A breezy Saturday afternoon in Stoke
So United’s imperious image is finally shattered as they drop their first points of the season. But it perhaps goes a bit further than that. As we’ve said on this site before, since Stoke were promoted in 2008 all of the English champions have won there with a very late winner – United themselves, of course, doing so twice. And in the end, history should have repeated itself. Ryan Giggs should have finished Nani’s delightful ball in the 92nd minute, United might have had a penalty.
To be fair, the result would have been harsh on Stoke who well might have snatched victory themselves. Peter Crouch may have scored the equaliser but he was also guilty of squandering two other gilt-edged chances. And, in truth, his goal owed more to United’s appalling error in central defence as opposed to the striker’s quality. Phil Jones lost him and Rio Ferdinand watched him.
To be fair, that partnership only came about because Johnny Evans suffered an injury in the warm-up. And that seemed to be a theme of the weekend. United had to persevere without Javier Hernandez – who went off injured – and Wayne Rooney, who did his hamstring in training yesterday.
In truth, the real difference between United’s first five games and this draw at Stoke was the absence of Rooney, who has been influential with his goals this season. But, despite the fact that United didn’t get the win that would have sent out a real statement for this season, it’s their previous form which ensures this isn’t as important as it might have been. The injuries are much more significant.
City limits
Make no mistake, this 2-0 win was something of a statement from City.
After a difficult week in which they’d dropped their first points of the season, they now faced a difficult first fixture.
Everton, after all, have one of the best records against Mancini in the division and appeared to set themselves up in a similarly successful manner for the first hour of the game.
Given such a situation, City might have been forgiven for dropping the points.
Except, this season, the situation is meant to have changed for City. They’re no longer just chasing the Champions League. They’re trying to prove they can keep pace in what is likely to be a relentless title race with Manchester United.
As such, this was an impressive show of character.
It wasn’t quite an impressive show of quality for the team as a whole though. City, of course, have a hugely impressive array of creativity. The only problem is that it’s top-heavy. They have a lot in attack but not much in terms of getting it there. With both the powerful Yaya Toure and more prosaic Gareth Barry in the very centre, they don’t have a true passer behind the impressive front four. As such they can look disconnected when they encounter such rigid opponents.
In saying that, as long as they have Sergio Aguero attempting to solve such problems, they’ll always have a chance. His run across the box was of the highest quality given how he took four Everton defenders out of position in order to set up Mario Balotelli.
And, to finish the game, Silva’s through-ball was of equal excellence.
The one issue with this is that relying in individual ability to come through every time is risky. Rather, you need the team to be a cohesive system that offers its own array of angles – as opposed to just one or two players. This means you can cope when they are off form, injured or marked out of the game.
City are far from the finished article. But they’re lucky that both Silva and Aguero certainly are.
Spanish inquisition
At Stamford Bridge, the attention will understandably fall on Fernando Torres’s red card. In that, he almost seems to have become a tragicomic figure. Last week, a fine finish was followed by a worse miss. This week, another good goal and assist followed by a horrible two-footed tackle. At the moment, he can’t seem to take one step forward without taking another back.
Except, when you actually look at all of his other steps, there can be little argument that Torres is not returning to form. Sure, the miss and red card may hint at a character not fully content with his form yet. But then a player is never going to go from awful to exceptional in such a short space of time. There has to be an interim period.
And Torres’s is being enhanced by Juan Mata. Today, the Spanish midfielder fed his compatriot striker with a clever pass. It seems like it’s going to be a combination we hear a lot of this season.
What’s more, the move – and the dropping of Frank Lampard that effectively enabled it – were a tacit approval of Torres’s recent comments on Chelsea from manager Andre Villas-Boas. This is a shape of things to come.
Just like Torres, the team is nowhere near the best yet. But there were times were they hinted at real promise again – particularly in the way the attack swarmed all over Swansea.
With his energy and goalscoring prowess, too, Ramires will become a contender for team of the season if he can keep this form up.
Arsenal firing again
Crisis? What crisis? Arsene Wenger can now point to the one at vanquished Bolton.
At the very least, this 3-0 win illustrates that the effects of early-season form can be overstated. With clubs adjusting to transfers and squads having to take shape, problems can be amplified out of proportion.
As Wenger constantly points out, his experience does matter. And it will surely see Arsenal rise steadily up the table eventually.
All the same, today was a vital win in order to prove that and restore confidence.
But it also leaves one doubt: Robin van Persie is now Arsenal’s undoubted marquee player. He’s reported to have told teammates that he’ll give the club only one more season unless things improve. Ironically, it’s his form that could prevent that. He smacked in his 99th and 100th goals for the club today, putting a polish on a previously patchy performance.
But then the fact that those goals came in so few games perhaps explains some of theose problems. Had Van Persie not suffered so many injuries over the past few years, then Arsenal might have been in much better shape. At the least, that’s how they look after today.
Many happy returns for Liverpool
Luis Suarez back scoring, Andy Carroll back looking some way sharp, Steven Gerrard back on a pitch and Liverpool back winning after two successive defeats. The club should be very content tonight.
The only caveat, however, is that which has persisted throughout Kenny Dalglish’s second coming. We still don’t really know how good this team are. Yes, they were often exquisite and, yes, Suarez emphasised that more than anyone. But Wolves still made life very difficult for them and would have snatched a result on another day. Indeed, the suspicion remains that would have been the case were it not for Suarez. The quality gap between himself and the rest of the team (as well as, it must be admitted, much of the Premier League) is notable.
You also couldn’t help but notice the act of petulance as he got taken off for Gerrard 10 minutes from the end. We’ve seen that a few times from Suarez, often when he’s excoriating either Jordan Henderson or Carroll for a poor pass.
Certainly, Dalglish is going to have to continue to elevate the rest of the team to his level in order to banish those caveats.
Quick hits
- Newcastle seem to have at last solved their scoring problem. It took him a while, but Demba looked like there are a lot of goals in him during his brief period at West Ham last year. He was immense today.
- Tottenham suddenly look the most convincing side in the race for fourth. They should have been out of sight in the victory over Wigan today, with Gareth Bale – in particular – repeating some of last season’s Inter form.
