One might feel a little sympathy for Leicester, having to make do without their two main creative forces - Buonanotte serving a totting-up suspension (already??), and Fatawu out for the season, after damaging his ACL while playing for Ghana last week - and then losing midfield lynchpin Harry Winks just a few minutes into the game. However, they've never really shown much of a consistent threat in any of their games I've seen yet; and here, it appeared that their strategy was "If we pretend not to be here, maybe they won't be able to see us...." Steve Cooper is starting to look every bit as clueless as he did in the latter stages of his tenure at Forest last season, and would now be my favourite for early replacement. [Usually, although I compose these comments on individual matches serially over the weekend, I don't publish them until the Gameweeek's completed on Monday or Tuesday. This week, however, I published the first batch of remarks on Sunday morning - still the early hours of Sunday morning on UK time - and barely 12 hours later, Leicester were announcing they'd sacked Cooper. Even I was taken a bit by surprise by the suddenness of this. I hope they've already lined up a promising replacement. I would like to see Leicester at least making a good fight of trying to stay up; but at the moment, they look about the least likely to. Next managerial victim looks set to be Russell Martin or Julen Lopategui...]
Leicester might whinge a bit about Mavididi's turned-down penalty shout, but I don't think they've got any case there; he pretty obviously just jumped over Fofana's rear leg, without the Chelsea player making any movement towards him at all - and, indeed, with there probably being no actual contact. And the late penalty they did win shortly afterwards was very, very fortunate. They were also lucky not to have had two of their midfielders sent off for dreadful challenges early in the game; if Andy Madeley was showing any bias in his decisions in this game, it was mostly in Leicester's favour. The FPL Sheep are no doubt up-in-arms again over the fact that Palmer blanked for the second week in succession - shock, horror! he must be rubbish, after all! No, of course not: he had another outstanding game, constantly involved (despite regularly getting lumps kicked out of him) - nearly scored, nearly assisted;. You can't get FPL points every week, people; but Palmer is one of the few players - in fact, probably the only one - who looks as if he might every single week. Jackson and Cucurella were again superb, also.
Yep, the scrap for the title is still a two-horse race - but it's Liverpool and Arsenal, not Liverpool and City. With Chris Wood too tired to start after flying back from Samoa (a trip which, I imagine, must require multiple stopovers) and Gibbs-White out with a knock, Forest couldn't muster any attacking threat of their own; but even with those two available, they probably wouldn't have got a look-in here - Arsenal were dominant, imperious, probably the best we've yet seen them this season. While the loss of Ben White (supposedly only a 'minor' knee surgery, but the recuperation period might last until January or February?) might look a further major setback, in fact it seems to be giving them the prospect of a new-look back-four which might actually work rather well. I've felt since the start of the season that Jurrien Timber would be a very attractive way into the Arsenal defence, if only we could count on him getting a run of starts: now it seems that opportunity is here - if he can stay fit; and, even better, he's going to be on the right flank rather than the left, where the opportunity to link up with Saka and Odegaard should give him nice prospects for an occasional assist. On the other side, though, Calafiori looked out of sorts, and needed to be subbed off fairly early in the second half (perhaps just being rushed back a bit too swiftly after his own recent injury problems?). I remain optimistic about the impact he could have too; but Timber's form is stronger at the moment.... and he's cheaper. There might be a bit of a concern about Saliba though, who took a very heavy whack right at the end of the game.
Although Villa were missing a number of players after the international break, the extent to which their form has deserted them must be a big worry for Emery now. Although they dominated possession 2-to-1 in this game, they failed to create many clearcut chances, and ultimately looked rather lucky to salvage a draw. While Oliver Glasner can take heart from his team's fluent couner-attacking play, and the form of Dean Henderson in goal (who produced one of the best penalty saves we've seen for a long time), they were still fairly ragged in defence - and have a lot of questions to answer about how they gave up the equaliser so tamely from a corner. Watkins and Mateta are both looking impressive; alas, the teams behind them are not.
Both Everton and Brentford continue to play isolated snatches of bright football, but look utterly toothless upfront (it was not evident that the recently impressive Wissa and Mbeumo were even on the pitch!). With the fixtures Brentford now face in December, I fear they might well be back down in the bottom three, or perilously close, going into the New Year. (At least Mark Flekken, who I consider to be probably the weakest keeper in the EPL this year, pulled off one very good save here - credit where it's due.) Norgaard's sending-off was yet another VAR-contrived error; we're seeing far too many of these this season.
Fulham v Wolves was a weird game. Wolves really didn't look to be in it that much, but - as with Brentford against Bournemouth recently - they just kept coming up with world-class finishes out of nothing. Against a team missing most of their preferred central defenders (although, since Wolves have had the worst defence in the league so far, maybe this was a blessing-in-disguise??), Fulham should have been able to make more of their early dominance and their breakthrough goal; perhaps, if Raul hadn't lashed that sitter against the crossbar early on, things might have turned out differently. But Fate just wasn't smiling on Fulham here, as Air-Nouri came within a whisker of blasting the ball into his own net, and recently prolific Harry Wilson also landed a dipping shot on the top of the crossbar. Marco Silva must take a large share of the blame too, though; both for failing to find a more incisive approach against a vulnerable opponent, and for rashly using up all his substitutes fairly early in the second half, thus leaving his side with 10 men when Joachim Andersen picked up an injury in the 75th minute and had to come off; it was in that short-handed spell at the end that Wolves finally got on top of them and added 2 more late goals. Cunha is now looking an irresistible asset for FPL (in the form of his life, and now playing a bit further forward, alongside Strand Larsen as a main goal outlet, rather than wider or deeper, as he had mostly played until a month or so ago); while Raul, I fear, has lost the magic dust again.
The south coast derby between Bournemouth and Brighton was a close and exciting game, neither team quite at their best, but both still showing some moments of great quality. Bournemouth again showed great fighting spirit to almost claw back a draw, and really looked like they deserved more out of the game. And I feel smugly vindicated in nominating Joao Pedro as an acquisition this week - even though, in truth, that was hardly a surprising or visionary insight. Baleba's sending-off for a second yellow was unjust - and hopefully might be overturned.
Dear, oh dear - City are unravelling, aren't they? This might just be a case of the 'post-international blues' that I mentioned the other day as being a likely cause of unpredictability in this weekend's results: everybody just a bit flat and fatigued, and 'out of practice' in working with their teammates. (Though that evidently wasn't a problem for Spurs at all!) Everybody for City had an off day: Gundogan, Silva, and Foden in particular; and even the returning Kevin DeBruyne, making a late appearance off the bench, was unable to have any impact on the game (his erstwhile happy knack of immediately conjuring multiple assists on his first game back after a long spell on the sidelines now deserting him...). Kyle Walker is past his sell-by date and starting to stink; he might still have some of the old pace - just about, on occasions - but he now seems to lack the stamina or the desire to call on it very often,... which leaves him often not where he needs to be. (And he used to be able to cross a ball occasionally, didn't he? That appears to be something else he's completely lost. What on earth is the point of pushing up into the final 5 or 10 yards if you don't do anything with the ball once you get there??) Gvardiol was also all over the place defensively, and looks to me as if he might be in need of a rest (having run himself into the ground for most of the season as a Micky Van de Ven-style one-man safety-blanket against the frequent counter-attacks City have been suffering). Rico Lewis's owners, however, might take some comfort - despite his nul points return here! - from the fact that Pep seems to love him so much that he'll play him anywhere (here deputising for the injured Kovacic as a central defensive midfielder - a role for which, despite his terrier-like eagerness and energy, he simply does not have the necessary physical presence). At least Haaland managed lots of shots (Vicario needed to be in sharp form to preserve the clean sheet), even smashing one against the crossbar; so, I don't think he's too far away from becoming a goal-machine again. But the rest of the team needs a lot of work.
Spurs - as I'd again predicted on Friday - were immediately back with a bang (though I wonder if their fans might not have taken a draw against City here in exchange for a win against Ipswich; the humiliation of that result last time will still smart when the euphoria of this triumph at The Etihad has faded...); and they've always somehow been a 'bogey team' for Pep. However, I wouldn't necessarily take that much encouragement going forward from this one outstanding result: strange as it is to say, I can't see them facing many other opponents who play as badly as City did here. And there's still a bit of a mystery as to what's gonig on with James Maddison: has he just had an undisclosed fitness problem, or was there some spat with Ange, now patched up? Or is he only going to get an occasional rotation appearance, perhaps when Brennan Johnson needs a rest, or Betancur (slightly more creative than Bissouma or Sarr) isn't available for the central midfield role? When he was subbed off at the end of the game, he went straight down the tunnel, with barely a word to his manager - which isn't a very encouraging sign. You'd think he'd be undroppable after his stunning brace here, but.... who knows? Dominic Solanke was again dropping deep in the link-up so much that he was rarely getting into dangerous positions in the box (indeed, once or twice, he, Maddison, and Kulusevski were rather threatening to get in each other's way in the No. 10 space!); he's being too unselfish a facilitator at the moment to offer much prospect of the prolific goal return that so many hoped for when they bought him three weeks ago.
Liverpool were perhaps the team most affected by that post-internationals drop-off phenomenon I mentioned above, looking mostly very flat and lifeless going forward (t iwas hard to tell that Gakpo and Nunez were on the pitch), and repeatedly getting exposed on the counter-attack. Perhaps they were also saving some players for the big upcoming European clash with Real Madrid; but they really look so much better with Luis Diaz starting on the left. Southampton gave a very good account of themselves, but were yet again let down by their flakey defending - compounded here by the extreme rustiness of Alex McCarthy in goal. Both sides were let down by some very poor officiating (although I'd lay most of the blame on Michael Oliver in the VAR room rather than Sam Barratt on the pitch): Robertson's foul on Dibling was clearly just outside the penalty area, yet was adjudged a penalty, and led to Southampton's equaliser. That small injustice was probably fair enough overall, though, because Southampton had 3 other much better penalty shouts that were all bizarrely overlooked. Liverpool can really count themselves very, very fortunate to have come away with the 3 points from this one.
The Amorim era for United got off to the best possible start, with Amad Diallo making a flying break down the right-wing just into the second minute of the game, eventually squaring beautifully for Rashford to toe-poke home from 5 yards out. Unfrotunately, the new-look Reds were unable to capitalise on that dream opening. While they did show more cohesion, purpose, and consistent workrate than they usually did under Ten Hag, that is quite a low bar; there was still a lot about this performance that was disappointing, particularly the lack of imagination in going forward, and the inability to assert any extended control over the game. And the lack of real pressure to try to claim the win in the closing phase may have been a particular worry to their fans. The new manager made a lot of changes to try to shake things up, but the new introductions seemed less at home with his tactics, and the life drained out of the United game in the closing minutes - making it relatively easy for Ipswich to hang on to their hard-earned point. The home side will actually feel that they should have taken all three points, as they had much the better of the game overall, especially in the first half, and only two exceptional saves by Onana from Liam Delap kept Manchester United in with a chance of a result. Ipswich are finally starting to look like quite a formidable opponent, and vindicating my early-season prediction that they would be the one promoted side to stay up this year. I still have my reservations about their keeper, Muric, though; he appeared to be well-ositioned to gather Diallo's low cross at the edge of his six-yard box, but he just knelt down and waited for the ball rather than moving towards it - thus allowing Rashford to nip in and jab it past him for the opening goal.
The new 3-4-2-1 formaion didn't yet convince, with a lot of players feeling as though they were playing slightly out of their best position, and most - not unnaturally - still looking rather unsure about what exactly they were supposed to do in different phases of play. I found Garnacho and Fernandes, especially, not looking like great fits for the 'dual 10s' (Garnacho, one suspects, was only tried out in this role because Amorim is reluctant to lose his goalscoring threat... or is simply afraid to drop a currently popular player; but he really doesn't look to me as if he's going to fit anywhere in this set-up).. Indeed, both were occasionally tending to revert to their more normal styles of play rather than staying narrow and advanced, in close support of the central striker (and thus poor Rashford was left very isolated for a lot of the game); Bruno would often drop a lot deeper to try to pick up the ball, while Garnacho sometimes drifted out wide to try to get round the back of the defence (which probably discouraged Dalot from always pushing as far forward as Amorim would like), and so the formation often felt a bit more like a conventional 4-5-1. A lot of the initial personnel choices were quirky and unexpected (giving endless headaches to FPL managers; it would probably be much better to just avoid all United players - apart from the outstanding Onana - until things settle down a bit). I wonder if Amorim just wants to try everyone out in his opening weeks, or if he is already planning on using a lot of rotation long-term, to try to keep all of his squad involved. The lineup that ended the match is far closer to what I'd expect his regular starters to be (although, as I just said, the subbed-on players mostly failed to make any impact - perhaps they'd been omitted at the start because they'd had less time to work with the new coach this week, or had struggled more with absorbing his ideas?): Zirkzee and Mount as the 'dual 10s', Hojlund as the No. 9, Ugarte rather than Casemiro as the 'stopper' in midfield and Bruno dropping in beside him, Shaw rather than Evans on the left side of the back-three (you'd have to think that just-about-fit-again Leny Yoro will soon replace Maszraoui on the other side of De Ligt too). The only standout success of this first outing was Amad Diallo, who really ran himself into the ground from the first minute to the last in trying to stake his claim to the right wing-back role, and showed excellent qualities in both the attacking and defensive dimensions of the mission.
And damn, Monday night's result at Newcastle was probably the biggest surprise, the biggest 'upset' of the gameweek: how the hell did Newcastle, who've still looked like they had good 'top six' potential and have shown strong improvement in recent performances, suddenly collapse.... at home, against West Ham, who have thus far looked to be in relegation danger? They dominated for long periods, and were so on top in the first half, they really should have won comfortably: Isak and Gordon both had good chances thwarted. And Isak's fine early breakthrough probably would have made it a completely different game if it had been allowed to stand - but he was the victim of yet another ridiculously tight offside call. Callum Wilson appeared to have won a penalty near the end, but that wasn't given either. And West Ham's goals both came out of nothing: Soucek being left unmarked at a corner, and then Wann-Bissaka (noted for being one of the least-scoring players in the league!!) hit a tame scuffed cross-shot which Nick Pope seemed to misread and allowed to bobble past him and bounce in off the foot of the far post. Bizarro! Newcastle only have themselves to blame; it was a strangely flat performance from them, and the fight really seemed to go out of them after they conceded a second goal soon after the break. While the return of Wilson and Trippier after long injury absences may buoy Eddie Howe's spirits slightly, he's stil got a lot of fires to fight. And have West Ham really turned a corner? I'm not convinced: they were merely less-awful-than-usual against an out-of-sorts opponent, rather than actually 'good'. Lopategui's job would surely be in question if they hadn't got this win; and I think it will continue to be under discussion over the coming month.
I fear I'm going to have to abandon this series. While I do enjoy attempting these potted analyses of all the individual games - and I'm finding it very helpful for myself, forcing me to pay closer attention, and helping me to remember key incidents more clearly (I am at that time of life where memories of distant events are usually far sharper and more readily accessible than those relating to things that happened last week or yesterday...) - it does get very time-consuming. While I might be more willing to devote a few hours to such an endeavour during the week, when I have nothing else much to do, on Sunday mornings - pausing my 'Match of the Day' re-run every two or three matches to jot down some notes - I'd far rather be getting out and about, rather than chaining myself to the keyboard for two or three hours. The insane fixture logjam in December is also a discouragement: I can just about cope with taking on this mountainous task once a week... but not twice! I will try to perservere with my Luck-o-Meter series of summaries of the events that have had the biggest impact on FPL results (which cover much of the same ground anyway).
