Man United 1-1 Stoke
For Mourinho to say that his team played beautiful football from start to finish, or to suggest that it was his team's best performance of the season is definitely overselling it, but that's not to say United played badly at all. To say it was their best performance where they dropped points, or that it was in their top three performances, alongside the wins over Southampton and Leicester would be more accurate. In the first twenty or thirty minutes United looked incredibly dangerous, forcing Lee Grant into two or three top saves. They could have been in front inside two minutes, as an incisive pass from Paul Pogba freed Ibrahimovic, exploiting a shoddy offside trap. Grant made an excellent double save, but it should have been 1-0.
The chances kept coming after that, at least in the first half. Pogba shanked wide from a glorious position, Mata attempted a delicate chip from the edge of the area that almost caught Grant out as he tipped it over, and then Pogba headed wide completely unmarked from the resulting corner. Shambolic defending, equally shambolic finishing. And at the other end, Geoff Cameron fired straight at De Gea after brilliant link up play between Allen and Shaqiri freed him in the box.
It was a frenetic, frantic opening half an hour of football, with United playing the kind of dangerous, incisive football that caused Leicester so many problems last weekend. But the turning point came when Ibrahimovic ran well down the left and put in an excellent cross. Jesse Lingard flicked it on in the box, certain goal. But Grant got down. Still 0-0.
At this point, United seemed visibly deflated, and Stoke visibly lifted. Joe Allen, who put in a phenomenal shift in central midfield, started picking up the ball more, Arnautovic and Shaqiri got into better positions and Bony started winning the ball against Chris Smalling. Stoke started getting more possession and winning the 50/50s.
It had seemed at the time as if United just needed to get into half time and regroup, that they had given all they had for the first half and needed to get their rhythm back. But when they came out for the second half, it became clear that United had run out of steam and ideas period, as they offered absolutely nothing after half time. Stoke controlled the game, and increasingly it became a scrappy, ugly game, with the best chance falling to Allen after a lovely interchange in and around the United box. United, for their part, mostly just took pot shots from outside the box, coming close on a couple of occasions but not testing Grant.
But the game changed after Jose Mourinho brought on Rooney (who yes before you ask was genuinely terrible again) and Antony Martial, whose deft finish out of nothing after Rooney was tackled in the Stoke box gave United the lead. On balance, United deserved their lead, and it was a very good finish from Martial, but it was a body blow for Stoke.
At that point, with just under twenty minutes to go, it looked like a case of how many United would score as their confidence soared, they started carving Stoke up and Grant was forced into a couple more good saves.
But then the game changed as David De Gea dropped an absolute clanger. Glen Johnson had a long range shot that he should have held onto comfortably, or at the very least palmed away from danger. He did neither, spilling it to Jon Walters, whose effort was deflected onto the bar, and Joe Allen came charging in to slam the ball into the empty net. 1-1.
From there, United grew desperate and should have won the game as Pogba crashed a header onto the bar from six yards, his third sitter of the game missed. And it seemed that Pogba's frustrations, both with his own performance and with the better performance of Wales' little magician grew too much for him, as he put Allen in a headlock and hurled him to the ground, an action that would surely have earned him retrospective action if the referee hadn't been stood there and bizarrely not sent Pogba off or even booked him. Another man lucky to stay on the pitch was Ander Herrera's whose horror tackle could easily have injured the imperious Allen, who had studs raked on his thigh.
But it was Allen who got the last laugh, and the goal that his performance deserved. An improvement from United yes, but nowhere near enough of an improvement to suggest they have a shot of winning the Premier League title. It's hard to pick a man of the match, but only because the brilliance of Lee Grant and Joe Allen are both equally responsible for a brilliant point for Stoke.
As for United? Ibrahimovic played very well, Martial made an instant impact from the bench and Pogba and Mata's general build up play was decent. But the truth was that they missed too many good chances, Pogba especially guilty of that, and as the game wore on they lost their fluidity and confidence. Rashford was anonymous, Lingard ineffectual, and for Jose Mourinho's side, it feels like one step forwards one step back at the moment.
Spurs 2-0 Man City
This was the match where Spurs established themselves, for me at least, as serious title contenders. Not because they won the game, not because it was against Man City, and not even because they were the better team. From what we've seen of this City side this season it always looked entirely plausible that they would crumble against a team that was able to press them and match their intensity, and certainly without Kevin De Bruyne there's no doubt this City side lose their most creative influence. But the reason that Spurs impressed me so much is that they were able to do it without players that for months, Spurs fans have been saying as essential to their play. Eric Dier, Harry Kane and above all else, Mousa Dembele. Every bad result Spurs have had in the last twelve months or so, Spurs fans have quickly pointed to the loss of Dembele. They didn't miss him on Sunday.
Playing without two of their first choice central midfielders, and without their main goal-scoring threat, Spurs excelled. So much of that is down to the energy and strength of Victor Wanyama who despite still being a yellow card waiting to happen, put himself about and made so many crucial tackles for his team. This is the first time he has looked like a valid replacement for Eric Dier. And they were able to keep the tempo moving through the midfield, as Son, Alli and Eriksen kept the ball moving, kept themselves moving and were full of life. Moussa Sissoko looked like a player who belonged in the Premier League, not the Championship and Son, who has been Spurs' best player for a few weeks now, once again was their best player, and it was his clever pass that freed Dele Alli for the crucial second goal.
As for City, they looked shell-shocked. Defensively, Kolarov had an absolute nightmare, the tragic own goal that put Spurs a goal up a perfect summary of his abject performance. But further up the pitch, it became clear that Pep Guardiola still needs to remove some of the deadwood from his squad. With De Bruyne injured and Nolito still suspected, for some reason Gundogan and Sane were left on the bench for far too long, and their replacements were the awful Fernando and Navas, who both lost their individual battles horrendously. I remain a huge fan of Fernandinho (who was probably one of City's better players on the day) but he was unable to take the game by the scruff of the neck and their key players: Sterling and Silva, were kept out of the game by excellent Spurs defending and general play. Sergio Aguero was able to wrestle one or two key chances, but unable to convert them. Hugo Lloris looked slightly nervy, but did what a goalkeeper has to do, kept everything out of the net.
It's strange, whilst the United game seemed all about the key chances created by both teams, this one was more about the general play, because in truth there were very few clear cut chances for either side. Spurs scored one of them, they missed a penalty that would have killed the game and City's best openings came when Aguero hit the post and inside four minutes, when David Silva was unable to flick in a good cross.
But the truth is Spurs out-pressed City, out-ran City, out-muscled City. They were excellent on the ball and like piranhas in defence, not giving City an inch to work in. Spurs have only conceded three goals this season, and none of them from open play, and that's the reason that they were able to win. A City side with Kevin De Bruyne would have been far more able to breach that defence, but on Sunday they simply had no answer.
Looking forwards, for Spurs it's a case of longevity. With a smaller squad, and lots of European games coming up, they need to show that they can continue to play well over time when the fatigue hits. And for City, they just need to bounce back. They won their first six league games and are top of the table for a reason. Even if Spurs do the double over them, City will fancy themselves to still win the title because they have the power and energy to beat almost every other team in the division. Spurs are still behind City in the table, and City just need to keep them there. There's a reason that they're still the favourites for the title.
But there's also a reason that Spurs' title odds are getting shorter by the day. They're very much in and around the mix, and I think that the current top two in the league are good bets to be the top two by the end of the season, although Liverpool and Arsenal will certainly have something to say about that, both only one point further back and looking very good themselves. I think that the current top four are the best four teams in the league this season, and I'd expect them to be the top four at the end of the season, with one of them lifting the Premier League trophy come May.
Burnley 0-1 Arsenal
However, contrary to what I said in that previous paragraph, Arsenal were totally and utterly toothless against Burnley, and very, very lucky to walk away with three points. Even discounting the incredibly fortuitous and illegal nature of their goal, which came with the last kick of the match, Burnley created the match's three best chances, and could easily have been at least one goal up by the time Laurent Koscielny got his hands to the ball to give Arsenal all three points.
Burnley were able to play to their strengths, and nearly executed a perfect game plan. They defended deep, with two banks, two wide players on each side to block balls into the box, with everyone else tight and narrow to prevent Arsenal from being able to pass the ball through them or around them. With Arsenal unable to get between the lines, they were effectively neutered and they looked very one-dimensional, despite controlling the entire game. It was easy to see how they beat Liverpool executing such a game plan, and the longer Arsenal failed to score, the more comfortable Burnley looked. If they'd had Andre Gray at their disposal, as they did against Liverpool, they could well have got the goal that evaded them in this game.
As mentioned, they had more than enough chances to win the game outright, with Sam Vokes heading wide completely unchallenged in the box after exploiting a horribly exposed Arsenal offside trap before half time. And in the second half they had two more aerial chances, Cech denying Gudmundsson who won a header at the back post against Koscielny, before Michael Keane hit the crossbar with a header from a corner.
But it was Arsenal who nicked the winner off a corner to move back to third in the Premier League with their fifth straight win, with a slightly better goal difference than fellow title challengers Liverpool. Walcott, strangely enough, was the man to win the first header and then confusion reigned, as the ball appeared to come off both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Laurent Koscielny's arm and then into the net. If the ball touched Oxlade-Chamberlain first then it would have to be offside, and if it didn't then it could well have been a handball. Personally, I wasn't convinced that the fact it hit the Arsenal's defenders arm was enough to disallow the goal, but for me it definitely came off both players, making it offside.
In any case, after their demolition of Chelsea last weekend, this was a win of a different kind for Arsenal. I mentioned how Liverpool's win over Swansea was the type of win that top four competitors and potential title challengers needed to win and this was very much the same. This performance felt like a peak-Ferguson era United side of the late 00s and early 10s, where they would play badly and still nick a late winner.
And so Arsenal march on. At the moment, they're exactly where they want to be: under the radar. Playing well, securing results, in the top four and very much within touching distance of Man City, but without attracting too much attention to themselves. They play Swansea at home after the international break, and that is another opportunity to gain ground on their rivals, as City face a strong Everton side, Liverpool play Man United and Spurs face a potential sticky trip to West Brom. One thing is for sure, if Arsenal keep grinding out results, they'll be well in the mixer come April. They usually are.
The Hard and Fast Section
- The quality of England's squad declining by the day.
- 48 team World Cup? Give me a break.
- Murray and Nadal safely through in China.
- Warburton to undergo surgery on cheekbone. Ouch.
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