It was a sad, sad day on Merseyside as well as the blue half of Manchester. At least nobody could say they didn’t see it coming. Maybe they were not expecting a 4-1 defeat at Vicarage Road, but it’s been pretty clear Ole’s grip of the wheel has become a little loose this season.
As Watford’s third and fourth went in during injury time, an emergency board meeting was called where it was agreed that Solsjkaer would be sacked and it would be called mutual consent. Personally, if he hadn’t been sacked last night, I think he should have resigned.
United were so bad that they made Watford look very, very good. Don’t forget, the Hornets also missed a penalty and had the extra difficulty of facing a United defence without Maguire for half an hour or so.
The timing of the decision shows once again where United are at in terms of decision making – an ideal candidate in Antonio Conte was allowed to put pen-to-paper at Spurs when it was as clear back then as it is now that OGS would be leaving. Why did they not move heaven and earth to snap up the Italian?
Probably because they were hoping Solskjaer could survive until the end of the season, stay in the Champions League and set the table nicely for Pochettino to take over in the summer. Best laid plans, and all that.
Instead, United have handed the interim reigns to Michael Carrick until they can persuade someone to come in for the rest of the season. We can assume it won’t be Giggsy. German Ralf Rangnick is apparently keen to caretake, allowing the club time to get Fergie to Paris to wine and dine Poch repeatedly until he signs. Wayne Rooney’s name has been mentioned as well, though you’d imagine even the Derby County gig is probably a quieter life than this one right now.
Ronaldo wants Luis Enrique, apparently, though it’s unlikely he’d want to come and sort out a big mess instead of taking Spain into another World Cup – he pretty much said as much pondering whether it was ‘April Fool’s Day?’ when asked about it. Zidane is learning English and the United board are thought to be interested but his missus isn’t that keen. Something to do with swapping Madrid for Manchester and the small increase in rainfall. Mendes wants it to be Lopetegui. With Fergie categorically wanting Pochettino, I guess we are about to learn who actually runs the club now.
Liverpool had quite a relaxing weekend, all things told. Arsenal might be much-improved and in Aaron Ramsdale, they do seem to have found a genuine heir to David Seaman (finally), but they are still a million miles off teams that might actually win the title.
Mikel Arteta seemed to be running around the touchline more than his entire midfield and it was his clash with King Klopp that really fired Liverpool up as they moved through the gears in their 4-0 win.
Man City did what Man City do, picking a fairly random XI and refusing to let Everton play with the same ball as they strolled to a 3-0 win. Raheem Sterling, apparently keen to persuade his bosses to replace Sergio Aguero at Barcelona seeing that they won’t let him replace Sergio Aguero at Man City, scored a lovely goal just to remind us that he is still a Premier League player.
At the King Power, Chelsea pushed Brendan Rodgers further down the Old Trafford shortlist by taking Leicester apart with minimal effort. Antonio Rudiger showed why the club are much keener than he to get a new deal done. Leicester though – there won’t be any last-minute bottling of the Champions League spots this season.
Steven Gerrard had the dream start at Villa Park, especially if you class a dream start as a pretty turgid first 80 minutes and then two strikes late on to take three points. Brighton seem to be regressing to the Brighton of last season at great pace – dominating matches and managing to lose.
Dean Smith also bounced and bounced high. Norwich fell behind to Southampton and many would have expected the Canaries to pop their clogs as per usual. But, they rallied and came back to win 2-1 – increasing the pressure on everyone else around them.
Eddie Howe was unable to make it a new manager clean sweep, even from his Newcastle hotel suite. If this is the level of entertainment the St James’ faithful can expect then it will be a lot more fun at the club from now – even if the amount of wins remains the same. Brentford also cared little for the defensive fineries of the game, and 3-3 was a fair, if not unexpected result.
Mind you, if you thought that 3-3 was unlikely I’d love to know of anyone that whacked Burnley and Palace down as 3-3 on their acca. Christian Benteke was on fire scoring twice but it was Maxwel Cornet who stole the show with his reverse-angle Marco van Basten tribute.
West Ham will have spent the international break reading how good they are, how they are genuine top four contenders and how they are very, very lucky to have David Moyes. You suspect Wolves might have read the same media as they were very good value for their 1-0 win.
We’ll probably never know exactly what was said in the Spurs dressing room at halftime, but I very much doubt Antonio Conte was calmly sipping some herbal tea and telling everyone to stay calm. Tottenham were non-existent once again in their first half against Leeds, notching up yet another half without a shot on target. The second period was a little different, however – Spurs playing like a side that might have had their first glimpse of an angry Italian. Do you think he cares?
