Daniel Storey: So much for Covid-19 making the Premier League unpredictable
Tottenham Hotspur players applaud the fans as they celebrate victory after the Premier League win over Arsenal. Picture: Glyn Kirk
Tottenham may have been at their ruthless, counter-attacking best, but Arsenal played perfectly into their hands. This was a defeat that should provoke serious questions about Mikel Arteta’s ability to take the club forward quickly.
Everything that Arsenal could have done badly, they did. They tried to get through a deep-lying defence by passing the ball slowly 30 yards from goal without ever working it into the box, failing to move into space and show for the ball, making a mess of almost every corner and free-kick (and even throw-in, Hector Bellerin) that came their way and then overloaded the same area of the pitch to leave massive spaces in midfield.
Tottenham clearly exploited those limitations brilliantly, but they were allowed to by Arsenal’s misery. Roy Keane joked that he thought Arsenal had enough to survive relegation. Fall into your opponents’ traps this easily, and you do wonder.
This Premier League season started with a frenzy of high-scoring, unpredictable matches. Aston Villa mauled Liverpool, Everton surged to the top of the league, Manchester United lost at home to Crystal Palace and Big Six clubs conceded goals at home for fun.
Two months on, and reality has set in. After this weekend’s matches, the top six in the Premier League is comprised of Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Leicester. Not only are those the same six clubs that finished in the top six last season, five of the six finished in the top six in each of the three seasons before that.
So much for Covid-19 making the Premier League unpredictable. We cannot rule out a surprise top-six finisher or Big Six clubs being humbled in one-off matches, but the financial strength of the biggest clubs in the league continues to slant everything in their favour. Not even a global pandemic, lack of supporters and relentless domestic and European schedule can change that.
By half-time on Saturday evening, Manchester United should have been buried. West Ham took a one-goal lead into the break, but had squandered many more chances to extend it. Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals had delighted in the space in between full-back and central defender. United’s passing had invited pressure, repeatedly ceding possession.
This was an extreme version of Manchester United’s pattern this season. They sit second bottom of the Premier League for first-half performances, leading only once at half-time and losing four matches. They have ridden their luck and ultimately wrestled matches in their favour.
What do we put down that perseverance to? Is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer getting his team selection and tactics wrong but then demonstrating an ability to correct it? Or do Manchester United simply possess the individual skill that allows them to capitalise when opponents that have the lead eventually suffer a drop in intensity?
Honestly, it’s hard to know. The suspicion is that United have achieved this club record run of away league wins in spite of Solskjaer as much as because of him, but that will sound a little churlish to those who believe he is doing an excellent job. United remain one of the most baffling teams in the Premier League. For the neutral, that makes them eminently watchable.
The way to beat Leeds United’s man-marking press is to exploit the man it leaves free, and on Saturday that meant Thiago Silva stepping out of defence to play as Chelsea’s deep-lying playmaker. Silva completed more passes ending in the final third than any other Chelsea player, and regularly found the feet of a Chelsea attacker.Â
His responsibility was to pass forward rather than sideways or backwards. Silva has a quarter of his touches in Leeds’ half. Lampard deserves credit for that plan, not just because it worked.
If Silva had been dispossessed high up the pitch or misplaced many of those passes (he completed 51 of 55 in the match) it would have invited pressure that may have produced a very different scoreline. Instead, Chelsea created more high-value chances than any of Leeds’ opponents this season. This is a totally different Chelsea team from the one that started the season, with Silva, Edouard Mendy and Ben Chilwell now settled and in form.
A question still remains about their ability to come through Big Six tests - two points and no goals from three games against them this season - but that is the only reasonable doubt regarding a potential title challenge.
Millwall is a football club that does an awful lot in its local community, including work to stamp out all forms of discrimination. But that work is overshadowed by supporters who have continuously been tainted by accusations of racism.
On Saturday a sizable section of their support booed their own (and Derby County’s) players taking a knee to protest systemic racism. The claim that they were merely protesting against the organisation Black Lives Matter carries little weight.
They knew how the booing would be interpreted, and knew that it would upset Millwall’s own black players to the point that they must be considering their future at the club.Â
These people are an embarrassment to their club, and the club must show their intention to rid the stadium of them.Â
Not every football fan has the same political beliefs, but booing players taking a knee is an act of racism. Don’t let any subsequent distraction tactic dissuade you otherwise.
