Man United earn Liverpool draw, Pellegrini redeemed at Roma, more: Marcotti recaps the weekend

We’re back! The Christmas/New Year period brought us plenty of good soccer to dissect, with the first weekend of 2025 no different when it came to talking points. Despite having a chance to extend their lead atop the Premier League, Liverpool had to settle for a spirited home draw against a Man United side that is finally showing signs of a turnaround under Ruben Amorim. (The Reds also picked a bad time for their most tired, uninspired performance of the season.)

In Spain, Real Madrid surged to the top of LaLiga with a win over troubled Valencia before heading off to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Supercup, while Barcelona welcomed back a key player from a long-termi injury in their Copa del Rey cakewalk. The German Bundesliga is still on winter break, but Italy‘s Serie A gave us a captivating Rome derby in which struggling Roma toppled their high-flying Lazio rivals in the game of the weekend. Elsewhere, there were talking points galore for Manchester City, Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa.

Let’s get to it. Here are musings and reactions to the most memorable moments of the weekend.

Liverpool at their worst, Man United at their best … and it’s still a draw as Arne Slot’s team dominate the expected goals

Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the above is true, given that Liverpool have twice as many points in the Premier League (and, still, a game in hand) and have lost as many games in the past year (six) as United lost in December alone. On a day when the midfield wasn’t dominant, when the back line showed plenty of holes and when the forward went A.W.O.L. for long stretches, Liverpool still put together an xG of 2.82 (to United’s 1.05) in a 2-2 draw.

Of course, performance matters — not just production — and Arne Slot will be reflecting on what went wrong on Sunday. The fact that he still brought on Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota for Luis Díaz and Curtis Jones after Cody Gakpo put them 2-1 up speaks volumes. Defending the lead was the last thing on his mind: he wanted to turn the game (and the performance) around.

For the first hour or so, Liverpool looked a little flat and you wonder if that isn’t partly down to the fact that some players may be feeling the effects of fatigue. Virgil Van Dijk has played every minute of every game in the Premier League and Champions League, while Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah have started every game in those two competitions. Slot rotates less than other managers, and that may need to change going forward if they are to keep their sharpness.

That doesn’t explain their defensive frailties, but then they’ve always been there. Andrew Robertson was late on Amad Diallo’s goal, but he’s been slowing down this season. Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s deficiencies off the ball are nothing new and no, they have nothing to do with his contractual issues. He simply has lapses and if you’re going to have him in your lineup for what he gives you on the attacking end — and let’s face it, other than Salah, few on this team are as good at creating something from nothing as Alexander-Arnold — you need to make tactical accommodations. In the 4-2-3-1 set-up, he’s simply more exposed, especially with a half-fit Ibrahima Konaté at the back, which is why we may see Slot tweaking the system to mask his weaknesses. (Or not: there’s also an argument that there’s no point switching things up if he’s going to be out of there in a few months.)

Of Liverpool’s shortcomings Sunday, the only one that really ought to be a concern is the aforementioned lack of intensity and legginess. That could mean making moves in the January window.

7. Is Leon Bailey what Aston Villa have been missing: After taking Aston Villa to fourth place (and the Europa Conference League semifinals) last season, this year was always going to be uphill for Unai Emery, what with the added stress of the Champions League and a squad that isn’t substantially bigger than last year (Ross Barkley, Amadou Onana, Ian Maatsen and Jade Philogene in, Moussa Diaby, Douglas Luiz, Álex Moreno, Nicolò Zaniolo and Clément Lenglet out). Missing too have been Leon Bailey’s goals. Last year he had 10 in the league alone (14 overall), all of them from open play. The winner he scored Saturday in the 2-1 win over Leicester was his first of the campaign. Villa’s squad is stretched and players will understandably have ups and downs. But if Bailey can find his “ups” in the latter half of the season — as some of his teammates might decline — Villa will be in the mix for a Champions League spot. And with his contract up in June (though the club have an option to extend it by a year), he’ll be helping himself too.

6. Paris Saint-Germain down Monaco at home in French Supercup: Or, as they call it, the “Trophee des Champions.” And yes, I use the term “home” lightly, but aptly, because it was in Doha. (I’m glad they’re getting some use out of those stadiums, though it’s weird that it was played at Stadium 974, the one made out of shipping containers that was supposed to be disassembled after the World Cup only to still be there over two years later.) PSG had the upper hand for most of the game and should have put things to bed earlier against a lacklustre Monaco. Instead, they had to wait for injury time and Ousmane Dembélé‘s winner. Dembele again played at centerforward, with Bradley Barcola and Gonçalo Ramos on the bench. I’ve given up on trying to figure out Luis Enrique, but Dembele is up to double figures in goals on the season and I guess those are centerforward numbers.

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Chelsea ‘going in the right direction’ despite draw with Palace

ESPN’s Janusz Michallik believes Enzo Maresca has Chelsea going in the right direction despite dropping two points at Crystal Palace.

5. Can we agree that Enzo Maresca was right and Chelsea aren’t ready? Being ready isn’t just about outplaying the opposition, but about getting the details right. This weekend’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace highlighted the fine margins. Against an opponent who are better than their league position suggests (Palace lost just once since early November), Chelsea can pinpoint three moments that went against them: the two Nico Jackson misses (one of them which he took, weirdly, with the outside of his boot) and Cole Palmer giving the ball away (or being needlessly played into trouble, take your pick) ahead of the Palace equalizer. It’s these margins that separate title contenders from young teams that are still developing. Chelsea are the latter.

4. Good and (self-inflicted) bad for Barcelona after cup win: It’s the Barcelona way these days, as there’s always a Yang for every Yin. The good news is that Ronald Araújo played 90 minutes in the 4-0 win at fourth-tier Barbastro in the Copa del Rey. The game itself — beyond some stat-padding for Robert Lewandowski, who took his seasonal total to 25 — was otherwise unremarkable, but the return of Araujo, out since his injury in the Copa America last July, is big. If they’re going to mount a title challenge in the second half of the campaign, they can’t rely solely on Pau Cubarsí and Iñigo Martínez. The bad, unsurprisingly, is the Dani Olmo situation after Barcelona’s third appeal to re-register him was rejected. It’s pretty simple: there are rules and there are deadlines, and they’re not being respected. Barca say they’re going to court as they see the denial as a technicality. Fine. But the irony of all this is that they risk losing a player who cost them a fortune and who they didn’t really need to begin with.

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Should Brighton’s penalty against Arsenal have been overturned?

Gab & Juls discuss the penalty William Saliba conceded during Brighton vs. Arsenal.

3. Depleted Arsenal aren’t quite the same thing, but Mikel Arteta right to be angry: Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard are Arsenal’s three biggest attacking threats and when they take the pitch without all three (though Odegaard did play the last half hour), it’s not going to be quite the same thing. Brighton may be winless in eight games after this weekend’s 1-1 draw, but they’re a tough out and an awkward opponent and, after taking the lead through Ethan Nwaneri (fine performance, but he’s a totally different player from Saka), they were on the back foot for much of the second half. Still, the result would end up hinging on the penalty, awarded when William Saliba appeared to mistime his header and instead struck Joao Pedro in the face with his head. The dynamic of the incident was odd, and odder still was the fact that VAR showed Saliba also made contact with the ball. Arteta was furious, saying he’d “never seen a penalty like this.” That makes two of us (probably more). I suppose if you apply a very twisted, child-like logic and you treat an attempted header like an attempted clearance with your boot — at the same time ignoring the fact that Saliba makes contact — you can sort of see the reasoning behind the decision… but man, that was weird.

2. Sérgio Conceição gets shot at trophy right away after replacing Paulo Fonseca: It’s a Milan derby on Monday night in the Italian Super Cup (played — why not? — in Saudi Arabia yet again) and for the new Rossoneri boss, it’s a chance at immediate silverware. At least, that’s the line peddled. I seriously doubt any Milan fan will judge Conceicao or the decision to ditch Fonseca based on what happens in the Super Cup. Most see it for what it is: a manufactured “final four” that generates Saudi revenue and not much else. Milan weren’t great in his first outing — the comeback win against Juventus — and they’ll need to step it up against Inter. The odd thing about the Conceicao choice is that his style of football feels like a departure from what they tried to do under Fonseca. With the shadow of superagent Jorge Mendes luring in the background, you hope it doesn’t also mean a shift away from the philosophy of pushing younger players and aggressive front-foot football too.

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Are Man City starting to find their form after West Ham win?

ESPN’s Mark Donaldson and Janusz Michallik give their immediate reaction to Man City’s 4-1 at home to West Ham.

1. Back-to-back wins for Man City, but Pep Guardiola is still grumpy (and you can see why): Pep Guardiola could lie to himself (and to us) and talk about how consecutive victories mean they’re now just three points from third place, Savinho had turned the corner, Erling Haaland was scoring again and normal service had resumed in the 4-1 win over West Ham on Saturday. Instead, he talked about how the performance was “not good”, how they’re not composed and how they’re not working the way they should. He’s right. West Ham could have been a couple goals up early (Rúben Dias‘ absence can’t be an alibi for how poor the defending is), Savinho’s opener was deflected and they were again far too vulnerable in transition. Facing reality, which is what he’s doing, is the first step in fixing things.