1) Newcastle need to evolve
That Newcastle let Liverpool off the hook yesterday – let alone contrived to lose – was unforgivable. They had a one-goal lead, a near-feral home support, and a 10-man opposition with a midfield trio who had never played together, their third and fourth-choice centre-backs, and a booked right-back who couldn’t afford to make a tackle amid one of the worst games of his career.
And yet Newcastle couldn’t press home their advantage, leaving themselves vulnerable to Liverpool’s scintillating counter-attacking quality. Alisson Becker seemed surprised after the game when he was told he had never made as many saves in a Premier League game: many of them were simple replies to long-range efforts. Beyond his brilliant clawing away of Miguel Almiron’s volley and his late, splayed save from Sean Longstaff’s back-flick, the Liverpool goalkeeper was not made to sweat too hard.
It was the second week in a row that Newcastle didn’t do enough in attack, as they managed all of one shot on target against Man City in their previous game. City are broadly imperious but last week they were vulnerable: hindered by a stunted pre-season, depleted by injury and coming back from a sweaty Super Cup final in Greece. Newcastle, though, hardly landed even a glancing blow. It’s difficult to imagine Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United offering so little in the same situation.
This is Eddie Howe’s big challenge. He has built a fabulously physical, insurgent side, but solely acting the underdog will not be enough at what is now a top-four team at one of the richest clubs on Earth, despite the curious ‘plucky little Newcastle’ narrative that surrounds some of the media coverage of the club.
As it currently stands, Newcastle simply don’t have enough creative players in the team. Sandro Tonali is a more technical version of Joelinton, so his signing made sense as a replacement rather than a midfield complement. Gary Neville spoke of Newcastle’s bruising, functional midfield reminding him of Klopp’s Liverpool in their pomp, but that Liverpool side brimmed with creativity in virtually every other position. Anthony Gordon was excellent yesterday, but the other wide attacker, Almiron, was fitful. Kieran Trippier offers some forward thrust from right-back, but Dan Burn is a centre-back playing at left-back. Lewis Hall should be an improvement, but for now, Newcastle lack that ferocious jab with which the top teams wear down opponents.
This time, Darwin was a reminder to the opposition of their need to evolve.
2) Arsenal need Zinchenko back to full fitness
Mikel Arteta was bewildered by Arsenal’s failure to beat Fulham, saying their performance was “ten times better” than in the same fixture last season. But their profligacy in front of goal and a couple of sloppy errors meant they dropped early-season points in a 2-2 draw.
There were positives in the performance nonetheless. Fabio Vieira looked much more impressive in midfield than Kai Havertz, while Oleksandr Zinchenko stepped up his return to fitness by playing the final 35 minutes. Arsenal need him to be fit to start games soon, as his presence allows Arsenal revert to last season’s successful style.
In Zinchenko’s absence, Arteta has played a conventional left-back but Thomas Partey at right-back, who has had the job of inverting into midfield when Arsenal are in possession. Zinchenko, of course, usually does that job from left-back, and did it when he was introduced against Fulham.
The problem of playing Partey at right-back is that Ben White is shuffled across into centre-back, meaning he can no longer make overlapping runs outside of Bukayo Saka down the right flank. This has a knock-on effect: Saka has to stay wider, which in turn draws Martin Odegaard out of the De Bruyne-patented half-space in which he is so dangerous.
Arteta spoke afterwards of “better relationships” on the pitch after he made his second-half substitutes, and in this he was surely referring to the fact White could return to right-back and once again elevate Saka’s attacking play.
3) Antony has one of his better days
The only side with a 100% record across two home games so far this season is Manchester United which, on the evidence of their performances, is unbelievable. United were blessed to beat Wolves on the opening weekend, and again looked deeply flawed in the come-from-behind 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
There was lots for Erik ten Hag to worry about. United looked frighteningly porous on the counter-attack, Casemiro is showing significant signs of ageing, and United pretty much played the whole game with 10 men given the utterly ineffective Anthony Martial.
But ten Hag will find some solace in the performance of Antony, who has largely flopped at United so far. When one-vs-one with a defender, Antony is pretty one-dimensional: he is solely left-footed and doesn’t really have the pace to beat the defender on the outside, so he will always cut inside. Where he can excel, however, is in his link-up play with the players around him. Against Forest he drifted in off the right-wing to play a series of neat, clever passes with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, and Christian Eriksen, which helped to pick apart the left side of Forest’s defence. He may further flourish if he had a more technically proficient full-back to link with than Wan-Bissaka.
4) Evan Ferguson’s tricky day
Evan Ferguson earned his first start of the season on Saturday but ultimately had a front-row seat for some classic David Moyes rope-a-dope. West Ham won 3-1 with just 18% possession, countering brutally while efficiently shutting Brighton down.
A vital tenet of West Ham’s game plan was to stymie Ferguson, and so €40 million signing Edson Alvarez was given the job of man-marking the Irish teenager.
Ferguson is crucial to Brighton’s build-up play: he drops off as a false nine to receive the ball between the lines and prise open deep defences. Alvarez, however, diligently tracked Ferguson and did a good job of denying him that space and disrupting Brighton’s rhythm.
For all the close attention, however, Ferguson still had chances. The quickness of his feet is becoming one of his trademark qualities and a lightning flourish of touch, pirouette and shot was a masterclass in how to find space in a congested penalty area. He was denied by West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola on that occasion, as he was twice in the second-half, first from a back-post header and then a powerful snapshot in the box.
It was a discomfiting day for Brighton and a tricky experience for Ferguson, but despite all of that, he managed three shots on target. Only Erling Haaland (seven) and Solly March (six) have had more shots on target in the opening three games of the season than Ferguson. Then take into account the fact Ferguson has played 127 minutes across those three games – compared to Haaland’s 259 and March’s 234 – and you’ll realise he is doing just fine.
The very best teams play against teams set up in West Ham’s style all the time, and that Ferguson had so many chances to score won’t have gone unnoticed.
