⚽︎Friday, Dec. 8: Declan Rice Rises Above the Rest
⚽︎Friday, Dec. 8: Declan Rice Rises Above the Rest
Arsenal's £105 million signing sent them clear in midweek, but they face a stern test from giant-killing Aston Villa in the marquee match of the weekend.
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The script was written: on 96 minutes at Kenilworth Road, the ongoing controversy around Arsenal’s goalkeeping situation had been made darkly manifest by two mistakes from David Raya that would soon cost Arsenal two points. The TalkSport talkers were tuning their equipment to ARSENAL IN CRISIS levels; the critics were sharpening their tongues. And then Declan Rice rose up to send the ball—via the shoulder of Luton Town defender Gabriel Osho—tumbling into the corner. He ran off with his teammates to celebrate wildly in front of the traveling fans as Arsenal once again won a match at the death. Through the first 15 games of this season, they’ve scored in the 86th minute to defeat Manchester City for the first time in years, the 89th to overcome Brentford, and in the 96th and 101st to dispatch Manchester United.
It was Rice who drove the stake through the Red Devils, too, and it’s hard to deny that he’s writing his name into legend already in North London. £105 million? A steal. He is not just the best ball-winning midfielder in the league, and possibly across the world. He has the same gene Rodri has at Manchester City for scoring goals when none of the glittering attacking stars ahead of him can quite see things over the line, the goals that make the difference. He has made all the difference across these first 15 games. Martin Ødegaard remains the captain, and he supplied the winning cross, but Rice’s all-action leadership is something rarely seen in this league since the days of Steven Gerrard.
And yes, he saved David Raya’s ass. Imagine the almighty cacophony that would have followed Arsenal dropping points at little Luton Town on two straight goalkeeping errors from the guy who replaced the English guy. Maybe it’s too simple to boil the media furore down to that, and the critics do have a point: the Spaniard is making quite a few errors and costing his team. Aaron Ramsdale made his share last season, but he didn’t do much wrong to lose his job this term. Now that Raya is generating howlers but will surely remain the #1, it does undermine Arteta’s vision of a meritocratic squad.
Then again, he also stuck with Kai Havertz when some (me) were howling about the meritocracy, and look how that paid off. £60 million down the drain, and all that, in a week where we were served a rich reminder of how difficult it is to win games away from home in the Premier League. Manchester City went down to Villa Park and got smacked around the next night, posting two shots to the hosts’ 22. It was the fewest ever attempted by a Pep Guardiola team across 535 matches in Europe’s top five leagues, OptaJoe reports, and the joint-most shots any team of his has ever faced. City were leapfrogged by Aston Villa in the process, slipping to fourth place, and this weekend, the champions are going to … Kenilworth Road. Arsenal are headed to Villa Park. Vintage Barclays.
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THE HEADLINES
➟ 17-year-old Brazilian phenomenon Endrick has helped his boyhood club Palmeiras to an unlikely league title before he heads off to Real Madrid. The pictures are legendary. The vibes are immaculate. It’s hard to explain, but you just get the feeling from those sunglasses that this guy is going to be massive.
➟ Italian anti-doping prosecutors are seeking a four-year ban from football for Paul Pogba. It would pretty much be curtains for the 30-year-old’s career at the top level.
➟ Santos, the club of Pelé and Neymar, has been relegated from Brazil’s top division for the first time in its 111-year history. The scenes locally were not good.
➟ Marseille smashed Lyon 3-0 in the Choc des Olympiques on Wednesday. Olympique Lyonnais, who won the French title seven years in a row between 2002 and 2008, are rooted to the bottom of the league after 14 games.
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ALL ABOARD THE TEN HAG SLOG
It wasn’t a great start to the week for Manchester United when the club banned a number of news outlets from Erik ten Hag’s press conference for circulating reports that the manager had lost a large section of the dressing room. United expressed anger that the outlets in question had failed to contact the club for comment before going to print, and that’s fair enough, but the move did not scream “confidence.” Then again, a far more accomplished manager than ten Hag was known for going scorched earth on United’s enemies in the press, and it didn’t stop Sir Alex Ferguson from winning games.
It didn’t stop ten Hag either. His supposedly lost squad, terminally disconnected from their coach, went out and beat up an admittedly poor Chelsea side for long periods on Wednesday. They ran out 2-1 winners at Old Trafford thanks to a brace from Scott McTominay. Cole Palmer snatched an equalizer—and reminded us all he’s more than a penalty taker—before United reasserted control. The football hasn’t been particularly good, the vibes have been worse, but the simple fact is they’re picking up results. They had an awful time against Newcastle (and in the Champions League), but they’ve taken 12 points from the last 15 available in the Prem. They’re three points behind Pep Guardiola’s unconquerable City in fourth. Maybe we just haven’t been able to see the ETH Revolution taking shape—or maybe, yeah, the stuff they play ain’t great.
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FRIDAY
JUVENTUS vs NAPOLI
2:45pm ET on Paramount+ / 7:45pm GMT on TNT Sports 3
Napoli started off alright against Inter last weekend, but they were punished for failing to take their chances before halftime. Now they face the league’s next most dangerous team, Juventus, and the southerners won’t have the comforts of home at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. They’ll journey up to Torino, where the Bianconeri are a dominant force: they’d won five in a row at home before the 1-1 draw with Inter two weeks back, and they’re undefeated in their last nine overall. Seven of those were wins, though often by narrow margins. Napoli will hope to find a way through the Old Lady’s stubborn defense—they’ve conceded just nine in 14 Serie A matches, behind only Inter on seven—through Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the magic man.
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SATURDAY
CRYSTAL PALACE vs LIVERPOOL
7:30am ET on USA (NBC Sports) / 12:30pm GMT on TNT Sports 1
The Merseysiders head to South London in a crazy kind of form, scoring goals for fun and conceding them for less fun. It was enough to have Manny and I comparing them to Aston Villa on the podcast last week following their 4-3 victory over Fulham, as both sides can score six any day or leak three. In fairness, Liverpool kept a clean sheet in midweek. This Palace outfit are a different proposition, with just 14 goals in 15 matches, but Michael Olisé has returned from injury to bring his class to the proceedings. This side ships a few more goals than most Roy Hodgson teams, so it could be a fun one at Selhurst Park, one of the Premier League’s great grounds.
REAL BETIS vs REAL MADRID
10:15am ET on ESPN+ / 3:15pm GMT on LaLigaTV
Real visit Real, and Isco hosts his old employers after a lively start to his time in green and white. The attacking midfielder was a Merengue for nine seasons, but his first move from the world’s biggest club didn’t go so well. He was pushed out of Sevilla after just four months last season and went clubless until this summer, when he joined their crosstown rivals. Now he’s cooking with Betis, though more to the eye than on the stat sheet. He’s a delightfully dextrous player in full control of every touch and often the team’s whole passing move, though this will be the biggest test yet this season for the side sitting seventh in La Liga. Madrid are top.
ASTON VILLA vs ARSENAL
12:30pm ET on Peacock / 5:30pm GMT on SKY Sports
Coming out of last weekend, this was an exciting match that promised goals and attacking quality. But after the events of midweek, it’s become the marquee match of this weekend. Villa did not just defeat Man City at Villa Park on Wednesday, they comprehensively outplayed them, forcing the Sky Blues onto the back foot and battering them with punches. Will Unai Emery apply the same logic to this high-flying Arsenal side and challenge them for territory and possession? Luton showed in midweek that the Gunners can be disrupted in their flow, though not stopped. For that, it might require beating them at their own game, insisting the match is played closer to the visitors’ goal.
Villa certainly have the quality going forward to hurt the league leaders. That’s rarely been in question this season, with Moussa Diaby proving why he was such a hot prospect at Bayer Leverkusen and Ollie Watkins continuing to demonstrate that he is a top-shelf goalscorer at Premier League level. But then there are Villa stalwarts like John McGinn chipping in with goals and some fine combination play in the final third. On Wednesday, it was Leon Bailey. The 26-year-old Jamaican bamboozled Joško Gvardiol around the halfway line and carried the ball all the way to the edge of the box, where he roasted the Croatian again and—with the help of a chunky deflection—snatched a 1-0 lead for the Villans that they never relinquished.
It was one of Unai Emery’s finest moments as Villa manager, but there have been many. He has gone some way towards rewriting his record in England, where he first came in 2018 to perform the unenviable task of replacing Arsène Wenger at Arsenal after 22 years. It didn’t work out, but the years have shown that there was a lot working against him in North London. The outfit is organized far better these days, from the director’s box on down to Mikel Arteta. This will be a battle of the two Spaniards who gave one of the most scrutinized jobs in world football a go, but we’ll be robbed of the opportunity to see the Arsenal boss prowling the sideline next to Emery. He got a yellow card at Luton for some aspect of his celebrations after the winning goal.
That match did not represent Artetaball this season. The red shirts have sought to control matches above all else, to dominate them in the truest sense, but lately the goals have also started flowing. Gabriel Jesus’s return at center forward has provided the glue to put Arsenal’s most beautiful attacking collages together, and Bukayo Saka is simply inevitable. He scores or assists, always, and he’s up against one of the weakest links in the Villa side, a left back in Lucas Digne who prefers to go forward. Gabriel Martinelli has slipped into his menacing best on Arsenal’s other flank, too, and Martin Ødegaard is scheming again through the middle. Even Kai Havertz is scoring freely, and then there’s Declan Rice.
Arsenal are the favorites in most any game they’ll play this season, as Arteta continues to fashion the North Londoners into one of Europe’s power sides. They will expect to compete deep into this competition and the Champions League this season. Emery has found greater success at a club with more tempered expectations than those of the Arsenal faithful, but things are ratcheting up all the time. It was a crazy match at Villa Park last year, as Watkins beat William Saliba on the dribble for an early opener and Arsenal got the unlikeliest of winners from a 25-yard Jorginho strike that smacked in off Emi Martínez’s head. This time, it’s first against third in the Premier League, and it might just be a shootout.
MLS CUP FINAL: COLUMBUS CREW vs LAFC
4:00pm ET / 9:00pm GMT on MLS Pass on Apple TV+
It’s not every day a Major League Soccer match makes TFW, but this is the finalissima of American club soccer. In the semis, Columbus narrowly defeated Cincinnati in an Ohio derby, while LA dispatched the Houston Dynamo. The Crew have made three previous appearances in the final and won two, and they’ll be hoping Cucho Hernández—the league’s fourth-top scorer in the regular season with 16 goals, adding four in the playoffs—can power them to glory.
LAFC, on the other hand, are the reigning champs. They’ve got the overall top scorer in Denis Bouanga (20 regular season, four postseason) and the eternal Carlos Vela. The Mexican has been doing amazing things for years in LA, and it feels like a lifetime ago that he was a dazzling up-and-comer out of Arsenal’s academy. Oh, and there’s Giorgio Chiellini, too. The Italian legend is seeking yet another trophy in what could be his last match as a professional.
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THE FPL STOCK MARKET
↗️Tino Livramento (4.3m): The 21-year-old left back has been bombing down the flank for Newcastle and could have some goal involvements in the post. Plus, Newcastle have some favorable fixtures on the way.
↗️Fulham are putting a bit of form together, and Raúl Jiménez (£5.2m) is back amongst the goals. Harry Wilson (£5.3m) has always been a quality player, and he’s got two assists and a goal in his last three games.
↘️Sam Johnstone (£4.7m): TFW really faceplanted with this recommendation a few weeks back, but take heart that I paid the price by following my own advice. Crystal Palace face Liverpool, City, Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford, and Arsenal next, so it’s time to sell their keeper and probably their defenders.
↗️Pascal Groß (£6.3m) is in one of his purple patches for Brighton where he gets into the box and devastates defenses. And don’t look now, but is Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) back?
↗️Hwang Hee-Chan (£5.7m) is a frequent shout here for his cheap goalscoring from midfield. Mattheus Cunha (£5.6m) is getting amongst the goals and assists as well, and the Brazilian is cheap for a forward.
↘️Julián Álvarez (£7.0m) was the best player in England to start this season, and he’s still in my squad, but it hasn’t quite been happening for him recently. He’s still in my squad, and so is Bernardo Silva (£6.4m), but the faith is dwindling. Man City do have some good fixtures coming up, however.
↗️Scott McTominay? Yes, the much maligned Man United midfielder is scoring goals this season, and at £4.8m, he’s a steal.
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SUNDAY
LUTON TOWN vs MANCHESTER CITY
9:00am ET on Peacock / 2:00pm GMT on SKY Sports
The Lutonians put in a heroic display against the league leaders in midweek, using physical play to disrupt Arsenal’s flow and seizing on the Gunners’ mistakes. It may be too much to ask them to produce another such display against Man City, but hosting this kind of opposition at Kenilworth Road is why the Hatters worked so hard to win promotion to this competition. It’s worth tuning in to see what they can do, though if this becomes a dominant City snoozefest, there’s always Everton-Chelsea in this same time slot.
TOTTENHAM vs NEWCASTLE
11:30am ET on USA (NBC Sports) / 4:30pm GMT on SKY Sports
This one could go any which way. Newcastle were finding some form after an indifferent league start but crashed to a 3-0 defeat against Everton on Thursday. Tottenham started the season off flying, but a plague of injuries and some—gasp—questionable decisions from Ange Postecoglu have sent them sinking into fifth place. With the L that West Ham dealt them in midweek, they’ve lost four of their last five and won none of them. Newcastle can leapfrog them here with a victory, and they’ve looked the better side in recent weeks. Spurs have even lost their last three at home.
BARCELONA vs GIRONA
3:00pm ET on ESPN+ / 8:00pm GMT on Viaplay
One of these teams is joint-top of La Liga after 15 games, and it ain’t Barcelona. OK, the Blaugrana are third, four points behind, but in perhaps the story of the Spanish season—outside of Jude Bellingham—little Girona are only behind Real Madrid on goal difference. Granted, they’re not so little anymore from a corporate standpoint: they’re part of City Football Group, a constellation of clubs around the world led by Manchester City that’s primarily owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group. But it’s a fairytale nonetheless for a club that was relegated from Spain’s top division four years ago, and whose supporters were surely chuffed to finish 10th last term. As recently as the turn of the millenium, they were down in the fifth tier, and in 2009 they made it back into the second division for the first time in 60 years.
Girona is a charming medieval town of about 100,000 northeast of Barcelona. (It’s not even among the 10 biggest cities in Catalunya.) Now they make the short trip to their giant neighbors without a key asset: Yangel Herrera, a midfielder who gets forward fantastically well to score goals, has been ruled out with a hamstring injury. But manager Míchel has them in positional play, the kind of fluid system where players exchange positions in different zones to exploit space maximally. The Dutchman Daley Blind is involved for Girona—what a football journey he’s had—while Aleix Garcia is running the show in deep midfield to the point that he’s reportedly attracting attention from…Barcelona. He confirmed the interest was mutual this week, a bit of a no-no, but the best thing he can do to shore things up with his manager is to show the giant opposition on Sunday what they’re missing.⚽︎