Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FCOct 21, 2024, 10:38 AM ET
The European soccer weekend has passed, but it’s left us with a ton of things to talk about across the major leagues. In the Premier League , Liverpool edged past Chelsea in a game that honestly showed the best of both sides, while in LaLiga, Real Madrid got another gritty win despite still not looking like the juggernaut everyone expected when Kylian Mbappé joined in the summer.
Elsewhere: Barcelona welcomed back Gavi after a long injury layoff and thrashed Sevilla , Harry Kane scored a hat trick for Bayern Munich to snap his scoring drought, and Arsenal ‘s latest red card nightmare may signal something gloomier about their status as title contenders. There were also talking points galore around Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain , Bayer Leverkusen , Napoli , Manchester United and more.
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Why Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca can both be happy after Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Chelsea It’s not a surprise that Arne Slot is pleased. Liverpool won 2-1 to stay top of the table, one point ahead of Manchester City , who had beaten Wolves earlier in the day. His decision to initially rest Luis Díaz and Alexis Mac Allister , both of whom had played midweek internationals halfway around the world, was also vindicated. (Darwin Núñez was also benched at the start, but had to come on in the first half following Diogo Jota ‘s injury.) Curtis Jones , who replaced Mac Allister, showed that he can more than hang in this midfield, while Cody Gakpo showed, again, he’s a more than viable option out wide.
But what of Enzo Maresca? He said the performance was “very good” and “if there is a way to lose a game, then this is the way.” Is he deluded?
I don’t think so. Not so much for the underlying stats — 58% possession at Anfield is nice, as is all that accurate passing, but it’s only marginally relevant — but for the way Chelsea held together and looked disciplined against a quality opponent. They looked like a team; in other games even when they’ve won, too often it felt it was about their star players doing star player-type things. In fact, their star player, Cole Palmer , was somewhat muted (by his standards, anyway).
And it really shouldn’t have been this way, looking at the personnel. Reece James was making his first appearance of the season, Romeo Lavia and Tosin Adarabioyo their second league starts, Malo Gusto was forced to decamp to left back. And yet the system held, with Liverpool forced to defend for longer stretches than they would have liked.
Despite win, all is not well at Real Madrid … and not just because of Ancelotti’s tactical tweaksCarlo Ancelotti has talked all season along about finding “balance,” and it’s not hard to see why. For all the attacking riches in the shape of Kylian Mbappe, Vinícius Júnior , Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo , these are four players who all tend to gravitate to the left. Throw in the fact that work off the ball isn’t always a priority — especially for the first two — and it’s not hard to see how he’d be tempted to tinker with his formation.
Saturday, away to Celta, it meant a 3-4-2-1 formation that meant Rodrygo was dropped, Bellingham was deployed on the right and Aurélien Tchouaméni operated as a third centre back. Real Madrid won 2-1, but don’t let that fool you. One goal was a ridiculous individual effort from Mbappe, while the other came courtesy of a genius assist from substitute Luka Modric who, at 39 — and officially Madrid’s oldest ever player — can only be counted on so often. Celta won the xG battle (1.82 to 0.74) and Thibaut Courtois (him again…) had to make two out-of-this-world saves: one from Williot Swedberg , one from Jonathan Bamba .
Rumors of Harry Kane’s demise are greatly exaggerated, but don’t let a big win over Stuttgart fool youThere’s nothing better than a hat-trick to silence the doubters and Harry Kane did just that, hitting the net three times in Bayern’s 4-0 win over Stuttgart. The goals ended a drought that lasted — including his England appearance — nearly 400 minutes, which is an eternity for a centerforward of his calibre considering the sort of service he usually gets. It’s probably not a coincidence that the spell coincided with Bayern dropping points in three games and England not exactly ripping it up against Finland.
Red cards loom large for Arsenal, at Bournemouth and in title challenge tooOK, Premier League referee boss Howard Webb fiddling on his phone with an old school wired earpiece while William Saliba ‘s challenge on Evanilson went to VAR was not a good look. Maybe put the phone away during the game, or don’t sit in the stands if you’re going to use it during crucial moments, but make no mistake about it. Given where the foul was committed and where the covering defenders were, that’s a red card every day of the week — and with good reason. It’s precisely what we don’t want to see: a foul denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Yet when stuff like this happens, you need to react. Arsenal weren’t great — they were missing Bukayo Saka in addition to Martin Odegaard — but they still carved out two very good chances, which Mikel Merino (making his first start) and Gabriel Martinelli missed. Then again, they were also outwitted on Ryan Christie ‘s set-piece routine — maybe slow down on the whole “set-piece coach” genius thing for a while — and gave away a needless penalty to win the game. Andoni Iraola is one of the most underrated coaches around, but Mikel Arteta is correct when he says: “We kicked ourselves in the foot.” And he wasn’t just talking about Saliba or Leandro Trossard ‘s awful backpass that played him into trouble, either.
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8. Fonseca’s hard line pays dividends as ten-man Milan beat Udinese : Just about every coach talks the talk (“every member of the squad is equally important”), but not everyone walks the walk the way Fonseca does. He could have let the pre-break embarassment of Milan’s silliness against Fiorentina slide. Instead, he acted by dropping Rafael Leão , and he probably would have dropped Theo Hernández too if he wasn’t suspended. Milan took the lead through Samuel Chukwueze , played more than an hour with 10 men after Tijani Reijnders’ red card, and still saw out a 1-0 win over Udinese. In so doing, they showed the kind of unity, professionalism and grit that their fans have been crying out for all season. Some coaches are indeed as good as their word.
7. Ten Hag finds motivation wherever he can as Man United snap their winless streak: Ten Hag & Co. went into the break a goal down and furious at the referee for twice making Matthijs De Ligt come off the pitch to get patched up after he injured himself in a wild challenge. De Ligt’s head and face were covered in blood and the rules are pretty clear despite Ten Hag’s insistence that “it was dry blood.” The fact that he was off the pitch when Brentford went a goal up only infuriated him further, and he said the team “used it as fuel” for the second-half comeback that resulted in a 2-1 win. More than the “fuel” argument, I’d chalk it up to the fact that Marcus Rashford on the right can show off his perceptive passing, Alejandro Garnacho is a baller and Rasmus Hojlund is a cool finisher. That, and the fact that Brentford — when they’re missing this many players — aren’t good whereas United kept their belief until the end. Ten Hag can say his job isn’t on the line (“fairytales and lies”), but his state of mind speaks volumes.
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FRIDAY, OCT. 25 (all times ET) Mainz vs. Monchengladbach (2:20 p.m.) Espanyol vs. Sevilla (2:50 p.m.)
SATURDAY, OCT. 26(all times ET) Valladolid vs. Villarreal (7:50 a.m.) Augsburg vs. Dortmund (9:20 a.m.) RB Leipzig vs. Freiburg (9:20 a.m.) Werder vs. Leverkusen (12:20 p.m.) PSV Eindhoven vs. PEC (12:40 p.m.) Real Madrid vs. Barcelona (2:50 p.m.)
SUNDAY, OCT. 27 (all times ET) Bochum vs. Bayern Munich (10:20 a.m.) Getafe vs. Valencia (11:05 a.m.) Union Berlin vs. Frankfurt (12:20 p.m.) Betis vs. Atletico Madrid (1:20 p.m.) Ajax vs. Willem II (2:55 p.m.)
5. Lautaro Martínez enters the history books for Inter: The 1-0 win away to Roma was a “grown-up” (read: unspectacular and results-focused) performance and Lautaro Martinez was the difference maker, scoring the only goal. I’m not sure I’d go as far as Simone Inzaghi, who says he’s a top five player in the world, but after a slow September, he’s hitting his stride nicely and his goal makes him Inter’s greatest-ever foreign goalscorer. Roma were poor and fearful, the rumblings among the fans don’t help, and Inter took advantage without risking too much.
4. Paris Saint-Germain’s youth project continues with Senny Mayulu : Maybe load management for veterans plus kids to eat minutes in Ligue 1 isn’t an official Luis Enrique policy. But it’s working, in no small part because PSG’s homegrown kids are just that good. Warren Zaïre-Emery , Yoram Zague , Ibrahim Mbaye and now Senny Mayulu have all started in Ligue 1 this year … and all are still teenagers. For that matter, so is Desiree Doue (who is not homegrown). PSG mixed it up against Strasbourg (with six plausible starters left out) and it was Mayulu who stole the show, opening the scoring en route to a 4-2 win.
3. Criticism of Juventus is wide of the mark at this stage in the season: Yes, Juventus did not exactly turn on the style in their 1-0 win over Lazio Saturday. The build-up is too slow, and there’s a lack of directness. That’s not a reason to beat up Thiago Motta though. Lazio going down to 10 men after 23 minutes didn’t help, as their opponents went into lockdown mode. And without Nico Gonzalez, Federico Conceicao and Teun Koopmeiners , they won’t have the same attacking oomph, which is understandable. Juve have yet to concede from open play, they’re third in Serie A , they’ve won both their Champions League games, the new boss just arrived… chill out.
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Nicol: VAR deserves praise after Man City’s late winner vs. Wolves
Steve Nicol reacts to the late VAR call that gave Man City a 2-1 win over Wolves in the Premier League.
2. Late Stones goal controversy overshadows other issues in Man City’s win: It hurts to concede in the 95th minute, but the reality is that John Stones ‘ winner in the 2-1 Manchester City win away to Wolves should have stood: Bernardo Silva was not offside when he was interfering with goalkeeper José Sá (there is no offside on corner kicks) and by the time he could be offside (when Stones headed the ball) he wasn’t affecting play. That’s pretty obvious. The three points are big for Pep Guardiola, but the game showed there’s plenty to work on. For the fourth time in their last seven games, City went a goal down (and it could have been two down, if not for an Éderson miracle) and despite having over 75% possession, they looked sterile with the ball. Credit Wolves, who are much better than the table suggests, but there are things for Pep to work on.
1. Gilmour isn’t Lobotka (not yet, anyway) as soft penalty at Empoli keeps lackluster Napoli top of Serie A: Those who only look at results won’t care, but I assure you Antonio Conte does, which is why he said “anyone who has a headache can tell me and I’ll play someone else.” I’m not sure he was talking about anyone in particular (though Romelu Lukaku looked especially off the pace), but when Napoli play like this, he’s right to be concerned. A lot of the criticism is directed at Billy Gilmour , handed the play-making role in Stanislav Lobokta’s absence. He wasn’t great, but this was his first league start. Let’s give him a bit of time, shall we?
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