The Score is Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up here to receive the free newsletter every Monday morning
After losing against a reinvigorated Everton on Saturday, Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League looked more precarious than it has in weeks. Until their north London rivals did them a favour.
Tottenham continued their remarkable run of home victories against Manchester City on Sunday, with Harry Kane finally surpassing Jimmy Greaves as the club’s all-time record goalscorer. A 1-0 win north London ensured that the Premier League’s top two and strongest title candidates both slipped up in the same weekend.
It was a timely win for Spurs too after Newcastle surprisingly dropped points against West Ham, conceding their first league goal since November in the process. Manchester United strengthened their grip on third meanwhile with a win over Crystal Palace despite Casemiro’s controversial red card.
At the other end of the table, Nottingham Forest continued their revival with a victory over Leeds, while Southampton slumped to another punishing defeat at Brentford.
This weekend’s results
Friday 3 February
Saturday 4 February
Aston Villa 2-4 Leicester
Brighton 1-0 Bournemouth
Man Utd 2-1 Crystal Palace
Wolves 3-0 Liverpool
Sunday 5 February
Nottingham Forest 1-0 Leeds
Arsenal
One defeat is not an issue, particularly when Manchester City lose on the same weekend. Arsenal spent the first half of their league season accumulating a lead at the top that allowed for inevitable slip-ups and setbacks. They ran into an opponent at the worst possible time and they were undone by a surge of new energy at Goodison. The only other time Arsenal lost a league game this season, they responded by taking 28 points from a possible 30 over their next 10 matches.
That does not mean we should ignore the problems raised entirely. We knew what Everton would try to be under Sean Dyche, so we can presume Mikel Arteta was not surprised. But Arsenal didn’t look ready for it. They were hurried and panicked in possession, forced into giving away the set pieces that are Dyche’s golden ticket and then became far too fraught in the final stages, playing into Everton’s hands.
There were three distinct, noticeable issues. Firstly, Ben White had one of his worst games of the season and it would be no surprise to see Takehiro Tomiyasu come in at right-back next weekend. Out wide, Gabriel Martinelli struggled to get change out of Seamus Coleman and Oleksandr Zinchenko was slightly wasteful in the final third to make Martinelli’s job harder.
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How Arsenal respond this time will be fascinating, but it makes the home game against Brentford next weekend mighty significant. Win at a canter and confidence will be high when facing Manchester City in midweek – they really could put one hand on the title then. Drop points and City may well sniff a loss of confidence to match their own weird funk.
Aston Villa
When a team plays out from the back, people often think that the players who most struggle are the central defenders. But at least when they receive the ball, they tend to be looking forwards and can therefore anticipate danger. In fact, the pinch point often comes when a defensive midfielder receives the ball because they are facing towards their own goal and their opponents can rush in to try and force the mistake. We saw an excellent recent example at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, when Rodri was robbed and Tottenham took the lead.
And then watch Leicester’s equaliser at Villa Park. Boubacar Kamara is a fine player, but when he gets the pass from Emi Martinez he is unaware that James Maddison has anticipated the danger; Kamara tries to turn and is robbed. Perhaps Martinez shouldn’t play that pass, given he can see the blue shirts. Perhaps Kamara should have looked to play a first-time pass around the corner.
But this is how Unai Emery wants to build attacks. And this is why managers much prefer to have a full preseason with a squad because they can iron out these problems in non-competitive matches. As it is, everyone at Villa is learning on the job and, as such, mistakes will be inevitable.
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I know Bournemouth lost again and failed to score again (they have scored one goal in their last six league games, so we can’t ignore that), but there were signs of life for Gary O’Neil and his side. Bournemouth’s new owners spent £70m in January to try and breathe life into a stuttering attack. Against Brighton, Dango Outtara, Hamed Traore and Antoine Semenyo all started and all are new faces.
It almost worked. Traore looks like the pick of the bunch on early evidence, while Outtara carried on where he left off against Nottingham Forest. Semenyo looks very raw for Premier League football and his decision-making in the final third – particularly in the last 20 minutes – left plenty to be desired. But then when Dominic Solanke is fit, he may well thrive upon the service from tricky wingers and having a playmaker behind him (Traore) who can allow him to stay high up the pitch.
The common consensus is that Bournemouth’s name has been written in pen in the Premier League’s bottom three. They are a point from safety and now have a new attack. Being written off so early could allow for a siege mentality to form around O’Neil. That’s probably their best shot.
Brentford
If you were asked to name the three Premier League clubs who failed to sign a first-team player on a permanent deal in January, two answers would likely come quickly. Manchester United were hamstrung by the potential sale of the club and the Glazers not wanting to sanction any more spending on transfer fees – Wout Weghorst arrived on loan. Everton were a mess, left to make a series of panicky bids on Deadline Day and succeed with none of them.
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The third club is Brentford, who prove that transfers aren’t everything. To repeat: TRANSFERS ARE NOT EVERYTHING. You can be as good by improving players and using their continued presence to build understanding in the team. Eight of Brentford’s starting XI on Saturday played for the club in their Championship promotion season. The exceptions: Ben Mee, who joined on a free transfer last summer; Yoanne Wissa, who cost £8m; Aaron Hickey, a left-back from Bologna who cost £14m.
For all those fans fretting about Brentford being a finished club in the transfer market who are showing no ambition by failing to upgrade in every window, Thomas Frank’s team reached 46 points last season and then lost their best creator. They’re now seventh and on course for 60 points.
Brighton
Given that he arrived last summer with the potential to be Brighton’s striker saviour, it was great to see Denis Undav finally start his first Premier League match. At 26, he’s hardly the raw youngster that needs time to grow in English football, but it’s clear both Graham Potter and now Roberto De Zerbi believed that he wasn’t quite ready. There was January talk of a loan to the Championship to get some minutes.
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Undav did miss one glorious chance, but he also created a couple of chances, completed all 17 of his attempted passes, pressed with real intensity from his role just behind Danny Welbeck (De Zerbi will like that) and dropped deep to pick up possession. With the news that Welbeck is nursing an injury that forced his substitution before the hour, and with Evan Ferguson suffering with a knee problem, Undav might well keep his place and get a chance to lead the line.
Chelsea
What we saw on Friday night was a team vs a collection of individuals, with the high quality of those individuals enough to avoid home defeat but the lack of cohesion enough to stop them winning or even creating attacking moves that made much sense. Chelsea were a set of component parts.
None of that was particularly surprising. Chelsea’s starting XI contained three January signings (two more came on as substitutes) and Fulham’s contained none. Graham Potter has made 64 changes to his starting XI over his 15 matches in charge, comfortably more than any other manager in the division. Given the amount of new players, the size of the squad, the competition for places and the regular poor performances, you can’t really blame him for that either.
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This is a season of total transition: new owner, new recruitment staff and model, new coaches, new manager, new players, new age. In those circumstances, this is all entirely predictable. But if that suggests that Potter is floating above the usual noise and chaos that engulfs every successful club when they go through a fallow season, the reality is markedly different. Transition is not a myth; a manager being able to suffer poor performances free from pressure because “transition” is.
If this mega-spend is going to work, the value of their signings must be maintained. For their value to be maintained (and for the extra revenue), Chelsea surely need Champions League football. They are now 10 points off it with 17 games left. All the time the mood online becomes more toxic. All the time we get no closer to learning what a Graham Potter Chelsea team plays like or a Todd Boehly Chelsea looks like in two years’ time.
Crystal Palace
“Crystal Palace are in relegation danger” is now a sufficiently relevant hypothesis to allow for some investigation. Since November 6, when they won at West Ham, Palace have played eight league games and taken five points. The goals have totally dried up: a rate of one every two matches.
The most obvious conclusion is that, if Patrick Vieira’s side have regressed, they are also victims of the fixture schedule. Palace’s last five league opponents have been Tottenham, Manchester United (twice), Chelsea`and Newcastle. They also play Brighton, Brentford, Liverpool (OK, caveats there now), Arsenal and Manchester City in five of their next six. It could get worse before it gets better. Then comes an equally skewed run against lower-table opponents: Leicester, Leeds, Southampton, Everton, Wolves, West ham in a row.
That’s relevant here because of how easily it is to split Palace’s results this season across the two halves of the current league table. They have played 12 matches against top-half teams, taking five points in total. They have played only nine against sides in the bottom half, but have collected a whopping 19 points.
Now comes the caveat. If Palace’s form does indeed continue its glum path against those teams in the top half, they will take only three or four points from their next six league fixtures. Not only will that bring them into the relegation battle, it also vastly increases the pressure on them when they eventually do face the teams that will be around them.
Everton
This column has been pretty firm in its belief that Everton do not possess a bad starting XI, and certainly not one that was worse than 17 other teams in the Premier League. What they had was a decent team that was playing very badly under a manager who didn’t seem capable of organising the defence, steeling the midfield or perfecting the attack.
Add in the myriad problems off the pitch, with the supporters waging civil war on the owners, and it tricked a lot of people into believing they had bad players.
Even so, the rapidity at which Sean Dyche turned Everton into a completely different – and completely Sean Dyche – team in the space of a few days is impressive. That is both damning on Frank Lampard and suggests that Dyche will have plenty enough time to keep Everton up. If you can beat and bruise this Arsenal, stopping them playing and forcing them into panic, you can take a point a game from now on in.
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The transformation from minute one was extraordinary. The central defenders headers and made clearances. The two full-backs stayed deep and ventured forward only to step up and tackle wingers before they had settled on the ball. The three central midfielders (because this was largely a 4-5-1) roughed Arsenal up in possession and occasionally played quick passes out to the wingers.
Alex Iwobi and Dwight McNeil attempted 20 crosses between them and Everton enjoyed chances from them. Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucoure both missed headers – expect that to be a source of goals. And then came the set pieces.
Dyche is more than happy to play on the stereotypes of his management, I think because doing so persuades opposition coaches to underestimate him. But Everton ran harder than we have seen them run, tackled with a ferocity that has been lacking and whipped up Goodison into a raucous mood that was finally fuelled by positivity. These appear to be simple, obvious principles because that’s exactly what they are. They’re also the vital ingredients in Everton postponing their self-inflicted emergency. Welcome back, Dychey.
Fulham
I wanted to pick out two unheralded Premier League players for some praise. This season, coverage of Fulham (and I’m guilty of it too) has revolved around Alexander Mitrovic (for obvious reasons), Palhinha (because he’s so all-action) and Tim Ream (because he’s 35 and playing the best football of his career). But this is only working so well because Fulham are a team held together by glue. That glue is provided by players like Harrison Reed and Kenny Tete.
On Friday night, right-back Tete faced three different Chelsea wingers: Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke and Raheem Sterling. None of them got anything out of him; Mudryk was substituted off at half-time. Tete won headers at the back post, made tackles, wss never caught out of position and was still able to get forward to avoid that Fulham wing becoming one-dimensional. He attempted three more crosses than any teammate and created a chance.
Playing next to Palhinha means it’s too easy to overlook Harrison Reed. He does not make quite as many tackles, charge about quite as much or intercept quite as many passes, but that is not the only way to judge a player. Reed possesses a quiet authority on the ball and works tirelessly without it. Watch how many times a Fulham player faces a one-on-one or two-on-one situation and it’s Reed who is quickly there to help.
There were doubts about whether Reed would ever make it as a Premier League regular after he was deemed surplus to requirements at Southampton, but he has grown at Fulham. Fair to play him and Tete, thriving in the top half.
Leeds
“I have to find a way to turn good performances into winning, because that’s exactly where we are and where we’ve been for a little while,” said Jesse Marsch after the defeat to Nottingham Forest. “And that’s the last step for the potential of what we need to build here.”
Two things jump out:
1) “The last step” is a massive underestimation of the task required to turn defeats into wins when Leeds have taken three points from their last 24 available and play Manchester United in each of their next two.
2) Marsch is right that Leeds’ performances recently have merited more than the results would suggest. They were clearly the better team against Forest in the first half and should have been ahead at the break. But they are also very inefficient finishers when Rodrigo isn’t available. Patrick Bamford, Brendan Aaronson, Wilfried Gnonto and Joe Gelhardt (now out on loan) have scored three goals between them from 67 shots. And their solution for that was to spend £35m on Georginio Rutter, a 20-year-old who scored twice from 27 shots for Hoffenheim this season.
Finally, this notion that Leeds have been hugely unfortunate falls down when you watch back the last 30 minutes against Forest. It wasn’t that Leeds created chance after chance (their expected goals total in the entire match was 0.75) by playing the same way. They dominated the first half, at which point Forest made tactical changes and then Leeds resorted to long balls down the channels and aimless crosses into the box. And that’s not good enough.
Leicester
Was this the week that might change Leicester’s short and long-term future? It began, finally, with some signings. Football supporters are far too quick to see the transfer market as their only solution, but Leicester very obviously needed some fresh energy and Brendan Rodgers had made no secret of the fact that his goodwill depended upon it.
Those three signings all started at Villa Park, and were all influential. Harry Souttar got over the early own goal and grew into the match. Victor Kristansen seemed to know exactly what was required of him and, more surprisingly, had the stamina to do it – he has played very little football recently given the long midseason break in Denmark. Mateus Tete has made himself a Leicester cult hero whatever happens now because they finally have a right winger who will take on a left-back rather than turn back and play a pass into midfield.
That good week continued with the news that chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha had cleared £194m of the club’s debts to the parent company King Power International. That does not remove the potential issues of FFP that may block a summer splurge, but there were concerns about the finances of the ownership group following the pandemic. This reinforces their commitment at the perfect time.
Finally, it wasn’t just the new signings who performed at Villa Park. Leicester continue to be carried by the efficiency of their shooting (four goals from nine shots), but there were signs from Kelechi Iheanacho that he can lead the line if Jamie Vardy’s decline is permanent. Leicester also got beyond the end of another transfer window with Youri Tielemans still in blue.
“Tete was outstanding,” said James Maddison after the game. “He plays on the right, which is where I’ve had to play, so it’s nice to get some pace out there. There’s a positivity around the club with some new faces and we got the points today. Getting new players in the door gives you a lift. The table doesn’t lie, but we know we can inject some oomph to go on a winning run. We are capable of that.”
That mood was reflected in Rodgers’ own post-match comments and in the smile on the face of every Leicester player at full-time. It’s amazing how seven days and one win can change the entire fabric of a season. It’s a good job, given Leicester’s fixtures to come next.
Liverpool
You can agree that Liverpool should have bought at least one central midfielder last summer. You can agree that they have probably bought at least one too many attacking players – Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo in the same team means there are two of the three forwards learning on the job and Mohamed Salah is being forced wider as a result. You can ask questions about Nunez’s finishing – it’s now five goals from 61 shots and he’s significantly underperforming his xG.
And it goes on. You can ask why none of the central defenders appear comfortable when Virgil van Dijk isn’t there, and why Jurgen Klopp continues to play with such a high line when they are getting caught out and ceding so much midfield control. You can wonder whether the attacking full-backs are a weakness as much as a strength when Liverpool are struggling.
Ultimately, though, transitionary periods avoid becoming worrying fallow years through attitude. On Match of the Day, Alan Shearer had it right when he spoke about how easy Liverpool have become to play against because of the obvious lack of energy. It’s not that they are conceding goals too regularly; it’s that nobody seems prepared to stand up and make sure Wolves didn’t have it so embarrassingly easy.
That clearly annoys Klopp; he’s struggling like never before. But everything we have learned about him as a coach that, at his best, he is able to garner an extreme buy-in from players. His man management is his greatest asset and it’s not working now. More than the midfielder problems and a perceived lack of investment, that is the strongest sign yet that this may all be coming to an end.
As for Klopp’s refusal to answer questions from The Athletic’s James Pearce over apparent upset over an article he wrote, that’s just dim in the extreme. Pearce is an excellent Liverpool beat reporter who has been glowing in his praise of Klopp and Klopp’s players. But his job is to offer his educated opinion and suggesting issues within Liverpool’s structure, tactics, results and emotional state right now is hardly controversial. Raging against that coverage only makes the coverage look more appropriate.
Man City
Arsenal’s excellence, Liverpool’s dramatic downfall and Erling Haaland’s hat-tricks have masked City’s dip in standards. They are good, very good in fact, and may yet win their fifth league title in six years come May, but they are not nearly as formidable as before. Pep Guardiola’s admirable meritocracy has made City less fearsome; The fear factor has been dialled down rather than up, despite the introduction of the frightening Haaland who didn’t have a single shot at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Something is missing, even if it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is.
Theirs does not look like a happy camp. By sending Joao Cancelo on a one-way ticket to Bavaria, Guardiola sent a clear message to his Manchester City squad that disobedience will not be tolerated. It was a power play straight out of the Sir Alex Ferguson textbook.
Cancelo started 36 Premier League games – more than any outfield player in Guardiola’s squad – as City pipped Liverpool to the 2021-22 title and is fourth in that chart this season. And yet he will spend the next few months at least slinging crosses in for Erix Maxim Choupo-Moting rather than Erling Haaland. Cancelo has recorded back-to-back assists in a Bayern shirt. What an odd state of affairs.
Guardiola has always chopped and changed and tweaked and tinkered, but suddenly since Ciao Cancelo, every major selection decision he makes provokes more intrigue. Is Kevin De Bruyne suddenly expendable after watching City play Spurs from the bench for the second time in three weeks? What of Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte, usurped in the pecking order by Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake?
When Haaland unselfishly rolled the ball into Grealish’s path rather than shoot for goal himself just before half-time, Guardiola recoiled in exasperated horror. No matter that Grealish was inches away from bending a strike into the top corner; this is Haaland’s wheelhouse. It was typical of City’s uncertainty. A previously flawless system has run into issues. Oli Young-Myles
Man Utd
“It was a brilliant goal and finally he [Marcus Rashford] was on the end,” said Erik ten Hag when asked about Manchester United’s sumptuous second goal. “But it was a great team goal, by switching play, playing between the lines, great combinations and then finally he finished off a brilliant pass by Luke Shaw as well, the cross. And then of course the finish was very good.”
Ten Hag went on to discuss he influence of the Busby Babes and Manchester United’s academy presence in that second goal, but it was also a piece of attacking play taken from his Ajax playbook: players high and wide, drawing defenders out wide to create space, switches of play and then the ideal ball into the feet of the most in-form striker in the country. The nod to United’s heritage was smart from a PR perspective, but these are signs that Ten Hag is making this attack purr.
Newcastle
This is no great secret and will come as no surprise to Newcastle United supporters, but boy do they miss Bruno Guimaraes when he’s not there. He’s now missed four Premier League matches this season – Newcastle have drawn three of them and lost the other.
The reason that absence is felt so keenly is that Guimaraes is two midfielders in one, a multifunctional player of the like that Newcastle lack without him. Firstly he is a progressive passer and a dribbler, who drives Newcastle forward on the counter attack. Then he’s the dynamo, making tackles either by pressing up the pitch or sitting deeper when Newcastle need to dig in.
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Without him, Newcastle have those ingredients as separate entities. Sean Longstaff played the progressive passes. Joe Willock tried to drive forward (and was unlucky not to score). Joelinton is become a more defensive midfielder with each passing game – he made more tackles and won possession more often than any of his teammates. But there was nobody who did all three of those things; Guimaraes does.
With Declan Rice able to run the tempo of the midfield with the ball and stop Newcastle without it, Newcastle had to turn to width in search of dominance. Unfortunately, Allan Saint-Maximin is really struggling to make an impact and Miguel Almiron’s purple patch appears to have ended. Anthony Gordon may have been an expensive gamble, but he arrives at a time when Newcastle need a boost in wide areas and will surely start next week.
Nottingham Forest
All hail Steve Cooper’s 1-0 champions. You could make a reasonable case that Forest have only really played at their best in one league game this season (the 1-0 home win over Liverpool), but they continue to pick up points because Cooper has instilled a mentality that demands they fight for everything and the combination of Morgan Gibbs-White and Brennan Johnson is working beautifully. The surprise return of Gibbs-White was massive.
Forest were rotten in the first half; Cooper virtually admitted as much after the game. Danilo looks raw in midfield (which is no surprise) and was caught out of position when he was supposed to be helping Neco Williams at right-back. Leeds had joy down that side of the pitch and should have been ahead at the break.
But Cooper and Forest have a way of seeing out these games. They have now taken 24 points this season and 15 of those have been earned in 1-0 wins during which Forest have had to survive substantial pressure on their own goal. The cast of defenders and midfielders (and now goalkeeper) keeps changing, but the principles remain the same. Key this time was also Cooper changing personnel and formation at half-time; Forest defended brilliantly after the break.
After a January transfer window in which Forest increased their number of new signings to 30, it’s worth pointing out that some of the players who did a job for them in the Championship were vital ingredients in their grim, gritty, grafting victory over Leeds.
Brennan Johnson is a gem and still only 21 – he has been a revelation since the World Cup. Jack Colback came on at half-time and secured the midfield valiantly. Sam Surridge did a better job in the last 10 minutes at holding up the ball and running the channels than Chris Wood did. Scott McKenna was faultless at the back. Some of the signings have helped; some haven’t. But the class of 2021-22 remains relevant.
Southampton
Nathan Jones appears to have created a battle between himself and Southampton supporters, who chanted again that he doesn’t know what he’s doing as they were thumped 3-0 at Brentford. Let’s analyse those post-match quotes, because they were extremely unusual for a beleaguered manager.
“I’ve let everyone down because I was brought in to drive standards and that wasn’t good enough today. I’ve listened to people and it’s been to my detriment — I’ve compromised too much. What you’ve seen today, that’s not the way my teams play.”
Which is fine, but Jones has been in charge for 13 games and almost three months. Why are his team not playing his football, if that style is so impressive?
'There weren't many better than me around Europe.'
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 5, 2023
"I've compromised!"
Nathan Jones didn't hold back in his post-match presser…pic.twitter.com/pOBfFb39TI
“They’ve sung that at any point I’ve made a substitution. If we keep Romeo Lavia on a booking they will counter-attack inside, so we were at risk. Was Romeo Lavia running the game? Was he outbattling or dominating their team? If he was, they were watching a different game to me.”
Again, fine, but supporters are entitled to their opinions. And calling out a young player who will presumably hear what you’ve said as a means of self-preservation is not a particularly smart look.
“At Luton, we were a real aggressive, front-footed side. Statistically, there weren’t many better than me around Europe in terms of aggression, clean sheets, defending in your box, xG (expected goals) — all of those things. We were pound-for-pound the best because we were spending next to nothing and producing so much. I’ve gone away from that because it’s the Premier League and due to certain players and internationals.”
Forgive them for focusing on the job you’re doing now, but Southampton supporters aren’t interested in hearing about what you did at Luton (as impressive as it was) because they support Southampton and you’re their manager now. And saying you were a great Championship manager but have changed to meet the demands of the Premier League isn’t the defence you think it is when your task is literally to keep a Premier League team up.
Tottenham
In scoring against Manchester City, Harry Kane hit two major landmarks in one. It was a record-breaking 267th goal in Spurs colours edging him one clear of Jimmy Greaves in the club’s pantheon of goalscoring greats, 12 years after his first against Shamrock Rovers. And it entered him into the exclusive Premier League 200 club too, alongside Alan Shearer (260 goals) and Wayne Rooney (208). Not bad going for a player deemed unworthy of a place in Norwich City’s starting XI a decade ago.
“I’ve been here since I was 11 years old, it’s been a lot of hard work, sacrifice and dedication,” said Kane on the pitch after full-time. “It’s hard to take it all in now, I’m sure when I’m a bit older and look back at my career it will be something I’ll be extremely proud of. To do it in a big game against a really good side and in an important moment in our season I couldn’t have asked for any more.”
Once the party was over and the players were back in the dressing room, Kane received a phone call. It was from Antonio Conte, who is recuperating in Italy after undergoing surgery to remove his gallbladder last week. “Harry, you made me proud today,” came the unmistakable gravelly Italian accent at the other end of the phone. The same is true for every Spurs supporter. One day, many years from now, they will marvel at how he stayed for so long. Oli Young-Myles
West Ham
West Ham have spent a fair amount of money, and an awfully long time, trying to find the central defender that works for them. Thilo Kehrer came in last summer and hasn’t really worked out yet. Kurt Zouma cost £30m. Issa Diop initially seemed like a good fit after his move but tailed off and is now performing well for Fulham. Fans fell in love with Craig Dawson but he wanted to move back to the Midlands. Fabian Balbuena was just never it.
In Nayef Aguerd, they might have found the long-term answer. Injury in pre-season against Rangers threatened to derail his season (he’s only made four league starts), but Aguerd looks to have everything you need to thrive in the Premier League. He’s comfortable on the ball and playing passes into midfield. He’s strong. He wins headers. He’s left-footed, which answers that issue in the squad. Now all that’s left is for David Moyes to learn his name.
Wolves
Mario Lemina was surely the lowest-key £8m-plus signing in the Premier League’s January transfer window, but few have made a more immediate impact than he did against Liverpool. You might reasonably argue that any energetic midfielder can make Liverpool look sluggish right now, but still.
Lemina was a slightly different signing for Wolves, and not only because his agent isn’t Jorge Mendes. He has Premier League experience, something that Wolves looked to address by signing him and Craig Dawson. Lemina’s move to Southampton went sour but knowing the league does make a difference when you arrive in January. Wolves had been tracking him for a while, but Julen Lopetegui also targeted him when in charge of Sevilla, so everyone at the club was on the same page.
As an antidote to Joao Moutinho, it works. Lemina is happy to stay deep and break up attacks, allowing Ruben Neves to venture further forward – Neves almost doubled Lemina for touches in the opposition half despite them ostensibly playing next to each other. Wolves might just have found a partnership that works and can unlock Neves to dovetail with the attacking midfielders and wide forwards signed in January.
As an aside, this was Wolves’ biggest league win against one of the Big Six in the Premier League era. It’s fair to say that Lopetegui is settling in nicely.
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