Johnny Nicholson: Big two run to a standstill, everything wrong with United
Everton's Michael Keane (left) and Manchester United's Victor Lindelof battle for the ball during the Premier League match at Goodison Park, Liverpool. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA WireÂ
Nielsen, the people who measure TV audiences, predicted that this game would have a global audience of just 20 million, which for the self proclaimed ‘best league in the world’ is not very many, considering 7.9 billion people live on this spinning rock. Then again, the Premier League has always pumped brand awareness and reach, whilst being coy about actual viewership. With global numbers like that, you can see why.
The game was so hyped that by kick-off I was expecting nothing less than the best football match that has ever been played. And after 13 minutes, when Diogo Jota equalised City’s early strike, it felt like it might well be. The pace of the game in the opening stages was absolutely sizzling.
Virgil van Dijk had a bad first half, making unforced errors. Mo Salah was anonymous, now with just one goal in 10 games. But after half-time, Jurgen Klopp pushed Liverpool further forward up the pitch and they put immense pressure on City in a way they hadn’t in the first 45. Mo Salah’s sweet pass for Sadio Mane to level the scores on 46 was a sublime moment of skill. They kept the pressure on and City were knocked back on their heels by the Reds’ haymaker. But like the heavyweight boxer who knows how to take a punch, City steadied themselves and came back into it.
The quality of the play was dominated by defensive lapses on both sides and so City took the lead once more with a Raheem Sterling goal. But no! It was VAR-ed out for offside. There had to be a VAR controversy, especially as Mike Dean was the VAR.
A 2-2 draw was a fair result. It was an exciting game, but in the end they ran each other to a standstill.
Only three places separate Watford in 19th from Leeds in 16th but the gulf in class is greater even than the 11-point lead the Yorkshire club enjoys. Because while Watford are where they are because they’re one of the worst three sides in the league, Leeds' position in 16th is an absolutely false one, born out of a season of terrible injuries. Jesse Marsch has had the good fortune to see some of this abate. Crucially, Liam Cooper in central defence is back and dominant. Kalvin Phillips returned for 59 minutes to add both defensive strength and a progressive outlet. And in the Brazilian Raphael Raphinha they have one of the most coveted players in European football. He roasted Watford all afternoon as Leeds cruised to a classy 3-0 win over the Hornets to make it four games without defeat, three of those being wins. Whether this is down to Marsch’s approach or simply getting the best players back, or both, can be debated, but there’s no doubt the American is a well-respected coach and is leading the club back to where they should be, in the top half.
The fact that their single goal win over Manchester United was more down to their opponents' total lack of shape, system and belief, than their own prowess will not trouble Frank Lampard. It threw him a lifeline. The only shining light in this dreadful campaign has been local lad Anthony Gordon and it was his Harry Maguire-deflected goal that decided things. Ben Godfrey and Michael Keane in the Everton defence had the best game they’ve played for some time, especially in the second half where they snuffed out what few efforts United mustered. Fabian Delph came in and gave the midfield some dynamism and energy it has long been missing. With games left to play against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, they are not out of danger yet and their away form is shocking, losing 11 out of 15 with just a single win, but if they can win two out of their four remaining home games, they’ll be safe. I have no doubt such a recovery will be painted by certain pro-Lampard sections of the English media as a huge success for Frank. Wiser heads should not be so easily swayed. He has looked as limited as his team.
In their game against Everton, United had just four shots on goal. Four. For a side that should be pushing for Champions League football playing a poor Everton team, that is simply not good enough. It’s the same rubbish almost every week. The whole squad needs gutting, filleting and rebuilding. It’s not that any of the players are not good enough per se, they simply do not gel together into a cohesive unit. Every game is the same: 11 individuals just trying to do something. This is amateurish and simply not appropriate for one of football’s biggest clubs. The failure of management and administration at the club which allowed this to happen over the last 10 years is staggering and surely the product of financial growth having primacy over everything else. How much longer will it be before they realise everything is wrong and everything must change. If Erik ten Hag is to be the next manager, he must start this revolution with some urgency as it will take vision, planning and several years, not just money, to fix.
One of the defining characteristics of young players is that they can be inconsistent and with two wins and three losses in their last five games, that is exactly the situation Mikel Arteta finds himself in. Their late winter revival which saw them win six out of seven and get into the Champions League places has been dramatically halted in the last two games. They were handed their backsides by Crystal Palace in a thorough 3-0 beating last Monday and at home against Brighton on Saturday they put in another limp shift, losing 2-1, managing just four shots at the goal against a side that is hardly prolific at the best of times. With a difficult run-in and games against Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham and Leeds, they are not making it easy for themselves to take fourth.
Having lost their last two games against Brentford and Real Madrid by an aggregate 7-3, doubts about the Blues were rife. Were they about to blow it and fall apart as the club searches for new owners? Could they finish outside of the top four? Nah. They kicked the living daylights out of Southampton, winning 6-0 and it could’ve easily been 10. Nothing Ralph Hassenhutl tried worked. Even when he attempted to shore up the midfield to stop leaking goals, Chelsea just ran through them at will, taking 14 shots on target and having 24 attempts in total. That is a total defensive collapse, though ironically Fraser Forster was the Saints' best player, single-handedly keeping the score down with some spectacular saves. Chelsea are fine and if they can work out a way to defend against Karim Benzema in Madrid, they are not quite out of that tie yet.
Steven Gerrard has said Aston Villa are a 45-minute side and this was never better proved than in their game against Spurs. Despite falling behind early on, they peppered the Spurs goal with seven on-target shots in the first half and 10 off target, dominating possession 60/40. Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins both should’ve scored. But in the second half, Spurs were simply ruthless, scoring with four of five shots at goal. They absolutely destroyed Villa with Dejan Kulusevski scoring his third goal for the club. Harry Kane set up Son for his second, with a perfectly weighted header for the Korean to run onto. And Son scored his third thanks to an unselfish pass from Kulusevski, his sixth assist for Spurs so far. His introduction has transformed the club as an attacking force. Son Heung-min has now scored 17 non-penalty goals in the Premier League this season, no one has scored more.
This was a commanding Spurs performance. Their eighth consecutive win was Villa’s fourth consecutive loss. The KSK front three are irresistible when they hit their stride. The fact Tottenham have scored 12 goals in the last three games and Harry Kane hasn't scored any of them shows how they’re developing into a team with depth. However, Kane was excellent again, topping the charts for duels won (14), fouls received (4), chances created (4) dribbles completed (3) assists (2) and 14 out of 15 passes completed. This is a totally different Kane to the one we saw at the start of the season, and when Kane is great, so is everyone else. With five games against lower half sides, as well as Arsenal and Liverpool, their chances of finishing fourth, or even third if Chelsea stutter, look better than ever.
After their predictable win over Everton midweek, there was a lot of nonsense in the media about Sean Dyche. At times it was so fawning that you’d have thought that Dyche deliberately lost a lot of games just so he could fight relegation. Not for a moment was it ever said that Burnley are a poor side with an appalling away record, with just one win and Dyche must be implicated in that. He escapes any criticism from broadcast media to a ludicrous degree. Against Norwich, they managed only three shots at goal and allowed Norwich to look not too bad. Dyche will again escape critique for how he’s set this team up, but even so, this could be the game that relegates his club.
Perhaps the most predictable result of the weekend, Brentford’s win was rarely in doubt. They have a distinct way of playing and have rediscovered how to make it very effective. David Moyes, who surely must have known how Thomas Frank likes his team to play, didn’t have an answer. They looked inflexible, leggy and ponderous and struggled with early balls up to Ivan Toney who deservedly netted in the 64th minute. Frank is such a good manager who makes the most of his limited resources, Moyes isn’t and doesn’t, but, as ever, will escape any criticism, as all British managers almost always do, almost all the time. Relationships between domestic managers and the media in England are far too cozy. West Ham’s only hope of getting into the Champions League now is to win the Europa League but Moyes will need to up his game markedly to do that.
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