Arsenal back on track after big derby win; Real Madrid suffer shock LaLiga loss; more

Another weekend of action from Europe’s top leagues is in the books, and as always, we have plenty to break down! So let’s begin with the big game of the Premier League weekend, Sunday’s north London derby, where Arsenal stuck to a winning formula in thumping rivals Tottenham 4-1 to remain in charge (for now, anyway) of the title race.

In LaLiga, Real Madrid slipped back behind Barcelona in the title race after a shocking, frustrating and familiar defeat — this time 2-1 at Osasuna — as manager Alvaro Arbeloa continues to struggle with figuring out the right tactics and personnel. (On the Barcelona side of things, they picked up an easy win over Levante, though it was marked by Lamine Yamal‘s outburst not long before full time.)

– Arsenal answer title pressure with resounding derby win at Spurs
– Hamilton: How Milner broke Premier League’s appearances record
– Tighe: Why it’s so difficult to break into the Premier League’s top six

Elsewhere, there’s plenty to talk about around Manchester City (who switched things up to winning effect, as Pep Guardiola often does), Bayern Munich (who keep winning but also make life hard for themselves), Paris Saint-Germain (are they back to their best?), Liverpool (who won, but still look a mess), Chelsea (who dropped more points), Atletico Madrid (who won big), and much, much more.

It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.

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Tried-and-tested formula sees Arsenal stomp Spurs and keep their noses ahead in title race

When you hit a road bump — and four points dropped against Brentford and Wolves in 10 days is just that — you can either change what you’re doing, or do the very same things, but do them better. It’s a truism, but not for that reason any less applicable to Arsenal (or to life).

Mikel Arteta went into Sunday’s North London Derby knowing that Manchester City had pulled to within two points and that the head-to-head clash on April 18 was on their turf. To stay in front, to avoid turning that match into a potential de facto “must-win” he had to get all three points against Spurs.

To some, that might have been reason to change things up, not least because the context here was different, as you would expect from a derby against a fierce rival coming off a 12-day break and with a new manager (Igor Tudor) at the helm. Maybe restore Martin Odegaard, who hadn’t started a league game in nearly a month, to the starting XI. Or put your faith in a rejuvenated Gabriel Jesus. Or simply adopt a more patient approach — less of the ball, more of the counter — against an opponent coming to terms with their first test under Tudor.

Nope. It was very much the Arsenal game plan they’ve had most of the season, with Bukayo Saka shifting back to the wing and Eberechi Eze slotting in at No.10. They outmuscled and outhustled Spurs, racking up 72% first half possession against an opponent that attempted to play on the break, but could only muster just three shots until Richarlison’s backheel with six minutes to go. They took the lead early in the second half with a stunning Viktor Gyökeres strike and then picked off Spurs on the counter, adding two more in the 4-1 win. Other than the lack of set piece goals, it was pretty much what we’ve seen from Arsenal all year.

Changing the plan after dropping points and winning shows that your coach and your team that you’re flexible and creative, which is good for confidence. Sticking to the same plan and winning after dropping points builds confidence and shows your manager was right to begin with.

Could things have gone differently? At a stretch, maybe. Gabriel making a meal of Randal Kolo Muani’s push that led to the disallowed Spurs goal (that would have made it 2-2) was dicey. For me, two hands on the back is always a foul. Then again, we’ve seen it called and not called in the Premier League this season, and it could have easily gone the other way.

Similarly, David Raya’s scramble to keep out Richarlison’s finish isn’t the sort of thing you want to rely on, because it’s so improbable. Then again, if you want to bring up the unusual and unplanned, you can throw in Declan Rice’s mistake on the first goal which was a one-off. (Correction: a two-off, assuming that’s even a word, because he also screwed up against Sunderland and the fact that we even remember it tells you how rare it is.)

As for Tottenham, that streak of Tudor winning on his debut with a new team ends at five. It’s not really a meaningful stat anyway, and here he has a ton of mitigating circumstances, such as the 11 unavailable players and Dominic Solanke on the bench with a sore throat. Most people — even Spurs fans — probably couldn’t recognize any of his unused subs if they saw them at the local supermarket, and that speaks volumes about what he had to work with.

The table says they’re two places (four points) from the drop zone, which weirdly is actually one place better than where they finished last season (without the biblical plague of injuries). I don’t see them going down. Tudor will bring enough tactical order, guys will finally be fit again and it’s silly to think in those terms right now. It does, however, feel like another wasted season … and that will sting.

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There’s no pattern to Man City … but maybe that’s the point?

Pep Guardiola hit the managerial scene for his “3 Ps” — possession, passing and pressing — at Barcelona. To his credit, he has evolved and tweaked his approach over the years, from Bayern Munich to at least two different iterations at Manchester City. This season, we’re reaching the point where his team’s approach seems to change from game to game.

Against Newcastle United — fresh off a long away trip to Azerbaijan in midweek — Guardiola opted for a “muscular” approach based on strength, speed and athleticism, leaving out the likes of Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki and leaving most of the playmaking duties to 20-year-old Nico O’Reilly (a gifted player, but a big unit at 6-foot-3 too). His front four (O’Reilly, Omar Marmoush, Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland) seemed designed to blunt whatever physicality Newcastle could muster.

Directness, rather than control — there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that it’s different from what we’re used to and, with hindsight, it might have made the game that little bit more difficult for City.

No matter: they won 2-1, kept the pressure on Arsenal and discovered that yes, they can win this way too. Maybe not as smoothly — Newcastle battled gamely and had chances to equalize (Gianluigi Donnarumma had to pull off his usual miracle off, this time to deny Harvey Barnes) — but they can get it over the line, nonetheless.

Is there a method to Guardiola’s changes? Earlier in the season, it felt like it was primarily a case of trial and error (especially before Rodri’s return). Now, I don’t know. But I’m tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt not just because City keep winning, but because there are positive side effects to the changes. O’Reilly stole the show with his two goals, intelligence and vision on the ball. He was fine at left back, but returning him into a role where he can do more attacking damage (and where he played in City’s youth team) adds another dimension. Haaland, with Marmoush next to him, showed much more of an all-around game than we usually see when he’s the lone attacking terminus. And Rayan Ait-Nouri at left back is like having an extra winger.

What XI would Guardiola put out if the UEFA Champions League final were tomorrow? I have no idea, other than the fact that, I imagine, Donnarumma, Haaland, Rodri and, when fit, Josko Gvardiol would start. But that’s a feature, not a bug of Pep’s City this season.

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Real Madrid off the rails (again) as Alvaro Arbeloa crashes to his third defeat

Three defeats but seven wins, he might argue. Sure, but it was the manner of what happened Saturday at El Sadar that is cause for concern.

Osasuna away are a tough out: Alessio Lisci’s team like to park the bus and force you to beak them down. The problem is that to break down opponents as a team, you need patterns of play, kind of like what Xabi Alonso was trying to do — otherwise you’re left with relying on individuals. And sure, sometimes the individuals do individually brilliant things (witness Vinícius Junior’s goal against Benfica), but sometimes they don’t, and that’s when you’re in trouble.

Arbeloa’s setup of late has basically been a four-man midfield with three holding players plus Arda Guler (who, by the way, is still 20 and in his first campaign as a regular) shielding the back four. The game plan consists of denying space, winning the ball and waiting for Vini and Kylian Mbappé to do something up front. I’m exaggerating a little, but really, only a little.

Real Madrid might have been a bit unlucky with Osasuna’s penalty — then again, stepping on a foot is always a foul these days — but they also needed an absurdly special Thibaut Courtois save from Ante Budimir before that. As for Osasuna’s winner — from giving the ball away cheaply, to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s slow-motion recovery, to Raul Asencio getting duped as if Raúl García was vintage Neymar — the less said, the better.

As for the other end? The goal came from a bulldozing Federico Valverde run (converted by Vini), That goal was also the first chance they generated from open play with an xG greater than 0.02, and it came in the 73rd minute. On any given day, Mbappé or Vini or somebody else can conjure something out of nothing, Courtois can dispense his miracles, and Real Madrid can beat anybody. But that’s not how a team of this magnitude ought to operate. And the upshot is defeat against Osasuna, who hadn’t beaten Real Madrid in 15 years and 24 attempts — not to mention they’ve fallen behind Barcelona again in the LaLiga table.

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Quick hits

10. Internazionale get the reaction they wanted after Champions League defeat: And it was by no means a given. Lecce might be one spot above relegation, but regaining your mojo after the 3-1 defeat away to Bodø/Glimt (and doing so without Lautaro Martínez, Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicolò Barella) wasn’t necessarily going to be straightforward. They finished 2-0 and the goals came in the final 15 minutes, but it was basically one-way traffic. Lecce’s total xG of 0.12 (to Inter’s 2.46) and zero shots on target (to Inter’s nine) are pretty eloquent in that regard.

Inter manager Cristian Chivu said the Bodø/Glimt game was just a blip, and to be fair, Inter did hit the woodwork twice while making a couple of basic errors that led to the opposition goals. Throw in the cold, the Arctic Circle, the plastic pitch and all the other factors that come into play when you travel to face Bodo and sure, you want to believe him. Actions speak louder than words and the way they approached this game suggest they’re buying into Chivu’s words. They’ll need to show it again on Tuesday.

9. Barcelona are back on top, but Lamine Yamal needs to chill: Hansi Flick’s crew seized the day with a convincing 3-0 win over Levante that saw them go back to the top of LaLiga. There are ton of positives to take away, so let’s start there. It was a bounce-back win after the Girona defeat, Marc Bernal (in his second league start since returning from injury) was impressive, Pedri returned after a month out, João Cancelo was a continuous threat and Fermín López came off the bench to score a great goal. Yes, they could have conceded a couple of times (the high line… yawn), but Barca will always give you something, especially with a Gerard Martín–Eric García combo at the back. And truth be told, they could have scored far more.

Less positive was Lamine Yamal’s reaction at being substituted with two minutes to go. Flick downplayed it, suggesting Yamal was “angry with his performance” (I guess his standards are so high that one assist wasn’t enough), which is exactly what you’d expect a coach to say. But it wasn’t a great look and when you come off with two minutes to go, all grumpy with your team up 3-0, it sends a message. It’s a team game, at least outwardly: Be happy that you won convincingly, that you’re in first place and that a teammate, Roony Bardghji, gets a few minutes on the pitch. Then, if you want to be angry at your performance, do so in the privacy of the locker room. Times like this, we remind ourselves he’s still 18 years old.

8. Another scare (they really need to cut this out) but Bayern Munich increase lead: With 15 minutes to go, it felt like business as usual. Bayern were 3-0 up at home against Eintracht Frankfurt (who, lest we forget, had won just one game in all competitions since mid-December) and had limited the opposition to just five shots. Harry Kane had gotten his two goals — he’s back on pace to match Robert Lewandowski’s single-season record — and while everyone was apprehensive about Alphonso Davies’ latest injury (thankfully he’ll only be out a couple of weeks, it’s not a relapse of his ACL), it felt like a routine win.

But then Kane gave up an avoidable penalty, shortly thereafter Joshua Kimmich played a blind pass across his own area and before you knew it, the score was 3-2. Then Mario Gotze, of all people, nearly made it 3-3 in injury time. Kane and Kimmich aren’t prone to such craven errors and when your leaders do stuff like that, it’s not alarm bells necessarily, but it’s at least a warning light. They can’t let opponents back into games like this. It has happened too many times for a team this good.

7. Paris Saint-Germain hammer Metz to go back on top … all is forgiven? After the defeat to Rennes and the scare against AS Monaco in the Champions League (they were 2-0 down within 20 minutes), you imagine PSG just wanted to make quick work of cellar-dwelling Metz. No fuss, no drama, just three points wrapped up early. Especially since, earlier in the day, Lens had lost at home, meaning first place was within reach.

That’s pretty much what they got. Désiré Doué scored early to send them on their way, and they rolled to a straightforward 3-0 win. The second-string midfield of Dro Fernández, Warren Zaire-Emery and Kang-In Lee gave the starters a breather, and Ousmane Dembele got the day off as well. Mission accomplished with minimum stress, not least because Metz managed just three shots, none of them on target. Shoutout though to Goncalo Ramos, who scored a beauty. His super-sub role means it’s sometimes easy to forget that the Portugal international is part of the mix at PSG.

6. Álex Baena finally becomes good and Atlético Madrid demolish Espanyol: Last season, he was arguably the best player in LaLiga outside of Barcelona or Madrid. This year, he struggled to make his mark, starting just 12 of 25 games in LaLiga and three of nine in the Champions League. It felt a little like Atleti signed him because he was an outstanding footballer, but then Diego Simeone didn’t know where to fit him in. In the 4-2 win over Espanyol, Baena was deployed behind two No. 10s — Ademola Lookman and Antoine Griezmann — and a big center forward Alexander Sorloth. It’s probably not a setup we’ll see too often (because, you know, there’s that Julián Alvarez guy), but hopefully it has given Simeone food for thought.

Beyond that, there were a bunch of changes with a view toward the return leg against Club Brugge in the Champions League. And, of course, Sorloth showed — once more — that if you get him the ball, he’s likely to put it in the net. He’s up to 12 goals this season, all of them from open play, which is a heck of a return when you consider that he has started just 17 games. That’s just one fewer than Alvarez, with the difference being that the Argentine’s last league goal was way back in November…

5. Brave (and fortunate) Borussia Dortmund rescued by … Fabio Silva?!? Brave because, despite a big return leg coming up on Wednesday away to Atalanta in the Champions League, Nico Kovac made just one change to his lineup for the trip to RB Leipzig, evidence that he still very much believes in the Bundesliga. He’s down to bare bones at the back, hence why 18-year-old Luca Reggiani, who made his professional debut less than three weeks ago, has started the past two games. But he does have alternatives in midfield and up front. Fortunate, because Leipzig — powered by the near-unplayable Yann Diomande — hammered them for much of the game, and Dortmund’s first goal came via an unfortunate Romulo own goal.

That was before Fabio Silva (yes, this guy) popped up with the equalizer deep in injury time to make it 2-2. In fact, Dortmund might even have won it on another counter a few minutes later. To be fair, Dortmund were due some good luck. Kovac will hope it will carry over into the Atalanta game and next weekend’s huge Klassiker against Bayern, when they’ll have the opportunity to cut the deficit to five points.

4. Napoli fall at Atalanta and Antonio Conte has a tantrum: Let’s start by reminding everyone this, because Conte wants to make sure that we know: Napoli were without at least six starters for the away trip to Atalanta. Injuries are part of the game, but they’ve been hit harder than just about anyone (maybe alongside Spurs), and it’s very difficult to get results when your best players are out for such long periods of time. It’s the same thing we’ve been saying all season, but he gets tetchy when people don’t bring it up constantly, so there. Third place, given the circumstances, is an achievement.

With that now out of the way, not showing up at his postgame press duties because he was angry at the refereeing is puerile behavior and it shouldn’t be indulged by the club. Two incidents infuriated Napoli. First, after Rasmus Hojlund collided with Isak Hien, the referee initially awarded a penalty only to change his mind after going to the VAR screen. There’s nothing to be angry about, it was the correct decision. Napoli have more of a case on Miguel Gutierrez’s disallowed goal — there’s a lot of jostling between Hien and Hojlund in the buildup — and they didn’t like that the VAR didn’t intervene. Maybe they didn’t think it was “clear and obvious” since Hojlund does appear to hook Hien’s arm. You’re not going to get every call. Live with it.

3. Liam Rosenior bemoans Chelsea “setting fire” to four points: As in the four points dropped at home from leading positions midweek against Leeds United and Saturday against Burnley. Four points that would have seen Chelsea comfortably fourth, two points out of third. Now, they’re stuck in a three-way tie with Liverpool and Manchester United (who have a game in hand). He’s right to be annoyed. Chelsea scored straight away in their 1-1 draw with Burnley and then meandered through the rest of the game, making a string of elementary mistakes, almost as if they figured there was no way the second-bottom side in the league could get back into the game.

Wesley Fofana, supposedly the experienced head at the back, got himself sent off for a second yellow. His replacement, Tosin Adarabioyo, could have seen red moments later. The marking, both on Zian Flemming’s injury-time equalizer and on what might have been Jacob Bruun Larsen’s winner (he sent it over the bar) was awful. Rosenior said his players screwed up their marking assignments and, more broadly, talked about a “lack of accountability and concentration.” The Chelsea boss said he’ll address it this week in training. It may not be as straightforward as it seems, and if he comes up short, you can be sure folks will blame the lack of veteran leadership. It’s a simplistic answer, of course, but maybe not entirely off the mark.

2. First league defeat since Week 1 means the title is getting further away from Milan: Defeats like Milan’s 1-0 setback to Parma are going to sting. Not so much because of Parma’s goal and the controversy surrounding it. Referee Marco Piccinini first disallowed Mariano Troilo’s strike for a supposed foul by Lautaro Valenti on Mike Maignan; then, after the VAR intervened, he allowed it to stand, apparently not noticing that while Valenti did nothing, Troilo had jumped with both hands on Davide Bartesaghi’s back. If you’re going to go to the screen, you might as well review everything. In times like these, you’re almost grateful that Max Allegri (suspended again after his antics against Como) wasn’t there.

Rather, it’s the fact that Milan actually played well, unlike recent outings. It was, once again, the finishing that let them down, despite having the A-team — Rafael Leão (who hit the post) and Christian Pulisic — out there. And no, Niclas Füllkrug off the bench didn’t help either (surprise), but give some credit to Parma, too. Carlos Cuesta, at age 30, is the youngest coach in Europe’s Big Five leagues and Parma are one of the youngest sides around. If he keeps this up, he won’t be there very long.

1. Lucky, lucky Liverpool escape with three points … but this performance is worrying: Don’t take my word for it. Slot, brutally honest as ever, said as much after the game. They beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 after Alexis Mac Allister found the net in the seventh minute of injury time, and even that goal required a VAR review revealing the tightest of onside calls. The three points were a gift, a lucky scratch card found at the bus stop. You take it and say thank you to the gods. But that shouldn’t mitigate the concerns over the performance.

Florian Wirtz was a late omission, pulling up during warmups, and Curtis Jones struggled in his place. But that alone can’t explain what we saw in a first half Slot described as the “worst of the season.” (Again, say what you will about Slot. Wayne Rooney apparently thinks he lacks an “aura.” But Slot calls it as it is.) Liverpool managed just two shots, both of them off-target in the first 45 minutes, while Forest came close to scoring on multiple occasions. Elliot Anderson and Ibrahim Sangare were bossing the midfield, Liverpool’s buildup was all over the place, Hugo Ekitike was isolated and ineffective. The game did open up somewhat in the second half, but as Liverpool created more, so did Forest. The worst part, for Slot, is that his team had a whole week to prepare, while Forest played on Thursday night. Time to look under the hood (again), and try to figure out what isn’t working.