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
The top-four race is being run at snail speed. Wolves were the big winners this weekend, Arsenal moved forward without even playing, Tottenham lost and West Ham and Manchester United dropped more points.
Elsewhere, Newcastle have won three league games on the spin to give them a little breathing room at the bottom but each of the current bottom three lost at home without scoring a goal to put them further in trouble.
This weekend’s results
Saturday 12 February
- Man Utd 1-1 Southampton
- Brentford 0-0 Crystal Palace
- Everton 3-0 Leeds
- Watford 0-2 Brighton
- Norwich 0-4 Man City
Sunday 13 February
- Burnley 0-1 Liverpool
- Newcastle 1-0 Aston Villa
- Tottenham 0-2 Wolves
- Leicester 2-2 West Ham
Arsenal
No game due to Chelsea’s Club World Cup commitments
Aston Villa
The worst performance of Steven Gerrard’s time at Villa Park, this was a defeat that contained all the hallmarks of Dean Smith’s final weeks in charge: an inability to get back into a match when falling behind, a lack of control in the final third, a panic that set in when chasing the game and a flatness that allowed Villa to be bullied out of the contest.
There are a few theories for that:
1. A hangover from throwing two points away in midweek and being low on energy after a manic meeting with Leeds.
2. The absence of Ezri Konsa, whose foolishness cost him a red card in midweek and left Tyrone Mings more exposed in defence.
3. The theory that the more creative and attacking elements of this team depend almost entirely on the performance level of John McGinn and Douglas Luiz in midfield. If they are able to run the game and enjoy time on the ball, Villa will be dangerous. If they aren’t, everything falls apart a little.
4. The form of Ollie Watkins, who was slightly unfortunate to stray fractionally offside but otherwise is grasping at reliable form.
Whichever combination of those explanations carries the most weight, Gerrard is in a tricky spell having won one of his last six games and been permitted to recruit in January. Perhaps he needs to go back to basics. On Sunday, Villa lacked everything that made Gerrard the player he was.
Brentford
Things are getting a little tricky, not least because Brentford are one of two Premier League teams to play 25 matches this season (the other is Manchester City). While the teams below Brenford are finally starting to pick up points, they are in the middle of their worst run of the campaign.
There is no need for widespread panic. Thomas Frank’s team probably only need 10 points to secure their Premier League safety. They still have to play each of the six teams below them and they took eight points from the six reverse fixtures. Repeat that and they will be fine.
But Brentford are continuing to make individual defensive mistakes and those are no longer being overshadowed by their creativity as injuries have set in and opponents appear to have worked out their attacking plan. In terms of shot-creating actions (any pass, dribble or foul earned that results in a shot), Brentford registered more than 10 in each of their first 12 league games of the season. They have only managed it in seven of their subsequent 13 matches.
Brighton
There was no secret to Brighton’s main issue during their first two years of Graham Potter’s management. Away from home in 2019-20 and 2020-21, they lost eight games (conceding 27 goals) and nine games (conceding 24 goals) respectively.
This season, a massive shift in the right direction. Brighton have played 12 away Premier League games, conceded 12 goals and, improbably, lost only once. Granted they are still to play Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham on the road, but flip that on its head: they drew at Anfield, Stamford Bridge and the London Stadium.
If that has provided a platform for progress up the table (and Potter would admit that they are still drawing too many games at home and away), the underlying improvement comes in their defensive resilience away from home.
So here’s a statistic to make Potter and every Brighton supporter smile. The date on which the following teams last conceded more than twice in a Premier League away game (most recent first):
- Chelsea – 4 December 2021
- Arsenal – 2 December 2021
- Manchester United – 20 November 2021
- Liverpool – 7 November 2021
- Tottenham – 26 September 2021
- Manchester City – 18 May 2021
- Brighton – 13 December 2020
Burnley
Might that be that? Burnley aren’t even on a particularly bad run by the standards of their rotten season, having drawn against Arsenal and Manchester United, but they are still suffering from a chronic lack of goals (17 in 21 games). The signing of Wout Weghorst to replace Chris Wood offered hope of a reprieve but then he left the field on Sunday with an injury.
If Weghorst is out for a considerable period, how on earth are Burnley going to score? And if Burnley don’t score more regularly, how on earth are they going to stay up? And are these the last weeks of Sean Dyche at Turf Moor?
Chelsea
No game due to Club World Cup commitments
Crystal Palace
This is something that we discussed earlier in the season (and is inevitable when you are changing the club’s style of play so drastically), but Patrick Vieira has to take care that possession football does not blur into pedestrian football.
“I think in possession we didn’t link the game well to give them problems,” Vieira said after the 0-0 draw at Brentford. “I think we didn’t create enough chances. Outside of possession, we did fantastically well. A draw is fair for both teams. We didn’t move the ball quickly enough offensively.”
He’s right, and it is becoming a pattern away from Selhurst Park. Being solid defensively is an understandable starting point, but there needs to be a balance. In nine of their 12 away league games this season, Palace have had nine shots (and three shots on target) or fewer.
Interestingly, Palace’s only away win of this season came in the match when they had the least possession (against Manchester City). In the three matches when they have enjoyed the most – Burnley, Norwich and Brentford – we have seen three aspects of Vieira’s Palace that is holding them back: failure to take their chances (Norwich), having lots of shots but also conceding a lot (Burnley) and limiting the shots they face but also looking blunt (Brentford).
That last option is probably more preferable to the Burnley bunfight, but unfortunately it comes with a caveat. If you are going to play the type of football that minimises chances for both teams, you really need strikers who are more efficient at taking chances than Jordan Ayew, Christian Benteke and Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Everton
Frank Lampard’s Chelsea were an infuriating, often enthralling team that never quite seemed to have a hold on their own identity and thus suffered large lurches in performance both from one month to the next and in the space of the same match.
In his first season alone, they won six in a row in the league and then lost four of their next five and took seven points from three consecutive away games against Tottenham, Arsenal and Brighton before then taking two points from their next three against Newcastle, Bournemouth and Leicester.
During that season, Chelsea’s results became vaguely comical – English football’s entertainers. In the Premier League and Champions League alone, Chelsea were involved in two 3-2s, a 5-2, a 5-3, a 4-2, two 4-1s, a 4-4 and six 2-2 draws. That was eventually his undoing. Elite clubs have enough resources and quality to demand control; only control brings trophies.
In Lampard’s early weeks at Everton, we are seeing exactly the same thing: 4-1 win followed by 3-1 defeat followed by 3-0 win. The difference in performance from one week to the next across every area of the pitch is night and day.
The difference at Goodison is that that is likely to be good enough to take them out of trouble. Turning up once a fortnight rather than once a week will mean Everton climb away from the bottom three, even if it is totally baffling for supporters. Lampard’s team have four home games against the current bottom eight plus away trips to Watford and Burnley. They probably only need 12-14 more points to be safe.
What’s more, it’s good fun! The crippling aspect of Rafael Benitez’s tenure was not that Everton lost so many games but that even when they did take points it required an abdication of all ambitions of watching entertaining football. Rollercoasters might end up exactly where they started, but at least you feel the wind in your hair in between.
Leeds
One of the worst performances of Marcelo Bielsa’s time in charge, principally because Leeds’ manager got it all so wrong. The team was crying out for a competent, workmanlike, energetic defensive midfielder at Goodison. Bielsa picked Mateusz Klich (who had suffered with cramp in midweek) over Adam Forshaw, much to the surprise of supporters.
Bielsa did try and change things at half-time, but a) by then the damage had been done, and b) even then his substitutions were odd. Perhaps Raphinha was carrying an injury or was simply knackered (his form has tailed off badly over the last few games), but it is hard to understand why Bielsa thought Tyler Roberts was a better option than Joe Gelhardt.
If nothing else, Gelhardt is exactly the type of young player who excites supporters when they need it most. Leeds have been punished by injuries this season, but these are still odd mistakes from an experienced manager and offer evidence that he is over-thinking things a little in search of different answers.
Leeds probably will survive relegation, but this has been a grim season that is testing the patience of supporters, some of whom believe their club is preparing – deliberately or otherwise – for Bielsa to leave this summer. Leeds have taken 43 per cent of their league points this season against the bottom three clubs in the division and 13 points from 20 matches against the rest.
Leicester
Welcome back to the broken record. Leicester City have two big problems, now so ingrained within their displays that they might cause the demise of Brendan Rodgers. They tend to sit back on leads and invite pressure that they prove themselves unable to repel and they are unable to defend set pieces.
The two are clearly related. Sitting deep is a perfectly normal strategy when you have a one-goal lead, but it does tend to lead to your opponent pushing more players forward and crossing the ball into the penalty area. Both of those make set pieces – particularly corners – more likely. And given that Leicester seem to concede from every other corner, they lose their leads.
This is becoming a serious issue for Rodgers, whose popularity at the King Power is waning badly. Leicester supporters booed when their team passed the ball short around their defence. They booed when West Ham scored their goals. They booed when Jannik Vestergaard was brought on as a substitute and they booed again at full-time. You can see their point – Leicester have slipped back in or been eliminated from four competitions in recent weeks – but you can also see the players tensing up under the pressure created by a toxic atmosphere.
The accusation, and it isn’t without merit, is that Rodgers is costing Leicester with his in-game decisions. Is it really clever to bring off your best midfielder for the last five minutes when it emphatically cedes territory? And what’s the point in Vestergaard coming on if he can’t even jump to defend a corner? And why can’t they do better than awful at defending set pieces? There were eight players in blue with their feet on the ground when Craig Dawson headed the ball.
Add to that Rodgers’ misguided comments about Leicester City peaking last season (the insinuation, deliberately or otherwise, was that fans should be happy with their lot), and all is not well. This has gone south very quickly indeed.
Liverpool
It says plenty about the standards that Manchester City set that Liverpool have taken 32 points from a possible 39 in the league – losing only once – and yet don’t really feel like serious title challengers. But Jurgen Klopp clearly hasn’t given up yet and nor have his team. On a beastly, windy, cold day in Burnley, they scored a scrappy goal and then resisted the pressure that inevitably came their way.
One surprising aspect of Liverpool’s recent weeks is the rise of Fabinho as a goalscorer. The Brazilian has five goals in 2022 including the winner on Sunday. All have come from set-piece situations; he either challenges for a header or has a clever knack of holding his run and being in the perfect position for a scruffy knockdown.
Finally, Liverpool really do have a chance to move closer to City over the next few weeks. While they have three home league games to come, the leaders face Tottenham and Manchester United at home and Everton away.
Man City
Look who’s back in goalscoring form. Raheem Sterling is enjoying the same redemption arc as Bernardo Silva, apparently available for transfer last summer and now crucial to Manchester City’s hopes on multiple fronts. As with Bernardo, great credit goes to the player for making the most of second chances.
It is a slightly obvious statement, but Sterling’s goalscoring record is correlated with his ability to find space close to goal. At his best, he is responsible for creating chances when play is directed down his wing and making darting runs into the six-yard box when play is directed down the opposite flank. You might cruelly say that being close to the goal limits his ability to miss chances, but it works perfectly for City.
Ten (23 per cent) of Sterling’s 44 shots this season have come in the six-yard box; Kane’s record is seven of 63, by way of comparison. The only similar forward in the division who rivals that percentage is Diogo Jota at Liverpool. Sterling is now the third highest goalscorer in the division and the highest English scorer. His movement to predict where the pass will come is supreme.
The wider picture is worth considering too. Having only turned 27 in December, Sterling has now scored 106 Premier League goals. Given that he isn’t really a striker (and certainly hasn’t played as one for the majority of his career league appearances) that is an astonishing record. At his current rate, he will break into the top 10 Premier League goalscorers of all time at the age of 30.
Man Utd
Manchester United officially have a Cristiano Ronaldo problem. We knew when Ronaldo signed that he probably wouldn’t do much in the way of pressing, and that has proved true. It’s a fairly crude statistic, but Ronaldo has eight successful tackles and interceptions in the league this season, which ranks 18th amongst United players (and he ranks fifth for minutes played).
We also suspected that latter-stage Ronaldo wouldn’t offer a huge amount of chance creation (although there is a latent threat to him busying central defenders and creating time and space for others). Again, that has certainly been proven. In terms of chances created per 90 minutes spent on the pitch, Ronaldo ranks 156th in the Premier League of those who have made 10 or more appearances) and 15th at Manchester United.
This was all permissible because Ronaldo was an elite finisher – create chances for him and he would score. Well… not really. Ronaldo has scored five goals from 53 shots in the Premier League since his second appearance of the season. His shot-to-goal conversion rate this season ranks him 11th at Manchester United. Again since his second appearance (he scored three in his first two league games), Ronaldo’s chances have a combined expected goals (xG) figure of 7.5 and he’s scored five times. Ronaldo is actually underperforming with his shooting.
It’s not just that his current form means that he isn’t worth building the team around. It’s that Ronaldo’s reputation (and wage) means that he often stays on the pitch when other players might well have been substituted in similar circumstances. Against Wolves, Newcastle, West Ham and Southampton, he has really not done enough to justify remaining on the field.
Newcastle
This was a crucial three points. Not just because it means Newcastle United have won three straight Premier League matches for the first time since November 2018 and not just because they had to recover from the loss of Kieran Trippier with injury shortly after half-time.
Instead, it was the style of the victory that mattered so much. With 25 minutes to go, Newcastle were under serious pressure with Aston Villa’s full-backs attacking and both of Newcastle’s starting full-backs off with injuries. They responded by going into grit mode: slowing down the game, making a series of tactical fouls, clearing away everything that came into their penalty area.
These might sound like back-handed compliments for a team that suddenly has the richest owners in world football, but they are not intended to be. The biggest worry about appointing Eddie Howe was that he was a manager who liked to play pretty football that seemed at odds with a team which needed to scrap for survival. Perhaps we all got that wrong. On Sunday, Newcastle showed more resilience than they ever did under Steve Bruce.
Newcastle are not safe yet. Their dismal autumn and sticky start to life under Howe has seen to that. But they are firmly moving in the right direction and doing so by demonstrating exactly the characteristics we worried they didn’t possess.
Norwich
Given the gap in quality and financial resources, this really isn’t intended as stinging criticism. But after a 4-0 home defeat to Manchester City, the statistics of Norwich’s record against the best teams in the Premier League is eye-opening.
Norwich’s matches this season against the Big Six (plus West Ham, who are fourth): Played 9, Won 0, Drawn 0, Scored 0, Conceded 31. Cripes.
Southampton
Ralph Hasenhuttl has a new strikeforce. Armando Broja and Che Adams have started three games together this year. In those three matches (admittedly a small sample size), Southampton have drawn against Manchester City and Manchester United and beaten Tottenham.
Playing these two together works best mostly because the other two options didn’t really work at all. The first included playing Adam Armstrong, a striker who delights in taking a high volume of shots but who has struggled badly to make the step up to Premier League football. The second option was to play Nathan Redmond off Broja, which had merit but often led to Redmond dropping deeper and Broja being left a little isolated.
This is different. Broja and Adams are hardworking, centre forward pests who defenders hate playing against. They annoy their opponents and hassle them. They can hold the ball up. Adams’ finishing is probably not quite Premier League level but then he makes up for that with the other aspects of his game.
See the difference on the pitch when they work in tandem. Against Manchester United, Adams and Broja attempted 38 pressures on the ball when out of possession and were successful 11 times in turning it over within five seconds, either by making tackles, intercepting passes or forcing opponents to hit the ball long where Southampton could mop up. In their last game without the two playing as a pair – Wolves away – Broja attempted seven pressures and none were successful.
Even if this shape leaves Southampton a little lighter in midfield, it is more than worth it because Broja and Adams become Hasenhuttl’s first line of defence and end up protecting the midfield rather than exposing it.
Tottenham
Have Tottenham already broken Antonio Conte? His teams have lost before, clearly. But the most damaging defeats, the ones that might be interpreted as slurs upon his reputation, always provoked a reaction. Conte would hop and jump on the touchline as if it were made of fire, screaming and waving his arms as if desperately trying to attract the attention of a passing plane from a deserted island.
On Sunday, there was none of that mania during or after the match. During the second half, the cameras panned occasionally to Conte, glumly stood as if he had been waiting three hours and counting for a bus. After the game, he forlornly told the interviewer that he didn’t really want to think about a top-four challenge because he has grown accustomed to title races. It might be a while before one of those comes along, Antonio.
It was always a nice idea that Tottenham were going to finish fourth because they had lots of games in hand, but then the pesky football matches came along and it has all fallen apart. Their last two displays, painful home defeats against sides that Spurs really ought to beat, have been like the worst days of the Mourinho and Nuno eras. After Manchester City next weekend, it might well be four league defeats on the spin.
Defensively, Tottenham are shambolic. They have become ludicrously reliant upon Eric Dier’s availability because Davinson Sanchez is not good enough and, for whatever reason, they won’t give Joe Rodon a chance. Against Wolves, it was as if their defence were playing on a one-second delay; never proactive, always reactive and tardy even then.
There has been an improvement in Spurs under Conte, in that they are generally able to beat the worst clubs in the Premier League rather than not being able to beat anyone, but that’s only half a compliment: Spurs haven’t beaten a current top-half team since he took over. None of this is to say that Conte is failing or will fail, more that the size of the task is far bigger than he or anyone else thought. Which is something that the manager has repeated to anyone who will listen over the last month.
Things can change quickly, particularly in a top-four race where at least one participant seems to lose every week. But it’s February and it already feels like another wasted season for Tottenham. A penny for Harry Kane’s thoughts ahead of another summer of stress.
Watford
Well the only way is up. Watford have had two shots on target in total over their last two matches and still haven’t scored under Roy Hodgson. The defence looked better against Burnley and West Ham, but even that dropped away against Brighton on Saturday. And if you aren’t creating anything, this defence isn’t going to keep you up.
Watford’s two biggest current problems away from that defence are painfully obvious. Emmanuel Dennis’ form has dropped off a cliff (pretty much since he didn’t go to Afcon, although I’m happy to accept that as coincidental). In his last five league appearances, Dennis has had seven shots, one of which was on target. His total xG over those five games was 0.3.
And they also desperately need to get Ismaila Sarr starting games again before it’s too late. He came on as a sub against Brighton, but Sarr has missed Watford’s last 11 league games and they have picked up two points during that run. Without him, Hodgson’s side suffer from a chronic lack of creativity and flair.
West Ham
After the dust settles on a well-earned point which matches Manchester United’s total this weekend (with a harder fixture) and beats Tottenham’s, West Ham supporters may be a little concerned about what is to come next. Of course it’s brilliant to score late equalisers and have Declan Rice flexing his muscles after full-time to an adoring away support. But West Ham have slipped in recent weeks. They have taken 14 points from their last 10 league games. Keep that up and they will finish sixth or seventh, even with those below them dropping points.
David Moyes has had a hand in that slight decline. You can’t really blame him given the performance of certain players over the first half of the season but Moyes chose not to make wholesale changes from game to game over a busy period. Eight different West Ham players have played at least 22 of their 25 league games and five of those played at least four of their Europa League group games. With knockout ties to come alongside Premier League games and continued FA Cup participation, those core eight players are at least going to be low on energy and at worst pick up muscle injuries.
But any blame for that should be directed higher up the food chain. Moyes repeatedly spoke of his desire to bring new players into the club in January to ease the workload on the current squad, but nobody arrived. As a non-elite club financially, chances to finish in the top four or six and win a cup competition don’t come around very often. Have West Ham’s owners passed up the chance to make a good season a great one?
Wolves
Why shouldn’t Wolves finish in the top four? They lost at home to Arsenal in midweek, but goodness only knows you don’t need to be perfect to keep up with the pack this season. They don’t score many goals but then they also have the second meanest defence in the Premier League. They have plenty of tough away games to play (Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham, Liverpool) but then they have won away at Manchester United and Tottenham without conceding and only the top three have more away points.
Given that nobody has really considered that Wolves might make the Champions League (or even the top six), there is very little pressure on them to continue their form. Improve their home record a touch (and, yes, score a few more goals at Molineux) and there is no reason to doubt them after a fourth consecutive away league win.
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