Liverpool stepping up their title charge, Manchester United old boys scuppering Solskjær and Brighton letting it slipIt is a footnote to the weekend’s biggest story, but the final nail in Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s coffin was partly hammered in by four players who were at various points deemed not good enough for Manchester United. Ben Foster, Craig Cathcart, Tom Cleverley and Joshua King all made vital contributions to a Watford performance that brimmed with energy, intent and endeavour. United’s class of 2021 lacked all those qualities, and plenty more. They were simply overrun and, while Solskjær’s departure was both inevitable and correct, they might wonder whether a better engagement with the basics might have helped their old manager’s cause. After the...
Arsenal might fancy their chances at Anfield and three new managers begin survival bidsThis will be the fourth meeting between Leicester and Chelsea this calendar year, clubs of differing resources whose fortunes nonetheless seem tangled together. Leicester went top after beating Chelsea 2-0 at home in January, James Maddison scoring the second goal before cheerfully claiming: “We knew they switched off at set pieces,” an observation that felt terminal to Frank Lampard’s employment. Having played some part in Thomas Tuchel’s arrival, Leicester won the FA Cup final against him in May, before league defeat at Stamford Bridge three days later helped to ensure the Foxes would narrowly miss out on the Champions League yet again. Chelsea are now European champions...
Granted there is an injury crisis, but it has not been a great start and the beloved manager needs to steer between extremesThe problem with any discussion of Marcelo Bielsa is the tendency immediately to speak in grand broadbrush terms; everybody already knows what they think about him. It’s the curse of our age that positions so rapidly become entrenched, even when it comes to the ostensibly trivial issue of how football should be played.Nobody can ever simply question the way Ole Gunnar Solskjær structures a midfield or his organisation of the press or ask whether the inclusion of Cristiano Ronaldo might have made those issues worse, without immediately being cast as anti-Ole or anti-Manchester United, revelling in every goal...
Solskjær pulls off a tactical trick, Potter gives Brighton fans a treat and De Bruyne endures a rare horror showOle Gunnar Solskjær deserves credit for Manchester United’s win over Tottenham. The switch to a back three worked and a front two with a combined age of 70 proved far too good for Spurs, whose defenders were thoroughly outclassed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani. Ronaldo opened the scoring with a banger and Cavani was impressive on his second start of the season, offering intelligent movement and producing a cool finish after being set up by his strike partner. The question now is whether this is sustainable. Is the 3-4-2-1 system the way forward for Solskjær or an emergency solution? Will...
Nuno seems scared of his Spurs bench, Manchester United players must stand up and Joshua King haunts Goodison ParkSubstitutions have been permitted in English league football since 1965, but maybe nobody told Nuno Espírito Santo. The Tottenham manager has been curiously reluctant to use his well-stocked bench in recent weeks, and even as his side sleepwalked to defeat at West Ham, he waited until the 84th minute to make changes. Even if the likes of Dele Alli and Steven Bergwijn have hardly sparkled of late, a worrying gulf is opening between the first XI and the rest. Meanwhile, Nuno’s continuing stubbornness – “The game was under control,” he explained curtly – is hardly likely to endear him to the fanbase....