Goal of the week
Welp, Manchester City has taken notes from the NBA and figured out how to put screens on set pieces.
Time for all of us to pack up and go home, I think.
City’s opener in the 1-1 draw against Liverpool was a moment of magic from Kevin De Bruyne, with the helping hand of a crafty set-piece. Nathan Aké chose Liverpool player Alexis Mac Allister and made room for Johannes Stones to drive from the center of the penalty area to the near post for a tap-in. But it was De Bruyne who did the heavy lifting. His cross required speed, bend and accuracy – and De Bruyne delivered.
It was a rare bright spot in an otherwise unusually sloppy City performance. They were absent-minded with the ball and cut open too often without the ball. Liverpool’s intensity turned the pitch into a blur, with City giving the ball away at an unusually high clip; it was the first time this season that Pep Guardiola’s team had been held below 50% possession. They conceded a cheap penalty in the second half and were fortunate not to fall behind, with Luis Díaz missing a hat-trick of chances and Jérémy Doku almost conceded a penalty in the 98th minute.
The draw keeps City (narrowly) ahead of the title sweepstakes, despite falling to third place in the league. They host Arsenal in a must-win match at the Etihad on March 31. A win at home would give City an advantage over Liverpool, who have a more difficult run-in and a long list of injuries.
Player of the week
How many teams are kidding themselves when they give Liverpool the chance to take it Alex MacAllister for 35 million euros? MacAllister was partly to blame for City’s opener, but he leveled the score early in the second half with a penalty and kept the show going for 100 breathless minutes.
Mac Allister was Liverpool’s best player. In a fiery atmosphere, he brought calm and purpose to Liverpool’s attack and led the team’s press. Only Liverpool’s central defenders saw more of the ball.
“Pep probably saw it too,” Jurgen Klopp said after the match. “How we played through their midfield today – some of the best moments of my coaching career to be honest.”
Mac Allister was at the center of it all. In Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence, he has become the team’s creative hub. The player was sitting in the middle of the pitch around which the Liverpool striker revolves. Mac Allister has scored, assisted or been involved in the build-up of the last seven Liverpool goals he has been on the pitch.
And he has had just as much of an impact when he has not been in possession. Mac Allister set his sights on Rodri early on Sunday, knowing that stopping City’s metronome was the quickest way to generate counters. You can count on one hand the number of times Rodri has had the ball this season; Mac Allister robbed the ball from Rodri twice on Sunday. That has only happened twice this season. One of those? When Rodri faced Mac Allister at home in November.
Trainer of the week
And now for your weekly reminder of that Gary O’Neil is cooking something special at Wolves. A 2-1 win over Fulham on Saturday lifted the club to ninth place, just six points behind Manchester United in sixth. With ten games to go, a European place is within reach.
It’s worth remembering where the club was when O’Neil inherited the job on the eve of this season. O’Neil made a resurgence just four days before the start of the competition following the shock resignation of Julen Lopetegui. For most teams, those preseason antics would have set up a long, hard relegation job. Instead, O’Neil bet he could squeeze more out of this squad.
It worked. The win over Fulham was Wolves’ twelfth of the season, an improvement on last season. O’Neil has internalized a long-held Premier League maxim for those without the resources of Manchester City: to win big, you have to master every style. O’Neil’s team changes from week to week. Few managers are better at coming up with one-off game plans.
There is a shortage of young managers, we are told, who can step into the shoes of the big beasts. But in his early career, O’Neil has hit all the checkpoints. He kept Bournemouth in the league before they dumped him in the hope of bringing in a more exotic style. At Wolves he found himself in one of the most corrosive situations in the league – and has led his team to the top half of the table. As resumes go, that’s pretty, pretty good.
One of the biggest swing factors of this summer will be whether Wolves can keep O’Neil once the managerial merry-go-round starts turning. The club has already spoken to O’Neil about extending his contract. But those considering Brentford’s Thomas Frank or Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi should take a closer look at O’Neil.
Controversy of the week
Kai Havertz scored a late winner to give Arsenal a 2–1 win over Brentford, putting them top of the table.
But Havertz was lucky to still be on the field. Havertz was elbowed in the first half while jumping for a header, but fell into the box midway through the second in search of a penalty. The scam didn’t work, although Havertz didn’t see a second booking.
“Havertz is a clear, clear dive,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank said after the match. “I wish they would just admit it. That should of course have been a second yellow and a red card. And then he wouldn’t be able to score the winner and hopefully we might have gained a bit more momentum, maybe win the game.”
The ‘what were you thinking?’ price
When the Guardian Weekend Awards rise to power and take over the Premier League Hall of Fame, John McGinn’s swipe at Tottenham’s Destiny Udogie will be a first round of voting in the ‘what was he thinking’ wing.
Villa imploded against Spurs on Sunday. They were 2-0 down before McGinn was shown a red card. After his dismissal, Tottenham ran out a comfortable 4-0 winner.
Unai Emery made a change at the back, switching from his traditional 4-4-2 formation to a 5-3-2 to try to contain Tottenham’s mobile front line. The plan failed. And then Villa’s captain seemed to lose his head.
McGinn’s reckless challenge cost Villa more than a chance to get back into the game. The midfielder will miss the team’s next three matches, including a trip to Manchester City. And that’s on top of losing Boubacar Kamara for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
The defeat to Spurs could be a momentum-swinging result in the race for the top four: Villa now have two key players behind them, Spurs still have a game in hand and the four-goal margin puts the goal difference in favor of Tottenham strike. Villa have not played in the Champions League for 40 years, back when it was still the European Cup, and there were signs on Sunday that they were starting to feel the pressure.
Disappointing performance of the week
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Everton struggled in front of goal in a frustrating defeat. For major stretches of their 2-0 defeat at Manchester United, they were the better team. While United looked disjointed in the opening ten minutes, Sean Dyche’s side had a clear plan. And then Everton gave away a cheap penalty in the 12th minute. And then they gave away an almost identical one in the 36th minute.
They continued to search for the rest of the match but missed out on a lead in the final third. It was emblematic of Everton’s form over the past three months: they have not won a league match since December 16.
United’s performance had a common theme. Everton have scored just 29 goals this season, despite an xG of 48. They have not scored in eleven league games this year. In open play they have been beaten 22-14 this season, despite achieving an xG of 30 in open proceedings.
As always with a Dyche team, they rely on set pieces, scoring 15 times from corners or free kicks – one better than their return with the ball in play. You’d like to think that luck will turn in Everton’s favor at some point. Dyche continues to point to xG and other dorkier stats as evidence that Everton are playing above their record. But at some point you are what your goal count says you are.
The lack of a clinical touch in and around the penalty area reduces Everton’s margin for error. They have to get the little things right to stay afloat. At United they lost their cool in both boxes and cost themselves at least a point.