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Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FCSep 23, 2024, 10:41 AM ET
What a weekend! Europe’s top leagues delivered again with a ton of talking points to dissect now that the dust has settled. Conceding a late equalizer will hurt Arsenal in the table, but it’s clear Mikel Arteta & Co. emerged with a moral and psychological victory from Sunday’s trip to Manchester City. Meanwhile, Christian Pulisic scored early as Milan won a typically feisty derby over Serie A champs Inter, and relieved some of the pressure on Rossoneri boss Paulo Fonseca.
Elsewhere, Barcelona surged to another win in LaLiga, but must do without elite goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen after what looks to be a serious injury. Can they sustain this pace without him? There were also talking points galore for Stuttgart (who beat Borussia Dortmund), Man United (who didn’t beat Crystal Palace), Liverpool (who got a goal from Darwin Núñez), and Chelsea (who are getting the best from Nico Jackson), and much, much more.
It’s Monday. Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football.
11 vs. 10 is a different sport, but Arsenal come out the better vs. Man City despite conceding a late equalizer
There’s a performance dimension to games like this, and there’s a result dimension. Sometimes they match, sometimes they don’t. And while Manchester City and Arsenal end up drawing 2-2 on Sunday, there is little doubt who emerges with more bounce in their step: it’s Mikel Arteta.
There’s the obvious point that an away draw against probably the best team in the world (and certainly the best in the country) is a huge boost. There’s the resilience shown playing for 45 minutes a man down and only conceding at the very end. And there’s the fact that you did it without arguably your most important midfield piece, Martin Odegaard.
Conversely, if you’re Pep Guardiola you’ll wake up grumpy. Sure, you’re still top of the Premier League, but so what? Your title rivals got the psychological lift, and you lost Rodri to injury too. You conceded one goal in part because your captain switched off, and another because your set-piece defending wasn’t up to scratch. Those 28 shots you took in the second half — 20 of them with an xG of 0.04 or less — were an exercise in repetition and futility, which is exactly what you don’t expect from a Guardiola side. And while hindsight is always 20/20, you might even come to the conclusion that you would have been better off if Leandro Trossard had not been sent off.
OK, that last one may be a bit of a stretch, but what’s evident is how much of an impact that second yellow in first-half injury time had on the game.
Arteta, left, emerged from Sunday’s 2-2 draw with his mentor Guardiola, right, as the real winner even though Arsenal and Man City settled for a draw. Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Arsenal opted to retrench, taking off Bukayo Saka for Ben White, turning Gabriel Martinelli into an auxiliary fullback and turning to a de facto 6-3-0 formation. City didn’t react with a change until 20 minutes — and 13 fruitless shots — later, when Phil Foden came on. We ended up with a weird siege, which was long on drama but short on, well, football. Arsenal stayed so compact that City couldn’t make the extra man count. Not in terms of finding one-twos in tight spaces, not in terms of delivering effective crosses (bar on one or two occasions that Erling Haaland could convert), not in terms of dragging Arsenal out of position.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous, that was disappointing from Guardiola. Nobody is arguing with changes for changes’ sake, but surely City are not at their best when Rúben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Kyle Walker and Josko Gvardiol end up taking 12 shots on goal in the second half, almost all of them long-distance prayers where you’re hoping for a lucky deflection.
You can argue that, eventually, it worked. Jack Grealish may have come on late, but he did come on and played a big part in John Stones‘ late equalizer. Sure, but that’s no game plan — that’s throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. And it was genuinely surprising to see City like that, just as it was surprising seeing the defending for the Gabriel goal (and the header, a few minutes earlier, that should have been a goal). You just saw him score a very similar goal against Spurs in the North London derby. Why defend like that? And I don’t just mean putting Jérémy Doku or Kyle Walker on him to impede his run (which didn’t work) but not reacting to the overload on the far post?
If Guardiola has plenty to work on — two straight home games in all competitions without a win is something that hadn’t happened since 2023 — so too does Arteta. It’s just that, until Odegaard (or, at least, Mikel Merino) returns there’s not much he can do. Arsenal are built around one of those two being on the pitch, if only because there’s nobody else who can do what they do.
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Can Manchester City cope without Rodri?
Gab & Juls discuss Rodri’s injury vs. Arsenal and debate how they can replace him if it’s a long-term injury.
We did learn that Arteta is not afraid to get his hands dirty, be humble and park the bus, because he did last time around. This time, of course, it was by necessity, but it was still interesting to me that he waited until the 87th minute to send on the fresh legs of Gabriel Jesus for Martinelli.
Defending a siege takes a lot out of you, and a speedy outlet — whether the Brazilian or Raheem Sterling — can make a big difference if only to get you those two or three breaks that allow your team to take a breather and push up the pitch. By the second half, Martinelli had run himself into the ground and was really only defending on the left flank. Asking him to break, hold up the ball or win a foul or throw-in was too much at that stage. I’m not sure what it says about Arteta’s faith in Jesus or Sterling to fill that role.
Bravery is rewarded as Paulo Fonseca goes all-in and gets resounding derby win against Inter
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Why loss in Milan derby is a ‘huge blow’ to Inter
Jurgen Klinsmann breaks down AC Milan’s 2-1 victory over Internazionale in the Milan derby.
The pregame chatter was that a heavy loss — or even just a listless one — in the derby against Inter would have cost the Milan manager his job. So what did Fonseca do?
Two things stood out. He rolled the dice with a 4-2-4 formation — Tammy Abraham joining Álvaro Morata up front, with Rafael Leão and Christian Pulisic high up the pitch and two attacking fullbacks such as Theo Hernández and Emerson Royal — and he got a fiery reaction from his players. They weren’t just up for it; they were wound up and with a (mostly) cool head, which is exactly what you want to see when you’re an embattled coach.
Pulisic’s opener was the embodiment of this: cool and direct as you like until the ball hits the back of the net and then a rampaging celebration straight out of WWE, which galvanized the red-and-black half of the city. Tijjani Reijnders, playing in a two-man midfield, was everywhere, perhaps a direct result of the extra responsibility that comes knowing it’s just you and Youssouf Fofana in the middle of the park. They didn’t stop running and taking risks even after Inter’s equalizer, and it was only the superb form of Yann Sommer between the posts that kept this game to 2-1, the winner coming from Milan fan and homegrown defender Matteo Gabbia, another surprise starter.
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(The only sour note? Rafael Leao was subdued. That said, his mere presence, even when he’s contributing little, puts opponents on edge.)
As for Inter? Simone Inzaghi said they “didn’t look like a team,” which is one way of taking responsibility. The return of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Denzel Dumfries, Lautaro Martínez and Benjamin Pavard — all of whom were dropped from the starting lineup in the away draw with Manchester City — didn’t have the galvanizing effect he expected, and the lack of chemistry was noticeable. In his defense, teams just aren’t accustomed to — or built for — facing a 4-2-4. You imagine they won’t see this again for a long time.
What’s next for Fonseca? If you’re a cynic, you’ll point out that it’s one thing to pull this formation out of a hat in a derby — where everybody is excited anyway and runs twice as hard — and quite another to get it done on a regular basis. It’s true that a 4-2-4 likely won’t be Milan’s base formation going forward — he’ll have to come up with something more rational — but what it shows is that reports of internal turmoil likely were exaggerated. And the players believe in him enough to listen and do what he asks them to do, with full conviction.
For a new manager, that’s already a big win.
Barcelona are stronger than injuries and rotation, but Ter Stegen absence will hurt
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What’s behind Barcelona’s perfect start to LaLiga?
Luis García explains how Barcelona have progressed since last season after their 5-1 win over Villarreal.
Hansi Flick has not put a foot wrong since taking over, in difficult circumstances, as Barcelona manager. And yes, I include the Monaco defeat (thank you, Eric García) in that. I’m not talking results, but about performances in difficult circumstances: from the biblical plague of injuries to the absurdity of Laporta’s levers to the pressure and demands that come from simply being in charge. Talk about a bounce-back after his nightmare in Qatar.
He did it again on Saturday, away to Villarreal — not an easy place to go. Between injuries and the need for some of his guys to take a breather, he played Garcia in midfield, gave 19-year-old Sergi his first-ever start and 22-year-old Gerard his second-ever start at the back, took the injury to goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen on the chin, and after a tight first half, rolled to a 5-1 away win. The man exudes calm and has total buy-in from his players right now.
They even overcame the horror of Ter Stegen’s injury, which means he’ll join the long list of unavailable stars: Ronald Araújo, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Andreas Christensen, Fermín López and Dani Olmo. Filling Ter Stegen’s boots (gloves?) seems like yet another massive hurdle not just because of the position he plays and the leadership he brings, but also because it’s a steep drop from him to Iñaki Peña. (We saw this last season, and it stands to reason for a guy who hasn’t been a full-time starter in the top flight… ever).
But heck, the way the Flick stardust is going, you wouldn’t bet against him magicking something up to keep the bandwagon rolling…
That Sebastian Hoeness is a bit special — either that or Dortmund are really poor (or both)
You travel to the Santiago Bernabéu midweek and, for long stretches, your Stuttgart side gets the better of Real Madrid. You host Borussia Dortmund at the weekend and you slap them down, 5-1. And you do this after a summer when you lose three key players — two of them (defensive stalwart Waldemar Anton and top scorer Serhou Guirassy) to, of all clubs, Dortmund. Yep: coach Sebastian Hoeness, the man who turned down none other than Bayern Munich last spring, is doing something right.
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A lot right, in fact.
Rebuilding on the fly like this is very difficult. So too is bouncing back after a draining, emotional defeat in Europe. But that’s what he did, and against Borussia Dortmund (who sort of had the opposite Champions League night: poor and outplayed by Bruges and then breaking through for a gaudy win toward the end of the game), he was rewarded with a resounding victory.
As for Dortmund, this was embarrassingly bad. The back line, as usual, was poor defensively, but the attack was tame (just 0.09 xG in the first half) and the midfield impalpable (Enzo Millot ran rings around them). Even the get-out-of-jail-free card that is Jamie Bynoe-Gittens had no real effect. Nuri Sahin has to get to work.
Quick hits
TEN — It all comes together for Michael Olise in Bayern’s 5-0 romp: Olise was one of the 10 most expensive summer signings in Europe last year, and his move raised a few eyebrows. Nice player, still young and passes the eye test, but that €53 million release clause felt like a lot for a then-uncapped 22-year-old making the leap from Crystal Palace to Bayern. On Saturday, he scored two and assisted two in Bayern’s 5-0 romp away to Werder Bremen, a game in which their opponents couldn’t muster a single shot … of any kind. More than his numbers — he always put up those, with 16 goal involvements last year and 13 the year before — what strikes you is his poise and calm on the pitch. Right now he’s keeping Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry out of the side, and you can see why.
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Is this Chelsea team starting to find their form?
ESPN’s Mark Donaldson and Janusz Michallik discuss Chelsea’s convincing 3-0 win over West Ham in the Premier League.
NINE — After sink or swim start, we’re seeing the maturation of Nico Jackson at Chelsea: Most young players who move for big fees played a lot of minutes at a young age. He did not. Most are eased into a starring role, especially when they have just 16 top-flight starts to their name. He was not. Most need a stable environment to grow. He didn’t get it. And yet here Jackson is, leading the line for Chelsea — who beat West Ham 3-0 on Saturday — and showing signs of improvement, both in terms of movement and calm under pressure, in virtually every game. (It bears noting that his personality, intensity and athleticism were always there.) Make no mistake about it: he’s still raw, and it’s still silly of Chelsea to think they can go into a season as the only viable center-forward in the squad. But Jackson’s growth in tough conditions is impressive.
EIGHT — Vinícius comes on and turns things around for Real Madrid in 4-1 win: Or, more accurately, Vinicius comes in and turns the result, which had seen them a goal down after Thibaut Courtois‘ uncharacteristic error, around. (The performance had been solid before that, too.) Carlo Ancelotti will be grateful for the three points against Espanyol, but in some ways, it muddies the waters. Vinicius delivered a gorgeous assist and scored a great goal of his own, there’s no doubting his impact. Ancelotti’s initial plan, with Vini rested and Rodrygo and Arda Güler behind Kylian Mbappé, was actually working, just not delivering goals. Which, in this sport, is kinda important. Still, he has plenty of positives to take away, from Jude Bellingham‘s performance in a deeper role (though that shoulder injury remains scary) to Mbappé’s continuous progress. Oh, and being able to send on Vinicius is a nice plus too. Not that he plans to do that very often.
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Michallik: Arne Slot has made Luis Díaz a better player
ESPN FC’s Mark Donaldson and Janusz Michallik discuss how Liverpool boss Arne Slot is getting the best out of his squad, in particular Luis Díaz, following their 3-0 win over Bournemouth.
SEVEN — Diaz and Darwin, Liverpool‘s yin and yang, tear Bournemouth apart: Even when he doesn’t score (which isn’t the case often this year, given he has five in five), Luis Díaz is a model of consistency with his energy and work rate. Darwin Núñez brings plenty of energy too, but his movement isn’t quite as precise and, crucially, he’s seen as a goal scorer. And when that’s the perception, it’s not great when you miss chances: In his first two league campaigns, he scored 20 league goals on an xG of 26.7. Nunez made his first start of the season on Saturday in the 3-0 win and scored a stunner because, occasionally, that’s what he does. He’ll have his critics, but the truth is his profile is unique among Liverpool forwards. Expect him to be part of Slot’s rotation up front.
SIX — Leverkusen late show gets the points … again … but maybe this should be a concern? We saw so many late, late goals from Xabi Alonso’s side last year that it’s tempting to take their buzzer-beating heroics for granted. It’s worth reminding ourselves — reflecting on this weekend’s dramatic 4-3 comeback win over Wolfsburg and Victor Boniface‘s 97th-minute winner — that if you need late goals to get a result, often it’s because things didn’t go right for you earlier. Never mind the four-plus expected goals: how about the 2.32 xG conceded at home? Granit Xhaka was right to sound the alarm and Alonso says he “knows what we need to do better.” Good, because there will come a day when you run out of late miracles.
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Marcotti: Erik ten Hag needs to be clearer to avoid Rashford speculation
Gab Marcotti says Erik ten Hag needs to be clearer in interviews to avoid the speculation that happened over him benching Marcus Rashford.
FIVE — Ten Hag’s messaging around Rashford isn’t helping: Marcus Rashford was benched on Sunday as Manchester United drew 0-0 at Crystal Palace and Erik ten Hag said it was just “rotation.” Highly plausible: there are a lot of games, wingers are the most likely to be rested and United have plenty of wingers. It would have been a total non-event if before the game, asked about Rashford’s resurgence this season and some of his off-the-pitch issues last year, ten Hag hadn’t served up a word salad that mixed up past and present tense, leaving in doubt (and with plenty of opportunity to take words out of context) whether Rashford had sorted his “lifestyle” issues. Instead, Rashford was out, and folks went back to his prematch words. For what it’s worth, I think he meant to praise Rashford for putting last year’s distractions behind him, but I can’t be sure. Nobody can, based on what he said. Ten Hag isn’t a native English speaker, and his job is to coach United, not come across unambiguously in news conferences. It’s situations like these where he could use some help from the phalanx of executives who joined the club over the summer.
FOUR — Roma win on Juric’s debut, but Friedkins got this one badly wrong: Quiet week at Roma, huh? On Wednesday, they sack resident legend Daniele De Rossi, infuriating most of the fan base who take it out on club chief executive Lina Souloukou. On Saturday, after receiving death threats from some of the more verminous among the supporters, she resigns. On Sunday, they fail to sell out the Stadio Olimpico for the first time in more than a year, but new boss Ivan Juric still delivers a 3-0 win over Udinese, with the supporters still furious. Talk about harming their own interests from the owners, the father-son duo of Dan and Ryan Friedkin. If you didn’t like De Rossi — who helped calm things down after they sacked Jose Mourinho — why give him a three-year contract in June? Why judge him on four games (and just the one loss) when half his team only arrived just before the window shut? And why stay silent throughout, forcing Soukoulou — if you believe she made the decision on her own, maybe you’d like to buy the Colosseum off me? — to face the most sociopathic scumbags all on her own? They’ve put hundreds of millions of their own money into the club, I get it — they can do what they like. But how do otherwise successful folks manage to make one foolish, knee-jerk decision after the other?
THREE — Luis Enrique gets a little too clever as PSG held to draw by Reims: And, if anything, they could have lost this game. Instead, they’re sharing top spot with Marseille, who won an epic “Olympico” against Lyon, playing down a man from the fifth minute. Squad rotation and trying new things are fine and all, but the side we saw Saturday had very little in the way of chemistry, and it took Ousmane Dembélé coming off the bench to save the day.
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Why Guglielmo Vicario wasn’t shown a red card against Brentford
ESPN FC’s Mark Donaldson explains exactly why by Guglielmo Vicario wasn’t shown a red card for Tottenham against Brentford.
TWO — “Chaos Theory” works for Ange Postecoglou and Spurs: Tottenham needed a win and, despite conceding almost straight from the kickoff, they got it against a credible (albeit injury-hit) Brentford. But games like this, which turn ragged pretty quickly and become more about athleticism and skill than tactics and organization, perfectly suit Tottenham right now. Take the three points, celebrate Dominic Solanke‘s first Spurs goal (a gift) and know it won’t be this straightforward every week.
ONE — Tim (Not George) Weah for Dusan Vlahovic? Thiago Motta thinks way outside the box: Thiago Motta is what Juventus needed as manager and despite three straight scoreless draws in the league, his fresh thinking and daring will ultimately benefit the club. But yeah, taking off your club’s record-signing center-forward and replacing him with Weah, who hasn’t played up front at all since Lille three years ago, is maybe a little too counterintuitive? On the night, even his dad probably wouldn’t have been enough to break down Antonio Conte’s Napoli, who despite Juve’s dominance in possession, created the most dangerous (the only?) chance in a generally dull game.
