A red card 5 minutes into the game would obviously have repercussions sooner or later. Looking at the buildup to Arsenal’s first goal (Nasri, 20′), it appears to have been the former. Arsenal made nearly 20 more passes than City over the 10 minutes leading up to the goal, and you can see from the Guardian chalkboards below that they were running the midfield from front to back. Isolated groups of Man City players were trying to maintain the ball while waiting for players to support, but having one less man leaves too may holes to fill and Arsenal plugged them full of attacking movement.
Video highlights of the match below–the first of which is Boyata’s early foul of Chamakh and subsequent red card, and the second of which is Nasri’s goal–a great finish off a quick give&go with Andrei Arshavin (as indicated by the white circles in the top chalkboard above): PL Highlights: Man City/Arsenal
Man City v Arsenal - probable starting lineups (via the Guardian)
The CultFootball team went over the list of this weekend’s televised matches, and frankly not a whole lot jumped out at us–except of course the big Premier League match of the weekend: Arsenal at Manchester City. The match kicks off Sunday at 4pm GMT–for those of us in the US that translates to 11am ET, televised on FSC.
Why is this the match of the weekend? Just take a look at the top half of the table:
(The table is also via the Guardian, specifically their Stats Centre. Click thru on any individual team in the table to see all sorts of data and stats–and in particular some interesting data visualization under “Current league form” and “League position analysis”).
By our reckoning, Man City and Arsenal are two of four teams giving chase to favorites and early front-runners Chelsea for the Premiership title this season (we like West Brom, but doubt they’ll stick around the Big Five–and we don’t see sides like Sunderland or Bolton climbing up among them). Hence the importance of this match, as 2nd place Man City will look to win to stay two points behind Chelsea (who won on Saturday), while Arsenal will need a win to keep from falling further behind Man City and Chelsea, and from allowing Spurs and West Brom (and probably Man U) to jump above them in the standings.
The table/title chase is just further motivation for what will hopefully be an entertaining match between two very talented teams. A look at the Guardian’s squad sheet of probable starters above shows that (also useful to have open during the match are the current squad lists of both clubs: here is the goal.com page for this match, and the Wikipedia entries for the current squads are here and here).
Fabregas leads the way for Arsenal--including in the stretching circle, apparently
Among the players to watch: for Arsenal, captain Cesc Fabregas returns to Premier League action after nearly a month on the sideline due to injury. He played most of Arsenal’s Champions League match mid-week against Shaktar Donetsk, and is the creative force that pulls together Arsenal’s talented attack: Andrei Arshavin, and the youngsters Samir Nasri and Maroune Chamakh. It’s a shame though that 18-year old boy wonder Jack Wilshere will have to sit out this match, as well as Arsenal’s next two, due to the red card he received last Sunday. In his stead in the midfield the Guardian seems to think we’ll likely see Brazilian Denilson–although Abou Diaby and Tomáš Rosický have both played a lot more in the Arsenal midfield this season than Denilson has. In fact, Arsenal’s squad stats seem to indicate that Denilson is the odd man out in Arsenal’s crowded midfield so far this season, despite how ever much Wenger loves him and his passing ratio.
(An extended aside on Jack Wilshere, even though we won’t be seeing him in action today: Wilshere has been increasingly impressive through the beginning of this season, but especially Arsenal’s two matches last week in, resulting in much praise and press (e.g, “Wilshere has the talent to define his generation“; presumably meaning the “next generation” that will take over from the ultimately disappointing “golden generation” of English football (Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry). In fact, there are rumblings of an entire coterie of talented English youngsters on Arsenal’s reserve squad, such that some are saying that Arsene Wenger is grooming England’s next golden generation. More on that in a later post, perhaps.)
For Man City, striker Carlos Tevez is their captain and attacking talisman. Though it appears he’s starting to get some help in attack, with Emmanuel Adebayor scoring a hat trick last Thursday in Europa League action (albeit against Polish side Lech Poznań), and David Silva seems to be coming into form and getting more comfortable playing in the Premier League, after coming over during the summer from Spanish side Valencia.
Tevez came across town from Manchester United two years ago (and amid all the Wayne Rooney/Man U drama last week was supposedly lobbying for Man City to make an attempt to bring Rooney across too), while Adebayor was lured away from Arsenal, the club that initially brought him into the Premier League in 2003 from France, at age 19.
(That has led to some drama, in particular when Man City played at the Emirates towards the beginning of last season, just after Adebayor had made the switch. Adebayor scored for his new club against his old club on their pitch–and then ran the length of the field in order to slide and celebrate in front of the Arsenal supporters!
It’s not just Tevez, Silva, and Adebayo that Man City have signed away from other big clubs for big money over the past two years. Man City essentially bought the entire squad we’ll see on the pitch today in the time period, using the seemingly infinitely deep pockets of the Abu Dhabi United Group and its owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Vincent Kompany was signed in August 2008, with Wayne Bridge and Nigel de Jong signed in January 2009. During the summer of 2009, Man City spent over £100 million on bringing in Adebayor, Tévez, Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Joleon Lescott, and Kolo Touré (also signed away from Arsenal, which signed him directly from Côte d’Ivoire in 2002, at age 21). Then this past summer they spent even more on acquiring Silva, Jérôme Boateng, Yaya Touré (Kolo’s younger brother), Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner, and Mario Balotelli (though the latter has made only one brief appearance for Man City so far, due to injuries).
See below for video highlights from each side’s most recent Premier League match: Arsenal’s victory over Birmingham City, which featured some of that stellar play by Jack Wilshere, in particular in combination with Chamakh, which leads to a fantastic goal for the latter; and Man City’s 3-2 victory over Blackpool, in which Tevez scored twice in his typically scrappy manner (one of them assisted by Silva btw)–but it’s the 3rd late goal by Silva that’s the one to see, a fantastic individual effort.
As we admitted a couple weeks ago (here), we don’t understand the how or why of the Europa League. And after 16 Champions League games over the past two days, we’re not particularly jonesing to watch more pan-European club matches today. But if you are, there are 24 games today (48 teams in the league, recall).
The ones we would watch, if we were forced to sit down and do so, are the following (pulled from UEFA’s Europa League page, “all times are CET“–you do the math for your timezone)
It was an interesting weekend in Europe, filled with unexpected results–the big dogs all across the continent came up short. Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter Milan, and Bayern Munich all suffered ignominious defeats, while Manchester United and Real Madrid could only manage disappointing draws. The only power that didn’t disappoint their supporters was Barcelona, which won convincingly. (Question: Are there other European club sides that rank with these six?)
In England, previously perfect Chelsea lost to Manchester City 1-0, the lone goal coming off a tremendous individual effort by Man City’s dogged and talented Argentine captain, Carlos Tevez. (Keep scrolling down for video of Tevez’s goal, among others.)
But the two sides chasing Chelsea in the standings failed to capitalize: Man U had to come from behind twice to salvage a 2-2 draw against Bolton. That was far better than Arsenal, who were shockingly down 3-0 against unheralded West Brom late in the 2nd half. Two late strikes by the young Frenchman Samir Nasri (a replay of one of which is included below) made the score a more respectable-looking 3-2, but Arsenal came off their home pitch with many more questions than points.
Meanwhile, on the Continent, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, last season’s Champions League finalists, and the clear favorites to win their respective domestic leagues, both lost as well. Bayern lost 2-1 to minnows Mainz, while Inter went down 1-0 to AS Roma–a club with a rich history, but this year’s edition had struggled at the start of this season.
But last year’s Champions League finalists and their respective pursuits of finishing atop Serie A or the Bundes Liga are secondary compared to the annual epic struggle between Barcelona and Real Madrid for the La Liga title. The drama d’Espana is especially intense this year, as Real Madrid have of course brought in The Special One, whose tasks are to win the Champions League and La Liga–any less will be considered a failure by the demanding Madridistas–and by Mourinho himself. But Mourinho’s Madrid failed to bring the flair, being held to a very surprising scoreless draw against Levante. Meanwhile, Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3-1, slipping ahead of Real Madrid in the table, though still second to surprising Valencia.
For more on these matches, check the links below–and the videos.
It’s tough to care much about the beginning of the european footballing season. After the buzz of the world cup and the always fun transfer drama, club football’s jerky starts seem less urgent. Then comes this international break, and we’re only now really getting started. (By the way, Neymar and Ganso are both injured and not playing for Santos at the moment, and with Robinho gone too I have a hard time wanting to tune in.)
So I went strolling around for a bit of news about this weekend’s matches, and came across this little piece about Emmanuel Adebayor. The article is a couple of weeks old, and has ripened with age. Adebayor has to fight for his position at City, but he’s acting like the starter’s role is owed to him. He sits on the bench, not with a hunger in his eye, but with a pissy look on his face. And when he doesn’t get to play he starts talking about a transfer. Kudos to senior football administrator, Brian Marwood for laying down the law.
“These players need to realise that if you are paying them, they are salaried, contracted and have obligations to their football club. They are part of the squad. They have to work hard to prove they are worth a place in the team. We are trying to create a very competitive environment at Manchester City. “
The answer: probably! Though Liverpool looked mostly clueless through yesterday’s meeting, it may well have been because City were seemingly everywhere, winning the majority of 50/50 balls, pushing the attack up both flanks and through the middle while meeting limited resistance, and suffocating the Reds’ front line on their counter.
Yes, Torres is still recovering and clearly doesn’t have that explosive speed we’re used to seeing from him, and yes the Mascherano drama (with him refusing to play while waiting to be transfered) didn’t help at all. But maybe it was more about Liverpool’s rigid 4-4-2—that Hodgson employed so well at the cottage—that was their main undoing. Gerrard sitting back and tasked with picking up runners through the midfield is not the best use of the man’s talents (and he’s no good at it), and Pool clearly have no left back option. Ngog and Torres at the point have absolutely no chemistry, and where was Kuyt yesterday?
Super Mario Balotelli, who scored on his debut for Man City in their Europa qualifying game, is bringing more than his wild disposition and playing potential to Cottonopolis. Let’s all say hello to his beauty queen girlfriend, Melissa Castagnoli.
It’s doubtful that the Inter Milan transfer will get 90 minutes against Liverpool come Monday, but at the very least his lady friend will add some flavo(u)r to the WAG section at the Eastlands. Of course, Balotelli will stir it up in his own fashion:
Jose Mourinho, a man who does not tolerate eccentric behaviour in anyone other than himself, had called Balotelli “unmanageable”; one performance he rated “close to zero”.
Says Balotelli, “I don’t want to talk about him, he is not my coach any more. Am I a bad boy? I don’t know and, really, I don’t care.”
Guardian Squad sheets: Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City
If you’re not up early (kickoff was at 7:45am ET) watching this opening game of the 2010-11 English Premier League, you’re missing a doozy. As the inimitable Guardian liveblog put it, “a cracking start, real 200mph This Is What The Premier League Is All About™ stuff.”
We have a Spurs season preview from cradle-to-grave Tottenhamite John Lally up here, and we expect he’ll also post a match recap later today or tomorrow. At some point we’ll also have to comment on Man City’s chances, as they’ve been more active in the transfer market than any other EPL side (having spent an astounding ~$156 million to bring in international stars David Silva (Spain), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast), Aleksandar Kolarov (Serbia), Jerome Boateng (Germany), and just in the last 24 hours, Mario Balotelli (Italy).
That list points out the internationalization of the Premier League. Here’s a run through the starting lineups in this morning’s match, along with the national side of each player:
It’s tough to care much about the beginning of the european footballing season. After the buzz of the world cup and the always fun transfer drama, club football’s jerky starts seem less urgent. Then comes this international break, and we’re only now really getting started. (By the way, Neymar and Ganso are both injured and not playing for Santos at the moment, and with Robinho gone too I have a hard time wanting to tune in.)
The answer: probably! Though Liverpool looked mostly clueless through yesterday’s meeting, it may well have been because City were seemingly everywhere, winning the majority of 50/50 balls, pushing the attack up both flanks and through the middle while meeting limited resistance, and suffocating the Reds’ front line on their counter.
