Man United-Chelsea recap, Barcelona romp, Arsenal depth, more

What a weekend of European soccer! We have Liverpool top of the Premier League again as Arsenal lost at Newcastle and Manchester City were defeated at Bournemouth. We saw Barcelona turn on the style again and defeat their local rivals Espanyol to take a nine-point lead atop LaLiga. Also, Bayern Munich won a third straight match in the Bundesliga to build a three-point cushion between them and the chasing pack.

The full Musings for this week can now be found below, with more talking points around Barcelona, Man United 1-1 Chelsea, Atlético Madrid, a wild slate of Serie A matches, and much more.

It’s Monday. Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of soccer.

What Ruben Amorim learned from Man United’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea

On Friday, Ruben Amorim, Manchester United’s manager-to-be, guided his Sporting side to a 5-1 thumping of Estrela Amadora. Saturday was probably a warm-down/day off and while Sunday was likely devoted to training and prep for the visit of Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, you imagine he squeezed in some time to watch his future team face Chelsea.

Given the cloud of negativity that has enveloped the club — it has now played 16 games in all competitions and won just four, two of them in the League Cup, which doesn’t really count — there were positives for him to pick out.

A draw against a Chelsea side that has really cranked it up in recent weeks is a creditable result. Neither side looked particularly good, but after the visitors shaded the first half, United took the lead, stayed in the game after the equalizer and had chances to win at the end. (To be fair, so did Chelsea.) It’s also significant, I think, that while Chelsea effectively had a week to prepare for the game — just one of Chelsea’s starting XI, Noni Madueke, featured in midweek and he played 33 minutes — eight United starters were also in the lineup in the League Cup. And yet, despite Chelsea having a younger and, presumably, fitter, side, United weren’t outhustled or outworked.

While interim boss Ruud Van Nistelrooy didn’t use the 3-4-2-1 formation we expect Amorim will employ, there were clues and parallels. Manuel Ugarte and Casemiro were given more licence to roam from central midfield, much like Amorim’s central midfielders at Sporting, and they did OK. Noussair Mazraoui, shifted out to the left, looked dangerous. There’s no sense that the players are mailing it in as they wait for the new boss.

Low bar? Sure. Were there negatives too? Of course. But at this stage, it’s probably more useful for Amorim to figure out the strengths on which he can build than the flaws he needs to fix, if only because the transfer window doesn’t reopen until January. And given that this United side isn’t built for his 3-4-2-1 — they have no viable right-sided centre-back until Leny Yoro returns, there’s a big hole at left-back that Mazraoui might or might not fill, and plenty of questions in the middle of the park — he could end up sticking to the current formation while introducing tweaks and concepts here and there.

As for Chelsea, Enzo Maresca said he was happy with the point. Given the youth of this team, given that he has only been there for a few months, given that it’s United away (even this version of United) a point is a positive. He made a big call in leaving out Enzo Fernández, but Moisés Caicedo was arguably man of the match and Romeo Lavia was excellent too. That shows self-belief and personality. As long as Chelsea keep doing well, it won’t be a problem for Fernandez down the road, and given the fee paid for him, it might turn into one for the club, but that shouldn’t concern Maresca right now.

More of an issue, I think, is how even a fresh-legged Chelsea couldn’t turn a solid first half into goals and clear-cut chances. Cole Palmer was muted (by his lofty standards) and at some point, somebody needs to pick up the creative slack when he’s not donning his Superman cape. That’s still very much a work in progress.

Barcelona make it six wins in a row, but derby victory suggests Hansi Flick must act … and he will

They’ve won every game they’ve played this season, bar two: against Monaco in the Champions League (when they played 79 minutes with 10 men), and Osasuna in LaLiga (when he rested a number of regulars). But if Hansi Flick thinks he can rest on his laurels (and I don’t think he does), then the 3-1 win over Espanyol should serve as a warning.

Barça destroyed the opposition in the first half (3-0, 1.59 xG) only to wilt after the break, with Espanyol pulling one back, forcing Iñaki Peña to make a stellar save and seeing two goals disallowed for the most marginal of offsides.

Espanyol have had two goals wiped away by these marginal offside calls.

Game of centimeters 😮 pic.twitter.com/R9xH5N9n7n

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 3, 2024

It’s not as if Flick sent on the scrubs at the break, either: Fermín López and Frenkie de Jong for Dani Olmo and Marc Casadó were predictable subs designed to maintain your focus. It’s not just a function of Flick’s high-risk defensive line, where you’re a split-second away from giving your opponents a run on goal, either; it’s simply that playing this way is very taxing and requires intensity. Barça have nine players who have already started 11 games this season, and four of them are 21 or younger. Expecting them to continue to play with this level of intensity seems unrealistic.

The good news? The cavalry is here. De Jong and Gavi are fit again, Andreas Christensen and Eric García will be back after the international break and we should see Ronald Araújo return to the first team in January. That should help Flick manage the workload, but because several of them have different skill sets than the guys they are replacing, it will also be an opportunity to vary the way Barcelona plays. It could mean ditching the high line in some situations, varying the intensity and timing of the press, possibly tweaking the formation too.

Flick has options; he just needs to choose the right one and make it work because despite the early success, simply keeping things as they are is, likely, the wrong choice. Flick 2.0 will be interesting…

Mikel Arteta takes it on the chin in Arsenal loss, but maybe this is where squad depth comes home to roost

Mikel Arteta didn’t hide after Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle. He didn’t bring up the fact that his team outshot the opposition or had twice Newcastle’s expected goals. He didn’t cry about injuries or Declan Rice not connecting cleanly with his late chance.

“We deserved to lose today,” he said. “We got dragged into the game Newcastle wanted and not the one we wanted.”

What he meant, presumably, is that Newcastle outhustled and outmuscled them and turned it into a game about intensity, rather than control and individual quality. And here, Arsenal were no match.

Now, it’s easy to make fun of Arteta when he notes that Newcastle are “big and physical” — Anthony Gordon is neither, and it’s not as if Rice, Kai Havertz, William Saliba and Gabriel are a bunch of weaklings — but you can see his point. The nice thing about having more skill in your side is that sometimes you can take your foot off the gas. But only sometimes, and only to a point.

This is where injuries come into play, of course: Riccardo Calafiori, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Martin Odegaard were all out (though Newcastle’s injury list is even longer and, arguably, more important). But more than that, it’s an issue of workload.

Havertz has played every minute of every league and Champions League game this season. Rice and Saliba would have too, if not for their red cards. Thomas Partey and Gabriel have also started every game (bar the League Cup). That adds up, not necessarily in terms of performance, but certainly in terms of bringing the right intensity in every game.

Injuries haven’t helped, but it does feel like Arteta is reluctant to put much faith into his players beyond the first 14 or 15 names. I’m not sure he can afford to do that. (News on Monday that sporting director Edu, a longtime Arteta friend and colleague, is set to leave the club will also add stress to this situation.)

Home truths for Napoli after ‘hard stop’ against Atalanta, who rarely fail to amaze

After his team’s 3-0 home defeat, Napoli boss Antonio Conte said, “Atalanta are a better team, they’ve been on a journey for years …” He’s probably right on both counts, but it’s worth noting that the “journey” that he talks about is more about the club and the mentality than the personnel. Half the XI who resoundingly won at the San Paolo weren’t at the club just 18 months ago, and yet they look as if they’ve been working in Gian Piero Gasperini’s system for years, mainly because, yes, he’s a great coach at a very well-run club.

Five top-five finishes in the past six years and the Europa League victory over mighty Bayer Leverkusen last season, all against better resourced opponents, speak to a club and coach who are very much in sync and who simply make better choices than the competition. And consistency engenders belief and buy-in, which is why it’s easier for Gasperini to get his message across. Or, as he did on Sunday, drop Serie A’s leading goal scorer, Mateo Retegui, to the bench. Unorthodox? Sure. But who is going to question him when he’s got that much cred?

There’s a parallel there with Conte, of course, in the sense that he comes in with the big rep from day one and this season has earned that buy-in with his results (at least before Sunday, when Napoli had put together nine wins and one draw in their previous 10 games). It’s just that what Gasperini builds over time, he has to build in a few months, and he never really builds over time because, well, after getting out of the gates quickly, he tends not to stick around very long.

The warning signs were there for Napoli, despite their impressive run of form. They beat Milan without dominating in midweek, and before that, they had a couple of 1-0 wins (one deserved, one less so). Conte has the luxury of no European football and, broadly, getting the players he wanted in the summer. But you hope he’s the first to realize that his team aren’t where he wants them to be. That won’t happen until Romelu Lukaku starts producing, Billy Gilmour can fill Stanislav Lobotka’s shoes (or Lobotka returns) and David Neres can live up to his fee.

Quick hits

10. Bayern Munich roll on, the Barça debacle behind them: That’s three wins in a row for Bayern, 12 goals scored, nine conceded. And on Saturday, their 3-0 win came against Union Berlin, hardly pushovers as evidenced by the fact that they were joint third going into the game. Harry Kane bagged two (and is on pace for a 40-goal season), Jamal Musiala showed (again) why this team is nowhere near as good when he’s not there, but most encouraging I thought is how some of the more criticised players — central defenders Kim Min-Jae and Dayot Upamecano, Alphonso Davies out wide and the man in the middle, Joshua Kimmich — are all clicking nicely.

9. Liverpool show signs of wear, but come back to beat Brighton and go top: Arne Slot himself complained about how poor they looked in the first half, when Brighton scored one and could have had more. Blame it on a combination of Brighton being a tough out, some individuals having an off day (Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai spring to mind) and the accumulated fatigue of Champions League football for a side that doesn’t rotate much. Some oomph off the bench, a bit of luck on Cody Gakpo’s goal and some magic from Mohamed Salah turned it around. Slot and Liverpool enter the week on top of the Premier League table. It’s understandable that he hasn’t rotated much thus far, but to stay top down the stretch, he’ll likely need to do it far more.

8. Yes, the VAR call was tight and they gave up chances, but please chill out on Inter Milan: Yes, Venezia defender Marin Sverko was very unlucky to have what would have been a 98th-minute equalizer against Inter ruled out, but the rules are clear and you can’t score with your arm (or wrist), even if it’s unintentional. Yes, Yann Sommer had to make two superlative saves and yes, squint and you’ll see Inter running with a bit less intensity than last year. But let’s not go all gloom and doom here. In the first 40 minutes of the game, Inter limited Venezia to zero shots and could have scored three times. After the break, they missed another three big chances en route to an xG of 1.33 and other than Joel Pohjanpalo’s strike, they conceded little until the VAR call. I don’t think it’s quite time for doom and gloom: Fede Dimarco continues to be devastating, Lautaro Martínez is scoring regularly again and Hakan Calhanoglu (who played the last 20 minutes) will be back in midfield real soon.

7. Nuri Sahin and Borussia Dortmund get the reaction they wanted … but were Leipzig just terrible on the day? A win over previous league leaders RB Leipzig is very significant and a critical bounce-back for Dortmund after three straight defeats. So I don’t want to pooh-pooh the 2-1 victory, especially as it was a comeback. Embattled coach Nuri Sahin said he believes in his team and would believe in them even if they lost seven in a row. They came out of the gate quickly, absorbed Benjamin Sesko’s opening goal and then stormed back, limiting Leipzig — who are usually so prolific — to just two shots in the second half. But I reckon it’s a bit early to suggest everything is A-OK again because you wonder how things might have turned out if Maximilian Beier’s equalizer hadn’t come so soon after the Sesko goal. And you wonder how much Leipzig’s uncharacteristic futility at both ends of the pitch influenced this outcome. Wednesday and Champions League cupcake Sturm Graz at home won’t offer much of an indication, but it could all unravel quickly again if they slip up against Mainz heading into the mid-November international break.

6. Ange Postecoglou derails the Unai Emery Bandwagon: We’re so used to (rightly) heaping praise on Aston Villa and Unai Emery’s tactical prowess that it’s easy to forget that in the past two games (Bournemouth at home and Tottenham away) they lost a total of five points after taking the lead. Had they hung on, they’d be second alongside Manchester City. Credit Tottenham for their second-half comeback and blame individual errors and some poor turnovers for the 4-1 defeat. I don’t think it’s reason to panic, though it does underscore how tactical plans and coaching are well and good, but individuals still need to execute: if Pau Torres lays an egg and Ollie Watkins misses chances, that’s beyond Emery’s remit. As for Spurs, seeing Dominic Solanke come alive (the goals get the headlines, but the work off the ball was just as important) is a big boost. If there is one criticism of Postecoglou, it’s the Heung-Min Son substitution. I understand wanting to limit his minutes — the manager said after the game that Son wasn’t fully fit and “was never going to play more than 55 minutes” — but having your captain appear shocked (like much of White Hart Lane) at seeing his number come up is not a good look. (Had they lost this game, you imagine Postecoglou would be in the hot seat … again.) Just a reminder that clarity and communication are essential.

5. Juventus win, but we might as well get used to them being inconsistent for a while: With this Juve side, the worst thing you can do is have a knee-jerk reaction to every result: They were horrendous against Stuttgart, impressive in the comeback against Inter, poor at home against Parma in midweek and now good again in a 2-0 away win at Udinese. They looked good in spots, Kenan Yildiz showed (again) that he’s a player-and-a-half, Teun Koopmeiners started and Khephren Thuram had his best game in a Juventus shirt. The flip side? Udinese were poor (Kenan Davis aside), possession was too often sterile, Lorenzo Lucca hit the woodwork and Michele Di Gregorio had to make a big save. The upshot? Up-and-down performances are normal for young sides missing key players and with a newly installed coach who sees the game differently than his predecessors. Nothing wrong with that.

4. A pick-me-up for Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone gets to see his son score: That’s the good news, and there’s nothing like an opponent like Las Palmas (one shot all game, 0.02 expected goals) to give you a boost after defeats to Lille and Real Betis. It’s hard to even assess though whether there has been much progress, given how poor the opposition was in the 2-0 win. The good news, though, is that with everyone talking about Diego Simeone’s “other” son, Giuliano, scoring his first ever Atletico goal, the focus won’t be on the performance. And that should give them time to prepare properly for the trip to Paris in midweek when everything could come crashing down again.

3. Milan grind out a 1-0 win at Monza, but this doesn’t feel like a Fonseca team: I say this because he made his name with sides that were dynamic and possession-oriented. This Milan side are dynamic but too often incapable of doing much with the ball, especially against opponents who sit tight like Monza did. Their best work — and Tijjani Reijnders’ goal — came in transition. Sure, Rafael Leão was on the bench again (he came on and delivered a moment of fruitless magic) and Youssouf Fofana needs to find his feet as a playmaker, but right now so much of the difference-making moments in this team come from individuals: like Mike Maignan’s save off Pedro Pereira or Theo Hernández turning on the afterburners or Christian Pulisic running himself into the ground. That whole value-add thing isn’t there yet, and Real Madrid are next up midweek in the Champions League …

2. Wasteful PSG held to one goal by 10-man Lens as Marco Asensio gets his turn to audition up front: Ousmane Dembélé broke the ice early on and you were hoping for an open, competitive game between Paris Saint-Germain and Lens. Instead it was one-way traffic, with Luis Enrique’s team piling up (and missing) their chances and Lens flailing (other than Brice Samba’s heroics in goal). Lens going down to 10 men early in the second half obviously didn’t help matters. After trying Lee Kang-In and Dembele in the role, we saw Marco Asensio get the nod at center forward. He’ll get criticism for the missed chances, but if you’re going to insist on a “false nine,” he’s probably a better option than the other two. Or, you could just keep it simple and give poor old Randal Kolo Muani — you know, the guy PSG paid €75 million in transfer fees for 15 months ago — a run of games? He has just two starts this season and was an unused sub this weekend.

1. Man City’s unbeaten league streak ends at 32 with deserved defeat at Bournemouth: First, hats off to Bournemouth and Andoni Iraola because in their past three games, they beat Arsenal and City and got a point away to Aston Villa. Saturday’s win over City was comprehensive, especially in a first half in which the defending champions notched zero shots on target and mustered an xG of only 0.18. (Even with Erling Haaland’s late close-range double misses, Bournemouth still won the xG battle, 2.04 to 1.56.) Obviously you question Pep at your peril — he has the record to back it up — but his squad management is, sometimes, curious. He started Kyle Walker, who apparently had all of six minutes of training and had a rough game and left him on for 90 minutes. This, despite having Rico Lewis on the bench. Despite being 2-0 down and creating close to nothing, his only two changes were sending on Lewis with 17 minutes left and Jérémy Doku with five left. Savinho stayed rooted to the bench, as did Kevin De Bruyne (who hasn’t played in six weeks, but presumably can hit a dead ball). Sure, injuries bite, but on this occasion, I’m not sure Pep made things better.