The European soccer weekend delivered a ton to talk about as usual, so let’s dig in. In the Premier League, Arsenal‘s draw at Manchester United and Liverpool‘s comeback win at Southampton more or less puts the title race to bed for Arne Slot and the Reds, while Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti played their way to an ugly home win over Rayo Vallecano that had fans booing in frustration. (So what? Three points, job done.)
Elsewhere, we have plenty to discuss from Manchester City‘s latest loss (and what it says about Erling Haaland), Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Tottenham and much more. Here are some musings and reactions to the most memorable moments of the weekend.
Drawing at Old Trafford feels like a title concession for Arsenal
Sunday’s 1-1 draw away to Manchester United means Mikel Arteta’s crew are 15 points behind Liverpool, with a game in hand and a head-to-head to look forward to. Even if you assume they win them both — a huge assumption — you’d still be talking nine points with seven left. Yeah, never say never and all that, but it simply feels like way too big an ask especially when you don’t have a centerforward, as has been the case since Kai Havertz‘s injury in early February.
At some point, someone will have to explain the whole Ollie Watkins fiasco. The official line is that Arsenal were ready to bring him in during the January market, but when Aston Villa got the crazy offer for Jhon Durán from the Saudi Pro League, they stopped listening to inquiries for Watkins. OK, fine, makes sense: but then how do you not bring in another body up front, even on loan? Just so we don’t have to watch Mikel Merino attempt things he’s clearly not cut out to do?
Even without a central striker, Arsenal shaded the first half at Old Trafford against a Manchester United side down to the bare bones. (It’s not a good sign when Rasmus Hojlund is the only senior player on the bench, and when Victor Lindelöf and Christian Eriksen — two guys who won’t be back next season — are on the pitch). Bruno Fernandes‘ injury time goal, in veritable one-man-gang style from a free kick, sent United ahead going into the break.
You expected some sort of rousing Arsenal response in the second half; instead, other than the Declan Rice strike and a Martin Odegaard chance, you got very little. In fact, it was United who had the better chances and David Raya who saved the point for Arsenal with some crucial late blocks.
It’s hard to overstate how disappointing this result is for Arsenal. Since Dec. 1, United had played eight league games at Old Trafford, losing five and only beating relegation-threatened Ipswich and Southampton (the latter thanks to injury time goals). With the quarterfinals of the Champions League already in the bag — PSV Eindhoven aren’t coming back after losing 7-1 — you don’t even have the excuse of needing to rotate or being distracted by Europe. And you had two extra days to prepare, since United played on Thursday night.
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Does Arsenal need a high-profile striker?
Shaka Hislop and Frank Leboeuf debate on whether Arsenal will need a striker after a 1-1 draw vs. Manchester United.
As for United, Ruben Amorim himself said they were defensive and nearly apologised for it. I’ve said it before, their domestic season is over: these league games are basically training sessions between Europa League fixtures. I don’t need to see Lindelof and Eriksen at this point, but given he only had kids on the bench (other than Hojlund), you assume that’s why he played them.
Projecting forward, Bruno is still streets ahead of the rest of his United team, though ideally you’d play him closer to the goal. (Then again, I guess a midfield duo of Eriksen and Casemiro would amount to a turnstile in terms of mobility.) Joshua Zirkzee had his moments up front (though maybe his best position is in attacking midfield), the wingbacks did well (other than the Noussair Mazraoui miss) and Alejandro Garnacho got minutes in a position he’ll have to play if he wants to stay at the club (and if Amorim stays too). It’s baby steps along the learning curve and it’s frustrating, but they’re 14th in the table for a reason.
Real Madrid booed, but victorious, as Carlo Ancelotti does the right thing
Madrid boss Ancelotti once told me that the Bernabeu is the only place where you can be 4-0 up and still get booed: that’s how demanding the fans are. They were only 2-1 up against Rayo Vallecano in the second half on Sunday, but the crowd evidently liked neither his substitutions (Fede Valverde for Rodrygo, Eduardo Camavinga for Kylian Mbappé) nor his tactics (they played on the counter and mustered just 37% possession while taking just two shots, neither on target).
Ancelotti knows the club well enough to take it in stride, and he knows he made the right call. What mattered were the three points and with Barcelona‘s game being postponed and Atletico losing earlier in the day, this was a chance to go back to the top of LaLiga, at least temporarily. And, of course, what mattered, was keeping momentum and avoiding injury ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League round of 16 second-leg against Atleti. His approach ticked all those boxes.
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Moreno: Real Madrid were left ‘hanging on’ in win vs. Vallecano
Ale Moreno criticises Real Madrid’s failure to put the game beyond Rayo Vallecano, as Carlo Ancelotti’s men hold on for a 2-1 win.
This isn’t about being defensive: it’s about being realistic of where you are and what your priorities are. On a day when Rayo — despite some key absences — were making life very difficult for them, he made the right call. Nobody will remember the boos anyway if they get past Atleti on Wednesday anyway.
There’s no point paying Erling Haaland if you can’t get him the ball
Erling Haaland signed a monster contract through 2034 (though you probably still believe in the Easter Bunny if you think it isn’t packed with release clauses) earlier this year, and given all Manchester City’s woes — take out the FA Cup against lower league cream puffs and they’ve won two of their last seven — his 28 goals in all competitions are impressive.
Yes, he’s good, but not good enough to score if you don’t get him the ball. In Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, he touched it just 17 times, managing just two shots on goal, both in the first 15 minutes.
Yes, Forest sat deep as they usually do and space was congested. That’s how City ended up with 69% possession. But even in the footballing equivalent of a basketball “half-court” offense, you have to do better when you have a large blonde target in the centre of the attack and plenty of talent to feed him.
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Marcotti: Man City’s priority should be helping Haaland
Gab Marcotti assesses where it’s going wrong for Manchester City and believes they need to provide more service for Erling Haaland.
It’s not just the wonky defence and the Rodri-less midfield that Pep Guardiola needs to fix; it’s also what they do in the final third against teams who are well organized. That had rarely been a problem for City, until this year. But the lack of urgency and creativity is worrying.
By the way, this takes nothing away from Nottingham Forest’s spectacular campaign, which could well result in a trip back to the European big time — they’re third with 10 games to play — for the first time since the glory days of Brian Clough.
More Thiago Motta misery as Juventus get hammered at home
At some point, you slip into delusion. Thiago Motta talking about how well Juventus played against Atalanta until the penalty Weston McKennie conceded that was supposedly unjust was such a case. First off, McKennie jumps with his left arm straight up in the air like he’s hailing a cab: every time you do that in the modern game, you’re at risk of conceding penalty. There’s no argument to be made there.
Second, by that point, Juventus had taken three shots for a combined xG of 0.10 to Atalanta’s five for an xG of 0.52. You’re entitled to your own opinion; you’re not entitled to your own facts.
It also ignores what happened after the penalty because, lest we forget, Juventus were still just a goal down at the break and they managed to concede three times en route to an 4-0 home defeat.
Motta’s second-half subs felt like acts of self-harm. Teun Koopmeiners for Kenan Yildiz, so the Dutchman can play out wide, which he has never done before (while McKennie stays at No.10). Changing two defenders nine minutes into the second half because … hey, why not? Oh, and Dusan Vlahovic coming on with 15 minutes to go when you’re 3-0 down, and doing so for your other centerforward, Randal Kolo Muani because, you know, you wouldn’t want to play two up front when you’re chasing the game.
Read the room. Listen to what the Juve fans who abandoned stadium were singing. Yes, genius do weird and unusual things sometimes, but the reverse isn’t always true: you can do weird and unusual things and not be a genius.
As for Atalanta, were it not for the six points they dropped in their last three at home against Torino, Cagliari and Venezia in games they mostly dominated, they’d be top of the league. And judging by the hugs pitchside, whatever rift there was between Ademola Lookman and manager Gian Piero Gasperini has been repaired.
QUICK HITS
10. Antonio Conte’s fingerprints all over Napoli as they beat Fiorentina to keep heat on Inter Milan: In terms of performance, Napoli had already turned the corner in the draw with Inter and it continued in the 2-1 win over Fiorentina. Romelu Lukaku notched his first goal from open play in nearly two months and also served up the assist for the reborn Jack Raspadori. Conte’s usual 3-5-2 formation looked like a 4-2-4 (with Scott McTominay as the world’s biggest winger) and for an hour or so, Napoli dominated, with only David De Gea’s saves keeping Fiorentina in the game. Then came the decision to sit back, invite pressure and play on the counter — hopefully Conte discovered that it isn’t really Napoli’s thing after some hairy moments at the end. But the fact that’s getting a tune out of Raspadori and Billy Gilmour (in the absence of David Neres and André-Frank Zambo-Anguissa) has to be encouraging.
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Laurens: PSG to have ‘no fear’ in Liverpool UCL clash
Julien Laurens talks about PSG’s chances against Liverpool in their Champions League second-leg tie at Anfield, after falling to a 1-0 defeat in the reverse fixture.
9. Ousmane Dembélé hits 28 goals for the season, discovering he’s a scorer at age 27: With the Ligue 1 title virtually locked up and a trip to Anfield on Tuesday, Luis Enrique rightly made eight changes from the side that dominated (but lost to) Liverpool in the first leg and ended up 4-1 winners at Rennes. Dembele came on and played the last half-hour, possibly because at 2-1, Luis Enrique didn’t want any surprises. He scored twice in garbage time, taking his total in all competitions to 28. That’s more than his last five seasons combined. We’re not even halfway through March, he’s only started 27 games, and all but one of his goals are from open play. His transition from two-footed, athletic, tricky (but inconsistent) winger to legitimate goal machine is one of Luis Enrique’s success stories this season. It’s also the sort of feat that makes you wonder whether all his previous bosses missed a trick.
8. Inter’s comeback? Resilience is important, but quality is better… Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but in the week that featured both the Serie A and Premier League leaders needing to come from behind at home against their respective league’s cellar-dwellers, you can’t help but be reminded that once you step on the pitch, there is no points table. You have to earn it, 11 vs. 11, every time and when nobody expects much from your opponent, the pressure is off. Against Monza, Inter came unstuck by an improbable back-heel assist and a finish from a hugely gifted but maddeningly inconsistent forward, who went from rising star to 30-year-old journeyman in the blink of an eye. They came back in the second half because they’re resilient and have (a lot) more quality than the opposition, but let this be a reminder…
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Slot: I didn’t give them compliments at halftime
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has revealed that he didn’t hold back in the changing room at halftime after Will Smallbone’s goal put Southampton ahead at the break.
7. That’s three more points for Liverpool, but is Arne Slot right when he says Liverpool had a “workrate” issue? Slot and Liverpool were a goal down at home to Southampton, the league’s bottom club (who have lost 10 of their last 11 games), and his centerforward was lucky not to have been sent off moments earlier. Not only did he make three changes (Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott on for Konstantinos Tsimikas, Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai), but he made it a point after the game — which Liverpool turned around and won 3-1 – to say he “had to change because of workrate.” Most coaches know the news cycle moves quickly — especially after a home win — and he could have said nothing, but he chose to raise the issue. I think it’s a worthwhile one. Liverpool’s core players have a ton of minutes under their belt this season and the gap at the top of the table may have widened, but that was more because the chasing pack stumbled. You only need to have watched them over the past month to notice they are less sharp. It’s likely part of the reason why, despite their 1-0 win in midweek, they got their backsides handed to them by Paris Saint-Germain. And why, with the return leg coming up, Slot is pushing buttons.
6. Bayern’s B-team delivers a stinker, but we did learn something: I’m OK with heavy rotation ahead of big European ties. Your starters get some rest, you mitigate the risk of injuries and you give minutes to guys who might impress. With a healthy eight-point lead (and nine games to go), manager Vincent Kompany felt empowered to do so for the visit of second-bottom Bochum, even on the day when they unveiled their 125th anniversary kit. It backfired badly, however, and it’s not just the 3-2 home defeat that will sting, but the fact that in the first 28 minutes they took a two-goal lead, missed a penalty and somehow still contrived to lose. Other than keeper Jonas Urbig (who will likely start anyway in Manuel Neuer‘s absence) and Raphaël Guerreiro (who scored both goals) I don’t think anyone’s stock went up. (Certainly not João Palhinha, who got himself sent off in the first half.) The fact Bayer Leverkusen also lost means no damage was done in terms of the title race, but this was a real buzzkill and what’s more, Kompany’s team selection is evidence that, even at 3-0 up from the first leg in the Champions League, he has a ton of respect for Xabi Alonso and their ability to potentially turn it around Tuesday night.
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Moreno slams ‘unacceptable’ Bayern after loss vs. Bochum
Alejandro Moreno reacts to Bayern Munich’s 3-2 loss to Bochum in the Bundesliga.
5. Christian Pulisic saves Sérgio Conceição‘s job at Milan: At least, that was the buzz with Milan 2-0 down with just over 20 minutes to go against relegation-threatened Lecce. They were headed for their fourth straight defeat and the game before that — the collapse against Feyenoord that knocked them out of the Champions League — was nothing to write home about either. Having three different coaches in one season is an embarrassment, but maybe not as great as screwing up five straight games and seeing both your domestic and European campaigns grind to a halt. Lucky for Conceicao, Pulisic had other plans. After João Félix‘s badly scuffed shot bounced off an opposing defender and into the net (you need some luck too), Pulisic won and converted a penalty before scoring the winner off Rafael Leão‘s pinpoint cross. Milan’s issues run deep and while Conceicao isn’t the (only) problem, he’s clearly not part of the solution either. But there’s enough talent here to take a run a the Coppa Italia and get back into Europe with him at the helm.
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Did Christian Pulisic save Sérgio Conceição’s job?
Julien Laurens reacts to Christian Pulisic’s two-goal performance in AC Milan’s 3-2 win against Lecce.
4. Chelsea grind out win over Leicester as their Cole Palmer dependency becomes a worry: Manager Enzo Maresca was open and honest about how Cole Palmer was unwell with diarrhea (TMI, Enzo, BTW) and didn’t train before Sunday’s visit of Leicester. Maybe that’s why he missed the penalty and it could have been decisive if Chelsea had conceded on the usual Robert Sánchez blunder and Marc Cucurella hadn’t found the net in the second half. In the end, it’s three points that keeps them fourth in good shape for a Champions League slot, but it’s not a good thing that Chelsea are so Palmer-dependent that he has to play in these conditions, even at home against an opponent like Leicester who have lost five games in a row. Injuries have hit hard (Noni Madueke and Nico Jackson were both out), but this comes back to squad construction and thinking you could go into the season with just one legitimate striker (sorry, Marc Guiu).
3. Xabi Alonso is correct in calling it a “s— day” for Bayer Leverkusen: The Double Whammy of a home defeat against a Werder Bremen team that had lost five on the bounce and the ankle injury to Florian Wirtz will do that. Yes, Xabi Alonso rotated (though not as heavily as Bayern) his squad from the midweek Champions League defeat, though given the wacky lineup we saw in Munich, the more significant absentees were the wingbacks and, of course, Wirtz. An early Mario Hermoso mistake sent the visitors on their way, and the rest of the game was a fruitless siege to only reinforce the notion that fancy schemes are only as good as the guys asked to execute them. Chief among them of course is Wirtz, who came on at half-time and came off after 14 minutes with a suspected ankle injury. Needless to say, turning around that 3-0 first leg defeat without him is an even more monumental task. But the fact that Bayern lost at home and Leverkusen weren’t able to capitalise has got to hurt almost as much.
2. Atleti throw away lead and chance to go top of LaLiga as Simeone only rotates a little: We know Atletico have a deep squad. We also know that, of late, Diego Simeone hasn’t exactly used it. Against Getafe this weekend, he started nine of the XI that lost 2-1 to Real Madrid in the Champions League, and it made little difference against Pepe Bordalas’ gritty crew. Atleti managed just one shot (off target, to boot) in the first half, took the lead thanks to a generous (read: non-existent) penalty converted by Alexander Sorloth and then collapsed at the end, conceding twice after the 88th minute, the first time in 74 games that Atleti scored first and lost. “Bordalas Ball” is its own thing and with Barcelona’s game postponed, you don’t want to fault Simeone too much for not trying to pull away at the top of the table. But this sort of collapse — and the minutes on the pitch for his starters — could well come back to haunt him in midweek when Real Madrid roll into town.
1. Kepa’s blunder(s) help Tottenham rescue a point, but Ange Postecoglou is thoroughly outcoached: OK, so we know Andoni Iraola is a really, really good coach. In fact, there probably should be a separate Arne Slot-less category in the Manager of the Year award for those outside the Big Six. But to see the way Bournemouth road-graded Tottenham only underscored how a smart coach like Iraola can poke big, gaping holes in Ange-ball. Bournemouth were 2-0 up and could have had more. That they didn’t is down to a Pape Sarr hit-and-hope and Kepa’s terrible judgement in giving away that Heung-Min Son penalty with six minutes to go. Tottenham are rightly focusing on the Europa League because their domestic season ended a long time ago, but performances like this, more than the result, may end up costing their manager his job.
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