Football news - Arsenal show some backbone, no thanks to Mustafi
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Updated 22/01/2020 at 08:59 GMT
We must solemnly proclaim that Shkodran Mustafi is not a very good defender. We know. Hard lines, hot takes - that's us...
Shkodran Mustafi, Tammy Abraham
Image credit: Getty Images
WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Arsenal show some backbone, no thanks to Mustafi and Luiz
Sometimes it’s nice to see a group of people who often argue horribly, truly united by something. Like Arsenal fans and Shkodran Mustafi, for example. It’s not that they wish the German central defender ill necessarily, it’s just that after the 54th calamitous blooper like the one that ultimately led to David Luiz’s red card in their game against Chelsea last night, thus nixing their realistic chances of winning the game, you start to lose patience.
It was Mustafi’s poor back-pass that set Tammy Abraham free on goal, leading to the Chelsea striker rounding Bernd Leno and then Luiz chopping him down, giving away a penalty and then having the absolute brass swingers to look surprised when the referee wafted a red card in his direction. Mustafi then put a tin hat on things by booting the ball clear and hitting the hapless Luiz, and everyone had either a good chuckle or a good cry, depending on your point of view. Jorginho scored the resultant penalty, and from that point Arsenal were chasing things.
But they actually did pretty well. The glorious phenomenon that is Gabriel Martinelli equalised after the break, bamboozling N’Golo Kante into falling to the ground like he was trying out motorised rollerskates for the first time and didn’t really have the hang of it. And even when Cesar Azpilicueta poked home what looked like a winner for Chelsea, Arsenal didn’t give in, eventually getting their second equaliser of the night through Hector Bellerin, of all people.
Will this game be a turning point for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal? The day they discovered they could actually play football, or at least scrap effectively enough to make it look like they could play football? Or will it be a false dawn, like all the other false dawns? Who knows, but for now it was extremely heartening for them.
BOURNEMOUTH WIN! BOURNEMOUTH WIN! BOURNEMOUTH WIN!
Never mind them winning, it’s even more remarkable that Bournemouth scored three goals. The grim run is over for Eddie Howe’s boys, as they ran in three goals against Brighton to claim their first victory in six games, just their second since the start of November and the first time they’ve scored three goals in a game since September.
The blessed, sweet relief that Howe must have felt after this one, which carried the bonus of theoretical chief goalsman Callum Wilson scoring for the first time since September, with Harry Wilson and an own-goal capping the scoring for Bournemouth.
“It feels big at the moment but time will tell,” Howe said after the game. “We had a really big win against Chelsea a few weeks ago and we wanted that to turn our momentum and turn that winning feeling we had that day into more wins. It never happened so I am very calm at this moment to say ‘great result, really pleasing’ but am cautious at the same time to not build it up too much and then go flat again. We really want to kick on at this point.”
You think you’ve nailed Manchester City, and then Aguero…
Sheffield United are a tough nut to crack. One of the toughest nuts in the Premier League in fact. You need a big set of those pliers things to crack this nut. Fortunately for them, Manchester City have just about the biggest set of those pliers things in the game, and his name is Sergio Aguero.
Aguero wasn’t even in the starting XI for City’s trip to Bramall Lane on Tuesday, but after watching his team labour against the Blades and miss a penalty (that should have been retaken due to United keeper Dean Henderson being about four yards off his line when the kick was struck), and generally not find a way to break through.
Enter Aguero. The squat genius had only been on the pitch for six minutes when one of those absolutely ludicrous, laser-guided crosses into that virtually undefendable area betwixt keeper and defence from Kevin de Bruyne found him lurking in just the right place at the back post, and from there formalities were completed.
It sort of feels like we underrate Aguero because of the consistency of his brilliance. He has been scoring goals at roughly the same rate since arriving at City in 2011, accumulating strikes week after week, month after month, year after year. He’s a genius, and everyone should drink in every aspect of his career before it’s too late.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Florian Lejeune
Big, big week for Newcastle defender Florian Lejeune. After revealing via the Newcastle programme that he knew just the way to dispose of a dead body, he scored his first goal for the club in the 94th minute of their game against Everton, and followed it up shortly afterwards with his second to earn them a 2-2 victory.
And yes, this is former Newcastle left-back Olivier Bernard ‘bantering off’ Everton keeper Jordan Pickford.
ZERO: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
For a little while, it seemed like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s main strategy as Manchester United manager was to ensure they acted like a big, successful team, even if at least one of those things was quite patently untrue. “We’re Manchester United!” he would say, the inference being that their standards should be higher than everyone else, only the best for us etc. It’s quite weird, therefore, to see that he’s now just delighted to be on the same pitch as United’s historic rivals, doffing his cap to the bigger boys and thanking them for the small change they toss United’s way. As turnarounds go, it’s one of the season’s more jarring ones.
HAT TIP
But what if, instead of working on redistributing revenues, we looked at redistributing the means of production, the players? Right now, most top clubs will have more than 40-50 players under contract. Some will be youngsters, some will be on loan. What if we drastically cut that number? The players cut loose would end up back on the market and trickle down to the next tier of clubs that, presumably, would become more competitive. This knock-on effect would continue down the pyramid. Many leagues already limit squad sizes and loan players. In the Premier League, you can’t register more than 25 players, excluding Under-22s. What if that were cut radically to, say, 19?
For ESPN, Gabriele Marcotti has some radical ideas on how to fix football.
RETRO CORNER
On this day in 2002, Diego Forlan signed for Manchester United. You know the story: 27 games to score his first goal, then did start scoring but never really shook off the tag of mild punchline, sold to Villarreal, scored loads, went to Atletico, scored loads and won some stuff, won the Copa America and World Cup Golden Ball with Uruguay, became a legitimate modern great. Enjoy a glossy compilation of his best bits at what was probably the least significant period of his career.
COMING UP
The Barclays never stops. More games tonight – three of them in fact, as Leicester face West Ham, Tottenham travel to Norwich and Manchester United face Burnley. It never, ever stops.
Telling you all about it never stopping will be the venerable Andi Thomas.
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