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Boring, isn’t it? Winning the league in second gear by grinding out results. Not for Arsenal. They are loving it because nothing tastes sweeter, and they are winding up absolutely everyone in the process. It is often painful to watch.
At the start of the season, there was a suspicion that Mikel Arteta’s team might defend their title by a greater margin without necessarily improving on last season’s performances. They had greater squad depth, had shaken off the psychological angst of a title drought and their supposed rivals were at various stages of disrepair or recovery. All those suspicions are proving correct.
Their defence is underpinning this progress. Arsenal have conceded five goals in 10 Premier League matches this season. Remove the Brighton defeat and that figure drops to two in nine games. You can certainly unsettle Arsenal by swarming them with technically gifted attacking midfielders and wingers. Brighton may be the only team with those tools, however, and Arsenal already have a healthy lead at the top.
There are plenty more reasons to believe this will continue. Go back to the end of last season and Arsenal had conceded just six goals in their final 15 league matches, keeping 11 clean sheets in the process. Extrapolate that record across a full season and they would concede just 15 goals.
Arsenal have faced the fewest shots on target, just 26 in 10 games. They have also allowed the lowest expected goals against, at just 7.6. They have already played five of the other seven teams in the top eight. The defeat to Brighton was an aberration, but we already know perfection will not be required to win the league this season.
Their relentless brilliance, built on an increasingly formidable defence, is particularly evident at home. Arsenal have won their last 10 matches at the Emirates in all competitions and kept eight clean sheets during that run. Only once have they managed a better sequence under Arteta.
Finally, their ruthlessness is best reflected in their results against teams in the bottom half of the table this season: 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0 (against Coventry in the Carabao Cup). Is it wildly exciting? No. Do they care when it is this effective? Not a bit. This is elite football, not horse dancing.
Michael Carrick’s time is up at Man Utd
A match that ended with half of Old Trafford singing Michael Carrick’s name and the other half having left at 4-2. Manchester United are appointment television in every sense.
But this cannot save Carrick if those in charge are thinking clearly. United are in the bottom three of the Premier League heading into the second international break of the season. A quarter of the way through the campaign, they are already haunted by the threat of relegation. It is all very well showing some fight when behind, but they have conceded 15 goals in their last five matches.
Nicolas Jackson has made it 2-0 to Aston Villa after just 4 minutes and boos ring out around Old Trafford pic.twitter.com/G7oWDNMjGS
Someone needs to act like a grown-up here. Carrick has won just one of his 10 league matches as a permanent manager. There are other options available who would take the job. It is funny for everybody else, but United need to nip this nonsense in the bud.
Perhaps the distractions surrounding Manchester City this season make that an unfair question, but I am becoming increasingly suspicious that Enzo Maresca has a significant blind spot when it comes to leaving his elite teams exposed to goals from transitions.
First, the evidence. As Chelsea manager, Maresca’s side conceded at a rate of more than one goal per game, shipping 64 in 57 matches despite significant investment in defenders and central midfielders. As Manchester City manager, the figure stands at 25 goals in 17 games.
None of it is working, and all of it is interrelated. Gianluigi Donnarumma looks shaky because he has little confidence in his defenders, while the back line is constantly changing. Marc Guehi was dismal for Forest’s first two goals, being dribbled past by Jair Cunha before failing to engage Liam Delap.
The first goal initially looks like an individual error, with Josko Gvardiol caught in possession. But that is partly because he has too few passing options. Elliot Anderson is effectively operating as a one-man midfield because, in a 4-2-3-1 formation, Enzo Fernandez wants to push further up the pitch. Press this City team aggressively and chances will come. Their goalkeeper is struggling to keep them out.
Promoted goalkeepers are feeling the heat
The three promoted clubs have collected points at a rate above most reasonable expectations. In a congested bottom half, none are in serious trouble and none occupy the relegation places.
But there have been signs in recent weeks that all three are feeling the pressure, and it starts close to their own goal. Carl Rushworth, the Championship’s best goalkeeper last season, looks increasingly unsettled at Coventry City in the Premier League and has repeatedly conceded from chances with a lower expected goals value. At Hull City, Konstantinos Tzolakis began the campaign in fine form, but that has since tailed off.
Ipswich Town’s situation is even stranger. The club signed two goalkeepers in the summer as part of their £150m investment in the squad. Christian Walton, who started the majority of their matches in the Championship last season, is already back as first choice. Will they regret that decision?
Gameweek 10 highlights
Villain of the weekend – Pierre Sage (Crystal Palace)
Pierre Sage faces the prospect of losing his job at Selhurst Park (Photo: Getty)
It is unusual to get this far into a Premier League season without a manager being sacked, but surely Crystal Palace cannot wait much longer. They have just one more international break before March. If they wait and things deteriorate further, they risk putting themselves in serious relegation trouble.
Palace are not entirely terrible, but the whole club has become soaked in resignation. They miss chances, are too open defensively and regularly lose control of midfield. They have won twice, in two chaotic matches they could feasibly have lost, and even the victory over Forest feels a long time ago.
It is time to go. Sorry.
Player of the weekend – Thierno Barry (Everton)
I did not have Thierno Barry as the Premier League’s second-highest scorer on my bingo card, but he has become adept at finding space in the box and scoring scruffy goals.
Both are pretty effective ways to make David Moyes fall in love with you.
Thierno Barry has bagged his second goal in four minutes to put Everton ahead! pic.twitter.com/8F5dYhSbLS
Everton left themselves painfully short of centre-forwards after the summer transfer window, causing widespread panic among supporters. Barry is making that look less of a problem.
Goal of the weekend – Liam Delap (Forest)
I could have picked one of three goals from Saturday’s late game. I also loved Jacob Murphy’s strike for Newcastle and Rodrigo Muniz’s improvised finish for Fulham, but Delap’s second goal takes the prize.
There are genuine shades of Stan Collymore in the way Delap drives directly at defences and forces defenders to make decisions.
His finishing has attracted criticism this season, but the way he took that chance on his weaker foot, applying such power and direction, made it the standout moment of the Premier League weekend.
Statistic of the weekend
Forest’s victory over Manchester City on Saturday meant Manchester United ended a day in the bottom three of the Premier League at this stage of a season or later for the first time since 1986.
Man Utd 4-4 Aston Villa (Fernandes 16′ pen, Tielemans 44′, Zirkzee 90’+2, Dorgu 90’+6 | Alysson 1′, Jackson 4′, McGinn 48′ pen, Goretzka 53′)
OLD TRAFFORD — Manchester United may still be at the top of the food chain, but before long they will be extinct.
There are elements of their predatory instincts that refuse to disappear. Two remarkable comebacks in the space of a week suggest there is still some fight left in this team.
But as a global footballing powerhouse, United are finished. Any club half their size can now feast on the rotting carcass of what was once a great institution.
As Jamie Carragher rightly pointed out, Aston Villa have traditionally been the perfect prey for the kings of the jungle. No other club in English football has beaten Villa more times in their history.
John McGinn cooly fires home a penalty to restore Aston Villa's lead two minutes into the second half! pic.twitter.com/JGI1KTpEbn
The hunter has, however, become the hunted. Michael Carrick looks powerless to stop the rot and should not survive a home draw against Villa, even if the 4-4 scoreline, featuring two two-goal comebacks, suggests his players are still fighting for him.
Whoever comes in next must accept that the Manchester United the world once knew is a thing of the past. That reality may also be reflected in the calibre of coach willing to take on the challenge.
United’s record of winning just one of their first 10 league games for the first time in 53 years tells only part of the story of a club teetering on the brink in almost every respect.
There was further unrest before kick-off as supporters unveiled a banner, which had been banned earlier in the week, declaring: “We don’t want a new stadium, we want new owners.” It was accompanied by the now customary green and gold balloons.
The Glazers, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and director of football Jason Wilcox had all been subjected to a barrage of abuse before a ball had been kicked. The players’ names, read out by the ever-positive stadium announcer Alan Keegan, barely registered a murmur. Apathy is about as upbeat as Old Trafford gets these days.
Goalkeeper Senne Lammens was at fault for two of Aston Villa’s goals (Photo: Reuters)
Four minutes into the match, “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” rang out from the Stretford End as United fell two goals behind earlier than they ever had in Premier League history.
Goalkeeper Senne Lammens was at fault for both Villa goals. He allowed Alysson’s second-minute strike to squirm through him before parrying the ball into the path of Nicolas Jackson for the visitors’ second.
United had come from 2-0 down to beat Villa on Boxing Day in 2023, the first match after Ineos’ investment in the club was confirmed. Another stirring comeback appeared possible as the hosts put the boos from their own supporters behind them to restore parity before half-time.
A Bruno Fernandes penalty and a goal from Youri Tielemans against his former club turned the jeers into cheers by the interval.
It seems to go spectacularly wrong whenever Carrick is involved, and within eight minutes of the restart United had capitulated again.
Diogo Dalot clumsily conceded a penalty, which John McGinn dispatched emphatically, before Leny Yoro’s mistake was punished by Leon Goretzka to seemingly put the game beyond the hosts. No team in Europe’s top five leagues has conceded more goals in all competitions this season.
The stadium emptied en masse. By stoppage time, however, Unai Emery was storming down the touchline as the match took another extraordinary turn.
Substitute Joshua Zirkzee’s fine finish in the 92nd minute still felt like little more than a consolation until fellow replacement Patrick Dorgu bundled home an equaliser, sending Emery into a fit of rage.
How could any team fail to beat this version of Manchester United? That is precisely why Carrick should not see out the week.
United are further removed from their former greatness than ever. There is incompetence at every level. Supporters despise the owners, the board and the players. They simply feel sorry for the manager.
It would be entirely on-brand for Carrick to be granted another stay of execution, however. This is Manchester United, where almost every major decision seems to be made incorrectly.
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For years, the ‘Spursy’ tag has dragged Tottenham Hotspur down. It’s not enough to merely lose a game or lose your rag, there also has to be an element of comedic misfortune too.
That hapless karma nearly resulted in relegation last season, and, until a month ago, seemed to still be cursing them this campaign. Even before this internet phenomenon took off, ‘Spursy’ was known as merely ‘being soft’. You know, the ‘lads, it’s Tottenham’ type of remarks.
Roberto De Zerbi, one of football’s most complex and combustible managers, has sought to build a team with more fire and fury, one to take on his own personality, though while still retaining the pleasing aesthetic his sides are known for.
In some ways, Spurs have indeed mastered that. In the first two-thirds of the pitch, they are often a delight to watch. The players know their roles and visibly have confidence in their coach’s philosophy. But this is not a complete team by any stretch and is clearly still a work in progress.
Saturday’s lunchtime loss at Leeds United was dirty in plenty of ways. A stop-start first half was only brought to life by two lengthy VAR checks, firstly for a potential handball against Mateus Fernandes in his own box and then for serious foul play by Jayden Bogle on Mathys Tel. On both occasions, the overlords at Stockley Park decided referee John Brookes did not need to see those flashpoints again.
Tel had to come off with an injury (Photo: Getty)
A brooding Elland Road made it difficult for Tottenham to impose their usual control on a game in the second half, too. The visitors didn’t get a shot away after the break until the 68th minute, when Conor Gallagher narrowly flashed wide a fizzling strike from distance. Noah Okafor’s winning goal was a proper ‘it had been coming’ moment.
Spurs’ inefficiencies in defence and midfield were new. The last time they weren’t able to play a game the way they wanted to was the opening day, when Brentford tore them apart in a 3-0 drubbing.
That’s fine. You aren’t going to click every week. Football is like that. What’s more alarming is Tottenham still can’t build attacks sustainably and they remain one of the least threatening final-third teams in the Premier League.
De Zerbi started a front three of Tel, Mohammed Kudus and Omar Marmoush. None of them are particularly clinical, none of them play with much conviction. Why would a defence be worried about keeping them at arm’s length? Tottenham’s top scorer this season is centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke, with a whopping two goals.
Dominic Solanke was summoned once Tel had to be substituted with injury on the stroke of half-time. Most of his contributions this season have come in his own box, making blocks on the line from corners (he added to this tally midway through the second half here, denying namesake Calvert-Lewin).
Tottenham ended the game registering a measly seven shots. Despite ceding over 60% possession, Leeds looked extremely comfortable throughout.
It brings into question the manner of Spurs’ three-game winning streak heading into the defeat in Yorkshire. Their first victory of the season, 3-1 against newly-promoted Coventry City, was fiercely competitive and ultimately decided by two screamers. As much as beating Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge was about the totality of the display and leaping over a mental hurdle, it was set up by the opposition goalkeeper punching it into his own net. Crystal Palace played with ten men for about 80 minutes of their defeat in north London last week.
The emerging pattern is that while Spurs and De Zerbi may be associated with trying to walk the ball in, this team cannot do that. It rejects such a ploy like a bad kidney transplant. Tottenham’s goals have usually been about a piece of individual brilliance, a set piece or the opponent becoming buffoonish.
History tells us this is more of a club problem than one to be levelled at the manager. Spurs looked similarly toothless under Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, both of whom had wildly different approaches to each other and De Zerbi.
The need to dip back into the transfer market for more attacking players (potent ones, at least) is evident. The club probably should have recognised that before they splurged over £340m on a rebuild this summer.
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There is something rather magnanimous about how Michael Carrick is handling himself despite, according to everyone other than the Manchester United hierarchy, his impending doom looming large.
After the club’s latest nadir against Bournemouth two weeks ago, Carrick appeared to be a dead man walking. There are bigger problems at United than the manager, but someone has to be made a scapegoat for their worst start to a season in 40 years.
Yet, the day after Bournemouth earned their third 3-0 victory at Old Trafford in four seasons, Carrick turned up to watch a youth match on his day off, as normal, seemingly oblivious to the hellish inferno going on around him. He has conducted himself in the same manner ever since.
There are several reasons for this laissez-faire attitude, however.
The i Paper has been told that the club’s hierarchy has contacted several managerial alternatives over the past few weeks – including top target Eddie Howe – but have only held exploratory conversations with their representatives. No option has been directly approached.
Just after Erik ten Hag had masterminded one of United’s greatest recent achievements – outplaying Manchester City in the 2024 FA Cup final – Sir Jim Ratcliffe was meeting Thomas Tuchel personally in Monaco. Thomas Frank, Mauricio Pochettino, Roberto De Zerbi and Kieran McKenna were all also contacted, directly. All while Ten Hag was still employed and, rather incongruously, quite successful.
Manchester United have been linked with too many names to easily recall (Photo: AFP)
Carrick has no such predicament. Director of football Jason Wilcox favours Howe, given his Premier League experience. Ratcliffe also approves. Head of recruitment Christopher Vivell wants Julian Nagelsmann, who he worked with at RB Leipzig. The former Germany coach is not understood to be interested in the role as it stands, The i Paper understands. Unai Emery was the dream pick, but that ship appears to have sailed.
What is also striking about how Carrick speaks is that he, despite being given ample opportunities in various media activities, always insists he will continue to do what is best for the club.
Someone in Carrick’s position, if he had any aspirations to continue in elite management after United, would at least drop thinly veiled criticisms of the club’s hierarchy, calling out their lack of activity in the transfer market, for example. Antonio Conte would have vilified everyone from chairman to the tea lady.
Those close to Carrick insist he is very settled in the area and would not look to move if he was sacked, with his son doing well in United’s academy. Given his lack of interest in returning to management between leaving Middlesbrough and taking over at United, there are some who believe he might look to go down the punditry route next, rather than pursue further coaching roles.
All of which contributes to a manager ready to accept his fate, one way or another.
“Anything’s possible,” Carrick said of this current excuse for United side having any chance of emulating what Sir Alex Ferguson achieved, on the 40th anniversary of his appointment.
“You’ve got to build, you’ve got to be realistic. You’ve got to put things in perspective as well. The recent history that we’ve had and where we want to get to, it’s not going to happen in the blink of an eye. It’s not going to happen overnight.
“Success does take time, and we don’t like having to spend time, but it does take a period of time to build. We showed a really quick response and improved a lot last season. But again, sustaining it is the key. There’s no other way of doing it. There’s no shortcuts to it. In the end, that’s where you get to, but it’s definitely possible.”
He is right, to an extent. Nothing can be ruled out in the maddening world of elite football. But you can talk about dreams in such a whimsical way, if you know, deep down, you won’t be the one to see them through.
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There is a new-found freshness and energy about Thomas Tuchel.
Gone is the tetchy figure put on the back foot by England’s World Cup exit and questions about his team’s lack of technique. He’s been replaced by a re-energised England manager who is genuinely excited about how much progress a new-look squad have made since the summer.
Tuchel hadn’t intended to move on so quickly but a raft of withdrawals last month forced the issue.
A new leadership group emerged over the super-sized international break and Tuchel liked what he saw. Marry that to the players embracing the tactical tweaks he made to improve them as an attacking force and it is no wonder Tuchel was talking of going into the next two games with “extra energy” and “extra belief”. He nodded approvingly when it was put to him that this was “Tuchel 2.0”.
There are two reasons why he was so enthused. Firstly he saw his England players embrace tactical tweaks that have made them a more technically accomplished attacking side without sacrificing the “fight and mentality” that he believes are among their biggest strengths.
Then there is a new leadership group. Tuchel listed eight players and some of them won’t surprise anyone: Harry Kane, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Marc Guehi and Jude Bellingham. But add to them three new big voices – Elliot Anderson, Ezri Konsa and perhaps surprisingly Jarell Quansah, who is now considered a serious contender at centre-back.
Jarell Quansah is cementing himself in Tuchel’s plans (Photo: PA)
It is an evolution from vibes merchants like Dan Burn and Jordan Henderson, who excelled in leadership roles but didn’t start games. “We said to (the eight in the leadership group) at the start of the last camp, we need to have the same standards as we did at the start of the World Cup,” Tuchel said.
“They have to take care of things in their own way. We built a different leadership group, which was a first for me. (Before) there was a leadership group which was not only reflected in the minutes (they played). For example, Dan Burn was in that leadership group but he was not a regular starter for us.
“I want to have a group that starts matches regularly for us. These players don’t have a guarantee (of minutes) but I said ‘I want you to start these matches and you make sure first of all that you start these matches and you make sure that that the energy, attitude, the standards within the group are at the highest level’. That has not changed.
“Declan has joined the group now. So they are basically a leadership group on the field.”
Tuchel’s management has always been about standards and he admitted he was sending a message to potential England call-ups by continuing to leave out Cole Palmer, who he repeated had missed too many camps. The insinuation was that others who had joined up had overtaken him and there was no call to Palmer to explain his decision – a privilege he had extended to Burn and both Jordan and Dean Henderson.
He was more conciliatory about Phil Foden, though, whose England exile continues. “So Phil is always an option because I’m in love with him as a player. What is not to love?
“If you see the boy train it’s just the highest, highest quality. We’re talking about numbers. We’re talking about numbers in an England shirt. Which is not in proportion to his talent and to his potential.
“If we can align this, if we can first of all align this for his club and become a regular starter and be decisive he has to be always an option.”
England’s Nations League fixtures
England vs Croatia – Thursday 12 November 7:45pm, Wembley
Spain vs England – Sunday 15 November 7:45pm, Metropolitano, Madrid
England can top the group with at least one win providing Spain, who sit three points in front with inferior goal difference, drop points against Czech Republic and Croatia.
Eberechi Eze – in and out for Arsenal – was “close” to losing his place and Morgan Gibbs-White was named as another “fighting” to retain his England spot.
Kobbie Mainoo, he said, was unfortunate for two reasons – Manchester United “falling off a cliff performance-wise” and pulling out of the last camp when Tuchel had been “desperate” to give him minutes. In a rare nod to the past, he admitted he had apologised to Mainoo in front of the entire squad in the US for not giving him a single minute during the World Cup.
“He was disappointed and it cost him a little bit of confidence,” Tuchel said of the Manchester United man.
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Thomas Tuchel is not a man to let the grass grow under his feet.
Fresh off the back of a fine start to their Nations League campaign, you might have expected minimal upheaval in his second England squad of the season. But he has shaken things up for games against Croatia and Spain next week.
Here’s the six biggest surprises of his latest England squad.
No Cole Palmer
On form it wouldn’t be up for debate. Palmer is not only one of the most naturally gifted players at Tuchel’s disposal, he is also getting closer to recapturing the sort of form that put him in the “must pick” category a year ago.
This is not a fitness issue. England checked with Chelsea on whether he would be available for this squad and the answer that came back was affirmative.
But Tuchel has a long memory and his criticism of the Chelsea man for pulling out of too many England squads was pointed. He places great stock on commitment to the Three Lions cause and – just as Jude Bellingham was left out of a squad last season – he has shown that he is prepared to make big calls to preserve the squad’s spirit. The message has been well and truly sent.
Palmer has scored five goals and provided three assists in all competitions this season (Photo: PA)
“Everyone is desperate to play for England, Cole is no exception,” Tuchel said in his England press conference.
“It counts when you are in camp – he misses too many opportunities to impress. It was a long camp and the boys who were in camp built something extraordinary and the credit goes to them.
“It’s not personal and we will never assume he’s not in the mindset to come and play for his country but the competition is all. The boys in the camp did an amazing job and credit to them.”
Jobe Bellingham joins brother Jude
The first set of brothers to be called for England simultaneously since Gary and Phil Neville, Jobe’s call-up is some story. But Tuchel wants to take a good look at a player who has been earning rave reviews in the England Under-21 set-up and has long been earmarked for a role in the senior side.
Jobe is lucky in a way. Alex Scott’s injury has cleared the way for him, but off the back of some good form for Borussia Dortmund he now has a real chance to stake his claim ahead of a home Euros.
“Lee Carsley has spoken highly of Jobe for weeks and months that if there is a spot and possibility to join and make an impression in the first team,” Tuchel said today.
England squad
Goalkeepers
Jordan Pickford (Everton)
Jason Steele (Brighton)
James Trafford (Leeds)
Defenders
Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton)
Marc Guehi (Manchester City)
Lewis Hall (Newcastle)
Ezri Konsa (Arsenal)
Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen)
Djed Spence (Inter)
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Real Madrid)
Ben White (Arsenal)
Midfielders
Elliot Anderson (Manchester City)
Jobe Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund)
Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid)
Eberechi Eze (Arsenal)
James Garner (Everton)
Josh King (Fulham)
Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal)
Declan Rice (Arsenal)
Forwards
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds)
Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)
Anthony Gordon (Barcelona)
Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
Rio Ngumoha (Liverpool)
Morgan Rogers (Chelsea)
“He had good matches, and he is on a good run of form in Dortmund,” he continued. “So he deserves to be with us.”
“We see him in the central midfield, he’s one of five players in central midfield. He’s more a defensive player than his brother – strong on the ball, good physique, can keep the ball very well. Now it’s on him because we only have Monday and Tuesday to prepare. We developed some new patterns, some new behaviours, which is why we stuck with the players (from October camp).
“It’s an incredible achievement for the brothers and the family to be nominated for the England team. I was very happy to give him the call-up and I could see the smile from him.”
Josh King’s first call-up
Tuchel has made it clear that performing well for the Under-21s is important. There is a pathway from Lee Carsley’s side to his and King is the beneficiary of it.
A terrific player, he has the technical ability and versatility to give him a fine England career in the future. Tuchel fast-tracking him into the senior squad suggests there is an opening for him.
Steele has been a part of the set-up for a couple of years now and is a popular character in the England squad. But at the World Cup he was there as a training goalkeeper rather than as a pick in his own right.
Steele has actually played this season – twice in the Carabao Cup as Brighton progressed in to the last eight – but it is still a left-field call given that he is hardly one for the future at the age of 36.
In-form Noni Madueke is out
Madueke’s been in excellent form for Arsenal and after Palmer is probably the biggest surprise in terms of omissions. He’s been a Tuchel favourite and offers directness and the sort of attacking intent that he has prized in tight games previously.
But competition for places is fierce. Phil Foden’s form this season has been better and he is also on the outside looking in. It feels like a long way back for him.
England’s Nations League fixtures
England vs Croatia – Thursday 12 November 7:45pm, Wembley
Spain vs England – Sunday 15 November 7:45pm, Metropolitano, Madrid
England can top the group with at least one win providing Spain, who sit three points in front with inferior goal difference, drop points against Czech Republic and Croatia.
Ben White’s shock return
There’s something about White that obviously appeals to this England manager. When fit and playing, he is one of the first names on the team sheet and it says much about England’s paucity of options at the back that he is straight back in.
Dan Burn, fit again for Newcastle, misses out and at his age you wonder whether his England career has a final flourish in it.
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An exhaustive list of English league clubs to finish in the top four of a division in each of their last four seasons: Arsenal, Manchester City, Stockport County. County were clearly doing something right. Over the last eight years they have won three league titles and played in two play-off finals. A club on its knees in the sixth tier has been completely rebuilt.
So it was to some surprise amongst supporters and the wider football world that, this summer, Stockport effectively ripped everything up and started again. Long-term manager Dave Challinor left. The sporting director left. The model shifted to player development. The club aimed to overhaul the style of play.
Let’s be clear: it was a significant risk because it felt like a climbdown. Stockport were good at what they did. They had finished third twice in League One behind Wrexham, Birmingham, Cardiff and Lincoln – no real shame there. The obvious step would have been to search for tweaks to give the club the extra edge. This was closer to wheel reinvention.
“We had to do a lot of public-facing sharing this summer,” Jimmy McNulty tells The i Paper, sitting in an office at County’s Carrington training ground after training. McNulty did not create this project, but he is its public face because football clubs become defined by their head coaches. I’m here because this project and this coach are both compelling.
“The owner wanted to go down a different route in two ways: he definitely wanted a stylistic change and financially he wanted to not commit so much. He wanted more efficiency for the money that he was spending. We don’t believe that that means we’re any less aggressive. We can achieve what we were trying to achieve before, but in a different way.”
McNulty had never coached in the EFL before (Photo: Getty)
McNulty was a fascinating appointment because he had never managed in league football before and because he was so obviously different to Challinor. McNulty had spent 11 years at Rochdale as a player, caretaker and manager, eventually earning promotion to the Football League in May. But he was clearly a gamble on potential.
Challinor was successful – that was a complication. Change can be scary even when it is the only option. But when you are being sold as the change candidate after a manager who did things a certain way that worked brilliantly for most of his tenure, it would be weirder not to be daunted.
“I had imposter syndrome when I arrived here, most definitely,” he says. “When I first walked around, it felt to me like a Sky call centre: there were 1000 people doing all sorts of different jobs. And they were all peering at me because I’m supposed to obviously lead all of this.
“But privately, I took a lot of warmth and confidence from those conversations. Because people that I was so impressed with, in positions of responsibility and who I knew had other options than me, thought that I was the guy.”
McNulty is clearly being humble. At Rochdale, then a non-league club in a financial crisis, he was thrust into the role of manager but in an emergency situation that forced him to wear – or at least share – a number of hats: sporting director, head of recruitment, coach, mentor. Here he has lots of help. He can focus on coaching.
“We have a head of everything, honestly,” McNulty says. “Organisationally, this place is amazing. The level of competency in all the departments is so high, which allows me just to focus on my greatest interest: infatuation with football ideas, how players feel and what we’re trying to be.
“The rest of the stuff is exhausting. Being honest, dealing with agents and all that, I hated it. Now, I sleep a little bit more, I eat a little bit more, and I focus on what I love far more, which has to be better for everybody.”
The start to the season, given the overhaul and given the decision to cut costs, has been mighty impressive: Stockport are second in League One. Early teething problems have given way to greater consistency. Nobody here is pretending that Stockport have cracked it, but there was some definite curbed enthusiasm amongst supporters in preseason. Everybody I speak to now is hugely impressed by the ease of transition.
Because it’s the seismic shift in style that really catches your eye watching this team. Possession is up by seven per cent from last season. Off the ball, they ranked second, eighth and sixth respectively for tackles, clearances and interceptions in 2025-26. So far, by those same measures: 21st, 24th, 21st.
This is possession football and it is working because it rarely gets stagnant. County rank first for touches in the opposition box (by a distance), first for expected goals and second for big chances created. It’s little wonder that McNulty is already admired within clubs above League One level.
Challinor is now in charge of Sheffield Wednesday (Photo: Getty)
“I’m in my infancy as a manager,” he says. “I don’t want to give any impression that I’ve done all this before or that I know exactly how it will go. I’ve just got a deep belief in practising in a certain way constantly that effectively makes games like training sessions. Because why wouldn’t they be if we’ve tested these theories so often? We know the possibilities that the opponents have available to them and we practise against each of those choices.
“The elites make games look the same all of the time to the point that your own fans can get bored of it. Because what you start to do can look easy and almost taken for granted. I’ve seen that at top clubs around the world because they’re the ones that fascinate me most. But I have total belief in it working and my job is to transmit that to the players.
“Did I truly know how early we would get adoption and it would become the norm? No. But within the first few days of training I knew all of these guys’ attributes align with anything we want to do. As long as we commit to what we want to do, and go for that constantly, why wouldn’t we be able to perform and make things look the way we want them to?
It all sounds simple but clearly isn’t. McNulty arrived into an established winning culture – if without the final step towards promotion to the Championship – as a comparative novice. There were senior professionals who, to an outsider, may have suited the previous manager’s style more.
McNulty was also forced to deal with the outside perception that Stockport County were scaling back and he could have been cast as the poster child of that suspicion. When you’re dealing with 25-30 senior professionals who are hardly immune to the wider mood, it presents a huge challenge for man management.
His explanation is an emphatic shift towards a positive environment. Obviously the results help to convince everybody – it is human nature to buy into something that seems to be working and be doubtful if it doesn’t. It becomes cyclical in the right hands: outcomes reinforce the process, the process achieves the outcomes.
Because McNulty thinks that the culture is the king and those above him believe in the same mission. He references All Black leadership culture repeatedly and listens to the audiobook of James Kerr’s book Legacy in snippets on repeat throughout his day. The supporters I speak to mention the familial feel to the squad even before the league position.
“These players are not going to be attacked by me externally in any way, shape or form, ever,” McNulty says. “We have to try and live and die for something on the football pitch. If we don’t have belief in the same thing, which starts from a relationship and trust, I don’t know how you’re going to do it, because we are under so much external pressure.
“It probably reflects my insecurities and anxieties as a player, and my inability to go online and read anything about myself because it was too critically damaging to my psyche. If anyone’s moral compass isn’t in the right place and it’s potentially harming the group, I have an issue with that. But I am never there to increase scrutiny or pressure on them.”
I really like brave football clubs. I like them trying new things and aiming for greater financial sustainability. I like them trusting younger, more inexperienced managers. I really like them believing that the best way to take the next step up might be doing something completely different and committing fully to it. Uncertainty can be exhilarating.
It makes Stockport County one of the more fascinating clubs in England this season. They are stepping into the unknown again with a manager who looks eminently capable of making the step up and overseeing a change in style and culture. They have started brilliantly. It’s hardly going to be easy with six former Premier League clubs in League One’s current top 10. But initial evidence shows that there’s good reason to believe in better.
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