Jürgen Klopp’s revitalized midfield is leading Liverpool’s title charge
Player of the week
After a month without a win, Arsenal bounced back with a 5-0 thrashing of a limp and uninspired Crystal Palace. Gabriel Magalhaes sent Arsenal into an early lead (and effectively ended the game in the 11th minute) when he nodded home Declan Rice’s inswinging corner. It was almost as if the centre-back had had enough of his team’s attackers not being able to find the net, so he took on the goal-scoring role. Why would Mikel Arteta bother looking for a new striker when he has Gabriel to do the job?
Saturday was Gabriel’s best performance of the season so far. He was the total package: a leader, a rock and a fierce presence in the air.
Bigger picture: Gabriel’s individual excellence is just a small piece of what Arsenal need if they want to stay in the title race. The win looked impressive on paper, but their performance wasn’t perfect. Mind you, they didn’t have to play their best. All they had to do was enough – given Roy Hodgson’s defeated and confused side.
Arsenal ran out of steam in their title bid last season. For extended periods this season they have been more erratic and arrhythmic than their individual talent would suggest. Saturday showed that Arteta’s team can still string together the kind of combinations that can crush any opponent. Maintaining that sense of confidence and control over the next month will be crucial to sustaining a title challenge. Next up: a tricky visit to Nottingham Forest. Then it’s Liverpool at home, before trips to West Ham, Burnley and a home game against Newcastle. The next five games – both performances and results – will define Arsenal’s season.
Goal of the week
Speaking of Arsenal, it took just 10 seconds for the ball to fly from one end to the other at the Emirates. At the hour mark Leandro Trossards cool finish made it three for the Gunners. But it’s the structure that deserves praise:
Raya ➡️ Jesus ➡️ Trossard 💥
📺 Enjoy the best sideline reactions from Saturday’s win with Bench Cam👇
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 22, 2024
From David Raya’s quick distribution to Gabriel Jesus’ perfectly timed pass, it was one of those team moves that ceased to be sport and bordered on art.
The Undertaker Award for the most dramatic return to the Premier League
After eight long months in front of Brentford fans, prized goalscorer Ivan Toon stepped back onto the pitch for the first time after being banned by the FA for breaching gambling rules. As if no time had passed, Toney scored his club’s first goal – albeit under controversial circumstances – in a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest.
Toney seemed unencumbered by expectations – and that’s exactly what the Bees need right now. Thomas Frank’s team is struggling, but the return of their talisman comes at the right time. Before Saturday’s win, Brentford had taken just three points from their last eight Premier League games. They’ve looked disjointed since the start of the season without Toney leading the way, so it’s no surprise that he was greeted by a WrestleMania-esque atmosphere upon his return. What’s the best way to warm up the crowd for the return of your star striker? the legendary music of The Undertaker blaring?
As the music echoed through the Gtech Arena and the montage of Toney’s goals rolled, no one seemed to care that the striker had taken every ball. public opportunity to lobby for a transfer to a ‘bigger’ club. No one of Brentford’s persuasion could care less that Toney re-marked his free-kick before bending it around the Forest wall.
Call it cheating, gamesmanship or getting away with it, depending on your perspective. The referee missed it in real time, and the The VAR could not intervene. Forest responded to Toney’s sleight of hand in the most British way possible: by writing a strongly worded letter.
Brentford doesn’t care how the goals come as long as they keep coming. And they will hope to fend off the vultures in the final days of the January transfer window, keeping Toney until the summer.
VAR controversy of the week
Staying with the theme, it wouldn’t be an edition of the Premier League Awards if we didn’t bring up VAR a few times. Add this to this season’s growing list of inconsistencies:
After the first challenging Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, Justin Kluivert from Bournemouth flew into Luis Diaz and delivered a high tackle on Diaz’s right leg. As Liverpool’s players screamed for red, VAR ruled it not a foul and Kluivert escaped without a card.
Curtis Jones was sent off for one almost identical challenge against Spurs earlier in the season. Just like in the Jones incident, Kluivert rolled over the top of the ball. One was considered reckless; the other, apparently, as unhappy. How does one player get a red card, while the other gets nothing? $2 in the inconsistency jar, please Paul Tierney.
The ‘Energizer Bunny’ Award
Liverpool picks Alexis MacAllister from Brighton last summer for $45 million ranks as one of the deals of the year.
Mac Allister was the headline act in Jürgen Klopp’s new-look midfield, but early in the season the Argentine’s lack of mobility at the base of midfield compromised part of Liverpool’s vaunted pressing structure. Klopp’s side have returned to an all-in-one front-foot pressing machine this season. They concede an average of just 7.51 passes per defensive action, a measure of a team’s pressing intensity, which is by some distance the most intense figure in the league.
Mac Allister typically played further up the pitch for Brighton and struggled to adapt to the demands placed on him by Klopp’s style. Injuries and a suspension took him out of the team as soon as he started to find his feet. With Wataru Endōs taking on the role of Mac Allister, Liverpool were able to pile on the pressure even further and looked more balanced in their pursuit of the opposition.
But Mac Allister’s performance against Bournemouth showed why he was Klopp’s top target for the summer – and why he was asked to take on the deeper role vacated by Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. “He is better than all sixes,” Klopp said after the match. “He didn’t play the simple six at Brighton, but he is an incredibly smart player. Incredibly smart. And as long as you can create a compact formation, he is an excellent six.”
Despite not registering a goal or assist on Sunday, Mac Allister was influential in linking play from midfield as Bournemouth themselves looked to move higher up the pitch. And the midfielder’s assurance allowed Klopp’s side to apply pressure even more more intensely than they have done this season even at their most hectic moment.
Liverpool pressed a season-high pace against Bournemouth, allowing just 5.61 passes per defensive action. With Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold out, Klopp’s game plan was clear: win the ball high up the pitch and let the team structure serve as the main creator.
Such an intense approach from the front can only work if there is a stable basis behind it. Mac Allister took some time to settle down. But his performance against Bournemouth was exactly what Liverpool were looking for when they signed him this summer.
The ‘so close, yet so far’ performance of the week
Ever seen the meme where the dog casually drinks coffee as the room goes up in flames? That’s probably how David Moyes felt his team get the opening goal against Sheffield United and then concede the equalizer in the 103rd (!) minute.
Moyes was outraged by the late penalty decision that allowed Sheffield United to make it 2-2. But he should be just as outraged by his team’s inability to take a lead. Previously, West Ham had not conceded a goal in a month and a half of action in the Premier League. They coughed up two against a Sheffield United side who had scored just 15 goals all season heading into Sunday. Equally worrying, Sheffield United won the game by expected goals, thanks in no small part to Oliver McBurnie’s late penalty.
Moyes can point to the injuries to Edson Álvarez and Lucas Paquetá and why his team was so overwhelmed in the center of the pitch – and the absence of Mohammed Kudus (on duty at the Africa Cup of Nations) took some of the sting out of the attacking play of the team. .
Moyes’ team remains sixth. They have a strong, distinctive identity: they create a lot of chances from set pieces and rely on moments of individual magic to create chances in the final third. These are all hallmarks of a typical Moyes team. What not: loss of concentration at the back and losing the battle in midfield.
For all their success this season, West Ham continue to give away too many chances – and too many good ones. According to StatsBomb, they concede an average of 1.81 free-chance shots per 90. That puts them in the 82nd percentile among Premier League teams. And the vast majority of that comes through turnovers, rather than the team being pulled apart by creative attacking plays; they concede 0.64 clearly counter-attacking shots per 90, the lowest figure in the league.
Enter: Kalvin Phillips. Rumors are swirling that West Ham are looking to sign a loan deal for Manchester City’s forgotten midfielder. If they can cross the border, Phillips should bring more balance and control to West Ham’s midfield. Without that kind of strengthening presence, Moyes will have to trudge through games knowing his team will continue to allow valuable chances.