Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
soccer
1) Potter faces uphill task to convince fans
Stamford Bridge was not a happy place after Chelsea’s insipid defeat to Southampton. There was no holding back. Loud boos greeted the final whistle and the mood near the dugout was ugly. A fair few fans were bellowing abuse at Graham Potter and the worry for Chelsea’s head coach, who has been in the job only since September, will be that he has already lost the crowd. Chelsea supporters loved Thomas Tuchel and many do not see Potter as an upgrade on the German. There is talk of giving the Brighton manager time to build but he is not doing a good job of winning over the sceptics. Chelsea are 10th after winning two of their past 14 games and there was no excuse for losing at home to the league’s worst side. Potter rested too many players and it will be tough to win the crowd back now.
2) Record-equalling De Gea proves worth
Marcus Rashford’s continuing hot streak was the talk of the town, but two early saves by David de Gea were crucial in keeping Leicester at bay and setting the platform for Manchester United’s success. De Gea is a keeper from another age, when goalies were judged almost exclusively on their shot-stopping ability, before the new-fangled trend of playing out from the back. Had De Gea not beaten out Harvey Barnes’s early shot from point-blank range, or moved smartly across his goal to block Kelechi Iheanacho’s header, it may have been a far more testing afternoon for Erik ten Hag’s team. De Gea is also a player from another era at Old Trafford: he is old enough to remember winning a league title under Sir Alex Ferguson. The 32-year-old now has 180 clean sheets for the club, the same as Peter Schmeichel. Whether United are good enough to win the Premier League with players such as Wout Weghorst and Fred on board remains open to question: but with Ten Hag teasing the best out of Rashford and now Jadon Sancho, they are in with a chance.
3) Karius in unlikely cup-final spotlight
Without Nick Pope, Newcastle would not be facing Manchester United in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final. Unfortunately for the goalkeeper they must contest it without him after his sending-off for handling outside the area when under intense pressure from Mohamed Salah at St James’ Park on Saturday. Eddie Howe now has quite the dilemma. He is unable to select Pope’s deputy, Martin Dubravka, for the trip to Wembley as he is cup-tied, while Karl Darlow was loaned to Hull last month. That means Loris Karius is in line to start. The German, who endured a nightmare display for Liverpool in the 2018 Champions League final, has not played a competitive game since February 2021, when he featured for Union Berlin against Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga. “Loris has not played much football but he’s very experienced,” said Dubravka. “I’m sure he’ll handle the game well.”
4) Moyes needs to take off the handbrake
West Ham frustrated Tottenham in a fairly dismal first half in north London. It was evident that a goalless draw and a point would suit David Moyes just fine, understandable given the Hammers found themselves in the bottom three. The problem with Moyes’s approach became evident after half-time when Pierre-Emile Højbjerg’s perfect pass enabled Ben Davies to set up Emerson Royal for the opening goal. Tottenham never really looked in danger after that, even when Moyes gave Danny Ings and Saïd Benrahma 20 minutes off the bench. Solidity is important, but the overall lack of ambition will be a concern for West Ham fans. Post-match, Declan Rice conceded that even when they created chances, West Ham’s forwards had been left isolated. If they are going to get out of trouble Moyes must, surely, give his considerable array of attacking talent a chance to show what they can do.
5) Nketiah probably needs a rest
Eddie Nketiah has played every minute since the World Cup. He has done fine: covering admirably for the absent Gabriel Jesus, impressing with his work rate, scoring four key goals. But there have also been big missed chances against Manchester City and Aston Villa, and since the winter break only Darwin Núñez has underperformed his xG by a wider margin. Gabriel Martinelli returned to goalscoring form against Aston Villa and is capable of playing through the centre if Nketiah needs a rest, but he hasn’t done it for a while. And so Arteta has a dilemma: take his only recognised striker out of the firing line, or leave him in and risk his profligacy costing Arsenal the title.
6) No let-up for busy Brentford
Brentford’s last-gasp equaliser against Crystal Palace meant that, incredibly, Thomas Frank’s side now boast the Premier League’s longest unbeaten run, of 11 matches, and are top of the form table – not bad for a team in only their second season at this level. The postponement of their fixture against Manchester United due to the Carabao Cup final means that his players will be given the weekend off – “I’m being soft,” said Frank – but only after they are put through their paces during an in-house match on Friday. “I don’t want to say it’s defining but it’s important,” Frank said of the substitute Vitaly Janelt’s late intervention against Palace. “It gives us the boost to keep training hard and really push the players in training this week.”
7) Leeds muddle has Everton parallels
The similarities between Everton and Leeds extended beyond a distinct lack of quality in the final third. There was the familiar chant of “sack the board” at Goodison Park, only this time it came from the visiting fans, who also made clear their displeasure with the club’s director of football, Victor Orta. Everton’s board stayed away for the third successive home game but might otherwise have recognised the causes of Leeds fans’ dismay as their team dropped into the bottom three for the first time this season. One of the earliest of Farhad Moshiri’s many mistakes as Everton owner was sacking Ronald Koeman without a replacement in the bag. Any strategy the club might have had unravelled during a fraught six-week search for a successor that yielded Sam Allardyce. There are echoes of that error in Leeds’ handling of Jesse Marsch’s exit.
8) De Zerbi sees both sides on referees
Roberto De Zerbi was shown a post-match red card by the referee, Darren England, following Brighton’s 1-0 defeat by Fulham. No doubt the Italian’s displeasure was partly fuelled by an elementary VAR error potentially denying them three points against Crystal Palace last week. Sunday’s headlines focused on the manager’s contention that Premier League referees are “very bad”. Also prominent was De Zerbi’s claim that he was shown the red card purely for telling England that his midweek meeting with Howard Webb, keen to build bridges after that costly VAR mistake, had been a waste of time. And yet, you did not need to look too hard for more measured thoughts from the Brighton manager. “We don’t want to put any pressure on the referee of tomorrow,” he said. “They are human like the other people, and they can make mistakes. I don’t like if I have to criticise them because it’s not my job.” It struck the right note in trying to take the heat out of the situation.
9) Forest sweat on whether Cook can play
Fresh from eking out a positive result against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest are hopeful of more good news this week. They have appealed against the Premier League board’s decision to reject their wish to have Steve Cook reinstated into their 25-man squad amid a shortage of centre-backs. Cook was left out of the Forest squad submitted at the end of January’s transfer window after the arrival of Felipe but Willy Boly has since been ruled out for the season, Scott McKenna is sidelined for six weeks and Moussa Niakhaté is yet to return from a hamstring injury after being out since August. “We can’t understand why it’s been rejected, looking at the rules and some things which have gone on in previous years,” said Forest’s manager, Steve Cooper. “We’ll remind them [the Premier League] of the rules they wrote, and hopefully we’ll be OK.”
10) Wolves still lack cutting edge
No Premier League team have scored fewer than Wolves’s 17 in a season where their xG is 25. Julen Lopetegui said after Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Bournemouth that the responsibility lies beyond his main centre forwards but Matheus Cunha (whose xG indicates he should have scored 0.98 over his six matches/324 minutes), Raúl Jiménez (1.58 xG from eight games/336 minutes) and Diego Costa (2.23 xG from 11 games/671 minutes) have yet to score in the Premier League. So the chances are there for the Wolves strikers in a team where the creativity of Rúben Neves and Daniel Podence stands out.
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