was bundled over by Sead Kolašinac in the Arsenal box. Soft? Maybe, but by the letter of the law it should be a foul, and by extension in this case, a penalty.

What will be even more galling for Dyche is that in the same round of fixtures, Dominic Calvert-Lewin had a goal disallowed for Everton for a push on Davinson Sánchez during their 2-6 loss to Tottenham – a push that was arguably a softer foul than Kolašinac’s. Then, just 2 matches later, Kolašinac did concede a penalty in the 5-1 loss to Liverpool by pushing over Dejan Lovren. 3 pushes, 2 fouls… the maths just doesn’t add up.

One of my real bugbears in football is the amount of pushing and pulling that goes unpunished. The powers that be need to decide that either any push or pull is legal or every push or pull is a foul, and the officials then need to enforce this. Otherwise we see games ruined by players being penalised one week and not another for the exact same act.

A crazy few minutes

Brighton’s 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace gave us one of the craziest moments of the season, and unfortunately not many people come out of it looking good.

Glenn Murray went down in the box under pressure from James Tomkins – perhaps a little easy, but that’s another debate altogether – but referee Kevin Friend did not award a penalty. Murray stayed down with an injury and in the afters, Shane Duffy inexplicably thrust his head into Patrick van Aanholt, earning himself a deserved red card. Having lost a defender, manager Chris Hughton replaced Pascal Groß with the more defensive Leon Balogun. Things didn’t end there as Friend had awarded a corner, thinking the ball had been played by Tomkins rather than Murray and the corner resulted in Balogun scoring a stunning volley with his first touch of the ball!

While I would hope the officials would be able to get the decisions between a corner and a goal kick correct at this level, this incident to me really highlighted one of the differences between football and rugby. In rugby, an offence like Duffy’s headbutt would cause a reversal in the referee’s original decision as well as any necessary cards. This way, the aggressor is punished with a dismissal and his team are also punished. Had that been the case here, Duffy’s indiscretion would have seen the corner (that they already shouldn’t have) be reversed to a Palace free kick, which could have made a huge difference given the 1-0 scoreline at the time.

Great month for Liverpool

December couldn’t have really gone much better for Liverpool. They continued their unbeaten campaign with 7 wins from 7, including victories over Manchester United, Arsenal and local rivals Everton. Meanwhile, title rivals Manchester City dropped points with losses to Chelsea (2-0), Crystal Palace (2-3) and Leicester (2-1); Tottenham lost to Arsenal (4-2) and Wolves (1-3); Arsenal lost at Southampton (3-2) and drew at Manchester United (2-2) and Brighton (1-1) and Chelsea lost 1-0 to Leicester.

8 of the last 9 league leaders on Christmas Day have gone on to win the title, while Liverpool’s leade on New Year’s Day would be the biggest margin overcome in Premier League history were they to lose the title, so the signs are very good for the Reds. Mohamed Salah may not be scoring with the same regularity as last season, they look much more secure at the back with Virgil van Dijk looking one of the best centrebacks in the league and Alisson currently sits top of the league in terms of clean sheets.

I don’t expect them to go unbeaten this season, but barring a slew of injuries to key players, I find it hard to imagine they will drop enough points to allow anyone else to overtake them, especially as I expect their rivals to also drop more points in such a hotly contested league this season.

Throwback to the past

The inevitable finally happened this season as United’s loss to Liverpool saw the end of José Mourinho’s reign at Old Trafford, with the Special One being replaced by former fan-favourite player Ole Gunnar Solskjær until the end of the season. The move has had instant results, with the team playing a much more attack-focused gameplan with the players looking much freer than before. They may not have played table-topping teams, but 4 wins from 4 has made Solskjær only the second manager in the history of the club to win his first 4 league games in charge, the first being Sir Matt Busby.

It has been wonderful watching their recent performances and with Solskjær in charge and Mike Phelan on his staff, this is probably the closest feeling we have had to the classic United since Fergie retired.

However, I do not want to get carried away. United are still struggling to keep clean sheets and are in desperate need of a top-quality centre back, but the rumours have been that United will be limited to loan signings with Solskjær currently only on loan from Molde until the end of the season. That will not be enough to keep up with the top teams and if players like Pogba begin to act up again (I cannot believe that his new form is down purely to him being given more freedom on the pitch as opposed to him now actively putting in effort) then things could turn horribly again.

Personally, I really hope things work out for the rest of the season and would love to see the Baby-faced Assassin get the role on a permanent basis.

Top 6 prediction

  1. Liverpool
  2. Manchester City
  3. Tottenham Hotspur
  4. Arsenal
  5. Chelsea
  6. Manchester United

 

October 2018 in the Premier League

October 2018 in the Premier League

Just the 3 rounds of football in October as the international break took place after the first week of matches. Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea continue their unbeaten starts to the season with 2 wins and a draw each. City’s results were probably the most impressive of the 3 as they drew with Liverpool (who remain level on points) and won against Burnley and at Spurs. Arsenal matches the results of the teams ahead of them, as did Manchester United – who were denied a win at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a late Ross Barkley goal – and Bournemouth, who continue to surpass expectations and hold onto a spot in the top 6. The only team to win all their games in October was Brighton, who managed 3 consecutive 1-0 victories, while Fulham were the only team not to pick up a single point this month.

The best of football

Football fans don’t always get painted in the best light – often for good reason – but there were some instances this month that really caught my eye and thought were worthy of praise.

The biggest of these has come in circumstances that we wish had not happened, but centres around the reaction to the helicopter crash following Leicester’s 1-1 draw with West Ham that saw 5 people including Leicester owner and chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. Football fans have not always been the best at showing respect for other clubs’ previous tragedies, but the way that the entire football community has responded to the incident is highly commendable.

On a lighter note, the other moments of class have been related to former players returning to their old home ground with new teams. I remember the shock when Juan Mata was sold to United. Mata was a fan-favourite at Stamford Bridge and has understandably become one at Old Trafford too, so it was wonderful to see both home and away fans give him a standing ovation as he left the pitch during United’s 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. Similarly, it was great to see Manchester City fans give keeper Joe Hart such a warm welcome on his return to the Etihad with Burnley. He was such a big piece of the club through their early years of success and it never felt right with me the way he was so easily discarded by Pep Guardiola, so it was great to see the fans give him the respect he deserved. It’s just a shame that he was left picking the ball out the back of his net 5 times, especially given a couple of huge decisions from the officials really went in City’s favour during the game.

Kick it out

From some of the best of football to some of the worst.

We quickly find ourselves back at Stamford Bridge and in the final moments of the match as Ross Barkley salvaged a point for Chelsea. While I can understand that emotions would run high at a moment like that, there was no excuse for Chelsea coach Marco Ianni to come running out of the dugout and celebrate not just in front of the United bench, but also to direct his celebration towards them. There is no need whatsoever, it is taunting plain and simple and I have to comment José and the United bench for not reacting the first time. But because they didn’t react, Ianni decided to do it again, sparking ugly scenes at the tunnel. It’s great to see that Sarri apologised and that the FA reacted to the incidents, but a £6,000 fine is pathetically small. This is the Premier League, one of the biggest – if not the biggest – and most popular leagues in the world. Children will be watching Ianni’s actions and thinking that’s acceptable. It isn’t! It was a disgusting and blatant act of disrespect towards Mourinho and the United team and the punishment should have been much more severe.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t it this month as the diving epidemic continued in October. Now first things first, credit to the referees who are coming down hard on the players, with Laurent Depoitre, Aboubakar Kamara and Willian all booked this month for blatant dives, while Alvaro Morata was also cautioned for going down easily during a face-off with a couple of Burnley defenders. Diving is disgusting and needs eliminating from the game. The only problem is that as the referee has picked up on these instances of simulation and given the punishment they can (a yellow card is the maximum punishment on the pitch), the FA cannot give any further punishment. This needs to change if the FA are serious about stamping out diving. If a player knows that they will face a 3-match ban for diving regardless of whether or not they deceive the officials (or better yet get a longer ban if their deception is successful) then after a while players will not want to take the risk as they will know they are putting themselves at risk.

He needs to go!

At almost £90m Paul Pogba was always going to be considered an expensive signing, but I would also call him a costly one. The player has often felt like a distraction in the changing room this season, and if it comes to a matter of someone having to leave Old Trafford and the board picking between Pogba or Mourinho, then I am firmly behind keeping Mourinho.

Pogba has been frustrating on the pitch this season. He has some wonderful moments where he plays beautiful passes, but then he also has plenty of other moments where at best he is anonymous and at worse a liability. He lost his man Antonio Rüdiger far too easy at a corner to allow the German to open the scoring and his showboating lost the ball against Everton, leading to the foul by Chris Smalling that earned a penalty.

And then there’s the penalties. The most pathetic thing I have ever seen on a football pitch. forgoing a run-up for over 20 tiny steps, leaving no power in the shot and making him look stupid if he doesn’t score (he was lucky against Everton that Pickford’s save sent the ball back to him to score on the rebound). With the players in the United squad, there must be someone who can take a proper penalty and if United can get some decent players in January then I will have no problem with them selling Pogba for what will likely be a loss financially.

Attitudes need to change

It was good to see that Glenn Murray made such a quick recovery following Brighton’s win at Newcastle. Murray and Magpies defender Federico Fernández clashed heads competing for an aerial ball and as Murray landed, his body folded and his arms did not protect his fall, leading to his head hitting the floor with sickening force.

Full credit to the players and officials for stopping the game immediately and the medics for their quick actions to stop things from getting worse, but watching Match of the Day, I was shocked to hear commentator Guy Mowbray describe the incident as “something and nothing” as the replays showed Murray’s head hitting the ground. Concussion is a serious worry and this is unfortunately not the first time that the actions of people involved in the Premier League have made it look as if they are not so focused on it. I really hope they prove me wrong.

Top 6 prediction

  1. Manchester City
  2. Liverpool
  3. Chelsea
  4. Arsenal
  5. Tottenham Hotspur
  6. Manchester United

 

August 2018 in the Premier League

August 2018 in the Premier League

Hi guys and welcome to my new series taking a look at each month in the Premier League season. Last season, I found that writing about each week’s matches helped get me back into the league after a couple of years of only taking a passing interest, but I did find that sometimes I was left with not much to write after just one round of matches. For that reason, I will this year be doing a monthly look back at the league – so you only have to read me championing VAR once a month! Usually this will be in the first week of the next month, but occasionally it may be a bit later if I get a little behind.

The Premier League made a welcome return in August and football fans rejoiced around the country. Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and (surprisingly) Watford have set the early pace by winning all 3 league matches in the month, while draws for Manchester City and Bournemouth in Week 3 left them leading the rest of the table. It’s not been a great start for Manchester United or Arsenal however, United winning 2-1 at home to Leicester on the opening night before a loss at Brighton and a 0-3 humbling to Spurs, while Arsenal lost to City and Chelsea before finally picking up a victory over West Ham, who are the only team without a point from the first 3 rounds.

Transfer failed

This summer saw a move of the transfer deadline from the end of the month to 5pm on 9th August to make sure that all transfers were completed ahead of the season’s matches beginning. While a nice idea, the fact that the deadline day remained later around Europe led to somewhat of a damp squib, with very few teams making big-name transfers late in the window. What probably didn’t help either is the shortening of the summer due to the World Cup.

While I like the idea of the window closing before the football starts as it stops players holding out in hope of a move – as we have seen from players like Riyad Mahrez in the past – I do not feel that it worked well as teams were afraid to let someone go and then lose someone else after their window closed to a team on the continent. United and Spurs’ transfer activity was underwhelming to say the least, I imagine there would have been more action if they’d had the extra couple of weeks.

I would love to see this trialled again in the future, but the window cannot be for just the English teams; it needs to be across the continent so that all teams are in the same position. If that can’t be done, then let’s just keep the usual date at the end of the month!

Seeing red

What has been wrong with some players in recent weeks? Maybe it was just because we’ve had some time away from football, but it feels as if the red cards were being brandished much more often than usual in the opening 3 rounds. And not just reds for second bookable offences – though there were some of those too – but stupid red cards! Let’s just take a look back at some examples:

  • Week 1 – At 0-1 up, Everton are reduced to 10 men at Wolves after Phil Jagielka tries to compensate for a poor first touch by diving in when the last man, his foot going over the ball and taking the man on the leg. This is one of the softer reds I will mention but such an experienced defender should know better than to dive in as the last man and especially to keep his feet down
  • Week 2 – Jamie Vardy sees red against Wolves after lunging in hard with a high boot in an attempt to win the ball back. While the high boot can bean understandable mistake, he came in with such force it felt like the red mist descended for a moment
  • Week 3 – Richarlison and Adam Smith square up in the box during Bournemouth and Everton’s 2-2 draw. With their heads almost touching, Richarlison brings his forward and makes contact with Smith. While it may not be a “headbutt” in the same vein as Zidane on Materazzi, it is well known that what Richarlison did is a straight red card
  • Week 3 – With the score at 1-1 between Southampton and Leicester, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, already on a yellow card, receives a second yellow for diving in an attempt to win a penalty
  • Week 3 – Huddersfield’s Jonathan Hogg reacts badly to Harry Arter appealing for a hold at a set piece and pushes him over, making contact with Arter’s head

There were also 2 notable incidents that did not lead to red cards but definitely should have. Only minutes into Watford’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, Etienne Capoue receives just a yellow card after raking Wilfried Zaha’s achilles with a high foot. He went on to set up Watford’s opener. Somehow, Newcastle’s Kenedy escaped punishment during Newcastle’s draw with Cardiff after kicking out at Victor Camarasa right under the referee’s nose. Karma was a bitch for him though as he failed to complete a pass in the first half and had his injury time penalty (which would have won the game) saved by Neil Etheridge.

With all of these incidents, I can’t help but wonder what is going through the players’ mind in the moment! Football is such a big money business now, I can’t believe players make such a costly mistake so often. If clubs don’t already have a psychologist on staff, then I think they should all hire one and make sessions with them compulsory for player. Not only will it help them deal with rushes of blood to the head on the pitch, it can also potentially help them deal with life in the public eye – especially helpful for young players.

Theatre of nightmares?

What an awful start to the season for United! They may have started the season with a 2-1 victory over Leicester but after that suffered 2 embarrassing defeats, 3-2 at Brighton and 0-3 against Spurs, with 4 of their goals having come from the penalty spot.
Luke Shaw’s resurgence having been given a shot by José Mourinho at the start of the season – he has earned a call-up to the England squad – has been one of the only bright spots s far this season, but there has been little else to be cheerful about.

David de Gea is going through a rough patch and it is showing just how much he has saved the team in recent years as the centre of the defence has been awful. Bailly, Lindelöf, Smalling and Jones have shown nothing to suggest they are good enough to compete at the top of the league and with their struggles so far this season it’s been ridiculous that they were not willing to pay the money to get in a star like Toby Alderweireld. Meanwhile the man United shelled out money for, Fred, has struggled to make an impact so far – though it does appear to take South American players a bit of time to adapt to the league.

The pressure is seriously on José and it appeared to be showing with his rant after the Spurs loss. It does appear that he has some degree of sympathy from the fans as he did not appear to get the signings he wanted from Ed Woodward this summer. United are a big club but right now I cannot imagine them finishing in the top 4. If results and performances don’t improve soon, it’s hard to imagine a change coming at the top.

Top 6 prediction

So as I am no longer doing weekly write-ups it would be too difficult to try predicting all the matches for the next month, so instead I will make my predictions for how the top 6 will look at the end of the season. It will be interesting to see how much this changes as the months go on.

  1. Manchester City
  2. Liverpool
  3. Chelsea
  4. Tottenham
  5. Arsenal
  6. Manchester United

 

Eyes On: 2018 FA Cup Final

Eyes On: 2018 FA Cup Final

Last weekend was a busy one for sport in the UK. Not only were the semi-finals underway for both the Pro14 and the Premiership, but British hopes looked good with Simon Yates leading the Giro d’Italia and as if that wasn’t enough, The FA Cup final took place on Saturday!

This was by no means the thriller that some previous finals have been, with few real chances actually being created, but Antonio Conte’s Chelsea ran out 1-0 winners over Manchester United, courtesy of Eden Hazard’s penalty, to provide the Italian with some silverware this season in (possibly) his last game in charge.

Rash decisions

Marcus Rashford has become the darling of fans in recent seasons, but he has not had the best couple of months. His minutes have been limited and when he has been started ahead of Romelu Lukaku, his performances through the middle have not matched the level of what he has produced out wide.

With Lukaku only fit enough for the bench, Rashford was given the start up front but was wasteful with the ball, frequently giving it away in the first half with poor passes or tame shots. Though he did improve after half time, he still couldn’t find a way to get the ball in the back of the net, with an attempted chip over Thibaut Courtois in the 72nd minute his best chance, but easily saved after being too low. He was removed just after this last attempt and right now it is hard to imagine him being a big part of José Mourinho’s plans next season considering the need to compete with free-scoring teams like Liverpool and Manchester City.

World Cup worry

I must admit that I was a bit surprised when Phil Jones was named in England’s World Cup squad for this summer. Though he can be a very good player, he is by no means consistent and has been part of a defence that has been bailed out too many times by David de Gea.

Chelsea’s goal lays squarely at Jones’ feet as he did not position himself well to defend against Eden Hazard and was thoroughly beaten by the Belgian’s first touch. Rather than take one for the team and bringing Hazard down about 35 metres out from goal, Jones tried to chase level with him and dived in to try and get the ball away inside the box, missing the ball completely and taking down Hazard to give away the match-winning penalty in the 21st minute.

There were a number of comments that this should have been a red card as he was the last defender, but I personally approve of the amended law that states a player can receive only a yellow card if there is a genuine attempt to win the ball, avoiding the “triple punishment” of a penalty, red card and subsequent suspension.

What worries me here is that Jones will potentially be playing in an England shirt soon against none other than Eden Hazard and Belgium. Hazard knows he has the beating of him and I would be shocked if Belgium don’t try to create 1-on-1 matchups between the pair should Jones feature in that match.

A classy touch

As President of the FA, Prince William would usually be presenting the trophy to the winners, but due to his brother’s wedding earlier in the day, he was unable to make the match (even royals have to miss football for family events). With a need to find someone else to present the trophy this year, I think the FA made the perfect decision.

The FA chose to give the job to Jackie Wilkins, the widow of Ray Wilkins, who passed away in April aged 61. The former England midfielder made over 300 appearances for Chelsea and Manchester United, before going on to help coach Chelsea in 1998-2000 and then 2008-2010, including 2 spells as caretaker manager in 2000 and 2009. For the FA to pay tribute to Wilkins in this fashion was wonderful to see. I have not always agreed with their decisions, but this one was spot on!