Category: Football (Soccer)

The optimism that greeted Jim Ratcliffe’s arrival as owner has given way to even more disappointment, with Sunday’s defeat at Tottenham the latest example

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Covering Manchester United these days feels a little like being a character in Silent Witness: every week you end up writing a postmortem. Their Sunday defeat at Tottenham was an engaging if bitty affair that finished 1-0 largely because the low quality of defending on show was compensated for by the low level of attacking. It was fun in its way, but it didn’t feel a lot like Premier League football.

It also meant United dropped to 15th in the table, having won just four of 14 league games under Ruben Amorim. Under Erik ten Hag this season, United were taking 1.22 points per game; under Amorim that’s down to 1.00. Nobody was under any illusions about the scale of the task he was taking on, but four months after Amorim took the job it would be very difficult to identify any concrete signs of progress. There has been the resilience of the performance in the league at Anfield, in the FA Cup at the Emirates, and not a lot else.

Manchester United’s slump deepens, Ryan Christie inspires Bournemouth and David Moyes lets the good times roll

• Premier League top scorers | Latest table | Fixtures

Can winning a game that resembled two lurching drunks swinging at each other at closing time be regarded as vindication for Ange Postecoglou? Perhaps if Manchester United had a more mobile midfield and someone other than Rasmus Højlund at centre-forward – last goal at Plzen on 12 December – flanked by a winger in Alejandro Garnacho who last scored against Bodø/Glimt two weeks before that. It turns out Joshua Zirkzee – who has three goals in the league all season – is United’s most potent forward. The numbers point to this being United’s worst team in decades, and the only good news Ruben Amorim received on Sunday was 17th-placed Wolves’ defeat at Liverpool. Tottenham saw out a second successive Premier League clean sheet for the first time in 16 months but did so nervously. It will take much more than sketchily defeating a crashing clown car to prove Postecoglou’s pronouncement that the true Tottenham would reveal themselves once his injured players started returning. John Brewin

Match report: Tottenham 1-0 Manchester United

Match report: Leicester 0-2 Arsenal

Match report: Manchester City 4-0 Newcastle

Match report: Liverpool 2-1 Wolves

Match report: Aston Villa 1-1 Ipswich

Match report: Fulham 2-1 Nottingham Forest

Match report: Southampton 1-3 Bournemouth

Match report: Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton

An opportunistic goal from James Maddison gave Spurs their first home victory in the league since early November

A reminder of the teams

Tottenham Hotspur (4-1-4-1) Vicario; Pedro Porro, Danso, Davies, Spence; Bentancur; Kulusevski, Bergvall, Maddison, Son; Tel.
Substitutes: Kinsky, Udogie, Gray, Bissouma, Sarr, Moore, Odobert, Johnson, Scarlett.

First-half goals from Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah restored Liverpool’s seven-point lead at the top of the table, though Matheus Cunha’s lovely strike had nerves jangling

So where is the game? I’m certain that Wolves, like every team facing Liverpool, will target the space in and around around and behind Alexander-Arnold who, for all his glorious passing and crossing, lack defensive nous and recovery pace. There could scarcely be a duo better-placed to exploit that than Ait-Nouri and Cunha while, on the other side, Semedo and Sarabia will also feel they can do something against the flagging Andy Robertson, especially on the counter.

Liverpool, meanwhile, will expect to outnumber Wolves in midfield, therefore dominating the ball, targeting the space behind the wing-backs with Jota scavenging in the box. And if all else fails, they can just give it Salah.

At 32 the striker is part of a new generation, powered by science and making a huge impact on the title race

It takes a team to win trophies but it is quite useful to have an individual enjoy the season of their life. Mohamed Salah is that for Liverpool. Highlighting his importance to his side’s success is not exactly controversial but any praise is merited after driving his team into pole position as the business end approaches.

Salah leads the Premier League scoring and creativity charts with 22 goals and 14 assists to put Liverpool clear at the top. On a difficult night at Goodison Park in midweek, he set up the opener before scoring in a game of few chances, the ninth time this season he has achieved such a feat. Sunday’s opponents Wolves will be well aware of his threat, although attempting to nullify him is more difficult.

Omar Marmoush arrived in the winter window as a 20-goal forward for Eintracht Frankfurt and against Newcastle emphatically showed why, via a scintillating 14-minute first-half hat-trick that tore the opposition apart. For the Egyptian and Manchester City, joy; for the visitors, despair, as they were sent home reeling, on the back of a 16th consecutive Premier League reverse here.

At the break, a home fan suggested it was “the best first 45 minutes I’ve seen all season”: he was not far wrong, because when City are performing like this you see how Pep Guardiola might revive his embattled champions.