DRAMA, BABY!
Oof. Eek! Yikes. Woof! Tuesday’s final score sheet might show three draws and West Ham edging a mid-table battle, but this was another white-hot night of Premier League action. There were great goals, brilliant saves, hair pulls, late wobbles, Pep talks and some of the worst defending seen in the Barclays multiverse. Where to start? Well, why not at the Potterdome, where the Hammers rediscovered the concept of pressing after the fatally languid Julen Lopetegui era. The result was two goals gleaned from errant Fulham passes at the back, a platform the hosts clung on to as Fulham fought back, recording 21 shots to West Ham’s four but losing the game 3-2. “The best team didn’t win, but we have to be strong at both ends. We gave West Ham two goals,” fumed Marco Silva afterwards.
On the subject of giving up two goals, Manchester City were back to their not-so-old tricks at Brentford in a 2-2 draw that sent the Daily’s xG-o-meter spinning off the table, steam shooting out of every auxiliary port. City somehow gained control of a wild game, Phil Foden emerging from hibernation to score twice and make the other teams in the top-four race shift uncomfortably in their seats. Brentford, though, were reliably relentless and forced another late City collapse. Stefan Ortega might have done better with Christian Nørgaard’s stoppage-time equaliser, but we imagine the keeper felt reassured after one of Pep Guardiola’s on-field motivational talks.
Over to Chelsea, where Enzo Maresca, Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella continue to operate a kind of parallel-universe Manchester City where Pep sailed off into the sunset after winning the Treble. Things are no less chaotic on this side of the looking glass; after a clinical Palmer opener, Chelsea fell behind to Bournemouth only for Reece James to stun Stamford Bridge by scoring a stoppage-time free kick without injuring himself in the process. Cucurella had his hair pulled for the 1,057th time in his career, but David Brooks was spared a red card as referee Rob Jones was sent to the pitchside monitor and said thanks, but no thanks – a yellow card will do. The drama! In the end, Chelsea’s 2-2 home draw with Bournemouth felt like a better result than City’s 2-2 draw at Brentford. But was it? We don’t know.
Which brings us to events at the City Ground, and the most important but least eventful game of the night. Nottingham Forest, the only team to beat Liverpool in the league this season, led 1-0 through Chris Wood and threatened to move within three points of Arne Slot’s cheerful table-topping strollers – but Slot sent on Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota and saw them immediately combine for the equaliser. The Dutchman stays clear of Guardiola, Maresca – and, indeed, Nuno Espírito Santo – as the Premier League’s leading big bald football brain, thanks to a happy knack of keeping things simple. If you need to avoid losing, Jota is the man to send on – his headed leveller means he has now scored in 51 league games without ever being on the losing side.
It could have been even better for the visitors, but Matz Sels produced a number of saves, including a spectacular late dive to keep out Cody Gakpo’s long-range effort and preserve a point. Forest continue to stake their claim as the second-best team in the Premier League, and Liverpool offered fresh evidence that they belong in the top one. They lead Forest by six points with a game in hand, and are seven clear of Arsenal, who face Spurs in a particularly fraught edition of the North Lah’n Derby tonight. What on earth is going to happen in that one? We can’t wait to find out.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Scott Murray at 8pm (GMT) for live updates of Arsenal 2-2 Tottenham, while Niall McVeigh will bring you hot clockwatch action on the rest of the night’s matches from 7.30pm.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
A doctor doesn’t differentiate when a patient is coming from a different city. A lawyer doesn’t, either. If you like, I’m Dr Football. I love helping wherever I can, where I can give my all” – Jürgen Klopp does his best to spin his “global head of soccer” role at Red Bull to make it sound a smidgin less corporate and depressingly dull.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and the Football Weekly pod squad as they chew over the latest Premier League action and ask: are Nottingham Forest the real deal?
RECOMMENDED SHOPPING
Big Website’s bookshop has a host of great new tomes, just waiting to be added to your online basket. There’s My Beautiful Sisters by Khalida Popal and David Squires’ latest brilliant collection of cartoons: Chaos in the Box.
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FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
I presume until now Lazio (yesterday’s Football Daily) didn’t have the cajones to sack Juan Bernabe last time he got his bird out and cheered for the bald man” – Thomas Ayre.
Lazio firing their far-right sympathiser falconer for sharing pictures of a recent ‘penile implant’ (which, apropos of nothing, is going to be my new insult for 2025) but not firing him before that for performing a fascist salute at the end of a match and chanting ‘Duce, Duce’ in favour of former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, probably says something about the state of the world at the moment. As the great Chris Morris said on The Day Today, ‘those are the headlines. God, I wish they weren’t’” – Noble Francis.
I notice that, in the Jacobin calendar that was used during the French Revolution, today is the day set aside for the celebration of Tin. What a shame that historians of that era have not yet uncovered a copy of the revolutionary Football Quotidien, let alone its predecessor, Le Cinqeur” – Richard O’Hagan.
Arsenal can stop looking for the prolific striker they’ve been searching for. I’ve found him. If Shuto Machino is anything like his name, they’ll get target attempts on an industrial scale. Unlike the efforts of the club’s current strikers, some might even go in” – Charles Antaki.
I see Manchester United are sniffing round Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki. He’ll soon be on his bike, I reckon” – Darian Boyd.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Charles Antaki. Terms and conditions for our competitions – when we have them – can be viewed here.
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Source: theguardian.com
