Jonny Nicholson: Potter will have gone back to west London a much wiser man
LESSON: Chelsea manager Graham Potte.
Sometimes football writes its own stories as Graham Potter’s Chelsea took on Graham Potter’s Brighton. Chelsea have had five different starting formations in his nine games in charge. However, the one that started the game against Brighton - a back three with Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic as wing backs - will likely not reappear any time soon. He had played it against RB Salzburg midweek and won 2-1 but he had to abandon it at half-time at Brighton and arguably should have done so 20 minutes earlier because it left the Blues wide open at the back against a dynamic, attacking opponent. All the ambitious, confident and progressive instincts Potter had instilled in Brighton were thrown back in his face. They say you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. If so, Potter will have gone back to west London a much wiser man.
Arsenal’s big 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest might be dismissed as routine but the manner in which it was achieved was nonetheless very impressive. They absolutely overwhelmed Forest and scored some delightful goals, none better than Martin Odegaard’s strike for the fifth. It’s often said that for those clubs in contention for the top places, it's the games against the teams around them that are the six-pointers. This ignores the fact that playing clubs in the bottom five or six is where many a title challenge has floundered. It’s easy to get up for the big games, but it can be harder to do so for a side that you know you should beat. Arsenal had no such difficulties.
West Ham started the game matching up the Manchester United formation which meant playing a back four, something they’re not used to. This was typical of David Moyes. Rather than trying to impose his own approach on the game, he opted to try and neutralise the opponents. This sort of inferiority complex may be why he has not won away against the big six in 70 (70!!) league attempts.
Despite Marcus Rashford scoring a great header, United constantly invited the Hammers on to them, passing it poorly, playing at far too slow a tempo. At times it appeared that United wanted to test their defensive strength as they constantly gave the ball away in the middle third. Only David de Gea's two magical saves preserved a fifth consecutive home clean sheet.
In fairness, the returning Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and especially Diogo Dalot were also imperious in defence and won virtually every header. But with only three shots on target, United made this far harder work than it should’ve been.
Despite being given an invitation to try to score for all of the second half, West Ham United were just not up to it. Declan Rice was everywhere all the time. West Ham would be 50% less effective without him. He is at the root of almost everything positive they do.
How many times does it have to happen? Spurs were two down after 49 minutes before they woke up and cast off their heavy-legged dullness. And, as ever, once they clicked into gear, they looked sensational, scored three times and won the game with a late goal without even relying on Harry Kane or Son to score. They ended the weekend in third having won eight games and losing three, but that high league position masks a side riddled with problems and without enough quality or depth in almost any position. Antonio Conte is unable to address these shortcomings and looks sick of even trying. He cuts such a frustrated figure and although he still celebrates a winner with traditional gusto, with his contract up in the summer, the odds must surely be on his walking away. At least unless he is given £250 million to buy his way to success. He won’t be.
Remember how for all of last season, it was a common view that if Brighton could only find a goalscorer, they would be a damn fine team with a very good chance of reaching the European places? This season, despite or perhaps because of the sale of Neal Maupay, they have moved up the goal charts from 15th to ninth and those extra goals have helped keep them in the top seven. Their first-ever league victory over Chelsea was as emphatic as it was deserved. Goalkeeper Robert Sánchez made seven saves, four from close range, but there were passages when Brighton were almost unplayable. They conducted the game at such a relentless pace and even left four players up top so that Chelsea simply couldn’t relax for a moment. This was potentially dangerous football but it seemed to catch Chelsea by surprise. Brighton had drawn four and lost 10 of their previous games against Chelsea but this result was never in doubt.
The big 6’ 5” 30-year-old Welshman scored both of Bournemouth’s goals against Spurs, the second, a magnificent powerful old-school diving header, the likes of which we hardly ever see anymore, but which all of us love. Moore is something of a journeyman, starting in the Conference South with Truro City. He is currently at his 12th club in 10 years and his 14 appearances for the Cherries this season are his first in the top flight. Signed for just £5 million in January, he’d only scored once this season previously but Spurs really couldn’t deal with him. Sometimes the simpler the approach, the more effective a team can be. There are worse tactics than getting it wide and crossing the ball in the box early, or hitting the big man and fighting for the second ball, not least because so many top defenders do not play against such direct play every week. For a team like Bournemouth who are just trying to survive, there should be no shame in playing physical long ball football and when you’ve got a big boy like Moore in your squad, you’ve got to play to his strengths. OK, they still lost the game but they were only in it in the first place thanks to Moore.
Aston Villa need Unai Emery’s managerial skills badly. They took a heavy, no-shots-on-goal 4-0 beating off Newcastle United at St James Park, who are in a purple patch at the moment, look full of confidence, energy and belief and well deserve their place in the higher echelons of the league. Sitting in fourth, this newly found will help to cauterise the knowledge that the club is but a pawn in a far bigger, morally appalling bloody game. Is it worth it? It’s not a question even being asked on Tyneside right now, not a question many are asking in the papers and even less on broadcast media and that alone is proof that not only does sportswashing work, it works every time, no matter how murderous the ownership regime is. In modern football, money talks so loud it drowns out anyone who says it shouldn’t or that it is nothing but the devil’s shilling.
When a side has had 24 shots at goal, it isn’t unreasonable to think one might have gone in, but Fulham drew a blank in their game against Everton with Aleksandar Mitrović alone having 10 attempts. He missed from all angles with shots and headers and arguably should’ve been red-carded for a studs-up challenge. The yellow card was not overturned by the VAR for reasons no one could really discern. Maybe he had fallen asleep. Fulham also had 21 free-kicks and corners and still couldn’t make anything out of any of them. It was a point gained for Everton, who in James Tarkowski and Conor Coady have found a tight and gnarly defensive partnership. Neither player is especially good on the ball, neither is especially creative, but both know their limitations and make the most of them. Together they tackled, hustled, hassled and blocked Fulham all afternoon and can claim most of the responsibility for their point.
What a contest that was at Anfield. There was much to admire Leeds for as they took the game to Liverpool. It made for an open expansive match, at times played at a ferocious, chaotic and exciting pace. It looked like Jesse Marsch had returned to Marcelo Bielsa’s throw-it-all-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach. They ran 121km, the most in any game since their promotion. But despite being gifted the opening goal by Joe Gomez, most observers, including most Leeds fans, will have felt it was only going to end one way. Give Liverpool enough space and they will eventually rip you to shreds. But no. That was then, that’s not now. In their title-winning season, they would have won 7-1 so overwhelming was their possession (68%) and number of attacks (22 shots at goal). But Darwin Núñez is no Sadio Mane. He doesn’t take up effective positions, his touch isn’t good enough, he’s not clinical in front of goal and seems to need four chances to score. He may be lacking in confidence and may come good in time but, whisper it, right now, he seems a bit rubbish. Every time the ball was fed into the Leeds defence, it was spat out again. Illan Meslier Leed’s 22-year-old keeper who looks about 15, made several good saves. A last-minute breakaway goal by the young Dutch winger Crysencio Summerville was a reward for a brave 100% committed and extremely steely Leeds performance.
Despite a refreshing win for his team, Jesse Marsch did not appear to enjoy a second of it. He was so wired throughout that if he could’ve been plugged in, he’d have lit up Merseyside. At one point as he was raging at his own players, Andy Robertson trotted past to take a throw-in, grinning to himself, shaking his head a little in disbelief at the degree of the Jesse madness. With a home game against Bournemouth and an away trip to Spurs up next in the league before the World Cup break, if they can get four points from those matches, maybe Jesse can take a nice month-long rest to decompress because right now he looks set to be the first manager ever to self-combust.
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