Premier League
SEVEN TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE FIRST PREMIER LEAGUE ACTION OF 2020
Goals, red cards, VAR drama, general drama, upsets, and Manchester United not being very good. It might be a new year in the Premier League but the same old themes occur.
What did we learn as England’s top flight entered 2020? Have a gander for 90min’s seven main talking points from the 21st round of fixtures.
Acrobatic Finishes Are Back in Fashion
Two cracking acrobatic strikes in the same round of Premier League fixtures? Don’t say we don’t spoil you.
The first came when Alireza Jahanbakhsh, in the midst of a dramatic career revival in a Brighton shirt, denied Chelsea a victory with an exemplary overhead kick in New Year’s Day’s early kick-off.
Then, in the 5.30 kickoff, Sebastian Haller – who has also struggled to adapt to life in England, if not quite to the same extent – doubled West Ham’s lead against Bournemouth, showing off some similarly ridiculous technique to dig out Ryan Fredericks’ cross and send it across Aaron Ramsdale into the corner.
If the rest of 2020 follows in this vein then that goal of the season competition come May is going to be some contest.
Moyesy-Mania Lives
West Ham’s rampant victory, of course, only came about after the return of the prodigal son, the Special One, Fife’s finest, and arguably the greatest manager who ever lived.
David Moyes took charge of a football match for the first time since being let go by the Hammers in 2018, and showed us exactly why he should have been kept on in the first place.
Bournemouth were of course poor, but in a clinical 4-0 victory, the West Ham players showed a level of intensity near-unrecognisable from that they were showing under Manuel Pellegrini in the first half of the season. If they can keep this level of performance going, then another Moyesy masterclass beckons.
Literally Anyone Could Go Down
What even is the relegation battle this season? Norwich, unfortunately, look finished, but beyond that, it is unfathomably tight.
Everton and Southampton have been resurrected, the latter conquering José Mourinho’s Tottenham over New Year, but although they prop up the top half, they each remain just five points clear of safety.
Watford have dragged themselves back into the fight, Bournemouth have dropped into the bottom three, and Burnley have lost three on the spin – with Chelsea, Leicester and Manchester United on the horizon. With just five points separating 11th from 18th, it seems as if literally anything could happen with regards to the drop, and more than half the league may fear they could yet be dragged into a scrap.
Jack Grealish Might Be England’s Most Creative Midfielder
With an assist and another stunning goal in Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory at Burnley, it’s now 11 goal involvements in 19 Premier League appearances for Jack Grealish since Villa’s return to the top flight.
In that respect, he’s out-performing James Maddison, Dele Alli and Mason Mount in that respect, and he’s doing so for a team languishing near the bottom of the league.
Remarkably, he’s yet to be capped for England, but on current form, it shouldn’t be long before that changes.
Life After Vardy
Jamie Vardy remains the Premier League’s runaway top scorer, so with Leicester missing him following two hard-to-take defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool, they might have taken some time to lick their wounds.
They might have, but they didn’t. In the absence of their talisman, they’ve bounced back with successive victories, scoring five goals from five different scorers – suggesting they are a long way from a one-man team.
Kelechi Iheanacho made a case for himself as Vardy’s heir-apparent with a match-winning display against West Ham before the New Year, and it was Ayoze Perez’s time to shine against Newcastle in their first match of 2020, scoring one and assisting another in a 3-0 win. Vardy will be a difficult asset to replace once he hangs up his boots, but the raw materials needed to do so are already there.
Arteta Out-Thinks Ole
Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United, less than two weeks into Mikel Arteta’s tenure, gave us a glimpse of an Arsenal team playing with a high intensity and a clear tactical plan. They were sharp, switched on and well-drilled; not perfect, but efficient, functional, and certainly promising.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been in charge at Manchester United for over a year now, and they showed none of those things.
It seems they have only regressed since their early days under the Norwegian, despite a wealth of investment in the summer, and while the same could yet happen to Arteta, on the evidence of Wedneday evening’s clash at the Emirates, it was abundantly clear which manager you’d rather have.
The Future Is Bright for Manchester City
There has been so much negativity flying around surrounding a Manchester City team who have committed the crime of being human in recent weeks, but as the title ‘race’ took another painstaking step towards its inevitable conclusion, one thing became clear for City – the future is remarkably bright.
Defeat to Wolves after Christmas perhaps signalled the death of their hopes of retaining the title, but they’ve bounced back from that with two impressive victories, and the latest over Everton showed that in Eric Garcia, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus, the years to come are in good hands.
Jesus in particular put the Toffees to the sword with a two-goal showing, but Garcia has been a revelation at the back since coming in, while Foden’s meteoric talent is finally being recognised with minutes on the pitch.
They may not catch Liverpool this season, but with three trophies still up for grabs and some hugely promising talents beginning to shine in the first-team setup, there is little to worry about long-term.
-90min
Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 1-0 to remain top of the Premier League as Arsenal and Manchester City came from behind to win on Saturday.
City were 3-2 victors over Fulham to stay one point behind Liverpool, alongside Arsenal who saw off Southampton 3-1.
Arne Slot has now won nine of his first 10 games since succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager, but was frustrated that the visitors invited a late onslaught from the winless Eagles.
Jota prodded the Reds into the lead from Cody Gakpo’s cross on nine minutes.
The Portuguese international was then guilty of missing two big chances to extend Liverpool’s advantage.
Palace failed to make them pay, but victory came at a cost for Slot as goalkeeper Alisson Becker limped off with a hamstring injury.
“If you score the second you break them mentally,” said Slot. “All the fans kept believing in a result because it was only 1-0, even though in my opinion we were the dominant team.”
Fresh from a dominant win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Arsenal were expected to sweep aside winless Southampton.
But the Saints shocked the Emirates 10 minutes into the second half when Cameron Archer fired in his first Premier League goal since a summer move from Aston Villa.
The lead only lasted three minutes before Kai Havertz scored for the seventh consecutive home game.
Gabriel Martinelli was introduced after an hour and took just eight minutes to make his mark with a finish on the volley from Bukayo Saka’s cross.
Having set up Arsenal’s first two goals, Saka pounced on a loose ball to score the third himself.
Fulham’s outrageous opener
Rodri’s season-long absence due to a serious knee injury is expected to be a major blow to City’s chances of retaining the title for a fifth consecutive season.
But it was the Spaniard’s deputy Mateo Kovacic who scored twice to turn the game around for the champions at the Etihad.
The visitors had not lost since the opening night of the season at Manchester United and led thanks to Andreas Pereira’s finish from an outrageous backheel assist by Raul Jimenez.
Kovacic’s deflected effort quickly brought City level before a cleaner strike less than two minutes into the second half made it 2-1.
Jeremy Doku then smashed into the top corner from outside the box to give City a two-goal cushion, which they needed.
Rodrigo Muniz gave Fulham hope on 88 minutes, but City held out for a 17th consecutive win against the Cottagers.
West Ham eased the pressure on new boss Julen Lopetegui by ending a run of three home defeats to start the new season.
Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta struck for the Hammers in a 4-1 win over Ipswich, who are still waiting for their first Premier League win 22 years.
There were six goals before half-time as Brentford beat Wolves 5-3 to leave the visitors still rooted to the foot of the table.
Leicester secured their first league win of the season as Facundo Buonanotte’s strike beat Bournemouth 1-0.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag faces a huge match if he is to remain in charge when the Red Devils visit Aston Villa in the pick of Sunday’s action.
-AFP
Premier League
Premier League rejects City request to delay next season’s games after Club World Cup
The Premier League has rejected Manchester City’s request to postpone the first two games of the 2025-26 season to help the players recover after their FIFA Club World Cup campaign in the U.S., the club’s manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.
City and Chelsea are the two English clubs who have qualified for the expanded month-long Club World Cup set to start on June 15. The Premier League’s season will begin in August.
An increasingly packed soccer calendar has been a concern among a growing number of players and managers. A report by global players’ union FIFPRO said some players get only 12% of the year to rest.
The Premier League did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
City midfielder Rodri said in September that players could be close to strike action over the time they are required to play. A knee ligament injury has since put him out for the season.
“I don’t know if we will play more games than the treble year (2022-23)… maybe we’ll play less games,” Guardiola told reporters.
“The Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery. Thank you so much. They don’t postpone these games so that will be the moment of, oh, what do we have to do?”
He said the Club World Cup will make it even more difficult for clubs to manage player workload.
-Reuters
Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said a decision about under-fire manager Erik ten Hag is not his call, and was reticent about whether he still has faith in the team’s boss amid their worst start to the Premier League season since 1986-87.
“I don’t want to answer that question,” Ratcliffe told the BBC. “I like Erik. I think he’s a very good coach but at the end of the day it’s not my call, it’s the management team that’s running Manchester United that have to decide how we best run the team in many different respects.
“That team that’s running Manchester United has only been together since June or July. They weren’t there in January, February, March or April — Omar (Berrada, CEO), (Sporting Director) Dan Ashworth — they only arrived in July.
“They’ve only been there . . . you can count it in weeks almost — they’ve not been there a long time so they need to take stock and make some sensible decisions.”
Ten Hag’s job was the subject of speculation for much of last season en route to the team’s lowest Premier League finish of eighth. After an FA Cup final victory over Manchester City and an end-of-season review, however, Ten Hag signed a new contract to extend his stay at Old Trafford until 2026.
“Our objective is very clear, we want to take Manchester United back to where it should be, and it’s not there yet, obviously, that’s very clear,” Ratcliffe said.
Ten Hag continues to plead for patience from fans with the team languishing 13th in the Premier League table, having lost three of their six opening games. They were headed towards defeat by Porto in the Europa League on Thursday before Harry Maguire scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a 3-3 draw.
-Reuters
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