This weekend in the Premier League, Manchester City lost their first match of the season, Roberto Firmino stated his case for being Liverpool’s best player, and Romelu Lukaku and Christian Benteke impressed as Everton drew with Crystal Palace.
Tottenham loss is no disaster for City
Matthew Miranda, @MMiranda613
The international break arrives, and what have Manchester City to show for the season so far? They’ve added Pep Guardiola, the mother of all managers. John Stones was brought in. Ditto Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane. Vincent Kompany returned (then, as required by law, was re-injured). The youth academy is an ever-expanding supernova of star power. They opened with 10 wins in 10 games in all competitions.
Yet City top the table by just a point over Spurs and two over Arsenal and Liverpool after falling 2-0 at White Hart Lane — this after needing three equalizers midweek to escape Celtic Park with a draw in the Champions League. Perhaps the coronation of King Pep was premature. Perhaps the new City are a lot like last year’s City, who won their first four in the league to build a 10-game winning streak of their own (extending back to the end of the 2014-15 campaign).
That City, you’ll recall, were led by Manuel Pellegrini, hired and publicly tasked with delivering five trophies in five seasons. He was on three in three when City made the somewhat awkward decision to hire Guardiola while Pellegrini still had three-and-a-half months left on the job. So what to make of the team’s recent performances? What to say when the consensus premiere Premier League power enjoys only the slimmest of leads?
City lost an exhilarating affair to a team strong enough to be the best team in England on any given day. City would beat a lot of teams if Sunday’s performance was copied and pasted against future opponents. This loss didn’t and doesn’t change anything.
An early golden chance was wasted, one that could have easily set a new course for the game and the league table. Jesus Navas got the ball in the penalty area, juked right (eliciting sarcastic shock all across the blue side of Manchester) and delivered a perfect cross (eliciting sincere shock across the blue side of Manchester). David Silva fluffed his lines, and while the consequent corner bounced around the 6-yard box for a while, it was cleared and the danger was averted. City were that close to the lead and to downhill momentum.
Minutes later, an own-goal by Aleksandar Kolarov gave Spurs the lead. Erik Lamela found Danny Rose on the left wing and Rose hit a cross that Kolarov had to misplay to an astonishing degree to knock into the net. Immediately after the goal Tottenham threatened again when Dele Alli drove down the center of the field and laid it off to Son Heung-Min, who forced a save from Claudio Bravo.
The buildup to the second goal saw Spurs pushing the action, which they did throughout the game, pressing all over the pitch as Celtic had days earlier. An Alli pass near the edge of the penalty area was deflected by Pablo Zabaleta. Both Nicolas Otamendi and Fernando relaxed for a moment, thinking the attack had been defused. But while they stopped running, Alli continued, Son found him perfectly, and just like that it was 2-0.
Much was made of the Celtic game, the first City failed to win this season, providing a blueprint for future opponents. The Citizens’ schedule has been difficult of late and it will get no easier after the international break — they host Everton before traveling to Barcelona, where the tiki-masters face their taka-padawans.
But it’s important to acknowledge City’s draw and defeat came against good Champions League teams. Celtic and Spurs may have shown everyone the most effective way to hurt City, but few teams have the talent and discipline to copy them.
Manchester City are not Les Invincibles. What of their rivals? Last year’s champs, Leicester, sit 12th, having already lost as many games as they did all of last season. Arsenal needed a possibly-offside, probably-handled injury-time goal to best Burnley. Liverpool are third and would sign up today to end there. United are sixth after failing to finish off winless Stoke at Old Trafford. Chelsea dream of finishing in fourth, a position they once sneered at Arsenal for aspiring to. Spurs are off to their best start in 50 years, yet still trail the Citizens.
How many Premier League teams are capable of playing at the level Tottenham reached Sunday? How many weekends will see City fail to convert time after time? The truth is nothing changed Sunday besides the mathematical distance between first and second. After the final whistle Pep Guardiola seemed to be praising his players. Sometimes a failure to perform isn’t a sign of some deeper, more fundamental issue. Sometimes a loss is just a loss.
Roberto Firmino is Liverpool’s most important player
James Dudko, @JamesDudko
Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho, Liverpool’s two brilliant Brazilians. But who is the better player? More important, who is the most important figure in the Reds’ burgeoning Premier League title challenge? At one time, the answer would have been simple. Coutinho, that mini marvel of wizardry and long-range goals from football’s enduringly chic number 10 position, would have won this particular debate in a landslide.
But the times they are-a changin’ for Liverpool’s South American contingent. Forget Coutinho, it’s Firmino who will really define how far manager Jurgen Klopp’s squad will go this season. Want proof? Take a look at the Reds’ recent 2-1 win away to Swansea City, three points gained thanks to Firmino. He headed in the second-half equaliser to cancel out Borja Baston’s opener, before winning the penalty James Milner tucked in for the winner. Those were match-winning contributions from Liverpool’s striker who isn’t really a striker.
Firmino plays the sort of number 9 spot in Klopp’s press-crazed, rapidly rotating soccer tapestry. He’s no target man, but Klopp’s platoon of playmakers can still link with and play off the 25-year-old attacking midfielder. He’s no pace merchant, a la Leicester’s prolific Gazelle, Jamie Vardy, but Coutinho and Co. can still thread passes between the lines and expect to see Firmino meet them courtesy of a precisely-timed run.
Yet, it’s not what Firmino is that makes him Liverpool’s main man. It’s what he isn’t. He isn’t tethered to the center-forward position. Anonymity is the ace up Firmino’s sleeve, and the key to Liverpool’s expansive and intricate stylistics going forward. Playing for a moving target alters the pattern of every Liverpool attacking move. It pulls defenders out of positions and forces teams into wasting time marking nothing.
With Firmino around, the answer to who really plays center-forward for the Reds is a riddle, one few teams are able to solve. You know the cup game? The one with the ball and three cups some smirking guy shifts round and round while your eyes and mind try and decide which ball the cup is in. Well, Firmino is the cup with the ball in it. Defenders don’t know where’s he’s going to be. Those other cups? They’re the runners who break free while you’re looking for him. They’re Georginio Wijnaldum, Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and yes, even Coutinho.
But it’s Firmino who is now essential to the way Klopp wants and needs his team to perform.
In fact, Klopp’s biggest dilemma is no longer about how to get players to work well with Coutinho. It’s about how to fit the pint-sized maestro into a team built around Firmino’s very special set of skills.
Frankly, Klopp has sometimes struggled to fit the pieces together. However, he may have stumbled onto the magic formula against the Swans, when he dropped Coutinho deeper in the second half. Then he became the link, the stitching joining the defense to the attack with passing less progressive than usual, but steady enough to keep Liverpool on the ball and Swansea worked over.
While Coutinho was recycling patiently, Firmino stayed perceptive with his movement and artful with his touches in and around the box. An intuitive one-two and layoff for Wijnaldum perfectly illustrated the flair with a purpose Firmino has made his trademark on Klopp’s watch.
Consistent end product hasn’t always been a staple of Firmino’s game. He’s a mercurial sort whose hit-and-miss streaks may, in the eyes of many, symbolize a Liverpool team often veering from brilliant to below-par.
But those descriptions may not be fair after Liverpool scrapped their way to a win in Wales, despite a generally drab display. Proof this team doesn’t always have to turn on the style to claim all three points. The graft was there against the Swans, but resilience alone rarely wins away from home in England’s top flight. It takes a little genius to go with the graft.
Liverpool’s title charge will stay on track as long as Firmino, not Coutinho, remains their inspiration.
Crystal Palace impress against one-dimensional Everton
Dan Voicescu, @fiveboroball
Should either Everton or Crystal Palace end up coming short of their respective objectives, this game is one they’ll point their finger at in the “what could’ve been” discussion. But let’s take Everton first.
After an impressive start to the season that sees them in fifth place and in full contention for a Champions League spot, Ronald Koeman’s side seem to have regressed to a level of play befitting a mid-table outfit.
The Dutchman has instilled a more direct style, reintroducing the traditional bread and butter of the British game — the glorious long ball — into the Evertonian’s diet. While this no nonsense approach worked well early on in the season against opponents such as Sunderland and Middlesbrough, the opposition have caught up.
Soccer is a beautifully simple game, but when a team’s entire tactics are comprised of spreading the midfield out and looking for the decisive through ball to Lukaku behind the opposition defense, or an overlapping run and cross for Lukaku to attack, the strategy feels a bit too simplistic and pedestrian.
This is the feeling I had sitting through the first 36 minutes of action before Lukaku’s long range free-kick broke the deadlock and made the game somewhat interesting. Palace’s wall received some criticism for failing to “do its job” on the set piece. To wit, Lukaku’s free kick was beautifully struck, but the Palace wall failed to jump. Damned if you do, as we saw with Kevin de Bruyne’s low free-kick against Bournemouth, but more damned if you don’t …
Palace stuck to their guns and their game plan, which was understandably conservative, especially before they fell down a goal, and it paid off, as Alan Pardew’s men were back on level terms owing to a moment of magic from Christian Benteke, the other big Belgian striker featured in this matchup. The ex-Liverpool man rose majestically over Seamus Coleman and headed the ball down into the far corner, leaving Martin Stekelenburg with no chance, and presumably triggering the home fans to spew more hate against their crosstown rivals.
With the run of play being relatively dull at that point, a moment of brilliance was required to bring a change on the scoreboard. And then controversy ensued. Palace managed to put another header in the back of the net, this time through captain and overall Premier League hard man Damien Delaney, who rose above the Everton defense and headed home the go-ahead goal that never was.
Replays show James Tomkins was offside as the ball was headed toward the goal. Referee Jon Moss claimed Tomkins interfered with the header. This is largely a subjective call. The objective eye sees Tomkins in an offside position attempting to make contact with the ball without actually making any (or coming close to making any). But the goal was ruled out all the same.
Everton’s schedule has featured mostly relegation and mid-table candidates. Manchester City await them after the international break, as well as Chelsea in early November. Koeman knows that in order to be able to sniff around the much-coveted top four, a more inspired effort will be needed. If his men are fixing to embrace the quintessential long ball style, they better shift into a higher gear doing so. Given the personnel at Goodison Park, I don’t believe Everton have much of a choice, his midfield is made up of players who are prone to verticalize the run of play, employing a direct, shortest-route-to-goal style.
Comfortable as they may be in the eighth spot, Palace will feel an opportunity was missed to get more from this Friday night affair. Pardew accepted the referee’s judgment to disallow what would have been the go-ahead goal — “I can accept mistakes can be made” — but the fact is that last season’s FA Cup finalists have shown they can keep pace with any opponent, and are heading into the international break playing great soccer, despite missing an opportunity to gain all three points. Their constant movement and pace in the midfield, supported by a no nonsense back line has elevated Palace from an uncomfortable team to play against to a dangerous opponent, while raising some eyebrows in the process.