Johnny Nicholson: The title race is over while Big Sam talks rubbish in the relegation battle
BIG JOB: Leeds United manager Sam Allardyce reacts after Leeds United's Patrick Bamford (not pictured) has a penalty saved during the Premier League match at Elland Road, Leeds. Picture date: Saturday May 13, 2023.
Last week, Sam Allardyce couldnât help sulkily revisiting the previous weeksâ ugly, self-aggrandising press conference, probably because he knows he made a fool of himself. The 68-year-old Nigel Farage fan accused those who believed he was serious about saying he was up there with the best, of being the stupid ones for not realising he was using an old Sir Alex Ferguson tactic to take the pressure off the players. Never has someone sounded so foolish when accusing others of being the foolish ones. And if youâve got to explain it, it hasnât worked.
Like an arsonist revisiting the scene of the crime, in returning to it, it was even more obvious that heâd made up an excuse to justify his own arrogant blow-harding. In the presser, he made little or no sense, talking about âthose who criticised me sounded a bit thick when all I was doing was diversifying off the players and onto myself which was a great tactic I picked up off Sir Alex Ferguson. There was no pressure because I took it all, I took all the stick.â He surely meant âdeflectingâ not âdiversifyingâ. Never a good mistake to make when youâre accusing people of being thick. None of it is true of course. The players were under as much pressure as ever. And they lost. Well done, son. Yeah, what a great tactic. Pathetic.
It didnât stop there. In his post match interview he wore the expression of a man recently hit by bus and sometimes struggled to string a coherent sentence together, relying on meaningless word salads. Making it all about himself isnât the deep psychological ploy he pretends it is and if he thinks heâs fooling anyone with this pretence he is exceptionally deluded.
So on the charade goes. Even though all his pals in the media - and there are many - are still trying to make us civilians believe Allardyce is some sort of football master, he actually cuts an embarrassing figure, an anachronism who, when he talks, off-puttingly sounds like heâs doing so while slurping a thick soup.
For Leeds fans to go from Bielsa to Allardyce in a year is like art lovers going from the Guggenheim to an abandoned Clinton Cards shop in Dudley. Thankfully, this interregnum will soon be over.
Leeds have been underperforming all season, have never lacked for energy but have lacked a bit of luck. However, at last they got a slice of good fortune with a big deflection for Leedsâ second goal by Rasmus Kristensen. Allardyce called it âa great goalâ. It wasnât. It was lucky. But it gained them a point in a game where they had just 38% possession. Nick Pope saved a Patrick Bamford penalty, the sixth heâs saved out of 18.
It was not especially obvious that the new manager made any significant difference tactically or inspirationally for the game. They still looked like typical Leeds this season. They were still messy defensively in conceding two penalties and letting Newcastle fire 15 shots at their goal, though with only two on target from the spot. Junior Firpo got sent off for a second yellow and shouldâve been substituted long before, as he was not having a good game. He was already lucky not to be given a second yellow for the handball which gave Newcastle a penalty.
The draw leaves Leeds in the relegation places with two to play. With an away game at West Ham and ending with a home game against Spurs (if they bother to turn up), it is easy to see this point being the last they will pick up.
Spurs didnât turn up for the first half as per usual. They were absolutely rotten, even by their own low first half standards. They didnât even take a shot. Watching Spurs try to play pressing football is like watching a tired old dog trying but failing to muster up energy to chase the postie. Itâs pathetic really.
They were better in the second half, as they always are after setting themselves the lowest of bars. That it ended 2-1 thanks to a Kane penalty, didnât reflect Villaâs superiority. With one shot on target, they deserved nothing from the game. You canât play for only 50% of every match and expect to achieve anything.
Given they have stated theyâre not going to pursue Julian Nagelsmann as the new manager - or more likely Nagelsmann has seen Daniel Levy coming, turned the lights off and pretended not to be at home - the manager they do employ must be passed off as better than Nagelsmann. That seems very unlikely to be true.
When substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored in injury time to make Manchester United a 2-0 winner against Wolves, it was the clubâs 100th goal in all competitions this season. It was also his first Premier League goal at Old Trafford. Returning from a long lay off with injury, the 18-year-old Argentinian fizzed onto the pitch like a bolt of lightning. So exciting, he is all front foot and youthful ambition and really adds verve, pace and directness to an often sluggish, tired looking United. He replaced Jadon Sancho who, once again, was ineffective and really needs to move on this summer to get him out of his rut. The contrast really told a story.
Frank Lampardâs Chelsea went behind to Nottingham Forest, the side with the worst away record in the league. Of course he did. It was yet another low point for Lampard who, now ashen of face, looks like he really canât wait for it all to be over. It is very noticeable how little effect he has during a game. Even so, it is only a few weeks since friendly pundits and the more grovelling reporters were excitedly declaring his appointment as a great idea and immediately speculating what Chelsea would do if he won the Champions League. Yeah, thatâs all very embarrassing now, isnât it?
Forest went in at half time ahead thanks to Edouard Mendy coming for a cross and missing. The Blues were booed off despite having 72% possession. To further rub salt into the Lampard-shaped wound, they thought theyâd turned it around in the second half with two quick Sterling goals, but this is Frank Lampardâs Chelsea and standards are as low as theyâve been in a generation. So Forest scored an equaliser and hung on for the point relatively easily. Lampard will pretend his tenure hasnât been humiliating for him, but he must know it absolutely has. Mauricio Pochettino canât arrive too soon.
Inconsistent Antony
Manchester Unitedâs Antony can be a frustrating player, heâs better than his current form of eight goals and six assists this season. Against Wolves, he shouldâve scored, cutting in from the left, but shot wide and he should've kept a header down to score the opening goal. There is a buzz of excitement when he gets the ball and rightly so, as he is an exciting Brazilian player, but too often it leads to nothing. Late in the first half he burst through at speed, tore the defence apart but then failed to release the ball at the right time.
Sometimes he lacks vision and touch, sometimes he lacks courage to take the defender on. However, having missed two good chances, when he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper, he made the right choice to square it for Anthony Martial to net. He does seem very one-footed, always reluctant to shoot with his right, but there is so much potential to the player.. He needs to add variety to his game and a dangerous trick, because his usual routine of cutting in from the right gets very predictable.
The Saints had to beat Fulham to avoid relegation. They didnât. Theyâre 11-year tenure in the top flight is over. They had the youngest squad in the league, perhaps that was a root cause of their failure. They need a proper reset, decide what sort of club they want to be in the Championship and recruit to fit that model.
Everton hadnât scored more than a single goal in a home game since Octoberâs 3-0 win over Crystal Palace and as they went in at half time two goals down having not managed a shot on target, that didnât seem likely to change. The fact that Neal Maupay came on at half-time for Dominic Calvert Lewin, who had a tight groin, only confirmed they would lose. Maupay hasnât scored in his last 25 appearances and hasnât looked up to the standard required.
After last weeksâ freakish 5-1 win at Brighton, this was a return to Evertonâs usual form and they were no match for Manchester City for whom it was an 11th consecutive win. It was Evertonâs tenth home loss of the season; a new unwanted record to put on Dycheâs CV. Their survival is still in the balance.
Title challenge ends at the Emirates
Brighton came into the game on the back of a 5-1 freakish loss at home to Everton wanting to restore their European challenge, so it was likely to be a bad time for Arsenal to play them when needing to win. Only Southampton have kept fewer clean sheets at home than Arsenal so it was hardly a surprise that they conceded first on 51 minutes. Arsenal had scored three or more goals in their last six home games but that never looked likely in this game.
As the game wore on Brighton pressed harder and at pace with Mitoma and the returning great young prospect Evan Ferguson especially effective, at times playing with a front four. Alexis Mac Allister was fantastic all afternoon. It isnât the Brighton way to try and see out a game and that led to a great last 20 minutes as Arsenal became increasingly desperate. Brightonâs second began to feel inevitable. And with that goal from Deniz Undav on 82 minutes, Arsenalâs title challenge evaporated and large swathes of the crowd left.
A third for the Seagulls made it a hammering. Manchester City will win the title if they beat Chelsea at home. Brighton are up to sixth with two games in hand on Spurs and Villa below them. They deserved this win and were the better side.
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