City 1-1 Southampton
If Saturday was very much a day where the defenders won out, with three goalless draws, an imperious performance from Joel Matip, and eight of the sixteen teams kept clean sheets, then Sunday was very much the defender's nightmare, with high profile errors from major English defenders making their teams look very red-faced. We start at the Etihad, where Man City's John Stones made a very poor backpass, as a result of a miscommunication with fellow defender Vincent Kompany, that allowed Nathan Redmond to nip in and give Southampton the lead against a City side that looked absolutely shell-shocked. Moreover, that gut-punch feeling was increased when City seemingly equalised five minutes later, only for Stones' goal to atone his error to be ruled out because Sergio Aguero was adjudged to have influenced play from an offside position. Under the rules, it probably was offside but it seemed harsh on City.
Nevertheless City controlled the game and dominated as they looked for an equaliser. But Southampton, much like Everton and Spurs are recent weeks, are one of the best defences in the league and it took more than City had to break them down, although like last weekend they were able to secure an equaliser. Iheanacho, on as a half time substitute for the under-performing Kevin De Bruyne, made an excellent run across the front post to slam in Sane's low cross. It was an excellent move and an excellent goal from Manchester City's perspective but a moment of quality that they were unable to create a second time, and with Forster denying Iheanacho and David Silva, who toiled as he tried to almost single-handedly wrench City back into the game at times, City had to settle for a point.
On the one hand, this is another worrying result for a City side that have now gone five games without winning. But on the other hand, Southampton are a very good side, are the joint second best defence in the league, and City will have now faced the three best defences in the division so far this season and been found wanting, along with, you know, the best team in world football in Barcelona.
I'm not making excuses, merely pointing out that City's poor run of form has been in tandem with them struggling to break down exceptional defensive teams. As such, it'll be very interesting to see how they go next time out against West Brom.
As for Southampton, they're in a really good run of form now, and they are visited by Chelsea next weekend, giving them a real chance to claim a major scalp or at the very least a point. And speaking of Chelsea...
Chelsea 4-0 Man United
It would be fair to say that this was a mauling. This was more than a mauling, this was a humiliation. Jose Mourinho returned the ground where his career had been first been dragged into ignominy and once again, his career took a severe public flogging, as he suffered the heaviest defeat of his career to the core of the same side that he failed to defend his last title with.
To blame this defeat solely on Mourinho would be wholly unfair, but as the manager, he has made himself the man to shoulder that blame. There is no doubt that there are giant holes in this United squad, that the core of their defensive, midfield and attack isn't good enough to mount a title race, and Mourinho himself has hinted as such at multiple points this season, including his infamous admission that Juan Mata is a more important player to this United side than the Chelsea side that he sold him from.
But nevertheless, the buck has to stop with Mourinho. Yes, he inherited a squad that wasn't ready to challenge for the title, but he spent almost £150m in the summer, with £90m of that being spent on one player, and none of his transfers have yet proved to be worth the money spent on them. Eric Bailly looked like a solid acquisition, but has faltered under pressure multiple times; Ibrahimovic has scored some good goals but looks overall detrimental to the way that United play and Henrik Mkhitaryan has played just over 100 minutes total for United in the league this season. And that's before we come on to Pogba.
As I believe I've said before, I like Pogba. He's clearly a talented player and a good central midfielder player. But he's not the best player of all time, he's not worth £90m and at the moment, he's being outplayed on a weekly basis by first Jordan Henderson and now N'golo Kante, who it still baffles me that United didn't at least make a bid for in the summer.
And it was Kante who thoroughly exposed Pogba time and again on Saturday, although again, the world record signing was far from United's worst player. But again, when you're supposed to be the world's best player (according to his transfer fee), you have to show up in big games. And simply put, Pogba has ghosted through every big game, every poor United performance, and when he's been needed to step up, he simply hasn't. Time and again, whilst United capitulated, Pogba was anonymous. Chelsea's fourth goal summed it all up yesterday, as the imperious Kante didn't so much sprint as jog past Pogba, leave Chris Smalling for dead and rifle past De Gea. Kante scored one Premier League goal last season. One. He is not a powerhouse of a goalscoring midfielder, Pogba, Herrera, Smalling et al just made no attempt to stop him.
And onto Chris Smalling, because as far as poor defensive performances go, his takes not so much the biscuit as the whole bakery. Ineptitude after ineptitude was on display as Smalling's positional play, reading of the game and ability to tackle simply vanished into thin air like it appears Memphis Depay and Mkhitaryan have done. For the first goal he simply made no attempt to get near or clear a ball that really, he should have dealt with as first port of call, instead waiting for his goalkeeper to come outside his area to clear it, or possibly Daley Blind who he thought was behind him. Smalling's indecisiveness proved fatal, as Pedro got a run on the hopeless Blind, nipped between the two, around De Gea who for some inexplicable reason had come out about two-thirds of the way far too late, and slotted into the empty net. The fact that this was thirty seconds into the game made it even more embarrassingly laughable.
Things got worse for Smalling. Failure to track your man from a corner? Inexcusable. Bang. 2-0. Failure to tackle, block or even hold up Eden Hazard inside the box when he was looking to shoot? Inexcusable. 3-0. Failure to stop N'golo Kante jogging in a straight line into the box and shooting? Inexcusable. 4-0. Yes, the ball riccocheted fortunately for Cahill off the corner but as a central defender, Smalling's first job had to be tracking his man, not being drawn to the ball. And yes, Hazard should never have been able to get into a position to shoot in the box with only Smalling to block it but again, central defender. That should be central defending 101, blocking shots. And Kante's goal was just embarrassing. For one of supposedly the best two or three English central defenders in the country, Smalling's performance was nothing less than a complete shambles. And that's just the poor defending for the goals.
I could go on, because there is plenty of blame to go around. The tracking of midfield runners was non-existent, the defending was shambolic, United's creativity was simply not there, and their finishing was even worse. Ibrahimovic probably should have scored, but to be blunt he had absolutely no impact on this game, as is becoming a worrying pattern for him. Once again, poor Marcus Rashford spent a significant portion of the game as an auxiliary left back with Jesse Lingard on the opposite flank equally useless. There was zero control in the middle of the park, and whilst United dominated possession and had as many shots, they always looked more likely to concede than score, as Chelsea counter-attacked to perfection and ran riot.
So Chelsea then. Up until this season I have been largely unimpressed by Antonio Conte's side, and haven't considered them serious title contenders. And whilst the margin of victory and superiority in this game was largely down to how bad United were, there's no denying that Chelsea were excellent. They have now kept three clean sheets in a row since losing to Arsenal and switching to three at the back, and have scored nine goals in the process. Eden Hazard and N'golo Kante were absolutely phenomenal again today, both scoring in the second half but their pressing, danger and constant energy just made a mockery of United.
Chelsea were ruthless, exposing United's weak spots again and again, scenting blood like a group of sharks. They defended largely excellently and Courtois made good saves when called into question. Whether or not Chelsea have what it takes to go all the way is for me still up for debate, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made a serious top four challenge now, and given that before this game I had United down as the stronger candidates to make the Champions League, Chelsea proved me totally wrong. And so did United.
So how can Mourinho's men bounce back from this? Can they bounce back from this? They're now five points off the top four, and closer to Stoke in 16th place than they are to Chelsea in 4th. On balance, they looked more like relegation candidates than top four challengers on Sunday. They will be hard pushed to play this badly again, but with their best central defender, Eric Bailly, potentially out for months, maybe even the whole season, they could certainly be exposed defensively again. These are worrying times for Jose Mourinho.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Great wins for Stoke and West Ham.
- Leicester's home form is bizarrely brilliant.
- Sissoko charged. Good riddance to bad elbow.
- Celtic continuing to fly under Brodge.
- England beat Bangladesh. Phew. Review tomorrow.
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