Well, it certainly wasn’t a slow waltz but it certainly wasn’t rock’n’roll either. Ralf Ragnick’s Manchester United debut was more like a drunken dance in the club – you think it will look good, you hope it will look good but even with the best of intentions, it’s all arms and legs everywhere with little coordination.
Of course, the latest German to come and save English football has only had one session to get his user-specific pattern of play into the United players’ brains – brains that need retraining, apparently. But they showed some willingness to run around – even that old bloke upfront.
After his ‘moment’ against Arsenal, not many would have had money on Fred being Ralf’s match-winner – the fact it fell on his right foot probably meant he didn’t have to think too much before curling it away into the top corner.
The plan to modernise Manchester United is underway and there was another United manager who started an era of success with a 1-0 win over Palace. Just saying.
Sunday’s match at Old Trafford was hardly enough to get the top three quaking in their boots. Chelsea had other things to be worrying about, like how on earth did Arthur Masuaka’s cross end up in the back of their net? Edouard Mendy, probably still smarting from giving away a penalty in the first half, was understandably expecting the ball to come flying across the face of his goal, not bizarrely ending up sneaking into the near post.
West Ham deserved their win, make no mistake. Moyes Boys needed a performance and they certainly put one in, knocking their city rivals off top spot and keeping themselves in the running for a top-four finish. Chelsea are having a bit of a wobble, and then you bring on a €90m+ centre forward to make an impact as a sub, you’d hope he had more of an impact than Romelu Lukaku.
They were replaced at the top firstly by King Kloppo’s Liverpool. Their 1-0 win over Wolves would have been sorted out far sooner had Diogo Jota done anything other than smash it straight into Conor Coady’s, er, nuts. It took ‘legend’ Divock Origi to bail his side out with a late winner having come off the bench. That’s how you do it, Rom.
Liverpool’s stay at the summit was expected to be short-lived as Man City only had to worry about Watford at Vicarage Road. That said, in six Premier League outings Claudio Ranieri had only been beaten by City the once. We can now officially chalk that up as twice in seven as City swept past the Hornets 3-1 without really breaking too much sweat. Once again, Bernardo Silva showed why he gets the special seat on the bus this season – scoring yet again.
Tottenham beat Norwich 3-0, yet the real news from North London was that Harry Kane failed to score again. Lucas Moura, immediately benefitting from Antonio Conte’s tough love, scored a bit of a belter.
We can no longer point and laugh at Newcastle having all that money but no wins. They finally got off the mark, courtesy of Nick Pope randomly dropping the ball and Callum Wilson scoring with a clever little finish. Eddie Howe is up and running at St James’ Park and you’d have to give them a little hope of staying up now. Assuming Burnley and Sean Dyche do what they always do, who else could join Norwich in leaving the Premier League this season?
Of course, it might not even be Norwich. It might be Leeds, a team I tipped to finish 6th this season – shades of me suggesting Leicester being relegated the season they won the damn thing there. Brentford looked like they’d punched Bielsa in the gut once more until Patrick Bamford reappeared from injury off the bench and scored a late leveller. Rom? Rom? Are you watching?
If you want a striker to consistently score late equalisers, look no further than Brighton’s Neal Maupay. He followed up his midweek heroics with the goal that earned a point against ‘local’ rivals Southampton. Is it really a derby? I don’t think so and I suspect the Southampton fans agree.
Now, given that Kasper Schmeichel is quicker than Jamie Vardy chasing down a through ball when it comes to challenging a referee’s decision, does that suggest that he knew that goal should have counted? I’ll readily admit, I thought you have to have two hands on the ball ‘to be in control’ of it but the law does say one – unless, of course, it’s straight after a save or rebound. Er, like it was at Villa Park.Â
VAR has generally meant the right decision is stumbled upon eventually, but in this case it seems to have got it very wrong – Michael Oliver sees a still of Schmeichel pinning the ball to the ground before he sees anything else so that’s got to be his first impression. And then, we learn, his footage doesn’t show Leicester’s captain pushing the ball out in the first movement. It’s no wonder he disallowed it with that evidence.
This season, Leicester are frighteningly bad in defence and managed to defend their first-half lead for less time than it took Oliver to decide that Jacob Ramsey’s goal was a no-go. Villa’s second was the 7th Brentan’s lot have conceded from corners this season. It’s fair to say Stevie G has made a bit of an impact. Rodgers, with each passing week, looks more likely to be fighting for his job than getting a call from United.
Up at Goodison, all is not well. After the hammering by Liverpool, rumours started swirling that some of the board had had enough of Rafa already. It was suggested an emergency meeting took place late on Saturday night to discuss the Champions League-winning gaffer’s position – yet it was Director of Football Marcel Brands who found himself unemployed on Sunday.
It’s been a while since we had a bit of a giggle at the latest transfer rumours and with January approaching fast we may as well jump right in.
Newcastle are obviously going to spend a bit of cash after Christmas and they are believed to be super-keen on Jesse Lingard, naturally, and Atletico’s England international right-back Kieran Trippier. It categorically won’t be long before Barcelona get in touch with the new owners offering them their pick of Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho or Clement Lenglet. Howe, however, would rather Burnley’s Ben Mee and James Tarkowski. Of course, he would.
If Everton do go a bit crazy and sack Benitez, they’ve got their eye on rescuing Jose Mourinho from doing another terrible job at Roma. It would appear the main requirement Everton have when recruiting is that you have to have managed Real Madrid in the past or fancy the Barcelona job in the future.
Barca have seen enough of Ferran Torres being Sergio Aguero’s replacement at City for them to want him to be Sergio Aguero’s replacement at the Camp Nou.
Finally, the rumour mill went into overdrive after RB Leipzig sacked Jesse Marsch on Sunday – Ralf’s number two in the not-too-distant with the promise of being the big man next season if Rangnick chooses not to suggest himself for the full-time gig?
