Liverpool champions

I was on a flight from Bogota to Mexico, so did not get to see Liverpool's magnificent 5-1 trouncing of Tottenham (and the fact that it was against despicable Tottenham just makes it more delightful) to take their 20th English championship title and their first since 2020, with four matches to go in the league.

A splendid result for a cosmopolitan side whose goals were scored by a Colombian (Luis Diaz), an Argentine (Alexis MacAllister), a Dutchman (Cody Gakpo), and Egyptian (Mo Salah) and the Italian Destiny Udogie scoring an own goal to seal the title for Liverpool.

I am happy for my many friends who I know are very happy right now, and congratulate all Liverpool fans.

A new record for Salah

Watching the top team in the Premier League, Liverpool, play against the bottom side, Southampton, should not be an interesting match, and it wasn't, despite Will Smallbone bringing the visitors ahead 0-1 just before halftime. In the second half Darwin Nuñez scored one of his rare non-misses to equalize and then Mohammed Salah sealed the victory with two penalty goals.

What was special about the match is that with his two goals the great Egyptian Mohammed Salah sealed his position as top-scorer of the Premier League, and equalized Sergio Agüero's record as the foreigner with most goals in the Premier League, a record he is very likely to get in the next matches. He also became the third all-time Liverpool scorer behind Ian Rush (who was among the spectators today) and Roger Hunt.

Mohammed Salah is already a Liverpool legend, and today just seals it as Liverpool is almost sure to take the title this season. But with a spectacular season the Egyptian seems like the best player in the world at the moment. 

A true star and a true legend.

The worst Manchester United side ever

 It is not the fans, not a journalist or pundit who recently called the current Manchester United side "maybe in the history of Manchester United". No, the one who said it was none other than the current Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim who said it following another Manchester United defeat in the Premier League, 1-3 at home to Brighton.

This is quite an incredible remark from a manager who only joined the side in November 2024, but who has not had the success that was hoped for (or expected). It was also a strange change for Mr. Amorim, who came from success in Sporting Lisbon, and joined a club who was already in an enormous crisis and it did indeed look that Mr. Amorim had to do something superhuman to change what was happening. 

And now it looks that Amorim has realised the truth: that the crisis in Manchester United is deep, very deep, and that it is about the entire club, not just the manager. 

Does his comment help?

I do not think it is wrong to say what many fans and journalists are already saying, and surely many in Manchester United thinking, specially after another loss, and it is a wake-up call to a group of still-highly paid footballers who are clearly not delivering on the pitch. Manchester United looks less as a team than a group of offended rich kids.

Mr. Amorim may be a great manager; at least he speaks truth, but what he will do about it, remains to be seen.

Liverpool in the lead

I don't have a favourite Premier League side, but over the years I have come to sympathize with Liverpool and despise Tottenham (as to the reason, that would be worth another post one day). So it was with interest that these two sides faced another in the Premier League.

A lot of people have talked about the fact that Tottenham under Ange Postecoglu (who apparently sees himself as a modern day Gladiator modeled on the very "historically accurate" Russel Crowe) are playing entertaining football; but entertaining football is not to play without defense! And we saw that yesterday as Tottenham's defense was virtually inexistant as Liverpool played around and was ahead 3-1 by halftime on goals by Luis Díaz, Alexis MacAllister and Dominik Szoboszlai, and one lucky strike for Tottenham by James Maddisson.

But not much changed in second time as Mohammed Salah scored twice to make it 5-1. In the meantime, Tottenham's tactics appeared more to be about playing so badly that Liverpool would fall asleep, and then be lucky to score; sadly it worked as Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke scored rather lucky goals before Luis Díaz fortunately closed off scoring the final 6-3 goal.

With the bad runs of Manchester City and Arsenal (not to say Manchester United who lost 0-3 at home to Bournemouth!) Liverpool arrives at Christmas securely on first spot four points ahead of Chelsea, while Tottenham are on 11th place, which is not a position too high.

Starting up

 Following a post-tournament hangover and a pretty boring Olympic tournament that I did not even find worth writing about, we are now starting the European leagues with the Premier League starting yesterday when Manchester United defeated Fulham 1-0, starting a new season with a victory as they will try to improve on their 8th place in last year's PL.

In the meantime other favourites have also started well: Liverpool defeated Ipswich 2-0 with Mohammed Salah setting Diogo Jota up for the first goal and scoring the second himself. Arsenal, a side with huge ambitions after coming close to win the league the last couple of seasons, defeated Wolverhampton 2-o on goals by Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka, while last season's number four, Aston Villa, defeated West Ham 1-2 and will the looking to repeat their great season.

The champions of the last four seasons, Manchester City, are playing tomorrow in a clash against a Chelsea side that also will want to improve on their 6th place of last season.

In Spain the league started today as well with Valencia losing 1-2 at home to Barcelona. I don't think we can expect anything from the Valencians while Barcelona will be looking to upset a Real Madrid side that frankly looks like nobody can threaten them.

I am moving soon. My TV is gone and my place is full of boxes, so I did not in fact watch the matches, but certainly expect to watch more soon!

Today Manchester City got the League

The Premier League title is a race between Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool. Until today it appeared that Liverpool and Arsenal were the most likely candidates as they remained on top, equals on points, one point ahead of City.

But that changed today.

Liverpool lost 0-1 at home to the generally unnoticed Crystal Palace. This would give a clear advantage to Arsenal who were playing at home to Aston Villa, who is fighting well to take a Champions League spot. Within the last 10 minutes Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins giving Aston Villa a 0-2 victory and a step closer to the Champions League.

In the meantime Manchester City defeated Luton 5-1, and they are now on top, and seeing how City is playing now, they must now be the favourites for the title, unless the unlikelihood that they slip.

Big disappointment for both Liverpool and Arsenal. Liverpool are looking to have a good final season for Jurgen Klopp, while Arsenal have looked like title contenders all season, only to crash at the end just like last season.

It is all good for Arsenal

The Premier League is as exciting as could be, and two of the title contenders faced one another today when Manchester City went to Liverpool, and with both teams fighting to keep a hold on Arsenal, who took the first spot in the league after defeating Brentford 2-1, their eight Premier League victory in a row!

Jurgen Klopp's announcement that he will leave appears to have given Liverpool new fire as they want him to leave with a title. At the same time the team is littered with injuries, and this is a cause of concern despite the fact that many young players have stepped up, and the side won the League Cup and have managed to stay afloat despite losing 3-1 to Arsenal in early February. 

Manchester City is also pushing hard to win their fourth Premier League title in a row.

Liverpool appeared as the more organized and pressuring side throughout the match, but never really overwhelming a Manchester City side that was always a threat, and even went ahead 1-0 in the first half on a goal by John Stones following a corner kick during which the forward post of Liverpool was strangely abandoned by the defense. It was not deserved as Liverpool continued to press forward, but with Darwin Nuñez continuously running into off-sides, and Luis Diaz constantly frustrating the City defenders, but never defining. In the second half Alexis Macallister equalized for Liverpool on a penalty awarded to Nuñez, and Luis Diaz came very close to score; the Colombian fought hard but was incredibly inefficient.

1-1 in the end meant that Arsenal stays on top with 64 points, followed by Liverpool, also with 64, and City with 63 points.

With 10 matches left, it proves to be an incredible end-race for the Premier League title.

Exciting Premier League

 It all points to a very exciting Premier League. After 6 consecutive victories, Manchester City finally crashed by losing 2-1 to Wolverhampton, showing a league where all teams are competitive. Manchester City remains in first spot though, one point ahead of Tottenham. 

Tottenham defeated Liverpool 2-1 in a dramatic and intense match. Liverpool were looking good until Curtis Jones got a red card, after which Tottenham put pressure and got ahead by the outstanding Son Heung-Min. This happened after Luis Diaz had a goal cancelled by VAR for offside, in what did not look as an offside (the lines the TV channel I watched it on clearly showed no offside, but the VAR never showed the lines, making it all look very suspicious....). But Liverpool pressed on and Cody Gakpo equalised in the dying seconds of the first half.

Tottenham put more pressure in a second half that appeared full of nerves, and for Liverpool's Joel Matip when he scored an own goal in what was literally the last kick of the match in the 96th minute, and giving relief to the home crowd.

Tottenham thus took second spot on goal difference ahead of Arsenal, while Liverpool is on fourth spot with 16 points. Aston Villa and Brighton are fifth and sixth respectively with 15 points each, so all teams can win an exciting Premier League!

Premier League 2023-2024 Opening

I had the pleasure of watching an excellent openining match for Chelsea and Liverpool in the Premier League. Matches like this point to an excellent season ahead, where the usual suspects of Manchester City will be challenged by the likes of Arsenal (who opened with a 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest), Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and even other teams in one of the world´s most competitive league. 

Both Chelsea and Liverpool started well despite them sharing points with 1-1. Liverpool started best with two new signings in midfield, the Argentine Alexis MacAllister and the Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai. It was Luis Diáz who brought Liverpool ahead, and ten minutes later Mohamed Salah had a goal disallowed by VAR. It was one of Chelsea´s many new signings, Frenchman Alexis Disasi, who equalized for Chelsea towards the end of the first half. Second half could have gone to either side. More interesting was to see more of Chelsea´s new signings, many of them young players, such as Levi Colwill, Noclas Jackson, Ian Maatsen, as well as the Ukranian Mykhailo Mudryk, players with a big potential and who will be exciting to follow. 

Summer is over. Let the leagues start!

Champions and losers

 Both the Premier League and the Bundesliga ended this weekend. 

In the Premier League we already knew that Manchester City won the league ahead of an Arsenal side that had it all until the last stretch. Liverpool were close to catch Manchester United, but the Manchester side did well in its last stretch and even made it to third place, while Liverpool stayed fifth and will only play the Europa League next season. In the meantime, Newcastle's Arab investment paid off and on fourth place the old club full of traditions will be in the Champions League next season. Birghton is the other big surprise as they will be playing Europa League next season, after taking sixth spot.

The biggest disappointment in my view is in terms of relegation: two big clubs, Leicester and Leeds are being relegated. Leicester only seven years after winning the league in one of the biggest sensations of all time.

I hope both sides will return soon.

The Bundesliga had no champion until the last round, and it all looked set for Borussia Dortmund to take the title from Bayern Munich. All the had to do was win at home to Mainz. Alas, it didn't work. They were down 0-2, missed a penalty, and only managed to equalize in the dying seconds. In the meantime, Bayern Munich was playing Cologne; also needing to win, Jamal Musiala gave them the winning 2-1 goal in the 89th minute, and with that the 11th Bundesliga title in a row, in a league that is evermore onesided.

No league football for a while now....

Manchester City on the way

 Arsenal has had a great season under Mikel Arteta, and for a long time have been leading the Premier League, which they have not won since 2004. But for the last month mighty Manchester City have been edging closer to the top as Arsenal's run started to falter, and last week Manchester City edged much closer when they defeated Arsenal 4-1 in Manchester, and with two games less than Arsenal, took all cards to get the title into their own hands.

Today they took the first ace in the race to win the title, when they defeated West Ham 3-0, with goals by Nathan Aké, Phil Foden, and mighty Erling Halland, who already has 35 goals, the most in a Premier League season (and surely it will be a few more). With five games to go, and four for Arsenal, Manchester City appears likely to win the title, and also being in the FA Cup Final (where they will face Manchester United) and still in the run for the Champions League (where they will face Real Madrid), it appears that this could still be the greatest season for Pep Guardiola's team.

7-0 wow

 Since Erik ten Haag became Manchester United manager the team has done better, and they are currently third in the Premier League. Liverpool in the meantime is fighting to be in the top four. So today’s classic match between the two English giants was a spectacular match for Liverpool, who trashed their rivals 7-0 in what is their biggest victory over Manchester United ever.

It did not look like it would end like that after a tight first half where Liverpool was leading only 1-0 on a magnificent strike by Cody Gakpo. But in the second half goals poured in on de Gea: Darwin Núñez scored twice, Cody Gakpo also scored again, Roberto Firmino scored the last goal, while Mohammed Salah, with two goals, became Liverpool’s all-time Premier League goal scorer.

Liverpool are in fifth place, just behind Tottenham, but is looking like a CL candidate again. Manchester United remain third, but Erik ten Haag probably has some things to think about.

Another Manchester derby

Another great match between United and City. City went ahead by Jack Grealish, and one had the feeling that they could hold, but led by a splendid Marcus Rashford Manchester United came back to win 2-1, with Rashford himself scoring the winner. All this despite the fact that the equalizer was controversial: Rashford was in a clear off side position but did not touch the ball as it went to Bruno Fernandes who scored. That said, in my view, Rashford clearly had influence on the play (he followed the ball without touching it), and directly influenced the movement of the defenders.

But this is one of those controversial plays that no VAR or anything can answer, and at the bottom why we love football!

Since Cristiano Ronaldo left, Manchester United have not lost a match, and after a weak start of the season they are now on third place, one point behind Manchester City. The United victory was good for Arsenal, who remain as leaders of the Premier League with five points ahead of Manchester City, and with what will be an exciting clash with Tottenham tomorrow, where a victory would put them further ahead in the league.

Erling Haaland's route to records

Erling Haaland was already on fire when playing in Borussia Dortmund, but since his change to Manchester City the Norwegian has continued as a goal-scoring machine. In the latest match against Leeds (which happens to be Haaland's favourite English club) Haaland scored two goals in City's 3-1 victory, and with these two goals he reached 20 goals in the Premier League, after 14 matches played. With this, Haaland has been the fastest player ever to reach 20 goals in the Premier League.

Except for an injury Haaland will be the most scoring player of the league; the last two seasons 23 goals have been enough to get that title (Harry Kane, Mohammed Salah and Son Heung-Min), so Haaland appears likely to get beyond the 30 goal-mark (something that Mohammed Salah achieved in the 2017-18 season with 32 goals).

Manchester City appear in a good position to defend the Premier League title, and Haaland is surely an important part of that.

Manchester-Manchester

 I have not had much time to watch or think football lately. I have missed many great matches, but today I took time to get up early and watch the Manchester Derby between Manchester City and Manchester United. Both teams have looked fairly strong of late, with Manchester City trailing Arsenal in the second spot of the league table, and Manchster United on a positive curve, with four victories in a row. Therefore the derby was expected to be interesting.

But it was not.

Basically Manchester City trashed United in the first half, leading 4-0 at halftime. The entire team seemed on fire, and with Phil Foden and Erling Haaland in particular, each scoring two goals. In the second half Manchester United tried meager pressure, and perhaps got a bit of hope when Antony scored for the reds. But Foden and Haaland were not done and each scored again, to bring the score to a humiliating 6-1. In the dying minutes of the match Anthony Martial scored two for United, making sure that the humiliation was not total, although no doubt there will be strong criticism for losing like they did to their home-city rivals.

Haaland has surely been the signing of the season. He has scored 14 goals, topping the goalscorers list, which he appears sure to win!

Manchester City champions

 Although in the end everything finished as one might have expected (City and Liverpool victories), the end of the Premier League ended with a high level of excitement, with the surprise always looming.

To be champions City needed a win at home against Aston Villa. But with 20 minutes elft Aston Villa were ahead 0-2, and there was a clear fear in the stadium (although Liverpool were at the time not winning). But goals by Rodri and Gundogan (who came in to make two) within a magic period of five minutes, put things straight and the title in Manchester.

Liverpool knew what was happening in Manchester, and that a victory would give them the title. But Wolverhampton were a hard nut to crack, and the Wolves went ahead already in the third minute. Liverpool pressed on an towards the end of the first half Sadio Mane equalized. Knowing the result in Manchester the Reds pressed on, but the goal did not come until the 84th minute by way of Mohammed Salah. But by this time City were already up, and even though Salah scored a third in the last minute, they hardly celebrated it as they knew it was but for nothing but the goal-stats.

Liverpool ends as runner-ups, but they have an FA Cup title, and next week they will be vying for the Champions League title in a clash of Titans against Real Madrid.

Premier League Saturday action!

I have just spent an entire lazy Saturday morning watching some great Premier League action during which Manchester City's apparent hold in the first spot has been weakened, put excitement into the league.

First I watched Liverpool defeat Norwich 3-1. Despite going down 0-1, Liverpool showed the same cool professionalism by which they defeated Inter in the Champions League and came back on a spectacular goal by Sadio Mane, a goal by Mohammed Salah, as well as a cool finish by the new signing Luis Diaz to score his first goal for Liverpool (a shame that he cannot score for his native Colombia). 

Liverpool are on second spot and had six points up to Manchester City before the Manchester side were to face Tottenham at home, who are still fighting for a possible European spot. But everyone knew it would be a difficult match as Manchester City has been looking strong at home, but only after four minutes Tottenham's new Swedish signing Dejan Kulusevski made it 0-1 on a quick buildup by Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min. As Manchester City pushed forward one was expecting an equalizer and it came by the way of Ilkay Gundogan after a mistake by Hugo Lloris in the Tottenham goal.

After this I at least was expecting Manchester City's constant pressure to bear fruit but instead in the second half Tottenham's counterattack proved deadly again as Son splendidly found Harry Kane who first-timed to make it 1-2. 

City continued attacking against a defensive but fighting Tottenham, who continued threatening on the counterattack (and in fact got another Harry Kane goal cancelled for a hair-thin offside). Two minutes into added time City got the equalizer on a well-taken penalty kick by Riyad Mahrez. Anyone would be forgiven to think that that was it, but Tottenham had another attack where a splendid cross by Dejan Kulusevski found Harry Kane's head and 2-3 for Tottenham.

Except for Manchester City, many are probably happy with the result: Harry Kane has not scored many goals this season, but his fourth and fifth season goals came in this crucial game, and he will be needed as Antonio Conte's side tries to get to Europe. Liverpool are surely also happy, as they are one match short with six points up to City, who may be feeling the pressure.

And in the end football fans like myself are happy that the Premier League continues to offer us so much excitement on a lazy Saturday morning in San Salvador!

Manchester United in trouble

It is seldom one sees as one-sided a classic match as that between Manchester United and Liverpool on Saturday, when Liverpool gave United a legendary trashing of 0-5. Despite all of Manchester United´s weaknesses, one must first give credit to a Liverpool side that has found its groove from a couple of years back, and who will be battling for the Premier League title with Chelsea (and possibly with Manchester City, but I predict a race between Liverpool and Chelsea). Mohamed Salah, with three goals against Manchester United, is back as possibly the best striker in the world at the moment, while balance in defense and midfield seems to be perfect for Liverpool. 

 In the meantime Manchester United has no defence, and it was incredible to see two such experienced players as Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw being outplayed again and again by Liverpool´s attacks. Cristiano Ronaldo is a threat by the mere fact of his immense talent; a World Class Player without a doubt, but it does seem that the team is struggling tactically to integrate him. It is a pity to have a player of such quality only to show him off rather than to make the team better, but that is what seems to be happening. A lot of people are saying that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should leave as a manager, and with these results it is hard to disagree with, although there is also a feeling that the problem is deeper that the Manager, and that Manchester United, despite its immensely talented squad, needs something else to improve.

Another view on VAR

 I recently watched Everton-Liverpool in the Premier League. In the dying seconds of the match, with the score 2-2, Liverpool scored a goal that would give them the victory in a well-played match. After celebrations and comments, the referee cancelled the goal, based on a VAR decision that Sadio Mane (who made the pass for the goal by Jordan Henderson) was in an off-side position.

In the reviews they showed on TV it was incredibly difficult to see that Sadio Mane was anything but in line with the defenders, and it appears impossible to refute or agree that one part of his body was a few millimeters ahead any of the defenders. In real life it will have been impossible for a referee or linesman to see, and I doubt any Everton players would have complained for a goal given; nobody would have reviewed the goal!

Maybe it was off side. But that is in my view not the point of the VAR. It is to review when the referee "has made a clear and obvious error". When the VAR referees sit in their little room and want to review errors that are not "clear and obvious", they are not adding value to the quality or justice of the game, but rather contributing just another layer to controversial decisions. 

I am not against VAR. But it should be used with a caution that the people who make decisions do not seem to understand. The point is not to make football error-proof, because it never will be, but rather to reduce the worst and most controversial decisions: a clear off-side goal; a clear hand-goal; doubt on crossing the line. 

Besides this, there is a problem in who decides: the entire decision process of the VAR should be entirely in the hands of the referee that is no the pitch. He or she should alone decide whether to ask for a VAR review and should be alone making a decision based on VAR for those situation that he or she considers difficult, and an off-side situation it should happen in consultation with the linesman. The VAR referees should not be able to decide after the fact.

I know this will return pressure on the referee; the same pressure that there was before the the advent of VAR. But VAR should be a tool for the referee; just like his or her cards, the whistle or the linesmen, but if it is not a tool, it becomes just another layer of football bureaucracy to the detriment of what is best for the game.

Two teams that will not be champions

Liverpool and Arsenal tied 3-3 in a very entertaining but poorly played match. "Entertaining for the neutral but not for the knowledgeable" as I saw on a tweet that was later deleted. Liverpool are currently on a roll; they play intense and high pressure, and with a Mohamed Salah who is at the top of his career (I have never been a big fan, and I am still of the opinion that he misuses too many chances) they are a scoring machine. But football is also about defending, and here Liverpool can in no way be hoping to win the title! 0-2 ahead, in full control, and it only took them 3 minutes they fall apart! While defending is absolutely dreadful, you also have to question why they were not 4-0 ahead against a dreadful Arsenal. On top of that you have a goalkeeper in Mignolet who costs goals: I still wonder where his hands were on Xhaka's equalizer.
Jurgen Klopp is a great manager because of his approach to football, confidence in his young players and passion for the match. But if he does not also focus on defending, he will remain a great manager without titles.

Arsene Wenger has given Arsenal more titles than such a club could ever hope for. That said, one has to wonder whether he is over the top, or whether it is even his responsibility that his players seem unmotivated for such a match. Arsenal's first half was a disgrace in attitude and fight in front of their fans. There were some improvements in the second half, where Alexis Sanchez 1-2 goal seemed to give them some faith. But in the end one came away with a bad impression of players like Alexis and Ozil, who really only show glimpses of their quality. Maybe Arsenal needs an overhaul, and maybe, just maybe, it will have to start with the man who they owe everything to, Arsene Wenger.

In any case, a great match, but I will come with a daring prediction (because all prediction about the PL are notoriously hard): none of these teams will be Premier League champions!