The Score is Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up here to receive the newsletter every Monday morning
As we head into the last international break of the year, sacking season is upon us.
More managers have now lost their Premier League jobs than in the whole of last season. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could be next after City dominated the Manchester derby.
Meanwhile, Chelsea dropped points and Norwich City got their first win of the season. But that wasn’t enough for Daniel Farke…
Premier League results
Sunday 7 November
- Arsenal 1-0 Watford
- Everton 0-0 Spurs
- Leeds 1-1 Leicester
- West Ham 3-2 Liverpool
Saturday 6 November
- Man Utd 0-2 Man City
- Brentford 1-2 Norwich
- Chelsea 1-1 Burnley
- Crystal Palace 2-0 Wolves
- Brighton 1-1 Newcastle
Friday 5 November
Arsenal
A gutsy, grinding win, one that will feel more special through the manner in which it was achieved. See the Watford section for why Arsenal’s winning goal was controversial, but they certainly merited victory on the chances created. Had Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his penalty, they would probably have enjoyed a little more comfort.
But then, in hindsight, that provided Arsenal with an opportunity to test themselves. Only once before Sunday have Arsenal won a league game this season without scoring in the opening 30 minutes (the 1-0 home win against Norwich). Against Tottenham and Leicester, their two best wins, they scored two early goals. That allowed them to sit on a lead with some comfort, Aaron Ramsdale stepping up when required.
The theory was that if Arsenal didn’t score early, they tended to get a bit frustrated by a team set up to defend in a low block and throttle them. The key to beating those sides is to move the ball quickly through the lines, exactly what Mikel Arteta has been insisting is the blueprint. They were still slightly wasteful (and Aubameyang stopped Martin Odegaard scoring by sliding to meet the ball on the goalline), but they passed the test.
Arsenal are now 10 games unbeaten in all competitions and have taken 20 points from their last 24 available. They are three points clear of Manchester United having trailed them by seven points after three games. Their young players – Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Gabriel, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga – lie at the heart of their improvement. This is all good news for Arteta and for Arsenal.
Aston Villa
This is now the first time since 2016 that Aston Villa have lost five straight Premier League matches, the end of a dismal season under Remi Garde and caretaker Eric Black. The idea – with some evidence – was that Villa had left those bad old days behind. The comparison did Dean Smith few favours and, on Sunday lunchtime, he paid the price.
At first glance, it is hard to see where this slump came from. Smith struggled to integrate new players and the defending had fallen off a cliff (as detailed in this piece), but the five-match losing run was preceded by a 3-0 home win against Everton and 1-0 away victory at Old Trafford. In those games, Villa defended stoutly and created chances.
The loss of Douglas Luiz offers a part-explanation: he protects the defence, wins tackles and begins attacking moves. Luiz was on the pitch during three of these five defeats, but the details are a little more damning. He left the pitch against Wolves with the score at 2-0 to Villa and has missed the last two, when Villa have been at their worst. Getting him back fit will be key.
But Smith will not be around to see it. Norwich City had already demonstrated that the final international break until March is a handy time to make a managerial change and Aston Villa’s owners always seemed to be getting a little itchy. They foresaw this as the campaign in which their club would kick on from last season and make a push for European qualification after signficant post-Jack Grealish investment. Right now, Villa are as close to the bottom as they are to the top half.
Brentford
Last week we tried not to go overboard on Brentford’s losing run, which then stood at three games. But losing at home to Norwich is a canary down the mine, if you’ll excuse the pun. Brentford conceded twice through defensive sloppiness and then dominated the game but simply gave themselves too much to do.
The defending is clearly becoming a problem – Alvaro Fernandez has now conceded five times in two games – but the growing issue is the attack. Ivan Toney only has an expected goals figure of 2.7 in 11 games this season. Against Norwich, he had just two shots in 90 minutes (neither were on target).
The issue is probably one of service. Under Thomas Frank, Brentford like to work the ball close to goal before shooting. Their average distance of shots from the goal is the lowest in the division, almost five yards closer to goal than their opponents on Saturday. That makes some sense: Frank is a big believer in xG and, generally, the closer to goal you are the better your chance of scoring. But when Brentford are unable to get effective service to Toney, and their attacking moves break down, it can leave them a little blunt.
Again, we should not be too panicky. Brentford had plenty of chances to take at least a point on Saturday and Frank was quick to say as much after the game. But he will be keen to iron out the issues of chance creation and chance conversion over the international break. Four of Brentford’s next five matches – Newcastle, Everton, Leeds and Watford – will go some way to determining what their realistic ambitions are for the season. After a glorious start, they are suddenly looking over their shoulder.
Brighton
Brighton’s disciplinary record is one of the weirder Premier League quirks. Since they were promoted, no team has had more red cards. But what is slightly odd about that statistic is that Brighton have routinely ranked low for yellow cards – 17th in 2019-20 and 19th last season.
Perhaps it suggests a lack of concentration or playing with wing-backs that push high up the pitch and force central defenders into uncomfortable positions where they dive in – Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy and Ben White are responsible for five of their 14 Premier League red cards. Or perhaps it is simply an oddity that will be ironed out over time. The great shame of Saturday is that Robert Sanchez’s dismissal came so late that we didn’t see Dunk having to make a diving save.
Burnley
It doesn’t happen every week – the law of averages sees to that. But on occasion, when you least expect it, it is possible to witness a display of 100 per cent, pure cut, classic Burnleying on display. And at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon, Chelsea supporters saw it in perfect action.
Judging individual matches on expected goals is often a misguided pursuit, but when one team registers a total four-and-a-half times the other it’s fair to say that a robbery has taken place. But this is what Burnley do: stay in the game, never give up and take their chances when they happen to come along. And they will still be doing it in the Premier League next season, making preseason predictions of their doom look superfluous.
Chelsea
Until Saturday, Chelsea hadn’t really missed Romelu Lukaku. The goals were flowing and being shared out amongst the squad and a more freeform attack without a designated centre forward pulled defences this way and that. Lukaku’s return felt like a happy bonus rather than a necessity.
Against Burnley, that run ended. Chelsea created enough chances to extend their one-goal lead beyond the visitors’ grasp, but each one was spurned. Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ross Barkley and Kai Havertz were particularly guilty; Lukaku would not have been so generous.
When you play Burnley, missed chances tend to count double. Not only do they cause exasperation and doubt amongst your own supporters, players and manager, they also act as Burnley’s lifeblood. They become adamant that they are fated to punish such profligacy and often make good on that belief.
Thomas Tuchel always insisted that he needed Lukaku back. He bought him for this very reason, a killer instinct to put matches to bed during which Chelsea created a high number of chances. It is hard not to assume that he would have scored twice on Saturday and Chelsea would be enjoying a healthy lead at the top of the league.
Crystal Palace
Something special is building at Selhurst Park, even if the league table doesn’t quite yet tell the same story. Crystal Palace have had the hardest start to the season of any Premier League club. In their first 11 fixtures they have played each of the current top four away from home and have also faced Tottenham, Arsenal and Leicester. If there are valid doubts about each of those three clubs, Palace haven’t lost to any of them. Only Chelsea and Liverpool have beaten Patrick Vieira’s side.
That is remarkable, given the new manager and the new system. But it also shows the importance of good fortune. Palace chased Nuno Espirito Santo over the summer and believed that they had their man until he got a whiff of the Everton job. Then that didn’t happen, Nuno went to Tottenham and has since left and Palace appointed Vieira. They Are suddenly playing their most attractive football of the last decade.
Against Wolves, Palace dominated possession again but, crucially, never became stagnant with the ball. Conor Gallagher ensured that the tempo remained high and he is becoming the standout candidate for the Young Player of the Year award. They created chances with more efficiency than they have all season and shut down Wolves’ counter attack perfectly too. If this is the blueprint, Palace are onto a very good thing.
Everton
This was a piecemeal recovery from Rafael Benitez and Everton, not least because they kept a Tottenham team that we expected to have far more energy in Antonio Conte’s first game quiet. Everton outshot their visitors and had the only shots on target of the match.
But they are still crying out for the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The Salomon Rondon experiment has failed because he doesn’t provide the movement that Everton need and doesn’t hold the ball well enough to offset that problem. Richarlison is a willing worker but there are too many times when he becomes a little isolated and he is prone to bouts of frustration when things don’t go his way.
Everton scored seven goals under Benitez in the three games that Calvert-Lewin started. They are still having more shots per game and creating more chances than last season despite his absence, but they have scored only nine times in the eight matches Calvert-Lewin has missed. Everton supporters – and Benitez – will be praying that his recovery brings him back immediately after the international break, because he is a centre-forward who perfectly fits Benitez’s style.
Leeds United
Much, much better. Leeds equalled their best shots tally in a match so far this season and did so against a progressive Leicester team. They were again indebted to Raphinha’s brilliance, and there will be some regret that one point was not three given the balance of play, but Marcelo Bielsa must be happy at the response over the last fortnight.
But where would Leeds be without their brilliant Brazilian? And, more to the point, why would the biggest clubs in Europe not be queuing up to whisper sweet nothing in his – or his agent’s – ear ahead of the January transfer window?
There is not a squad in Europe that would not be improved by having Raphinha as a part of it. Leeds would surely do all they can to keep him (and it would take a ridiculous offer to countenance letting him leave in the winter window) but Champions League knockout football is a huge draw to players. Even ardent Leeds supporters would struggle to suggest that he has not earned it.
Leicester City
Almost exactly a year ago, Leicester City produced one of their most dominant performances during Brendan Rodgers’ time at the club. They won 4-1 at Elland Road, attacking Leeds early to force mistakes and take a two-goal lead and then won the game again late on after Stuart Dallas had pulled one back. Leicester had just 32 per cent possession but were ruthless on the counter.
On Sunday, Leicester had more of the ball but less of the game. Leeds created the game’s best chances and Rodgers was grateful for a piece of Harvey Barnes magic to get them level shortly after falling behind.
Leicester look a different team between then and now. They are less swashbuckling on the counter, often resorting to slower possession, but their defending has also declined. Raphinha’s opener makes it one clean sheet in 16 matches in all competitions since the opening day of the season. You can forgive caution with the ball if it comes hand in hand with defensive stability. But right now, Leicester are not nailing either.
Liverpool
For most of this season, Liverpool’s wondrous front three has been digging their defence out of manmade holes. At the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, that run came crashing to an end. It has been coming.
Liverpool conceded twice to Milan but still won. They conceded three times to Brentford and twice to Manchester City and Brighton but remained undefeated in those games, largely thanks to Mohamed Salah. They conceded twice again in the Champions League against Atletico and again squeezed through.
In 2019-20, Liverpool only conceded twice or more in a league game once before late February; their defensive record took them to that title. This season, they have already done so four times in the league alone. Trent Alexander-Arnold is a magnificent attacking right-back but you can see Gareth Southgate’s point on the defending. On set pieces, Liverpool were bullied by West Ham and that will irk Jurgen Klopp.
This is no crisis. How can it be when Liverpool have only just lost their first league game of the season. But the manner of this defeat will send a message to the rest of the Premier League that Liverpool might flap if you get in their faces and put balls into the box. Expect more of the same after the international break.
Manchester City
Persuasive evidence that the slip-ups against Palace and Southampton were exceptions to the rule, and will become increasingly rare as Manchester City learn to play without a No 9, Ferran Torres returns from injury and Kevin de Bruyne gets fully fit.
One thing Pep Guardiola is particularly good at (and having brilliant players obviously helps) is pushing a bad result out of the minds of his players. The process is the whole of the law; stick to that and you’ll soon be back on track.
Only three times since December 2018 have Manchester City followed up dropped points in the Premier League with anything other than a league win. On two of those occasions, one of the results was hardly a setback (draw against Manchester United at home and draw against Liverpool at home). They are title favourites because nobody believes that they will be out of form for long. And you can read more about their total domination over Manchester United here.
Manchester United
There are many more words here on the total mess that Manchester United find themselves in, with a manager who surely isn’t up to the task and now with the best short-term option off the market.
But I wanted to reiterate a point from our match round-up about the strategy Ole Gunnar Solskjaer used on Saturday. He had enjoyed no little success against Guardiola by unnerving Manchester City with pace in behind. One of Anthony Martial or Marcus Rashford was usually the star and it is very clear that Solskjaer possesses attacking pace, even if he is wedded to starting Cristiano Ronaldo as a central striker. In those games, United have attacked City early and undermined their own intentions to dictate the pace of the game.
There is nothing inherently wrong with picking a defensive team and instructing them to sit deep. But a) it relies upon you defending well, something United didn’t do, b) it went against what had previously worked in this fixture and c) it drastically reduces the patience and goodwill of home supporters. United fans booed the slow build-up play, chanted for their team to attack and groaned when Bruno Fernandes picked up the ball 30 yards from his own goal and had little option but to pass the ball backwards.
And that’s the kicker. The cliche of Manchester United under Solskjaer – and with good reason – is that they are built around individuals rather than the system (and that can work when the individuals are brilliant). But playing a defensive system with seven players behind the ball and attempting to attack on the counter relies upon a system working rather than individuals.
If you pile attacking players forward, you can get caught out but you can at least hope to create some magic (and therefore good chances) in the final third. That is far less likely when Ronaldo is on his own in the opposition half and both wing-backs don’t seem to know whether they should be attacking or defending.
Solskjaer retained some loyalty partly because the football was entertaining. United were a team of comebacks, of bangs and whistles and who-knows-what’s-going-to-happens. But this was grimly predictable. United attempted roughly the same plan that Southampton, Burnley or Newcastle might and were no more successful. That is far more damning than the scoreline.
Newcastle United
There was an improvement in the second half against Brighton and it did take Newcastle back off the bottom of the league. You could probably also argue that Graeme Jones got two league points (including the draw against Palace) that Steve Bruce wouldn’t have, although we are dealing in hypotheticals there. On all three points, we’re reaching for the positives.
At least Newcastle do seemingly have their replacement for Bruce. Eddie Howe was at the Brighton game and, although he was obviously second choice and the non-appointment of Unai Emery got very messy, that gives Newcastle some certainty.
But even there it’s hard to work out the plan. How did they get to the stage where Emery and Howe were the two picks? It is hard to imagine two more different coaches: foreign vs domestic, long-term builder vs short-term improver, cup specialist vs the guy who took Bournemouth up the leagues. It doesn’t scream that Newcastle had a specific type.
But Howe is a very good coach. He is motivated to succeed after how it ended at Bournemouth. He has worked with Newcastle’s best centre-forward before and him being in position now gives Newcastle a steady run-up at their January recruitment. Improvement might not come instantaneously – that’s not really Howe’s thing – but the first big decision of the new ownership’s reign has finally been made.
Norwich City
Life gives with one hand and takes with the other. Daniel Farke will have been delighted to finally see his team win again in the Premier League, but two hours later Norwich announced that he had been removed from his position.
That might sound a little harsh, coming immediately after a victory and with Norwich hardly cut adrift at the bottom (five points from safety with 27 matches still to go). But then sackings should never be done off the cuff, reacting to the performance or result of one fixture. If Norwich’s hierarchy believed that they had seen enough to suggest that a different manager would have a better chance of keeping them up, you cannot fault them for not being swayed by one game when the recruitment process was surely already underway.
The interesting question is whether Norwich go for a firefighter, which doesn’t quite fit the identity of the club, or Stuart Webber goes for a more leftfield option from continental Europe. It is a decision that will define the next age of Norwich City.
Southampton
Southampton don’t feel like a team that will win many games 1-0. They like to press but that press can often be counteracted if every player isn’t at their best. They often make defensive errors and can be vulnerable to dispossessions in midfield.
So it’s nice when statistics back up gut feelings. There were 71 1-0s in the Premier League last season and Southampton only won two of them. On Friday, Southampton recorded consecutive 1-0 league wins for the first time since February 2016 with victory over Aston Villa. Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team have now won three of their last four league games by that scoreline.
After the game, Hasenhuttl identified the recruitment of new defenders to give him extra options as the reason for this shift. But that would seem a little strange given that Southampton sold Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand in the summer. They were both replaced, but with players who offered potential rather than finished product.
Instead, Hasenhuttl should give himself a little extra credit. On Friday night, Southampton ended the game with two new defenders on the pitch, plus Kyle Walker-Peters (who was only on loan last season), and Mohammed Salisu, who only started eight league games last season. To have found an added defensive resilience despite such unfamiliarity is no mean feat.
Tottenham
There was a difference between early-stage Conte Spurs and Nuno Spurs, in that under Conte’s predecessor you couldn’t work out what the plan was. Against Everton, Tottenham had a plan but failed to carry it out effectively. They tried to get the ball to Kane whenever possible and play with far more intensity in possession. Unfortunately for Conte, after the game he conceded that his plan was spoiled by far too many loose passes in the final third that killed their buzz.
Improvement will clearly come over time (and this was not a particularly poor result), but the signs were at least there. Kane touched the ball 46 times at Goodison compared to 33 against Manchester United in Nuno’s last game. But he is still struggling to get service in dangerous areas (two touches of the ball in Everton’s box) and Spurs are still criminally shot shy. They have now gone 227 minutes of Premier League football since their last shot on target.
Watford
Watford can have no complaints at losing their match at Arsenal on the balance of play, but Claudio Ranieri was furious at full-time over the manner of the winning goal. And with good reason.
There was no foul on the Watford player, but it was a physical challenge. With a player down, Danny Rose chose to pass the ball gently into touch rather than launch the ball downfield; it was obvious what his motives were. You can possibly argue that Rose was time-wasting (although there’s no proof of that) and that the Watford player was not actually injured, but that’s not really the point – or never usually is. When the ball is kicked out in that manner, the opponent gives back the ball.
But Arsenal didn’t. While Watford’s players held up their arms in protest, Arsenal kept possession and kept playing, treating the incident as if it were any normal throw-in. Ten seconds later, Emile Smith-Rowe scored.
There is no written rule to bar what Arsenal did. It is one of those gentlemanly agreements that rely upon good sportsmanship and therefore is open to interpretation and a little naughtiness. I wouldn’t expect Arsenal supporters to agree with this assessment or even give a stuff given that they won the game. But if the same thing happened against them, they would be furious and understandably so.
West Ham
A truly magical season is brewing. West Ham have not achieved anything concrete yet, but they have punched upon their opportunities in Europe and evaporated all the preseason suspicions that Thursday night football might cause a knock-on effect domestically. We are almost a third of the way through the season and West Ham are level on points with Manchester City in second.
“This season reminds me of the Boleyn Ground,” said Michail Antonio after the game. “The atmosphere inside, everything to do with West Ham right now is unbelievable. The fans are there on top of us, to support us.” He’s right. We have all written many words about the atmosphere in the London Stadium, but the truth is that a club on the up and a team that fans can be proud of trumps everything else.
This is a triumph of David Moyes’ coaching. West Ham are not a particularly complicated team. They rely upon intense hard work, a magnificent central midfield combination and maximise their chances from set pieces. They defend hard and press from the front, with the indefatigable Antonio leading by example.
Most importantly of all, they are enjoying their football immensely. Watch the scenes after full-time back and see how much it means to these players and this manager to prove people wrong. Moyes has been around far too long to be focused on outperforming his former employers, but he must allow himself a smile at seeing just how much Manchester United are struggling while he flies close to the sun and shows little sign of getting burnt. The blend of functional, committed manager and enthusiastic, effervescent team really is a joy to behold.
Wolves
There is nothing wrong with a counter-attacking system, and Bruno Lage has made it work well at Wolves this season. But it does rely on two or three players winning their individual battles. Against Palace, that simply did not happen.
Firstly, Gallagher was able to dictate the tempo of the match and his energy was too much for Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves. With Hwang Hee-chan operating on the left but joining Raul Jimenez as a central striker, Wolves’ slightly lopsided formation had Trincao as the only natural winger. He had the responsibility for carrying the ball forward, effectively connecting defence on the counter.
And Trincao was the poorest player on the pitch. He completed nine passes in 67 minutes and failed to create a chance, leaving Hwang and Jimenez starved of service. Adama Traore has been left on the bench recently, but he must surely start against West Ham after the break.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3mS1iic
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