What We Learned From Prem Week 6


It’s Coming Home

There are two clear conclusions to draw from this week’s Prem action, which feels like the beginning of the end of the phoney war phase we’ve seen to date. First, we are, at last, seeing the impact of the World Cup in the Prem, namely the rise of the close, pressing defensive Mourinho Discipline that dominated that competition. Dour and tedious as it is there’s no doubting that it is a broadly successful philosophy – the likelihood being that the first team that scores  will win. Man City comprehensively did for Chelski this way and it’s clear that this World Cup malaise lies at the heart of Mancini’s footballing philosophy. It will be interesting to see how many other teams adopt this tactic against Chelsea, not least Arsenal, who play them next week.

The Prem Is Compacting

With the exception of Man City, it’s clear that the Prem has seen an overall exodus of prime quality marquee name talent over the past two years. The result is that the top teams have generally got worse, making the lesser teams more competitive. With squad sizes and talent pools reduced and games now coming up twice a week, the lack of depth in big teams’ squads is becoming apparent. Both Arsenal and Tottingham selected relatively weakened teams and were found out, Chelsea’s defeat also raises questions about their strength in depth, while Man U’s point at Bolton can be viewed as a good result only because the teams around them all lost.

Howzabout Them Games

Possibly the most significant impact of the weekend was Man City‘s bursting of the Chelski bubble. Following their loss to Newcastle in the Not-S0-Useless Cup , this was Chelski’s second defeat in five days and the sheen of invincibility they carried so powerfully through their first five games has now vanished. Man City brutally crushed Chelski’s once dynamic wingplay, neutralised Drogba and exposed the weakness of their central defence. They denied Chelski space to play and the latter had no response. Again Carlos Tevez was the spearpoint of Man City’s attack. Chelski are now, officially, well beatable.

It’s hard to tell whether Arsenal are simply perverse or just really, really annoying. Sandwiched in between a Not-So-Useless Cup match against arch-rivals Tottingham (which therefore became a must win match) and trips to Serbia (for Big Cup) and Chelski (for the Prem), it’s easy to see how Arsène Wenger might have viewed this as the perfect place to play his junior team, but it’s clear that a team without Fabregas, Rosicky and Wilshere and boasting the defence that Arsenal does is clearly not up to the rigours of the Prem and it’s a reflection on how much the Prem has compacted that West Brom (beaten 6-0 at Chelski at the start of September) were by far the better team. By the time Rosicky and Wilshere came on the game was already lost. West Brom now fill that ‘Won’t Be There At The End Of The Season’ fifth spot in the Week 6 table.

Man U simply can’t play this badly that often, but unlike Arsenal and Chelski, they can’t boast a tough, competitive Not-So-Useless Cup match in midweek for their performance. Bolton would have had all three points if only Elmander’s efforts were on target every now and then.

Tottingham are clearly suffering from the pressure of competing on four (now three as they’re out of the Not-So-Useless Cup) fronts and their poor choices in terms of selection. With Ledley King, Woodgate and Dawson all injured, they really don’t have much of a central defence. And with Gareth Bale dragged away from midfield to be a left back they’ve lost the attacking impetus they had earlier in the season. As a result they were dominated by West Ham‘s three big men up front and rarely got an opportunity to attack. It will be interesting to see how Redknapp approaches this week’s home tie against FC Twente in Big Cup, the first real Big Cup match at White Hart Lane. A win here and the last two defeats may be forgotten, a loss and Spurs’ season may start to derail.

Filling up the bumper bucket of Weekend Ho-Hummery were matches between Liverpool and Sunderland (neither of whom boast enough guile to beat mediocre opposition), Birmingham and Wigan (only interesting because it means Birmingham haven’t been beaten at home for a year which is nothing to sneer about), Newcastle and Stoke and Wolves and Villa (Wolves’ much vaunted ‘attack dog’ defence once again bringing them a massive null points – how’s that philosophy working for you eh Mick?).

Blackburn epitomise the junior version of the Mourinho Discipline, only they’re not quite good enough to hold onto a lead. Blackpool pulled themselves level, but eventually lost to a last minute goal that was remarkable only for Fat Sam’s super happy reaction. It was unusual to see the ‘future Real Madrid’ manager without a ferocious scowl on his face, doubly so when he revealed that the win was the result of a clear tactical directive – ‘we knew if they pushed forward looking for the winning goal that there was a good chance we could hit them on the break’.

Finally Everton illustrate the fate of teams without any genuine attacking capability. With no real strikers to think of and no additions during the transfer window, Everton look like a cat with no teeth and you feel that the optimism raised by their rush and grab injury time draw against Man U may actually work against them. Bottom of the table now and with matches against Birmingham, Liverpool, Tottingham and Stoke coming up it could be an ugly October for them too. Fulham, whose main strikeforce has been cynically removed by their opponents over their last two matches, remain the only unbeaten Prem side apart from Man U and are fast becoming the dull draw specialists.

Rob Green Save Of The Day

While Green himself was in excellent form (no really) against Spurs – one save against Modric was an outstanding 3 pointer, some of his companions were not so accomplished. Chief among them the inexplicable Arsenal no 1 Manuel Almunia. It’s hard to say which of his contributions was best, the deflection into his own net for West Brom’s second (not so much a spoon as a classy poacher’s finish), or the ‘walkabout’ contribution to their third. With a keeper like this Arsenal’s chances of silverware this season are pretty slim.

Comments are closed.