Tottenham failed to win at Wembley for the second week running, while Everton’s attack left much to be desired against Chelsea.
The Premier League is three games old, and enters its first and stupidest international break with only one perfect team remaining, Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. The Red Devils made it three wins out of three against Leicester on Saturday in what was both their least dominant performance of the season so far and an extremely comfortable 2-0 victory.
As Mourinho has pointed out, his team won their first three matches last season as well, and went on very much not to challenge for the title. But for those who believe in the Special One’s dark magic, there are some eerie similarities between this United side and his Chelsea team of 2014-15, who won the title at a canter after the addition of a center forward and central midfielder the preceding summer.
As for the rest of the league, Liverpool had the best weekend, thrashing Arsenal, who had the worst, and have begun their yearly meltdown ahead of schedule. Huddersfield dropped points for the first time this season, but have yet to concede a goal, while Crystal Palace, West Ham and Bournemouth remain the only three sides without a point. These two weeks off probably can’t end soon enough for Frank de Boer and Slaven Bilic. Same.
20. West Ham (preseason prediction: 10th, difference: -10)
19. Crystal Palace (11th, -8)
18. Bournemouth (8th, -10)
17. Brighton (20th, +3)
16. Arsenal (6th, -10)
15. Leicester (15th, –)
14. Newcastle (14th, –)
13. Swansea (17th, +4)
12. Everton (7th, -5)
11. Stoke (16th, +5)
Since Farhad Moshiri bought a 49.9 percent stake in the club in February of 2016, Everton have been very explicit about their ambition to make a Tottenham-like leap into the top four. Their summer business has been appropriately eye-catching, with eight players coming in to build a more balanced side in the wake of Romelu Lukaku’s departure. And what better test than back-to-back August away trips to Manchester City and Chelsea?
The early signs aren’t good. The Toffees drew 1-1 with City last Monday, a decent result if you ignore the details, which were that after taking a 35th-minute lead, Everton showed zero ambition, despite playing with an extra man for 45 minutes. They took only two shots after Kyle Walker’s red card, and one of those came from 40-plus yards. Then they conceded.
There are good reasons to take a reactive approach against Pep Guardiola’s City, even after they’ve been reduced to 10 men, and Everton were excellent when it was a 11-a-side. Ronald Koeman thought his team could see out the result. Fair enough. But Everton’s near-total unwillingness to commit numbers, any numbers, on the counter-attack to test City’s defense, a defense they’d already successfully tested in the first half, was puzzling even before Raheem Sterling’s late equalizer.
Still, 1-1 at City. That’s better than most will manage this season. But what were questions against City came to appear like legitimate flaws against Chelsea. Everton managed only seven shots at Stamford Bridge, none on target, and touched the ball in their opponent’s box less than a dozen times.
Chelsea, as they have been since Antonio Conte switched to a back three last September, were happy to drop off and let the Toffees try to break them down. Everton’s own back three of Phil Jagielka, Ashley Williams and Michael Keane failed entirely to take advantage of the space that afforded them.
Jagielka took it upon himself to carry the ball forward once or twice, but for the most part the visitors’ center-backs simply dumped it off to Idrissa Gueye and Tom Davies, mere yards away, to get on with task of breaking down Chelsea’s defense, effectively playing seven against 11. It didn’t work.
The question is to what extent this is Koeman’s doing and to what extent it’s the players. The attacking success of a back three depends on center-backs who are capable not just of receiving the ball and pawning it off on nearby midfielders, but of carrying it forward and committing opposition defenders. It’s no coincidence the two best back threes in the league, Chelsea’s and Tottenham’s, are filled with quality ball-players.
Williams and Jagielka are 33 and 35, respectively, and not getting any faster. While both are comfortable enough in possession, one could forgive them for not wanting to take the risk of getting stranded without the ball in the wrong half. As for Keane, the jury’s still out on what he can do when he’s not dominating his own penalty area, but he showed little quality in possession against Chelsea.
Koeman’s a cautious manager. It’s possible he’s simply telling his back three to give it to the midfielders and stay out of the way. And in his defense, Chelsea were hardly rampant. But they didn’t need to be after scoring in the first half hour, and doubling their lead shortly before halftime. That’s what Conte’s side do: enough.
Is this a serious problem for the Toffees? Probably not. Not many sides will pick up even one point on their travels to the Etihad and Stamford Bridge this season. Besides, if Jose Mourinho has taught us anything, it’s that playing for a draw away to your rivals is a viable approach even for the most ambitious clubs in the league.
But after losing their best player, one who scored 40 percent of Everton’s league goals last season, it’s fair to ask what Koeman’s attacking plan is. After three matches, the answer to that question looks worryingly dull: don’t concede.
10. Burnley (19th, +9)
9. Tottenham (4th, -5)
8. Southampton (9th, -1)
7. Watford (13th, +6)
6. Chelsea (5th, -1)
5. West Brom (12th, +7)
4. Manchester City (1st, -3)
3. Huddersfield (18th, +15)
2. Liverpool (3rd, +1)
1. Manchester United (2nd, -1)
When does a curse become a curse?
Since the start of last season, Tottenham have played six “home” (and seven total, if you include their FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea) matches at Wembley, and won only once, against CSKA Moscow in the group stages of the Champions League, with only a spot in the Europa League on the line.
They lost their first league match at their temporary home to Chelsea last week, but played ok, and were perhaps unlucky to concede the way they did, via two, let’s say, unlikely Marco Alonso finishes. Their second match at the national stadium was more disturbing, as they conceded an injury-time goal to draw with Burnley. In two matches in 2017-18, Spurs have now dropped as many points at home as they did in all of last season. So, is the Wembley Curse a thing?
The primary soccer-related concept behind the curse, which is that the pitch is bigger than it was at White Hart Lane, makes little sense. Tottenham like to press, sure, but they like to press because they like possession, and for a team that likes possession, a bigger pitch should be an advantage, especially against opponents who set up primarily not to lose, which will be all but maybe four or five teams in the league this season.
Although, side note: Burnley were legitimately ambitious against Tottenham after going a goal down early in the second half. The Clarets won only once away from home last season, and picked up only seven total points on their travels. Already this season they have four — against Chelsea and Tottenham, no less — and if Sunday’s performance was any indication, Sean Dyche is determined to take a more proactive approach away from Turf Moor. Good for him. It’s already paying off.
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Spurs weren’t good against the Clarets. They dominated the ball, but struggled to get in behind Burnley’s defense with any regularity until the game became stretched as Dyche’s side threw more bodies forward in attack after conceding. Harry Kane had a couple of very presentable opportunities — speaking of curses, his streak of never having scored a Premier League goal in August continues — but they weren’t the result of any particularly incisive attacking play.
There’s no evidence any of this was related to the stadium they were playing in. Indeed, Tottenham weren’t particularly good in their opening match away to Newcastle either, when they scored twice only after their opponents were reduced to 10 men. The evidence suggests Mauricio Pochettino’s side have endured a good-old-fashioned slow start to the season, not unlike last year, when they drew two of their opening three matches.
But curses don’t have to make sense. They only have to weasel their way far enough into the conversation that when things aren’t going well, like they weren’t for Tottenham most of Sunday, pundits start talking, fans start moaning, managers start answering the questions inevitably asked of them and, finally, players start thinking.