This was another Covid-19-affected round of matches, but we have reviews or previews below of 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs who were in action.
Romelu Lukaku was Chelsea’s game-changer off the bench while Manchester City did their work early before responding to a mid-game slump.
Meanwhile, Norwich City look doomed after Dean Smith’s honeymoon period continued to fade into the distance.
Boxing Day’s Premier League results
- Man City 6-3 Leicester
- Norwich 0-5 Arsenal
- Tottenham 3-0 Crystal Palace
- West Ham 2-3 Southampton
- Aston Villa 1-3 Chelsea
- Brighton 2-0 Brentford
Monday night:
- Newcastle vs Man Utd (8pm)
Three matches postponed following Covid-19 outbreaks
Arsenal
We have given plenty of credit to Arsenal’s English youngsters (Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale and Emile Smith-Rowe) and lauded the rapid rise of the outrageously mature Gabriel Martinelli, but after Arsenal thrashed Norwich at Carrow Road it’s high time we poured some praise on Martin Odegaard.
So often, when a loan player makes his move permanent it can be hard to replicate the buzz of that initial spell. Playing for a club on loan brings with it extra freedom, an opportunity to express yourself that can easily evaporate when you are there for good. Opposition managers also know how to set up to counter your threat; you lose the surprise factor of a regular new signing.
But Odegaard is growing into this Arsenal team after waiting a while for his chance. While Saka and Martinelli dip and weave and Smith-Rowe dribbles, Odegaard is more rounded. He finds space and is comfortable when dribbling, but it is his composure to pick the right pass – and technically ability to complete it – that is helping Arsenal so much at the moment. His finishing is also far better than I had realised.
“I think he [Odegaard] is playing fantastically well,” Arteta said after the match. “He helps us a lot, he glides the team together and I am really pleased with him.” He’s absolutely right; Odegaard now has three goals and three assists in his last six matches.
Aston Villa
There’s no point saying that Danny Ings’ move to Aston Villa has been a failure because he has only been there for five months and has recently struggled with an injury. But against Chelsea, we certainly saw the worst of Ings. His touch was off, he looked a little leggy (again, forgivable after injury) and he was substituted with 20 minutes to go.
But Villa are struggling with Ings and Ollie Watkins in the same side. The theory was that Ings would play centrally, allowing Watkins to run the left channels as he did so brilliantly last season to create space for Jack Grealish. But it’s just not working. Of the last six matches that Watkins and Ings have started together, Villa have won two and lost four. That’s no huge disaster, but what’s interesting is that, in the two wins, the three goals that Villa have scored only came after Ings was substituted.
Steven Gerrard probably needs to change that plan. Villa supporters have expressed their concerns about Watkins in a wide role, and it does seem that he is better starting centrally and drifting wide rather than the opposite. If that means looking for a left winger in January and only starting one of the two forwards, so be it.
Brentford
Brentford’s recent patchy form (their last six league results read loss, win, loss, draw, win, loss) has done enough to keep their head above water, but there is a slight concern about the away form. Since beating West Ham away on 3 October, Brentford have taken two points from five away matches and both came against struggling teams (Newcastle and Leeds).
That winless run can’t really be blamed on Brentford’s chance creation and they have scored at a rate of over a goal per game. But when you concede goals at a rate of one for every 38 minutes played, as Brentford have over that run, you aren’t going to take enough points to move up the table.
And that’s unlikely to get better quickly. Brentford have 10 away games remaining this season; their opponents include Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Leicester City. Good luck.
Brighton
One of the weirder runs of this Premier League season is over. In early season, Graham Potter looked to have taken Brighton to the next level without adding a new centre forward over the summer. They then went away to rivals Crystal Palace, largely underperformed and were held to a 1-1 draw when they had a chance to move into the top two of the Premier League. Next came nine more winless league games.
Over that tricky period, Potter’s reputation amongst a section of his own supporters changed. He was twice booed and even neutrals in the media wondered whether we had been a little too fawning over Brighton’s rise and a little too forgiving for their failure to buy a striker. Potter accepted that his performance would always be under pressure but insisted that so much of the game is ruled by money that it is hard for clubs like Brighton to compete.
Potter would have picked this winless run to have ended a long time ago, but there is good reason to feel especially cheerful about beating Brentford. They are the latest Premier League over-achievers, who have embraced life in the top flight after years in the EFL preparing for it. Lose to Thomas Frank and Potter might wonder if he was being usurped as the next big thing. This win puts Brighton into the top half and deflects any suggestion of a potential relegation battle.
Burnley
Game postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.
Chelsea
He might have only had 18 touches in 45 minutes (Thomas Tuchel really needs to work on getting him involved more in the general patterns of play), but Romelu Lukaku showed Chelsea supporters exactly what they have missed ever since he got injured and then caught Covid-19.
Lukaku is truly unplayable at times. His run for his first goal is sublime, shaping to hang in the middle of the penalty area before darting ahead of the front post. Central defenders would usually be happy to see their opponent in front of them and the goal – it makes the header so much harder. But Lukaku is brilliant at those flicks with his forehead that send the ball into the far corner with placement rather than power.
The run for the second was vintage Lukaku, pushing in front of a defender to give them no chance to take the ball off him, sprinting forward with ball at feet as fast as most players run without it and then shielding it so that the end result is either a shot on goal or a penalty.
After the game, Lukaku said that he understood why Tuchel has left him on the bench recently as he tries to rediscover form at fitness and admitted that he needed a performance like that. Now he has found one, he must start every week. If Chelsea are going to win the league, Lukaku must stay fit and Chelsea must service him properly. This was a good start.
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Wilfried Zaha is a very good footballer, but you do sometimes wonder what is going through his head. Opponents have long talked about trying to wind him up because it has two distinct advantages: it puts Zaha off his own game, getting distracted by a meaningless personal duel, and it increases the chances of him losing discipline and doing something silly.
Cut to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. Zaha can feel aggrieved that he was shown a yellow card for his first challenge on Davinson Sanchez; there wasn’t a huge amount in the tackle and he certainly didn’t step on the back of Sanchez’s ankle.
But having been given a booking and therefore asked to walk a tightrope for the rest of the game, what on earth was the point of pushing Sanchez to the floor after a little spat over the ball near the touchline? It was incredibly dim, and Zaha’s outraged reaction at the second yellow card was just as silly. You got played, Wilfried.
Everton
Game postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.
Leeds United
Game postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.
Leicester City
You have to admire Brendan Rodgers’ chutzpah, or maybe he just realised it was a good week to criticise Paul Tierney. Rodgers criticised Tierney, who was the VAR official for Leicester’s game against Manchester City, for what he described as a “soft, soft” penalty. It’s worth pointing out that it was a completely reasonable decision.
Of more interest to Leicester supporters was their team’s continued inability to defend set pieces. Even with the defensive absentees (three full-backs and three central defenders were missing from the game), it doesn’t seem to matter which personnel are on the field. Rodgers has repeatedly insisted that his team are working hard on improving their record and has pointed out that other managers have also struggled in the same area.
But Leicester fans are sick of hearing that explanation and care even less about what other managers might have issues with. They care about Leicester and Leicester only, and when their team has been so utterly wretched at defending set-piece crosses into their own box you can see their point. Something really has to change soon. Right now, Leicester are effectively giving their opponents a one-goal headstart.
Liverpool
Game postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.
Manchester City
Pep Guardiola’s side hardly needed any help to increase their position of dominance in the Premier League, but they have found a new way to stamp their authority on the title race. In four of their last five league matches, Manchester City have scored in the first eight minutes. Given their ability to control the match when their opponents are forced to chase it, everyone might as well pack up and go home.
In the whole of last season, Manchester City scored 13 league goals in the first 15 minutes of their 28 matches. In 2019-20, they scored 11. Boxing Day marked the point at which City had completed exactly half of their league season and they have already scored 12 goals in the first 15 minutes.
That was particularly useful given City’s bizarre third quarter of the game, during which they conceded three times and gave Leicester City hope before eventually extinguishing it with two goals from set pieces. For all their brilliant control, they are such a better team when Rodri is controlling the midfield.
Manchester United
It’s a Christmas miracle. Manchester United had their game against Brentford before Christmas called off because they had 11 senior players fit (below the Premier League’s threshold of 14). But by the time they travelled to Newcastle for their fixture on Monday evening, Ralf Rangnick had virtually a fully fit squad with only Paul Pogba (a longer-term absentee) definitely out.
And that bodes well. With some rest over Christmas and a few more training schedules for United’s players to learn the demands of Rangnick’s pressing system, there is no excuse for a lack of commitment to a concerted, organised system when Newcastle have the ball. And, given Newcastle’s wretched forn, there is no excuse for not winning either.
Newcastle United
When speaking to the media before Newcastle’s home game against Manchester United, Eddie Howe reflected on the games between these two clubs in the past, particularly during Kevin Keegan’s first spell in charge.
“There’s a lot of memories that spring to mind of those games. Newcastle tended, at that period of time, to have memorable games against most teams, to be honest,” Howe said.
“It’s up to us to try and recreate those times – the attacking verve, the swagger that that team had, the flair the individual players possessed. But we’re going to need a little bit of time to see that in full creation. At the moment, we’re still progressing, and we have to obviously get the defensive side of our game right before we transition into the team we all want to be.”
Describing Newcastle as “progressing” towards anything good over the last few weeks takes a large dose of optimism. But Howe is certainly right that he needs to organise his defence far better if Newcastle are to stay in the Premier League.
Buying players in January might help that, but it also takes time to settle and grow used to playing alongside each other. That said, given the lack of communication between Newcastle’s defenders in their recent matches, perhaps they can’t really get any worse.
Norwich City
The one thing Norwich City had managed to largely avoid over their dismal Premier League run was thrashings, particularly at home. Before Sunday they had conceded 14 goals in nine home league games, fewer in per-game terms than Newcastle, Watford, Manchester United, Everton and Leeds.
And then Arsenal came to town. There is no shame or panic to be caused by losing to a team with top-four aspirations. Norwich had a string of absentees. But there are ways to lose and Dean Smith was clearly unhappy with his team’s capitulation.
“”It was littered with unforced errors, soft penalty, soft free-kick, Smith said. “They looked dejected. The only one I can give any credit to is Kenny McLean today.”
Smith does not need telling that these are worrying signs. After the initial spark when he was appointed, Norwich have now lost four league games on the spin without scoring a goal. He was appointed as much for this season as next, but the danger of joining a club before Christmas is that you can put yourself under huge pressure by the spring.
More on The Score
Southampton
From this column on December 13: “The silliest and most frustrating team in the Premier League, and it’s not even close. Southampton started the season without a win in their opening seven matches; cue widespread panic. They then took ten points from four games; cue ‘What were you worried about?’. They’ve now gone five more games without a win; cue ‘Why were you not more worried’?”
And obviously since then Southampton have taken four points from two away games having taken eight from the previous 57 available. And obviously Southampton have scored five goals in their past two away league games having scored six in their previous 10 combined. I can’t work them out, and I’m happy to wish you all the fortune in the world if you can.
Tottenham
A regulation win that was effectively earned in the space of five first-half minutes when Tottenham flickered out of first gear, scored twice and saw Zaha get himself sent off. None of that should be viewed as critical; Tottenham supporters have badly missed regulation home wins.
Lucas Moura was given the man of the match award, but I thought Oliver Skipp was by far the best player on the pitch. Despite Crystal Palace playing with three central midfielders to Tottenham’s two, Skipp was able to control the tempo of the match both with his aggression off the ball and his composure with it. He completed all but four of his 78 passes, made the majority in Palace’s half rather than settling for the simple passes backwards and sideways, won possession of the ball eight times and has a wonderful knack of being in the right place to commit a tactical foul without getting booked for it.
Skipp’s only obvious weakness is his shooting, but we can forgive that. Continue this form and Antonio Conte might consider pairing him with Tanguy Ndombele when Tottenham are facing weaker opponents and are likely to have most of the ball.
Watford
Game postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.
West Ham
There have been signs in recent weeks that West Ham’s majestic first half to the league season was fading. The 3-2 home win over Chelsea was brilliant, but it followed a run of one point from three games and has been followed by exactly the same.
Against Burnley and Arsenal, West Ham looked toothless in attack. Against Southampton, they created plenty of chances but were punished by lapses in defensive concentration and poor decision-making. Against a side that had two away league wins all year (against Watford and Sheffield United), that’s hugely disappointing.
David Moyes needs players in January. His front four against Southampton contained Nikola Vlasic and Pablo Fornals and had Jarrod Bowen as a central striker. The game changed course when Michail Antonio was brought on, but West Ham need greater strength in depth to cope with the rigours of European football.
Even then, the top four pipe dream is probably over. Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United are all showing signs of recovery either under new managers or with fresh faces in the team. Poor Moyes has little choice but to pick a similar XI every game and hope their fitness lasts.
Wolves
Game postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.
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