As bleak as defeat to Ipswich may have been, Chelsea needed it. Had their imaginary title charge continued unchecked for much longer, those inside the club could have genuinely deluded themselves that this was a rebuild completed rather than one very much ongoing. There are still plenty of ways this could go wrong.
Success shaves off rough edges in theory, but does not actually alter a club’s foundations. Winning games has been a much-needed tonic and a deserved indicator of progress under Enzo Maresca, but it hasn’t changed the fact that this is a squad with fundamental flaws of composition.
And plenty of these flaws were present at Portman Road, during what became the first utterly irredeemable and unjustifiable result of the Maresca era.
The loudest and most dangerous was Axel Disasi. A middling if error-prone centre-back at best, he has been used on the right time and again with invariably dire results.
And yet there he was, in a role he should long have been banned from playing, nonchalantly rolling the ball to Liam Delap eight minutes into the second half, to set-up Ipswich’s second.
With three right-backs on the bench – albeit one rested, one recovering and one still yet to start in the Premier League – stationing Disasi somewhere he is clearly uncomfortable and unsuited cannot have been the best option.
Not that Chelsea were much better going forward. Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Noni Madueke were all given auditions to permanently escape the confines of the B team. You can’t imagine any of them got the part, with Felix particularly unimaginative and brittle.
This was an exhibition of Chelsea’s worst traits; youthful naivety and arrogance in spades and their substandard defensive unit repeatedly exposed.
It’s worth saying that despite all this they could still have won, such is their ability in bursts, Cole Palmer’s penchant for magic, the variety of ways they can hurt you.
But they didn’t and shouldn’t have. Maresca is right that games and periods like this are inevitable in any season, with Chelsea now winless in three Premier League matches, but this served as a much-needed reminder that theirs remains a squad of quantity over quality. Having two players in every position is not the same as having two strong options, and the issue with breaking down low blocks is quietly re-emerging.
This has been easy to ignore with the Conference League acting as a creche for the unwanted and unworthy, but this is not a squad prepared for the Champions League or a serious title push.
Without large-scale changes, next season they risk injuries, squad discontent and poor European results bleeding into their domestic form. Maresca is overly dependent on a select few and forced to rely on players he does not trust.
In Nkunku, Chelsea have a back-up striker who requires a tactical overhaul every time he plays. Behind him, Marc Guiu tries hard but is a long way from Premier League standard.
In midfield, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has not made the step up from the Championship, while Cesare Casadei is not developing as hoped. Carney Chukwuemeka is clearly not Maresca’s man, Mykhailo Mudryk faces suspension and Felix is too lightweight and inconsistent, a fun idea but frustrating in reality. Even Madueke seems to spend as much time on the naughty step as off it.
And at the back, Disasi and Benoit Badiashile have repeatedly struggled, while Tosin Adarabioyo is a perfectly serviceable rotation option but not a regular starter. Renato Veiga has not yet found his best position or a real rhythm. Malo Gusto and Reece James are obviously excellent but undeniably injury prone.
The goalkeepers are fine, but neither Robert Sanchez nor Filip Jorgensen could anchor a truly elite side. These are the margins that make a tangible difference, across more than an entire second XI. There is a lot of deadwood here.
Of course reinforcements are coming, but to suggest any of these can be instantly relied on would not be fair on them.
But regardless of the chaos around them, fourth at the halfway mark is where Chelsea would and should have hoped to be. They are almost guaranteed one trophy in the Conference League and could still compete for another in the FA Cup. This was just their fifth Premier League defeat in 33 games.
Champions League qualification remains a comfortably realistic aim. The issue now is assembling a playing corps capable of sustaining midweek trips to Madrid and Munich, rather than Heidenheim and Kazakhstan, preparing for the life they hope to lead.
This reality check should help alleviate pressure and temper expectations for the second half of the season, something Maresca had already been trying his best to do. There is still a long way to go.
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Rising Paris Saint-Germain star Nuno Mendes is keen on becoming Ruben Amorim’s first major signing at Manchester United after talks over a new deal in the French capital broke down.
United are also keen to bring in the Portuguese wing-back, who worked with Amorim at Sporting Lisbon, The i Paper understands.
A deal remains far from being agreed, however, due to the fact the faltering Premier League giants have very little money to spend in the January transfer window, or even next summer.
All is not lost though. Offers for the majority of the current misfiring squad would be entertained, allowing underperforming stars to leave on loan with their salary, or part of it, covered.
United’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) position is not good after £200m was spent, and largely wasted by Erik ten Hag in the summer.
United are struggling to find suitors for several top earners – Marcus Rashford, Casemiro and Antony – but loan fees could free up cash, in the eyes of PSR, to spend on desperately needed fresh faces.
The French champions were close to agreeing a new contract to make the 22-year-old one of the “highest paid wing-backs in world football”, sources said, before his agent upped his demands and started making overtures to United.
Talks have stalled and though Mendes is contracted to PSG until 2026 the feeling at the club is that while he has become a key player, they could move on quickly.
United would have to sell or loan out numerous big earners to fund a move, but the man who earned his Sporting debut under Amorim is seen as the perfect fit for a problematic position at Old Trafford.
Luke Shaw is again on the sidelines, while Tyrell Malacia has also just returned from a lengthy lay-off and has looked well off the pace.
Diogo Dalot has been forced to play at left wing-back on occasion but is much better suited to the righthand side. Wing-backs are fundamental to Amorim’s 3-4-3 system.
There are other “credit facility” options available to United in January – an avenue the club may explore given their poor start to life under Amorim – but that runs the risk of alerting PSR regulators.
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OLD TRAFFORD — This game was over before it started. Manchester United, bereft of confidence, character and above all craft, were ruthlessly dispatched by a team replete in all three attributes.
Ruben Amorim claimed he was hired for his big idea. To change, he said, would mean the end of him as a coach. Don’t worry Ruben, greater thinkers than you have altered course.
Half an hour against Newcastle United taught Amorim that dogma is death to prospects if the idea is stupid.
A team sheet featuring ageing travellers Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in a midfield two looked plain bonkers when set against the brick walls that are Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali.
The score could have been anything Newcastle wanted it to be in that opening half.
Two goals to unanswered headers in quick time exposed Amorim’s ridiculous attachment to a three at the back formation that had yielded three successive defeats before this horror show.
By the time Amorim hooked Joshua Zirkzee after 33 minutes Newcastle had also had a goal disallowed and hit a post. “Who the f**k are Man United?” asked the Newcastle fans. It was a fair question.
Zirkzee has never looked anything other than a preposterous signing, utterly ill equipped for the rigours of the Premier League. Being outjumped by Kieran Trippier, fully eight inches shorter, wasn’t even his worst moment. He would tackle himself if he could control a ball.
His withdrawal for Kobbie Mainoo and the temporary reversion to a more conventional 4-4-2 at least introduced a semblance of order. Indeed Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund shortly before the interval both missed excellent chances to score.
At half time, chroniclers of this once mighty institution wondered if this team was worse than the heroes of 1974 who went down under Tommy Docherty. It was agreed that even slow-moving vehicles like Arnie Sidebottom, Steve James and Mick Martin would have got into Amorim’s selection. And Big Jim Holton would have absolutely worn the armband.
Whether it was embarrassment or humiliation that fired them, United at least showed some fight after the break.
By throwing everything he had at the encounter Mainoo lifted those around him and United began to see more of the ball.
A diving header from Harry Maguire came back off a post to hint perhaps at a late recovery.
But as Newcastle demonstrated, this game is always about the quality and experience of players. Newcastle’s were better.
Isak is a fearsome predator whose hunger and pace at the point of the Newcastle attack was a vivid contrast to the laboured contribution of opposite number Hojlund.
Anthony Gordon and Lewis Hall pulverised United down the left and that aforementioned trio in midfield had the game in their pockets.
The defeat was United’s sixth in December alone, an unprecedented number that ought to concentrate minds in the boardroom let alone the dressing room.
Not even Marcus Rashford, who returned to the United squad for the first time since mid-December, could force his way onto the pitch.
Since he was booed by some fans on his arrival, that was perhaps a blessing.
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Neal Maupay might have done Everton and the Friedkin Group a favour with the social media post he sent mocking the club he is still contracted to.
Out on loan at Marseille, where he has two goals in 11 games, Maupay sparked indignation among the club’s fanbase by posting on social media: “Whenever I’m having a bad day I just check the Everton score and smile.”
The club are aware of Maupay’s post and intend to deal with it internally. Probably wisely, they don’t seem to want to give him the publicity he so clearly craves for whatever kind of “banter” brand he is trying to build.
Even if Everton wanted to, there is no realistic recourse for Maupay’s post. The deal thrashed out with Marseille means the French club pay 100 per cent of his wages, and the loan automatically becomes a permenant deal at the end of the season when his three-year contract at Goodison Park expires.
There was an option of a fourth year but, suffice to say, that will not be taken up.
And why would it? Maupay might have had a chuckle when he wrote about his former club on Sunday night but the last laugh is likely to be Everton’s.
Maupay was lucky to get a chance at a club of their size and stature, where they venerate former strikers prepared to strain every sinew for the cause.
Had it not been for Everton’s desperation – mostly financial, because they were working to such strict financial restrictions – he would have been nowhere near their wishlist.
But he did get that opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants like Dixie Dean, Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson and promptly fumbled it. So who is the joke really on here?
And Maupay’s toxicity is a reminder to new owners the Friedkin Group of exactly the sort of player they want to avoid as they consider the biggest overhaul in decades at the club.
The Brentford striker’s arrival reeked of desperation and sums up an era in which Everton’s recruitment was wrong-headed, bringing in questionable personalities whose response to the pressure was to turn it back on the institution he was paid handsomely to represent.
The Friedkins’ calm, positive initial impression – and their intention to build a more professional culture of high standards alongside cutting edge recruitment – could not be more different from Maupay’s social media post.
If there is a blueprint for what an Everton player shouldn’t look like in the new era, Maupay fits into it pretty neatly.
The relief for Everton is that their self-inflicted banter era should come to a close in 2025. There is a long road back to former glories but they can rest assured that they won’t be picking up unwelcome hitch-hikers like Maupay along the way.
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Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. The best way to follow his journey is by subscribing here.
The view from the lower section of the Milburn Stand at St James’ Park, across to the East Stand, is up there with the greatest sights in English football.
That one-tiered stand is a source of some lament as Newcastle United’s owners seek greater revenue and thus accelerated ambition.
One of two things will eventually happen: we’ll lose that view or we’ll lose this ground entirely. It will be sold as progress and I get why.
But, to this relative neutral, it is the East Stand’s diminutive presence that makes it so perfect.
For almost 25 years, the Leazes Stand has towered high in comparison like the vast steeple at one end of the cathedral on the hill.
But the steeple is no better than the rest of any religious building; they are as one. So it is at St James’ Park: the joy is in the contrasts.
If you’re smart and you’re coming here, you’ll arrive nonsensically early for an evening match in winter, as I have.
Newcastle is my favourite city in England and that would stand true on a sunny Sunday in June, but it peaks in these conditions.
At exactly the time you would expect the streets to be busy anywhere else, an odd hush is created in Newcastle as locals are taking shelter and ale inside.
They step out and walk up the hill in clouds of fog as if recently spun on a hot wash.
St James’ Park in all its glory (Photo: Getty)
You want to be inside the ground by now, if your seat is in the Milburn. From there you stare at the words “Newcastle United” opposite and allow yourself to be blinded by the lights.
Those lights scream 1990s nostalgia and initially you can’t quite work out why.
Then you realise that it’s because that is when Newcastle United last competed regularly for trophies and so the view was on your television on the nights that mattered. It became imprinted upon your childhood psyche.
Competed for, but never won. Combine historical hauls of silverware, size of fanbase and agonising failure and there are few teams in all of professional sport whose trophy drought is longer and harder to explain.
Newcastle won four titles before the Second World War and three FA Cups in five years shortly after it. They have won no domestic trophy since 1955 and none of any sort since 1969.
The only seven football clubs with more league titles and FA Cups combined than Newcastle are almost self-evident to those of us who love English football: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Everton, Aston Villa. Five of those have won a domestic trophy since 2018.
Everton (1995) and Aston Villa (1981) have endured lean times, but even they have caveats: Everton won the title twice in the 1980s, Villa won two League Cups in the 1990s and both have won European trophies.
Newcastle have had nothing. English clubs who have lifted silver since them: Oxford United, Luton Town, Swansea City, Ipswich Town, Coventry City, Wigan Athletic. Middlesbrough. Sunderland.
That creates its own pressure, not least because Newcastle have never fully committed to not winning trophies either.
They lost two domestic cup finals in the mid-1970s. They have had 11 European campaigns and finished in the top six nine times in the Premier League era.
St James’ Park was extended in 1993 and by 1995 there were 20,000 on the waiting list for season tickets.
You don’t notice that pressure in every moment, perhaps not even over the course of an entire season. But it is always building.
My family on my mother’s side are all from the north east and the name “Newcastle United” would perennially be uttered with an inflection of dark humour or rolled eyes which stopped for a year or two and then carried on again.
Even that mid-1990s peak only established Newcastle United as a synonym for glorious failure.
Mike Ashley sold the club in 2021 after 14 years of ownership (Photo: Getty)
Under Mike Ashley, dark humour gave way only to darkness. This was not all on him – at least not at first – and the relationship wasn’t always sour.
Newcastle played in five quarter-finals in the space of nine years and lost them all; that wasn’t all the owner’s fault. Who knows what might have changed had they beaten Brentford, Hull City, Tottenham, Manchester City or Benfica?
But over time, the insinuation towards Newcastle’s owner shifted dramatically. The accusation, abetted by Newcastle’s first relegations since 1989, was that he ran United like one of his budget sports superstores where the only big cups were given out as free gifts.
Those were the lost years because Newcastle’s fanbase and revenue should have allowed them to compete. Instead they appointed managers badly and were barely even able to play catch-up on their own incompetence.
Ashley responded to criticism with stubbornness that eventually manifested in strangulation. The only thing worse than failing to win trophies was having your belief suspended that your club was even trying.
That is one reason why the takeover by Saudi Arabia was met with celebration without widespread concern in many corners of the city. Ashley’s greatest crime was making ownership of the club by the Saudi state feel like the right step. It is on him.
What is also pertinent here is how, just like the Leazes and the East Stand, Newcastle and Newcastle United became one and the same thing. A football club that mirrors its city.
In the 1950s, the city’s industry was booming: shipyards, coal, steam turbines. Newcastle had been a powerhouse of the industrial revolution and the Tyne maintained that reputation.
At the same time, Newcastle United were winning trophies with those who would become immortals: Milburn, Mitchell, White.
The decline of heavy industry hit vast swathes of northern England, but the north east was decimated beyond belief by the double whammy.
The deep coal mines began to close in the 1980s and the shipyards followed suit in part because there was less coal to transport.
United were relegated in ‘78 and didn’t come back to the top flight for six years, their longest fallow spell since the war.
The revived Quayside in Newcastle is a point of pride, and there were peaks here in the 1990s: new North, New Labour, Newcastle United on top of the Premier League with a King Kev in charge and a sheet metal worker’s son up front.
But nothing could ever hope to atone for the mass unemployment of rapid deindustrialisation. Just because the period of exponential decline is over, it doesn’t mean life isn’t hard.
With that, a feeling of communal resentment multiplied, focused on the suspicion – with strong evidence behind it – that their part of the world was being deliberately abandoned by those in power.
London felt like a city a thousand miles away. Even those schemes to assist northern communities seemed to tilt towards the west of England.
Newcastle United 3-1 Brentford (Wednesday 18 December)
Game no.: 49/92
Miles: 352
Cumulative miles: 7,941
Total goals seen: 137
The one thing that I’ll remember in May: The view of the East Stand lights that half-obscure the club name on the front. Another classic 1990s football view.
The stereotype of Geordies being friendly and party-loving is true and not intended to be patronising; I know enough of them, family and friends, to appreciate the accuracy and to have been deeply warmed by it.
But they are also fiercely loyal to their corner of England and fiercely discontented that they have been forced to fend for themselves for longer than is fair.
In August 2023, the perfect news story: Conservative MPs demanded “urgent explanations” from ministers after an official report detailed that plans to move thousands of civil service jobs to Newcastle had been abandoned because “a review identified that they no longer aligned with strategic requirements”.
To which this city said as one: “We know the explanation: it was always this way”.
That is relevant to Newcastle United now. At the first home game after the Saudi Arabia takeover, a huge banner was unfurled in the Gallowgate End.
It made no reference to the new or departing owner, instead quoting a Jimmy Nail lyric from Big River, a song lamenting the decline of industry in Newcastle.
It read: “Everything they tried so hard to kill, we will rebuild”.
Who are the “they” in that banner? Everybody. The London elite.
Successive governments. Ashley, the Walsall-born billionaire who pretended to be one of them but eventually showed his true colours.
The media, who they believed had not held Ashley to account quickly, often or scathingly enough, or perhaps just didn’t really care.
This was a paean to their city and their football club in one go.
That doesn’t mean the takeover was a good thing. I wrote that at the time as someone who cares about Newcastle United, even if it’ll never be as much as they do.
The arguments about Saudi Arabia investing in Disney, Uber and Walmart, and about the Government selling arms to Saudi Arabia “so why did people only kick off when it was Newcastle United?”, contained a killer flaw: football clubs are special.
And Newcastle United are a special club. You feel that in Strawberry Place and the Gallowgate and in the dozens of chares that people dash through in search of shortcuts to and from St James’ Park. It is too special to be the arm of any state: UK, Italy, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia.
But I also get where most supporters were coming from, those who didn’t cheerlead for Saudi Arabia but acquiesced to the takeover.
You consider the ownership model to be deeply unideal, but you never had control before and you certainly don’t have control now. You’re never going to stop supporting your team because you never have before.
Eddie Howe’s side are dreaming of a return to European competition (Photo: Getty)
We can all criticise that response but must also ask ourselves this: would we really give up supporting our club?
What the takeover did do is to warp that eternal pressure at Newcastle. Excuses had been removed but so had the rules of engagement.
If you’re going to be owned by a state for means of diversifying their global reputation away from oil and human rights violations, you really do have to have success. Here, success means ending the trophy drought.
That places this current class in an important position. Under Eddie Howe, they have reached a first domestic final in 24 years and played in the Champions League for the first time in 21 years.
Those are both important mileposts but also count for less than their worth in the moment if they do not fall your way in the end. Newcastle didn’t turn up at Wembley in 2023 and finished bottom of their Champions League group.
For this manager, and this group of players, 2024-25 is of vital importance. There are players in this squad who may well be linked elsewhere if they are to go without European football for a second season in a row.
Howe’s position has already been widely questioned by supporters online, although that has not yet entered the stadium yet and Newcastle have since responded with a fine burst of form. It will mean everything if it leads to something and nothing if it doesn’t.
“It’s for Newcastle, trying to end this club’s wait for a trophy is the burning desire,” Howe said in the build-up.
“We want to be the team that gets over the line and achieves something special.”
What else can he say when everyone else is thinking the same thing? What else can he say when 23 different Newcastle managers have said the same before him?
All of them thought that they had a chance. Few have had a grander platform than Howe.
In this cup quarter-final, the tension within St James’ Park is pierced by an early Sandro Tonali goal.
Tonali is one of those expensive signings who they believe can be the difference maker here and he’s busily doing exactly that.
After both of his goals, Tonali gestures to the Leazes Stand as if to ask them to roar him and his teammates on. As ever, they are happy to oblige because they always have been.
In the final 15 minutes, with passage to a cup semi-final sealed beyond doubt and pessimism’s long reach, a traditional song rings around St James’ Park.
“Tell me ma, we won’t be home for tea, we’re going to Wembley,” they sing.
The chant itself is a call back to ancient history, sung in cars and on trains down to London.
Then it was unthinkable that Newcastle wouldn’t keep winning trophies and that the club would cease to be an industrial powerhouse.
Now they know to make the most of the moments because you never know how long they will last. And still they wait. And still they hope.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goalof visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season.You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
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LONDON STADIUM — What do you buy for the man who has everything? It’s a post-Christmas quandary for the Liverpool hierarchy, because at present it is hard to find much to write of a January wish list for Arne Slot.
They will start the month at least seven points, eight if Chelsea fail to win on Monday, clear of the chasing pack in the Premier League and the title is decidedly theirs to lose.
There will be concerns about Joe Gomez, a first-half departure in the 5-0 win over West Ham with an apparent hamstring problem, but the injured Ibrahima Konate is due to start training with the first team next week.
In the meantime the talented Jarell Quansah will deputise, the highly-rated 21-year-old who already has a score of appearances for the first team.
Slot is unlikely to be interested in a panic-bought defender in the current circumstances.
Plans may well be in place to secure a new centre-half, given Virgil van Dijk is one of three big names whose contracts for next season are still under negotiation.
It is expected that the Dutchman will eventually sign a new deal – he could have done some of the negotiation during the second half at the London Stadium, so untroubled was he – but it would be churlish of Liverpool not to be prepared.
You could forgive the Reds for being lulled into a sense of security though, much as they were during the second half against the Hammers, when the resistance offered was so minimal that Mo Salah spurned at least two gilt-edged chances in distinctly lackadaisical fashion.
A more schoolmasterly manager might have hauled him off to make an example of him, but it was inevitable he would create or score more.
It would have been a very brave one to do so too, given Salah’s openness to leaving on a free transfer in the summer: he could easily leave the club having scored 35 goals in the Premier League this season.
His 20th in all competitions, Liverpool’s third on Sunday, means he has now bagged at least that number in eight consecutive seasons for the Reds, a testament to the 32-year-old’s ability and longevity.
Re-signing Salah and Van Dijk should be the main focus for Liverpool over the next month, when interest in them from clubs hoping to upset the Premier League’s most stable apple cart will intensify.
From 1 January, they and Trent Alexander-Arnold will be able to talk to clubs – in the full-back’s case, Real Madrid – but in that third case, Liverpool believe they have a ready-made replacement in Conor Bradley.
Rumours of course will circulate and managers like Slot will refuse to confirm or deny them, which only adds fuel to the fire, but the reality is that this Liverpool side are not far from perfect: ask any team who have failed to beat them this season.
And all this from a side who are supposed to be in transition after nearly nine years under Jurgen Klopp. Surely Slot would need time and patience to remould this team into his own?
But it has been evolution rather than revolution. Slot has not “put his stamp on the squad” but rather got the best out of existing players like Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch, whose engine room time and again turned West Ham over in midfield to expose them on the break.
As Alisson pointed out this week, it is broadly the same players but “a little bit of a different style now”. It’s a sensible approach, not to change too much too quickly. You only have to look down the road to Manchester to see how that tends to go.
So if Liverpool’s owners can buy Slot anything, it will be the long-term stability of two new contracts and an otherwise quiet January. That will keep the man who has everything more than happy.
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Talk your way out of this one, mate. Ange Postecoglou’s empire of spin is collapsing around him, crushed by the sheer weight of failure, the steaming piles of unimpeachable evidence, the total lack of direction or progress or joy.
In his programme notes against Wolves, Postecoglou praised his squad’s “huge growth” over the past year. You can only assume he is referring to their moral mettle and charitable exploits – or even Rodrigo Bentancur learning that racism is wrong – because to say as much about their on-pitch performances would be outright misdirection.
Whether on an individual, team or spiritual level, this is getting rapidly and dramatically worse.
After 19 league games last season, Tottenham were fifth, on 36 points. At the same point in 2024-25, they sit 11th – with potential to drop lower if Brentford beat Arsenal – thanks to 24 points and the eighth-worst defence in the Premier League.
There was a similar slew of hamstring injuries a year ago, both removing that excuse and highlighting no-one at the club has learned from previous mistakes. Only Chelsea and Manchester United have spent more on transfers since June 2022, and only Wolves and Brentford have endured more top-flight losses in 2024.
Jorgen Strand Larsen’s equaliser means Tottenham will go at least two months without a home league win, while Hwang Hee-chan’s opener was the 15th time they have conceded first at home this season, a Premier League record.
All this contributes to the first season since 2007-08 they go into the new year below seventh, 11 points from Champions League qualification.
And still, Postecoglou appears bafflingly far from losing his job. This is, of course, the consequence of successfully selling himself as an investment, as a project so complex and intricate he requires almost unlimited time and investment to realise his full potential.
Just wait until everything is perfect, then this team might be as good as it was in his first 11 games in charge. Just you wait.
But until they return to that land of milk and honey, they’re left with Son Heung-min slowly collapsing in on himself, meandering near the game like a new parent hoping to stay awake long enough to get round Tesco.
Dejan Kulusevski battles for the ball with Matt Doherty (Photo: Reuters)
Dominic Solanke, running very fast and very hard with no plan or cohesion until he’s inevitably tackled, or crashes into Bentancur. Radu Dragusin standing where a centre-back should and occasionally considering some centre-back-adjacent activities.
All the evidence suggests they still trust and support him. The obvious question there is: why? How many of them have improved over the past 18 months?
Where do they think this is going? How are his methods helping them get there? How have we reached this point of delusion verging on institutional self-harm?
Postecoglou’s defenders prefer blaming Daniel Levy and owners Enic, and there is merit in those criticisms too. Like a dog resembles its owner, Tottenham’s players have long reflected their acceptance of existing near the elite without inhabiting it, of substituting passion for progress.
This squad is unbalanced, thin and inexperienced, but still robust enough to bench James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr in the middle of a so-called injury crisis.
It is still good enough to beat Wolves or Ipswich at home, even with Archie Gray at centre-back, the eighth-richest football club in the world with the sixth-best playing corps in the Premier League.
The buck can only stop with the manager here. By enacting such significant influence on tactics and philosophy, he has to take equally great responsibility for the consequences.
If anything, Levy’s great failing was in hiring Postecoglou. He has never been a chairman who allows his transfer policy to be dictated by his coaches, the furthest thing from a footballing romantic.
The level of funding and loyalty Postecoglou requires was something Levy was never going to supply, a leap of faith simply not in his programming.
Project Postecoglou is only hurting everyone at Tottenham now, damaging the reputations of everyone involved. He is trapped in an ugly clash between an ideologue and an arch-pragmatist which isn’t entirely his fault, but for which he will pay the price.
Something has to give, and everyone knows it won’t be Levy. There are simply no more positives left to spin.
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Anthony Gordon is sick of hearing about the Newcastle United “project” and fed up of hearing rival fans presume performances of the club’s star players are an audition for something bigger.
In-form Newcastle sign off 2024 at an interesting point in the club’s evolution. They sit fifth and are in the last four of the Carabao Cup, but that does not obscure the fact that at times it has been a sobering year of frustration and uncertainty, the vagaries of the Premier League’s financial fair play regulations checking their progress and making it feel as if everyone in the squad has their price.
Combined with the exit of minority owner Amanda Staveley, who set the tone from the boardroom, it frayed some of the certainties around the club.
At the end of the year, things finally feel more secure and their run of form is based on solid foundations.
Four successive wins have backed up the club’s belief that Eddie Howe is an elite manager and with the team flying again, Gordon believes now is the time to address the notion that Newcastle aren’t a big enough team to retain their star players or compete for honours.
“Because the club has transitioned so quickly, other fans and other media outlets just pick the players,” he tells The i Paper.
“When we play well it’s like ‘He’s got to move from Newcastle’ but that’s not the reality. We’re fifth in the table, we’re a top club ourselves. It’s a load of rubbish really.”
Anthony Gordon celebrates scoring against Aston Villa (Photo: Reuters)
It is a timely intervention with the January transfer window looming. In the summer the threat of PSR did leave the club pondering some unpalatable sales, casting a long shadow over the start of the season, but lessons have been learned with Gordon insisting the Newcastle’s squad have blocked out any external noise ahead of the January window.
“I think it’s easy (to say things) from the outside to say but we actually live it. We live our lives at the football club,” he says.
“If you start listening to outside news you’re going to get distracted and it will take away from your performances (but) if you see the way we’re performing of late, it’s not the case here.”
The black and white buzz word since the 2023 takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been that Newcastle is a project and the owners are in it for the long-term but, inevitably, that has collided with the reality of top-class players who want to play on the biggest stage.
And Gordon admits he is not fond of the use of the word “project” because it obscures how ambitious the squad is to win trophies now.
“The project doesn’t really mean much to us, we all want to win now,” he says.
“People keep talking about the project from the outside because of how much the club has come on but that doesn’t really mean much to us.
“We’re trying to win now, we’re trying to win Cups now, we’re trying to get back into the Champions League and if we do that then it’ll no longer be called a project will it because it’ll be what we want it to be.”
That attitude extends to his own future, which he is adamant lies at Newcastle despite persistent links with Liverpool. With two goals this month and his influence on games growing, Gordon says he is doing his talking on the pitch.
“My performances are going to say that the best,” he says.
“You see the way I run, the way I work hard for the team, that’s going to say a lot more than me telling you anything. I said a couple of weeks ago, I’ve got a long contract here, I intend to see that out, I’ve got no plans of leaving.
“I’m here to win a trophy, I’ve got a lot of goals ahead of me before I think about anything else.”
Next up for Newcastle on Monday night is a trip to Manchester United, whose form has been wretched under Ruben Amorim of late. Gordon is wary of reading too much into that – “It’s still Old Trafford, it’s not going to be easy” – and feels the rest of the Christmas period will tell us much about the extent of Newcastle’s ambitions this season.
“This period coming up is going to be massive for us because I know these last few games have been really good but it won’t mean much if we don’t carry on, especially away from home which is where we’ve got that challenge in front of us,” he says.
“We’ve got to keep consistency and then with the Cup semi-final afterwards it’s going to be a really interesting run of games.”
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Three words uttered by Erling Haaland in September have since entered Premier League folklore, with Manchester City’s form falling off a cliff since the striker told Mikel Arteta: “Stay humble, eh?”
For anyone wondering how City ended up seventh in the Premier League table come Boxing Day – 14 points adrift of leaders Liverpool – there are many who will point towards perhaps the sliding doors moment on 22 September.
Arsenal’s match at City was viewed as the champions against their nearest challengers, and what played out was a tense, prickly affair where Rodri limped off, Leandro Trossard saw red and John Stones scored a 98th-minute equaliser for the hosts.
A late point salvaged by City ensured they denied their title rivals a huge win on the road, and in the giddy aftermath, Haaland – who had scored that day – gave Arteta a slap on the back and uttered those now immortal words.
The phrase was trending again on social media on Boxing Day when the Norwegian was humbled himself by a gurning Jordan Pickford.
That was the latest of many missteps from Haaland recently, whose own form mirrors City’s.
It really has been some drop-off – the player admitting so himself – and with his form matching City’s plight, here’s a closer look at the stats since “stay humble” left the striker’s mouth.
Man City 15th in the form table
City have played 13 league games in that period, and though they initially took 10 points from 12, it was the defeat to Bournemouth on 2 November that truly kickstarted this terrible run.
In all, they have taken 15 points from a possible 39 since that Arsenal match, recording four wins, three draws and a staggering six losses.
The four-game losing streak against Bournemouth, Brighton, Tottenham and Liverpool was the first time City had lost four straight in the league since 2008. Pep Guardiola has also endured his longest losing run as a manager in the process.
As a result, since the Arsenal game up to Boxing Day, City are 15th in the form table, level on 15 points with Manchester United – a period in which Liverpool have taken 30 points from 12 games, having played one fewer due to the Merseyside derby’s postponement.
Haaland’s goals since Arsenal
Haaland has scored three Premier League goals since the draw with Arsenal. Prior to that – including the match against the Gunners – he scored in the first five league games of the season, including hat-tricks against Ipswich Town and West Ham.
The Norwegian was therefore the early favourite for the Golden Boot, but he has since been overtaken by Mohamed Salah, who has scored 16 goals to Haaland’s 13 overall. Former City star Cole Palmer narrowly trails on 12, while Alexander Isak has 10.
Haaland's shot accuracy
Haaland has had the most shots (73) and shots on target (39) of any player in the Premier League this season. He is also on course to record more shots than last season.
However, his accuracy has diminished since the Arsenal match. In that game and the four prior he had scored 10 goals from 26 shots, with 19 of those shots on target.
That made for 38 per cent of his shots being goals, and 73 per cent of his shots on target.
Since the Arsenal match, he has had 47 shots in the league, with 20 on target and just three goals. That is six per cent of shots leading to goals, and 43 per cent shots on target. In this run of just three goals, his xG is 8.24.
Haaland missing big chances – and penalties
Haaland has missed 11 clear-cut goalscoring opportunities since the draw with Arsenal, more than any other Premier League player.
The saved penalty by Pickford was the first league spot-kick Haaland has missed since August 2023, while he also missed a penalty against Sporting in the 4-1 Champions League defeat on 5 November - and that, after scoring penalties against Ipswich and Feyenoord.
A 2-2 penalty record this season is a far cry from his 9-1 record for City last season.
A blank against Wolves
Though City’s form was not particularly bad straight after the Arsenal match, there were signs that Haaland was struggling himself.
In the 2-1 win at Wolves on 20 October, Haaland failed to record a single shot, while he did not win any duels or record a single successful dribble.
In total, he had 13 touches, the fewest he’s had when playing 90 minutes of Premier League football.
He has largely cut an isolated, frustrated figure since, and in the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa earlier this month, he failed to touch the ball in Villa’s box during the first half, and only once in the second half – in the 89th minute.
The service is lacking with Kevin De Bruyne not firing either, and Haaland admitted to a lack of confidence after that Villa defeat.
“First I'm looking at myself. I haven't been doing things good enough, I haven't been scoring my chances. I have to do better, I haven't been good enough,” he said.
“Of course, our confidence is not the best. We know how important confidence is and you can see that it affects every human being. That is how it is. We have to continue and stay positive even though it is difficult.”
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