ELEVENSES
In the days before Liverpool’s trip to Manchester City, much was spoken about the mid-season wobble being endured by Arne Slot’s league leaders, a worrying collapse in form that incorporated creditable draws in difficult away games at Everton and Aston Villa, along with a win over Wolves at Anfield. Presumably working on the entirely specious presumption that Arsenal were guaranteed to win against West Ham on Saturday, a general consensus appeared to form among the punditocracy that if Manchester City could conjure up enough muscle memory to beat or even draw with a supposedly out-of-sorts Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium, the gap at the top would be reduced to just five or six points and Arsenal, with their game in hand and a match to come at Anfield, would be well and truly back in the title race.
Of course with the benefit of our old friend 20-20 hindsight, everyone can now see that much of this pre-match hypothesising was almost certainly just wishful thinking and conclude that simply hoping for a closely-contested climax to the season is no guarantee that one will materialise. The fact of the matter is that Liverpool’s recent ‘blip’ was little more than a figment of the fevered collective imagination, while most of us have been watching football for far too long to underestimate Arsenal’s comically-unerring capacity to blunderbuss themselves in both feet. While any criticism of Mikel Arteta’s side must be accompanied by the now obligatory caveat that they are missing four of their most talented attacking players through injury, any team with serious delusions of title-winning grandeur does not have any business losing at home to a West Ham side that – Football Daily checks notes – are also missing four of their most talented attacking players through knack.
Duly unencumbered by any additional pressure placed upon them in what is looking like an increasingly serene march to the title, the players of Liverpool rocked up in Manchester knowing that victory would take them 11 points clear of their London rivals and, despite enjoying only 33% of possession, strolled to a victory that could scarcely have been more routine if it had covered itself in fake tan and sequins and been performed on Strictly Come Dancing. “Three days ago we had a draw at Villa and people told me we weren’t in a good place and then three days later we win and it changes again,” mused Slot in the wake of a win that, in tandem with the previous day’s Arsenal defeat, means only a collapse of Devon Loch proportions will cost Liverpool their open-top bus parade.
“You have to have that bit of tension in the dressing room saying if you slip up now, you’ll be a laughing stock,” tooted Roy Keane on Sky Sports, upon being asked if complacency might be a problem for Liverpool’s players. “You’d have good squad members and obviously the manager would do it, the senior players would do it to make sure you don’t slack off in training. You look at some of the fixtures and you’re playing Southampton at home but you treat Southampton like you’re playing Real Madrid.” While Slot and his dressing-room leaders are unlikely to tolerate any kind of dip in standards, it is quite frankly preposterous to expect professionals even as consummate as they to treat the triple-pronged threat of Cameron Archer, Tyler Dibling and Paul Onuachu with the same amount of foreboding as that of Vinícius Jr, Kylian Mbappé and Rodrygo.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Rob Smyth from 8pm GMT for hot Championship minute-by-minute coverage of Sheffield United 2-2 Leeds United.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
They teased me and I said, now I’m the one who’s going to score” – Neymar explains how constant verbal pelters from Internacional de Limeira fans provoked him to ping in the first olimpico goal of his career during a 3-0 win for Santos.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
May I hopefully be the first to put a headline on Liverpool’s performance v the blue half of Manchester yesterday by saying: ‘Super Salah Goes Ballistic City Are Atrocius!’” – Mike Glogower.
Football Daily’s Memory Lane on Friday (full email edition) reminds me of the day thousands of school kids wagged lessons (old Yorkshire phrase = skipped) to see Pelé play at Hillsborough on that Santos tour of 1972. The match was played on a Tuesday afternoon because floodlights could not be used due to power shortages. It provided my favourite ever football picture: Pelé surrounded by blue shirts in front of Hillsborough’s packed open Kop. As a kid I loved the novelty and sophistication of our electronic scoreboard, glimpsed top left on the photo. Oh, Wednesday lost 2-0. Of course they did” – Mike Woodc0ck.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Mike Woodc0ck, who gets some Football Weekly merch. We’ll be in touch. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and the Football Weekly podcast crew as they look back on the weekend that was in the Premier League and beyond.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Moise Kean has been discharged from hospital after he collapsed during Fiorentina’s Serie A defeat by Verona. Kean had returned to the pitch following a blow to the head.
Rangers have put former captain Barry Ferguson in charge until the end of the season after showing Philippe Clement the door marked Do One after their 2-0 home schooling by St Mirren.
What’s Big Sir Jim’s latest cost-cutting measure aimed to make Manchester United into a lean, mean winning machine? To cancel Casemiro’s £18.2m-a-year contract close the staff canteen at Old Trafford, of course. Instead of lunch, fruit will be available for free for those working at the stadium. Top four, here they come!
Ruud van Nistelrooy may have to put out the training cones himself after first-team coaches Ben Dawson and Danny Alcock were bundled out of Leicester’s exit.
Hopefully another Dutch former Manchester United striker will have some hands-on coaches to help him with his new role as head coach of Feyenoord. “Everyone knows how special my bond with Feyenoord is,” cooed Robin van Persie.
And now that Domenico Tedesco has been replaced as Belgium boss by Rudi Garcia, Thibaut Courtois has ended his moody self-imposed exile. “I missed the national team, but now I am ready [to return],” he cheered.
LADS, IT’S TOTTENHAM … HOTSPUR
Leaked emails are really trending right now and the latest club to have reportedly sent a missive to a select few – only to see it plastered around various news organisations in little time – is Tottenham Hotspur. Yes, that’s right, the famous Hotspurs from N17. You see, reports at the end of last week carried details of a brusque request seemingly sent to broadcasters from the club asking that reporters only ever refer to, erm, Tottenham, as ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ or ‘Spurs’. Never just ‘Tottenham’. Why? Apparently, it’s all about branding. There are many Towns, Cities, Uniteds and Athletics but only one Hotspur, baby! The club have been pushing their own unique brand of football for quite some time. Does that mean people should start referring to them as being ‘Hotspursy’ too?
STILL WANT MORE?
Three years after Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian Premier League teams dream of a seat at Uefa’s top table to avoid an uncertain future . Nick Ames reports.
There’s so much South Asian talent out there. Why are football clubs still ignoring it, laments Kick It Out chief Sanjay Bhandari.
Premier League talking points from the weekend, all 10 of them. You know the drill.
Nicky Bandini explains how, after Ademola Lookman’s miss and the fuss that followed in midweek, Udinese’s Lorenzo Lucca stepped up to request his fizzy alcoholic beverage be briefly looked after.
Durham – flying high in the Women’s Championship as one of two sides not affiliated to a men’s team – have their sights set on the WSL … and can call on the help of two EuroMillions winners to boot. Tom Garry has more.
And Sid Lowe catches up with Julen Lopetegui to hear about how it all went down at West Ham.
MEMORY LANE
Scotland fans get up close and personal with Trafalgar Square’s pigeons as they gear up for the Home Nations match against England at Wembley on 23 May 1981. The Tartan Army enjoyed the match as much as the sightseeing, with their team winning 1-0 thanks to a John Robertson penalty.
