Talking points: United survive Maguire gaffes, Pep's paranoia pays off
UP AGAINST IT: Manchester United's Harry Maguire heads the ball clear. Pic: Danny Lawson/PA Wire.
The Leeds v United game was an echo of the 1970s fixtures between these two clubs which were frequently a bloodbath played out in a febrile atmosphere. The players clattered into each other all game long, but in truth the atmosphere was better than the match. United started with Harry Maguire, but he looked so uncomfortable with the ball at his feet and made so many basic errors that he was fortunate Leeds couldn’t punish. Erik ten Hag will surely move him on in the summer. Leeds' approach game is good, they work so hard, but too often make poor decisions in the final third and have no cutting edge. With Ten Hag putting Rashford through the middle and switching Wout Weghorst to play as the tallest 10 ever, the game got more stretched. Leeds hadn’t beaten United at home for 20 years and it became impossible to imagine them scoring and easy to see United doing so against the run of play. Marcus Rashford duly scored a great header, his 13th goal in 15 games. Alejandro Garnacho, who is such an exciting talent, made it two to wrap the game up. Leeds do the hard things well but struggle to do the simple things effectively, but United were lucky to get away with Maguire making so many mistakes.
During the week Pep Guardiola had, rather tediously, spent his press conferences confecting a siege mentality, seeing non-existent conspiracies against the club at every turn. I suppose after being accused of 101 instances of rule-breaking he felt it required ridiculous posturing. It was basic psychology for fans to buy into and of course it worked. It was always going to be a win over Villa. Having been briefly displaced in second by Manchester United, City scored three and it could’ve been more. Unai Emery had never beaten Pep in 12 attempts and even though Ollie Watkins scored for a third consecutive game for the first time in his career to make it 3 - 1, and Villa did have a decent couple of spells once Philippe Coutinho came on in the second half, the result was never really in doubt. It was City's 13th consecutive home win against Villa.
West Ham, despite the excellent Declan Rice, look short of creativity and ideas. Chelsea had a good first half hour as all their new signings tried to get to know each other and could have scored two or three. But they are a team being rebuilt during a season, so inevitably they play very inconsistently. In the second half, they seemed confused, or at least there was no easily determined plan to their game. They let the lacklustre, somewhat plodding, West Ham back into the game, even with just 29% possession.
With just two wins in 13 league games and no away win since October, manager Graham Potter is lucky not to be under pressure. Had Roman Abramovich still been the owner he probably would have already been sacked. The expensively acquired Marc Cucurella is an obvious weak spot at left back. Even so, they should have had a penalty when Tomas Soucek clearly handled the ball. The VAR must have been wearing a balaclava back-to-front. Just one of many inexplicable VAR decisions across the weekend.
On Sunday, PGMOL released a statement accepting significant errors in the VAR process at Palace and Arsenal on Saturday. The whole point of VAR was to eradicate human error. Of course, you don’t need to be a genius to work out that you can’t eradicate human error, you just have to put up with it, but VAR’s proponents sold it as essential on the basis it could. That was a lie and the existence of the whole system is predicated on that lie. The PGMOL mea culpa doesn’t even address the clear handball in the Chelsea game. Those who believe VAR only exists to give TV content to debate are probably not far off the mark. Whether it makes right or wrong decisions, it hangs over every game like a curse.
OK, they’re going through a small bumpy patch as far as results go, but they are not playing badly at all. They do not lack confidence and are not playing with any hint of inhibition. The pressure of being at the top does not appear to be weighing heavy on the shoulders and they are still playing a sweeping style of football. They had 23 shots at goal against Brentford, seven on target. VAR lost them two points. Normally 23 shots would have resulted in more than a single goal but Brentford are defensively very strong. Stronger, in some ways, than Manchester City, their next opponents.
They had gone well over six hours without conceding a goal before Leandro Trossard netted for the Gunners. Only Newcastle and their opponents had kept more clean sheets. They have such impressive organisation and structure and have lost just four games. Despite or probably because they always cede the majority of possession to their opponents - here Arsenal had 67% to their 33% - it is easy to think they are being dominated and are constantly under pressure. But that is exactly how they like it. That is all part of the plan. And it works. It was no small feat to go toe-to-toe with top-of-the-table Arsenal and hold their own but they did it. Brentford are masters at creating penalty area chaos. Rico Henry missed a sitter and they also hit the post, so it was no surprise that it was Ivan Toney who headed their equaliser to bag his 15th of the season. They’re so impressive and the perfect example of how a very good manager can give a club a way of playing and an identity. They are always well-rehearsed and they all know their jobs.
Having beaten Manchester City and winning their last three games, it was typically Spursy to get a heavy beating at the King Power Stadium. They are just not good enough to put together a long unbeaten run. They did little right in the game, were gifted the opening goal and only ever looked like scoring when Leicester almost gifted them a second. Their defence was especially culpable. The third, scored by Kelechi Iheanacho, was typical. In a one-on-one with Eric Dier, the Spurs man held him up but gave him as much time as he wanted to slot it home. It also has to be said Fraser Forster, in goal for the injured Hugo Lloris, goes down like a felled mighty oak. If you want to beat him, hit it hard and low close to his feet. Inter Milan, who Spurs play on Tuesday, will surely have taken note.
Leicester, especially Kelechi Iheanacho and James Maddison played well, though they still haven’t learned to defend a dead ball with confidence, conceding after a corner wasn’t dealt with. Iheanacho is in great form right now. He’s made 193 appearances for the club, scored 52 and made 32 assists, works hard and has good awareness but often starts on the bench, for reasons best known to Brendan Rodgers. Now that Leicester have got all their best players fit and firing, they look a different proposition to earlier in the season and move up to 14th.
Nathan Jones was sacked after yet another defeat, this time to Wolves. His rather peculiar and much criticised post-game interview last week revealed a man not coping well with the pressure. So being beaten by a 10-man Wolves after being a goal up put his short tenure to bed and it is hard not to think it will be a blessing to both club and manager. A well-respected lower-league coach, all he was doing at Southampton was ploughing his hard-won reputation further into the mire. There’s nothing wrong with being good in the lower leagues. Embrace it, Nathan.
With Liverpool and Chelsea floundering and Spurs being, well, Spurs, there is a Champions League place going abegging. Coming up on the rails is a very good Brighton side, four points behind Spurs in fifth, with two games in hand, on a seven-game unbeaten run. They drew at Crystal Palace in a tricky game, one they’ve not won for four years. Win those games in hand and they’ll be on 41 points, the same as Newcastle but with a worse goal difference. And they still have to play the Geordies away from home. They are almost as good away as at home, having played 10 at home and won five and lost three, and played 11 away and having also won five and lost three. For a side the size of Brighton to aim at the Champions League places might seem unlikely but it is very possible indeed if Newcastle slip up and Tottenham keep being Tottenham.
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