⚽︎Friday, September 8: Manchester City Should Have More Haters

They don't have enough, and it's a problem for the Premier League.

Welcome to THE FOOTBALL WEEKEND, your Friday morning rundown of all the best matches across world football over the coming weekend in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and more. Get kickoff times and broadcasters, betting odds and what to watch for—all in your inbox to mark the beginning of the end of the workweek.

There’s a dreaded International Break this week, though at least in this case it’s a window of competitive matches: qualifiers for Euro 2024, the World Cup (for South American nations) and AFCON. Breaking up the club season to play “Nations League” matches, on the other hand, should be a jailable offense. Nobody really needs to see international football in September for any reason, but the show must go on, and there are a couple of matches farther down that might be worth your time.

After the opening four games—the first 10.5%—of the Premier League season, it looks like what’s traditionally known as the Top 6 in England could now be more of a Top 8. Newcastle entered a discussion ordinarily dominated by Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Tottenham last season when they secured a Champions League place. Brighton enjoyed a fine season from front to back and earned a first campaign in Europe in club history this time around, while Unai Emery went to Birmingham last October and only a few teams in the division have taken more points than Aston Villa since.

22/23 was a down season for many of the traditional powers, and now that Tottenham and Liverpool have returned to the mix—well, the Merseysiders did get themselves up into fifth with a strong finish last season—it’s a grand old scrum in the top half of the table. The defense that made Newcastle an elite outfit last season is beginning to show cracks, and the Magpies are leaking goals. They should score more this term with the rise of Sandro Tonali and Alexander Isak, but they aren’t likely to outdo Liverpool or Spurs in that regard. Chelsea, meanwhile, are where they finished last season: 12th and looking lightweight in most departments. At some point, their status in a Top Anything will come into question. For now, the Blues will be trying to avoid slipping into that upper-mid-table bracket with their London neighbors Brentford and West Ham.

Chelsea Football Club are, as the kids say, in the mud.

Manchester United are in more profound crisis still, as their ship takes on water from every side. They’re fresh off a defeat against Arsenal that seemed to be cooked up in a lab specifically to destroy morale on the terraces and in the dressing room. Amid an injury crisis, they finished the game fielding Leicester City’s centerback pairing from 2018/19 in Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans. At the Emirates Stadium after the match, manager Erik ten Hag seemed to blame refereeing decisions for the L when a United win would have been a true smash-and-grab. Then he publicly slammed Jadon Sancho’s commitment in training. The winger—whom United bought off Borussia Dortmund for €85 million two years ago—then issued an always alarming Notes App Screenshot Tweet in which he defended himself and essentially called the manager a liar. Another United right-winger, Antony, has been dropped from the Brazilian national team following allegations of physical abuse from his ex-girlfriend. The Glazer family have poured cold water on a proposed £6 billion sale to Sheikh Jassim of Qatar after years of bad spending and fan protests against their regime, and their next two matches are against Brighton and Bayern Munich.

In the background of all this, somehow, is Manchester City. The treble winners have taken the Premier League trophy in five of the last six seasons and 12 points from 12 to start this one. But this table-topping has been met by a kind of blasé resignation, a shrug, even from fans of City’s fiercest rivals. The writing was on the wall amid the Sky Blues’ massive success last term, as plenty of Manchester United supporters—the crosstown rivals, the banter victims online and around the water cooler on Mondays—preferred that City catch Arsenal and deny the Londoners a title. The same was even true among some contingent of Liverpool supporters, even after all their knock-down, drag-out battles with City over the last half-decade. It was almost like City winning was preferable because it felt less real than an Arsenal title, or at least less remarkable.

There’s certainly a Bayern Munich Effect here, where the sheer repetition of City’s brilliant success in the league has taken a bit of shine off each trophy. Arsenal appear to be the main challengers again this season, with Liverpool (possibly) hanging around a Top 3, but are they each just reprising the role of Borussia Dortmund in Germany each season? It’s a worry for the Premier League, which brands itself as the most boisterous and competitive of Europe’s top divisions and does not want to become a foregone conclusion each year. There seems to be an extra dimension to this apathy from traditional rivals, and whether or not it has anything to do with the 115 charges or nation-state ownership or the feeling it’s all been a bit astroturfed like one of those glimmering cities in the desert sand, it’s something the decision-makers in the English game are surely thinking about.

The simple fact is that Manchester City should have more haters, not because of anything bad they may or may not have done, but because they win so much. When Manchester United (and, for that matter, the New York Yankees) were winning everything, they were almost universally reviled in other precincts, and they earned it. That Manchester City don’t enjoy that kind of hatred—that their success is greeted with such apathy—is potentially a real problem for the Premier League.

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IT’S TIME FOR A FEW BEERS

There was a time when Eden Hazard was the most terrifying sight for any Premier League defense, a prodigious dribbler with pace and trickery and a low center of gravity to rival anyone outside of Lionel Messi. He destroyed Arsenal, tortured Liverpool, flayed United. But his €115 million transfer from Chelsea to Real Madrid was quite simply a disaster, as he appeared in just 54 matches across four seasons and had seven goals to show for it. Now he’s clubless. Give him this, though: he’s got a grasp on how to enjoy the ride. The rumors swirled this week that the 32-year-old could be close to retirement after a clip surfaced from an upcoming docuseries on the Belgian national team: “Little by little, it’s time to enjoy life with my family and friends, drinking a few Jupiler beers,” Hazard said, and ain’t that the truth.

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EURO 2024 QUALIFIERS: UKRAINE—ENGLAND

Saturday 12:00pm ET on FOX Sports / 5:00pm GMT on Channel 4

The Ukrainians are more than a sympathy pick, even if this match will be played in Poland amid Russia’s war on their homeland. Oleksandr Zinchenko is a unique player in world football, a fullback-slash-midfield playmaker for Arsenal who plays a #10 role for his country. Mykhailo Mudryk could theoretically demonstrate his immense potential in a more productive way than he often does for Chelsea, while captain Andriy Yarmolenko has been a solid top-division professional with some decent end product for years.

UKRAINE+750 | DRAW+360 | ENGLAND-238

England need a few more points to ensure their qualification for next summer’s tournament in Germany, and they will be the firm favorites on neutral ground. Bukayo Saka was just crowned England Men’s Player of the Year, but the Three Lions have talent all over the pitch. Jack Grealish or Phil Foden could populate the other flank, while Harry Kane is and perhaps always will be the first name on the team sheet. There are a few questions at the back with John Stones missing, but there are next to none in midfield. Declan Rice will provide some brains and brawn following his heroics for Arsenal against Manchester United last weekend, but the real star of the show is Jude Bellingham. The 20-year-old has five goals in four matches for Real Madrid to start the season, and looks every bit the next Galáctico Inglés.

EURO 2024 QUALIFIERS: NORTH MACEDONIA—ITALY

Saturday 2:45pm ET on ViX / 7:45pm GMT on ViaPlay

The Italians will be looking to exact revenge against the country that knocked them out of World Cup 2022 before it even began. That was a different North Macedonia squad, led by the generational talent Goran Pandev, and the outlook for the nation of 2 million is not great in this qualifying session. They’ve been shipping a lot of goals, and the Italians are a young and potentially formidable side who are worth having a look at. Luciano Spalleti has has replaced Roberto Mancini at the helm following the latter’s departure to coach the Saudi Arabian national team, and he can call on Sandro Tonali and rising star Davide Frattesi along with the always dangerous Federico Chiesa.

N. MACEDONIA+900 | DRAW+425 | ITALY-313

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BALLON D’OR

France Football is out with 30 nominees each for the men’s and women’s world player of the year over the last twelve months. Aitana Bonmati is the favorite for the women’s prize after taking the Spanish league and the Champions League with Barcelona and the World Cup with Spain. For the men, the headliners are Lionel Messi, with a legacy-clinching World Cup, and Erling Haaland, who was the best player in the world over the last twelve months. The young Norwegian’s goalscoring record was alien behavior, with 51 in 50 matches played across the three competitions—Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League—that Manchester City claimed. On the merits, he ought to take home the metal orb, and if not him then it should really be Rodri.

Messi’s magic has proven irresistible for voters in years past, however, even when he hasn’t quite hit the heights of 2012. That’s when he bagged 91 goals in a calendar year. That kind of thing may be why they call him the GOAT, and the GOAT gets votes. He’s still carrying Argentina, too, at least if last night’s winner against Ecaudor in World Cup qualifying is anything to go on.

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THE FOOTBALL WEEKEND’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CONTENDERS

1. Real Madrid

2. Man City

3. Bayern

4. A.C. Milan

5. Barcelona

6. Arsenal

(in that order)

EUROPA LEAGUE:

Sevilla will finish third in their C.L. group, drop down to the E.L., and win their eighth junior European crown in 18 years.

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Speaking of which, four-time Champions League winner Sergio Ramos is headed home to Andalusia, where he was born and raised and made his debut in professional football. Ramos left Sevilla for Real Madrid in 2005, and he issued an apology to the fans on his arrival this time after what became a testy relationship over the years. It did not impress the ultras in the Biris Norte, who issued a statement condemning the move and (perhaps tellingly) the leadership at the club in general. Ramos was greeted by 22,000 fans on his arrival, however, and it’s worth noting that he’s reportedly making around €1 million a year—nearly 15 times less, according to Fabrizio Romano, than he was offered by a club in Saudi. Ramos’s tears at his unveiling, and his remembrance of how his grandfather first piqued his interest in football with Sevilla fandom, was a real shot in the arm for the game’s remaining romantics.

It was much needed the same week that The Athletic published a first interview with former Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson since his move to Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League. While back home on England duty, he told David Ornstein and Adam Crafton that his decision did not undermine his previous campaigns in support of LGBT rights and was not simply about the money. It was all a bit much, and while you can’t fault athletes for trying to set themselves up for life during a short career, at some point you have to ask the question of how much is enough.

For Angel Di Maria, whatever he’s made across a stellar career in Madrid and Manchester and Paris seems to be. He was willing to return to his roots at Benfica for any price, club director Rui Costa told the media, and while it might be some PR opportunism to play off the Saudi Exodus, it goes down a whole lot better than what Jordan Henderson is serving up.

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It’s been Ronaldo this and Messi that for as long as some fans might remember, which has left the football world at risk of forgetting that there was already a mad genius in the Nou Camp when Lionel showed up. He was back there this week for a charity match, and he’s still got it:

@sportbibleTwo ballers linking up in a legends friendly match for Barcelona 🇧🇷🤝🇦🇷 | 🎥 @Sport5 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #sportbible #ronaldinho #football #soccer #fcbarcelona #barcelona #jogabonito #brazil #brasil

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Ronaldinho represented the game in its absolute purity, that alchemy of creativity and self-expression in the proudest Brazilian tradition, though even some of those who remember him may forget just what a powerful runner he was with the ball when he was fit and firing. In those prime years, he looked destined for a place in the pantheon of world football, though somehow he ended up in a Paraguayan prison—where he still won titles. Speaking of that Ballon d’Or, he won it in 2005, and when thieves broke into his home four years later they had enough respect to leave it be.⚽️