Analysis

Premier League hits and misses: Man Utd warnings, Pepe impresses, Spurs thrill

Man United have lots of reasons to worry, Spurs may have the best partnership in the league, Antonio makes his England pitch while Arsenal's winger proves to be the difference...

Sunday 4 October 2020 23:17, UK

The danger signs have been there for Man United

The biggest worry of all is that it had been coming, and been seen to be coming, and still Manchester United had no answers.

Brighton could have scored five a week ago. "Man Utd have got to see the danger signs here - they could end up in fourth or fifth again if they are not careful," warned Gary Neville last weekend.

And before that, after watching United's lethargic display against Palace, Jamie Carragher had spotted another issue: "I'm not convinced by this team, who are now becoming a more possession-based team since Fernandes arrived. The more possession you have, the more chance you can get counter-attacked. This midfield, for me, is not right. That team will be far too easy to counter-attack again."

United's humiliation will - rightly - be seen through the prism of their failure to adequately strengthen in the transfer market since qualifying for the Champions League. As Neville memorably put it during commentary as Spurs ran riot: "There was then a couple of months before the start of the season where I believe they grabbed defeat from victory."

But with the mitigation that the off-field failures must have damaged the mood in the dressing room, this was first and foremost a humiliation of a team that failed to perform. Neville again: "The performance is pathetic, absolutely pathetic. There is no excuse for those players who were out on that pitch today, they were absolutely pathetic. Their body language was terrible, it was spiritless and spineless."

Have we totally misjudged them?

Shortly after he was sacked as United manager, Mourinho claimed: "I consider one of the best jobs of my career was to finish second with Man United in the Premier League." Sunday's exposure of successor by predecessor had an unnerving undercurrent. Will the claim be made before soon that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's greatest triumph was to take this United team into the top four last season?

The warning is already there.
Pete Gill

Kane-Son dynamic inspiring Spurs

Only a couple of weeks after they combined for all five goals in Tottenham's thrashing of Southampton at St Mary's Stadium, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son activated demolition mode again. This time, the setting was Old Trafford and the victims were Manchester United.

Tottenham's second goal encapsulated their seemingly telepathic understanding, with Son sprinting onto Kane's quickly-taken free kick before deftly finishing past David de Gea. It was a near carbon copy of the goals he scored at Southampton, all of which involved Kane playing him in behind.

Kane's distribution is becoming a formidable weapon. The 27-year-old, previously viewed as a pure goalscorer, is now dropping deeper during attacks, allowing him to create space for Son then provide the service. Their relationship works both ways, too, as shown by the moment Son unselfishly set up Kane to score the third goal himself.

The pair added another goal each after that, with Son flicking home Serge Aurier's cross and Kane converting from the penalty spot after Paul Pogba had fouled Ben Davies. As a result, the pair have now registered nine goals and seven assists combined in just four Premier League games so far this season.

With a fit-again Gareth Bale soon to be added into the equation, it's little wonder optimism is growing at Spurs.
Nick Wright

Time to get excited, Villa fans?

Did that really happen?

There will be plenty of Aston Villa fans asking that exact same question after their side hit seven to demolish Premier League champions Liverpool. Well, it did happen and in truth, the score line could've been even wider.

Dean Smith's exciting side cut through Liverpool time after time on a remarkable night at Villa Park as they kept their perfect start to the Premier League season intact.

Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool - Match report and highlights

Club record signing Ollie Watkins deserved his man-of-the-match award after a perfect first-half hat-trick, while Ross Barkley, finishing aside, produced a performance of real promise on his Villa debut. However, no-one epitomised Villa's superb display more than the skipper Jack Grealish.

The England midfielder once again showed his class, becoming only the second Villa player to assist three goals in a single Premier League game, after James Milner vs Burnley in February 2010. He also scored twice, capping yet another eye-catching display.

The emphatic victory means Villa, who are up to second and have a game in hand, have won each of their opening three league games to a season for the first time since the 1962-63 campaign. Villa have now won four consecutive home Premier League matches for the first time since October 2007.

Obviously, it's still early days, but if you can't get excited after a performance like that, when can you get excited? It's not every day you hit seven past the champions.
Oliver Yew

Can we call this a wobble by Liverpool?

Many Premier League teams must feel like they have hardly had a break after the shortest of gaps between seasons but while fatigue might be offered up as an explanation for Liverpool's astonishing 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa, perhaps theirs is a unique problem. It is a while since they really needed to be at their maximum and turning the tap back on looks to be proving tricky.

Liverpool's win over Norwich back in February extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to 25 points. The gap was so great that the title was a formality long before lockdown. There was no great need for them to return after the restart with the same intensity.

But Jurgen Klopp's side have now lost seven of their last 22 games in all competitions and been beaten on penalties in two of the other 15. Since the 3-0 defeat to Watford that ended their hopes of going unbeaten throughout a Premier League season, they have not hit the same levels.

"You cannot be too critical," Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. "Look at the results under Jurgen Klopp. It is just one of those mad, freak results. But if you look at them conceding after the restart, we put that down to them winning the championship. I just think in the next few weeks, we can really look at that and see whether it is a freak or a trend, maybe going back to the Watford game."
Adam Bate

Pepe must use goal as platform at Arsenal

"That's what you pay £75m for," said Alan Smith on co-commentary. The Sky Sports pundit had just watched Nicolas Pepe charge inside from Arsenal's right flank, sprinting at full speed, then pick out the bottom corner with a supremely controlled finish using the inside of his left boot.

It was a superb goal - one which proved decisive in Arsenal's narrow victory over Sheffield United - and a reminder of the 25-year-old's considerable quality. Pepe, a club-record signing from Lille last summer, had only been on the pitch for eight minutes having come on as a substitute.

Arsenal 2-1 Sheffield United - Match report and highlights
Premier League table | Fixtures | Live on Sky
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That has been his role all season. Pepe finished a mixed debut campaign in English football strongly, playing an important role in Arsenal's FA Cup win in August, but he has been relegated to the bench since the arrival of Willian, his only starts coming in the Gunners' Carabao Cup games.

If it is a tactic to coax more from him from Mikel Arteta, then his impact at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday suggests it is working. As well as taking his goal brilliantly, Pepe worked tirelessly in a defensive sense, tracking back diligently and charging down crosses.

The Ivorian will hope to feature from the start when Arsenal resume their Premier League campaign against Manchester City after the international break. Then it will be down to him to pick up where he left off against Sheffield United and start showing his quality on a more consistent basis.
Nick Wright

Much-needed time to reflect for Blades

"It's four games, not seven games, that was last season, we have a new season, it's 2020/21, I believe," Chris Wilder insisted after Sheffield United's latest defeat.

Wilder may want to take this season in isolation, but whichever way you look at it, Sheffield United have lost their last seven games.

Has the energy dropped? Maybe. Have they been found out? Perhaps. Has luck been against them? Certainly. At the Emirates they had a legitimate claim for an early David Luiz red for a last-man tug on Oliver Burke, something they were on the wrong end of in their 1-0 defeat by Aston Villa two weeks ago.

As Wilder noted after the game, it's all about fine margins and little wins for Sheffield United. With their resources, and their style of play, they need those small victories to swing games in their favour. They haven't had them this season.

The positive for Wilder is that they didn't look a bad side for nearly an hour. Organised, stubborn and full of effort, they gave Arsenal nothing in the first half. It took a quite superb team goal to cut them open.

But it's up the pitch where they still struggle. In possession, there is an alarming absence of a central midfielder who can dictate tempo and bring Sheffield United up the pitch in transition. And up top, the arrival of Rhian Brewster for £23.5m is an expensive necessity. The international break gives Wilder a chance to reflect, and if their luck turns, results should fall their way.
Gerard Brand

Antonio: Why isn't Southgate calling?

Gareth Southgate has an embarrassment of riches in forward areas, to the extent that the top goalscorer in the Premier League since football returned in June does not even make his 30-man England squad. Michail Antonio's goal against Leicester - capping another energetic, classy and completely dominant performance against two of the best centre-backs around in Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu - took his tally to 10 during the restart period.

Leicester 0-3 West Ham - Match report and highlights

Antonio - now 30 - is competing against Danny Ings and Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the striking department as back-up for Harry Kane for England, but his versality could be a useful weapon. Remember, Antonio was called into Southgate's very first squad for matches against Germany and Lithuania in March 2017 when tearing it up as a winger. His pace and power would be perfect for a team that love to play with pace and power. Keep playing at this level for the next few months and Southgate will not be able to ignore him much longer.
Lewis Jones

Saints can score without Ings

Before Sunday, only Danny Ings had scored for Southampton this season, against Tottenham and Burnley - not too much of a surprise for one of the Premier League's in-form frontmen.

But Southampton did not need their star man to beat West Brom, with two others getting off the mark for the season. Although Moussa Djenepo did not offer too much else attacking wise, he was in the right place for his well-taken goal, netting for the first time at St Mary's. The second was a headline-grabbing effort from the most unlikely of sources as Oriol Romeu hammered a volley home, scoring his first goal in 43 Premier League outings and with his first touch inside the opposition box this season.

Southampton 2-0 West Brom - Match report and highlights

In his post-match press conference, Ralph Hasenhuttl said: "We had a lot of chances again, it's important we get in positions for other players to score goals because it can't always be that Danny makes a goal. This is a team."

Overall, Southampton looked dangerous and creative in attack, adopting the pressing style that Hasenhuttl is a fan of. Stuart Armstrong, Che Adams and Kyle Walker-Peters shone, as did Nathan Redmond when he came on in the second half, and although Ings had a quieter afternoon goalwise, he also performed well and did what he had to do to help his team.

The Saints have now kept clean sheets in their last two games and, after a losing start, have rediscovered the form that served them well after the Premier League restart. Here's hoping it continues after the international break.
Charlotte Marsh

Toothless West Brom fall further behind

So far this season, scoring goals had not really been West Brom's problem. They netted twice against Everton and three in the first half against Chelsea alone, while their defensive frailties were exposed in defeat.

Against Southampton, though, it was like the tables had been turned. West Brom did not look too bad at the back, especially when the Saints were at their free-flowing best in the first half. But they were also saved time and again by Sam Johnstone and even Slaven Bilic admitted after the game that it says a lot when your goalkeeper was the best player.

But it was up front where West Brom looked out of ideas. Their few chances came from Matheus Pereira's well-taken set-pieces - drawing Alex McCarthy's only save of note in the 51st minute - but the Southampton back-line was rarely tested. Callum Robinson had only 20 touches of the ball and Kyle Edwards just 18 on his first Premier League start. Grady Diangana showed flashes of what he is capable of but never really got going.

Another defeat means West Brom have fallen even further behind the pack. They have already conceded 13 goals, although the Southampton defeat was their lowest tally thus far, and have taken just one point from their four games - their fewest at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1985/86.

Bilic has said he is in desperate need of reinforcements and it remains to be seen if he gets his wish on Deadline Day or further on to the closure of the domestic window on October 16. Their Premier League survival could depend on it.
Charlotte Marsh

Wolves go back to basics in defence

After losing 4-0 to West Ham in their previous Premier League outing, the first time that they had lost by a four-goal margin under Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves picked up a much-needed victory and clean sheet against Fulham. It was a hard-fought 1-0 win that will ease some nerves around Molineux.

Despite playing the bottom team at home, Nuno had clearly put plenty of thought into stopping some of the transitions that so undermined them at the London Stadium. Joao Moutinho was dropped, while Romain Saiss was moved to wing-back - often joining the midfield two rather than marauding down the flank in order to ensure Wolves were more stable defensively.

Wolves 1-0 Fulham - Match report and highlights

Aboubakar Kamara still had an opportunity to cancel out Pedro Neto's goal late on. Perhaps that explains why Nuno was keen to stress that he was not completely satisfied with his side at either end of the pitch. But this result ends a run of three consecutive defeats in all competitions, nevertheless.

With six points from four games, this is now the best start to a Premier League season that Wolves have had under Nuno. The signing of Rayan Ait-Nouri strengthens them again. The hope now is that the defeat to West Ham will soon come to be seen as an aberration rather than a warning sign.
Adam Bate

A glimmer of improvement from Fulham?

It is a mark of Fulham's start to the season that a 1-0 defeat - their fourth in a row to start the season - can be seen as a positive. But Scott Parker was right when he said he can be proud of his side at the final whistle.

Having shipped 10 goals in three games, with all of them coming before the 60-minute mark of those fixtures, Fulham looked a different animal at Molineux. They were organised, disciplined and looked like they wanted to defend their goal.

Parker spoke after the Leeds defeat about needing his team to 'smell the danger' in the box sometimes and they did that. Perhaps none more so than when three players threw themselves in front of a Leander Dendoncker shot, which unfortunately rebounded straight to Pedro Neto to score the only goal.

The changes at the back worked with Ola Aina settling in brilliantly at right-back - he is a significant upgrade in that position and should be a guaranteed starter for the foreseeable. Antonee Robinson on the other side is raw and he showed both good and bad aspects to his game.

Is the centre-back pairing of Tim Ream and Maxime Le Marchand going to keep them in the Premier League? Probably not and that is why they are looking to bring in new faces at the back. But the duo put their bodies on the line and while Alphonse Areola did have to bail them out on occasions, it was a vast improvement.

Going forward is a completely different issue for Parker and they simply didn't create enough despite having plenty of the ball. That should not take the focus away from an improved defensive display and it gives them a platform to build on after the international break.
Matt Storey

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