Category: English Premier League

Forest and Bournemouth shine again, Gordon provides Tyneside tonic, while Gomez and Solanke are winning over doubters

If Ruud van Nistelrooy was supposed to wash the nostalgia out of the Manchester United system then perhaps that was achieved, though maybe not as intended. If Rúben Amorim was distracted from preparing Sporting for Manchester City on Tuesday, he will be more aware of a United squad bereft of confidence. United’s first 60 minutes against Chelsea saw them fumble pathetically for creativity. Not even the presence of one of the club’s greatest strikers has lifted the finishing quality in a group low on goals. Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford were both bereft of touch and instinct; substitute Joshua Zirkzee’s signing remains a mystery. There was something of Van Nistelrooy in Rasmus Højlund winning Bruno Fernandes’s penalty, and the goalscorer’s knee slide towards the tunnel at the Stretford End. But there was to be no Ferguson-era ecstatic denouement. This United don’t do them. Van Nistelrooy has two games remaining until United seek the progressive future postponed by mistakenly retaining Erik ten Hag. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea

Match report: Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal

Match report: Tottenham 4-1 Aston Villa

Match report: Liverpool 2-1 Brighton

Match report: Wolves 2-2 Crystal Palace

Match report: Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City

Continue reading...

Manchester United and Chelsea demonstrate that boredom is a key part of the sport and an element of its beauty

Well, something definitely happened there. But what exactly? There is an affectionate joke about good, punchy Australian sports writing, which basically involves saying Here’s The Thing, right, then spelling out exactly what The Thing is in 800 brutally frank words, pounding The Thing into submission, shaking hands with The Thing, then, ideally, going off for a quick drink with The Thing.

What was the thing here? Trapped energy. Drift. Ennui. A good goal by Moisés Caicedo. The death-football of late-stage capitalism. Casemiro lying down a lot, often to surprisingly good defensive effect.

Continue reading...

A poor game came to life in the final quarter, when Bruno Fernandes’s penalty was cancelled out by a cracking volley from Moises Caicedo

Ruud van Nistelrooy’s pre-match thoughts

It’s been a week of mixed emotions – Erik leaving, taking over, Wednesday’s game and how it went.

There’s been no contact [with Ruben Amorim]. It’s been communicated to the players that I’ll be in charge until next Sunday and then the new manager will take over. That means we can focus on trying to win the next three games.

A League Cup meeting, instantly forgettable were it not for one of football’s greatest-ever juxtapositions of beauty and the beast. Ron Harris had many qualities, but subtlety was not one of them.

Here he is heaving into view from way out, belabouring George Best’s ankles with a proper old-school reducer. It’s a textbook piece of uberviolence – a vicious sliding tackle perfectly timed and executed, as graceful as brutality can ever get – but it was all for naught. Best ignored Chopper’s galoot-isms, somehow retained his balance – despite being kicked almost horizontal in mid-air – and continued his run.

Continue reading...

Dominic Solanke’s two goals led a second-half comeback as Spurs ended Villa’s unbeaten run

The teams are in the tunnel, the PA system is revving up and the players hit the field.

A short word on the dropped word from James Maddison from Ange: “It’s just what we need today. But there’s no doubt that Madders will be coming on today.”

Continue reading...

Newcastle beat Arsenal 1-0 at St James' Park thanks to an early header from Alexander Isak, making it six league games since Arsenal kept a clean sheet. Mikel Arteta said: "It's not about the hope of winning the title, it's about being our best version every single week. Today, certainly, we weren't our best version."

• Mystifying culture of entitlement has left Arsenal unable to ride out adversity

Continue reading...

Kieran McKenna branded referee Tim Robinson’s decisions “unacceptable” after Ipswich were denied a penalty and had Kalvin Phillips sent off against Leicester.

The Ipswich manager accused Robinson of taking centre stage when, with Ipswich leading through a fine Leif Davis volley, the official turned down what looked a clear penalty when Conor Chaplin was barged over by Abdul Fatawu.

Continue reading...

Defeat at Newcastle latest example of defensive laxity and attacking bluntness that is undermining title challenge

Is that, then, it? On the first weekend of November, is Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge over for another season? Perhaps not quite, because Rodri’s absence and Arne Slot’s inexperience in the Premier League mean this could be an unusual campaign even before the possible consequences of the charges against Manchester City are taken into account. But if Arsenal are to win the league for the first time in 21 years, it is going to take a monumental improvement and, at the moment, they look a side who have lost their way and self-belief.

As a rule of thumb, in this era it takes a minimum of 90 points to win the Premier League. That means teams can only afford to drop 24; Arsenal have already dropped 12 – which is to say half what they can lose with a quarter of the season played. It’s true that the fixture list has not been kind, that they have already played their away games against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle, but still, their margin for error in the 28 games that remain is extremely limited.

Continue reading...

Alexander Isak grabbed the only goal of the game as the Gunners slipped up again

Newcastle get the ball rolling. They’re playing towards the Gallowgate End in this first half.

… but not before a rendition of the Last Post, with Remembrance Sunday upcoming. RIP the fallen. All perfectly observed, applause ripping through the silence at the end.

Continue reading...

Declan Rice headed down the tunnel shaking his head and muttering to himself. Arsenal had just forfeited precious ground in the Premier League title race, Mikel Arteta looked incapable of ever smiling again and Rice seemed to be struggling to comprehend his inability to exert any sort of real control over midfield.

With Arteta’s defence incapable of suppressing the excellent Anthony Gordon and the outstanding match winner Alexander Isak on a day when Arsenal made a litany of uncharacteristic unforced errors, Eddie Howe’s team remembered how to be streetwise and reaped deserved rewards. After five Premier League games without a win, Newcastle look upwardly mobile once more.

Continue reading...

Head coach is showing he does have a Plan B as his detailed management is at last instilling maturity in a young squad

Chelsea were looking for someone innovative and fresh when they parted company with Mauricio Pochettino at the end of last season. They did not chase a big-name manager past his best. What they wanted was a coach on the up, with the vision to bring order to a talented but sprawling and inexperienced squad.

Enter Enzo Maresca: 44, humble, smart, obsessive about the smallest tactical details. Some might have shied away from the Chelsea job, seeing it as a graveyard for managerial aspirations given the fate of Pochettino, Graham Potter and Thomas Tuchel under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, but the Italian saw opportunity after leading Leicester to the Championship title in his debut season. “I’m interested in the job because I see a squad that can win the Premier League one day,” Maresca said during talks with his potential new employers.

Continue reading...