The Premier League is the most exciting league in the world and Matchday 4 reminded everyone of this fact. It had everything from record-equalling results to goals galore at the Etihad, but what were the biggest talking points?
Liverpool finally recorded their first win of the season and they did so in emphatic style.
Jürgen Klopp’s men had laboured to draws against Fulham and Crystal Palace before a 2-1 defeat away at Old Trafford resulted in some questioning whether this was more than just a blip. A home match against Bournemouth was the perfect opportunity to right some wrongs, but the same was said against Fulham and Palace. Nothing can be taken for granted in the English top flight.
Yet with just six minutes on the clock, the Reds had a 2-0 lead. Going in at half-time, it was 5-0. In the end, it was a Premier League era, record-equalling 9-0 win for Liverpool. Luis Díaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Virgil van Dijk and Roberto Firmino all got on the scoresheet, but it was the latter who stole the show with two goals and three assists.
The Brazilian had a game to forget against Manchester United but had everyone on strings on Saturday afternoon as he rolled back the years.
Haaland’s Hat-trick
Manchester City are making a habit out of needing to come from behind to get anything from a match.
They trailed 3-1 away to Newcastle last week before claiming a point and on the final day of the season, they were 2-0 down at home to Aston Villa before a dramatic turnaround saw them lift the title. This time around, they found themselves 2-0 down to Palace at half-time. In truth, it could’ve been 3-0 but Jordan Ayew’s goal was ruled out after officials deemed Ederson had been impeded when trying to roll the ball out.
City needed a reaction in the second half having mustered shots worth just 0.55 expected goals in the first 45 minutes. Whatever he said, Pep Guardiola sure got a reaction.
Bernardo Silva halved the deficit before it turned into the Erling Haaland show. The brutish forward hit a hat-trick – his first in the Premier League – to round off what could be described as a quintessential No9 performance. He had as many shots (7) as he did passes during his time on the pitch. He’s barely involved but when he is – he makes it count.
No fox in the box
Leicester City suffered yet another defeat, this time around it came away to Chelsea. The Blues were down to 10 men after just 28 minutes after Conor Gallagher picked up a second yellow card. It was the ideal opportunity for Brendan Rodgers’ side to claim their first victory of the season.
But it wasn’t to be.
They had more shots (17 to 7), more big chances (4 to 2) and a higher expected goals total (2.52 to 1.75) but they just didn’t have that killer instinct in the penalty area to capitalise on these chances and moments.
Jamie Vardy left his shooting boots at home whereas Raheem Sterling found his, netting his first two Premier League goals for his new side and helping Chelsea get back to winning ways.
New-look Newcastle
Eddie Howe really has transformed the way Newcastle United play.
The Magpies may have been behind to Wolves for the majority of the match following Ruben Neves’ goal after 38 minutes but by no means were they nullified. Wolves relied on a lot of luck to head into stoppage time with the lead.
Newcastle had taken more shots and had a higher expected goals total in each half. In fact, Howe’s side had an xG total of 1.77 and had twice as many efforts as the hosts. On another day, they claim a comfortable three points. This time around they had to settle for a point, but it was a deserved one at that with Allan Saint-Maximin scoring in stoppage time to take something back to the North East while extending the Magpies’ unbeaten start.
Villians at Villa Park
Aston Villa dominated the ball against West Ham, finishing the game with 58% possession. They completed more of their passes and had more shots (9 to 7), but for the second successive match, they suffered defeat.
Steven Gerrard’s men lost 1-0 and created nothing of real note in the game.
The new 4-3-1-2 system relies heavily on Philippe Coutinho. He was given the keys to make it his team and even though he has been given the freedom of playing behind two strikers at Villa Park, it just isn’t working.
(Images from IMAGO)
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If you had a penny for every time a top-division side lost by a nine-goal margin over the weekend, you’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. There was lots of action apart from Liverpool and Celtic’s massive wins too, including Union Berlin creating history in the Bundesliga and Union Saint-Gilloise painting Brussels yellow and blue. We will be going over all of that and more in this edition of Last Weekend.
The Premier League’s annual 9-0 drubbing was handed out this weekend, and for once, Southampton were not on the receiving end of it. Instead, it was fellow South Coast side Bournemouth who lost by the joint-biggest margin in the league’s history.
Luis Díaz opened the scoring less than three minutes into the match, and three minutes later, Harvey Elliott doubled the home side’s advantage. Another quickfire double around the half-hour mark saw Trent Alexander-Arnold and Roberto Firmino join the list of goalscorers, while Virgil van Dijk added a fifth just before half-time. Chris Mepham’s own goal made it six just seconds into the second half before Firmino scored his second in the 62nd minute. Late on, Carvalho and Díaz capped off a historic win at Anfield.
It was an absolute field day for all of Liverpool’s star players as far as FPL is concerned, but there was one outlier. Mohamed Salah walked away from this match without a goal or assist, much to the dismay of the 3.3 million Fantasy managers that captained him.
Back in the real world, Liverpool’s first win of the season propels them to the top half of the table, while Bournemouth are already hovering around the relegation zone with a terrible goal difference of -14 after just four matches.
Over 300 kilometres north of Anfield, there was another nine-goal thrashing handed out in Great Britain. In this case, the hosts Dundee United were on the wrong side of the scoreline, as defending Scottish Premiership champions Celtic returned to their place at the top of the table in some style.
Unlike Liverpool, Celtic got off to a relatively slow start, scoring their second goal in the 40th minute. They doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time, though, and that is when things began to get ugly for the home fans at Tannadice Park. By the hour-mark, Celtic were seven goals to the good, and a couple of late strikes helped them record their largest-ever away win.
Both Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada went home with a match ball, while Jota, Josip Juranović and Carl Starfelt chipped in with a goal each. Of course, such big scorelines are a result of significant xG overperformance, but registering a tally exceeding 5.5xG in a match is truly incredible. Manager Ange Postecoglu could not have asked for a better birthday gift, albeit two days belatedly.
Celtic have been drawn in a tough Champions League group where Real Madrid and RB Leipzig will be favourites to progress, but if they can keep performing at this level, a return to the competition’s knockout stage (after failing to reach it for a decade) just might be a possibility.
Saturday was a day of records in the Bundesliga. Yann Sommer made 19 saves – the most in a single Bundesliga match ever recorded – to earn a point for Borussia Mönchengladbach against Bayern Munich. Before that, Union Berlin broke a club record as they scored six goals in a Bundesliga match for the first time in their history.
Their opponents were Schalke, who remain winless following their return to the Bundesliga. The scores were level after the half-hour mark when Marius Bülter’s penalty cancelled out Morten Thorsby’s opener, but then it was time for the Sheraldo Becker show. The Surinamese forward also made history by becoming the first Union player to have a tally of four goals after the Bundesliga’s first four matchdays in a season with goals on either side of half-time in this match.
He has clearly never heard of xG.
In fact, Union probably haven’t either, because they had a significantly lower xG tally than their opponents in this match.
In all seriousness, Union are no strangers to this sort of performance. Their counterattacking style of play requires clinical finishing to be effective, and the likes of Becker and Sven Michel offer just that. The East Berlin-based club are currently level on points with league leaders Bayern, whom they will face next weekend at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei.
The rise of Royale Union Saint-Gilloise has been one of the most enrapturing footballing stories in recent times, and even after the disappointment of missing out on the title last season, they are not letting up.
On Sunday evening, they welcomed back Felice Mazzù, the man who oversaw their promotion to the top flight, for the first time in 48 years, and then took them to within four points of the title. This time, though, he was taking charge of local rivals Anderlecht, having switched allegiances following Vincent Kompany’s move to Burnley in the summer.
Apart from their manager, Union also lost a number of their key players in the transfer window, including the league’s top-scorer Deniz Undav, who moved to Brighton after signing a deal with them in January. His permanent replacement was Victor Boniface, who had recently arrived from Bodø/Glimt. Having made his debut against Kortrijk a couple of weeks ago, the Norwegian striker helped his side to a perfect start by scoring his first goal in Belgium in just the second minute of this match with a pinpoint finish from a tight angle.
Anderlecht replied within ten minutes through right wing-back Michael Murillo, who fooled the goalkeeper into thinking that he would cross the ball before squeezing it past him at the near post. Union restored their advantage after the half-hour through Dante Vanzeir’s volley following a corner, so they went into the half-time break with a lead. There were many more chances in the second half and the hosts were forced to rather hang on to their lead late on, but they ultimately got the job done to secure a hard-fought derby victory.
Having won all of the derbies in the league last season – both in the regular season and in the Championship play-offs – Union preserve their perfect league record against their local rivals since promotion with this win, which also sees them leapfrog them in the table. That makes hearing the fans singing ‘Bruxelles ma ville’ even sweeter.
We go all the way back to Friday night for our Serie A game this time, which is Inter’s trip to Rome to face Lazio.
Both sides looked far from their very best in this match, and the first half was an especially drab affair with hardly any goalmouth action to speak of. The home side did manage to take the lead a few minutes before half-time, though, as Felipe Anderson headed home Sergej Milinković-Savić’s long ball.
Lautaro Martínez equalised after a set-piece early on in the second half, but things really started to liven up as substitutes entered the field. Maurizio Sarri sent on Luis Alberto and Pedro in the 57th minute, and the duo went on to win the match for him. Pedro assisted the Spanish midfielder for a (deflected) wonderstrike in the 75th minute, before sealing the result himself late on.
With this win, Lazio join five other teams level on points at the top of the table including defending champions Milan, Napoli and local rivals Roma. They also extend their record of being undefeated against Inter at the Stadio Olimpico since 2018.
We highlighted Nice’s poor start to the season in the previous edition of the column, and things just got even worse for them on Sunday. This time, our focus will be on Marseille, who turned up to the Allianz Riviera and scored three goals.
Just a few days after Jorge Sampaoli decided to leave the club due to a perceived lack of ambition in the transfer window, Marseille signed Alexis Sánchez from Inter. The Chilean was the star of the show in this match as he opened the scoring and his Ligue 1 account in the 10th minute with a nice finish, before bagging a brace in the latter stages of the first half.
Sampaoli’s successor Igor Tudor has chosen to implement a back-three system, for which he had two new wing-backs who arrived in the summer. On the right was former Lens man Jonathan Clauss, who already registered his second assist in Marseille colours when he set up the opener. On the other flank was Arsenal loanee Nuno Tavares, who scored the second goal of the match to take his Ligue 1 tally up to three goals in four matches.
With Paris Saint-Germain dropping points against Monaco, Marseille end the weekend tied with the defending champions as well as Lens at the top of the table. While PSG remain overwhelming favourites for the title, Marseille’s bid to be the best of the rest again has gotten off to a good start.
Everyone at Real Madrid was sad to see Casemiro leave the club following his move to Manchester United. But life without the Brazilian midfielder started smoothly on Saturday as Los Blancos beat Celta Vigo 4-1 at Balaidos.
With Casemiro gone and Toni Kroos missing because of flu, coach Carlo Ancelotti picked a line-up featuring four midfielders away to Celta Vigo. Summer signing Aurélien Tchouaméni started alongside France team-mate Eduardo Camavinga and the 36-year-old Luka Modrić, with Fede Valverde in an advanced role on the right.
Tchouaméni was signed for an initial €80 million from Monaco, with the 22-year-old seen as a defensive midfielder for the future, but Casemiro’s departure means his development will now be fast-tracked.
At Balaidos, though, it was 36-year-old Modrić who was the inspiration behind Real’s big win after a penalty converted by each team – Karim Benzema for Real, Iago Aspas for Celta.
Modrić, who will be 37 next month, curled a beautiful shot into the corner from outside the box to make it 2-1 to the champions and the Croatian set Vinícius Júnior away for the third with a wonderful pass from deep.
“He’s immortal,” Ancelotti said afterwards. “He is always prepared, he always plays well. His goal changed the game.”
Tchouaméni also played his part. The Frenchman began the move for Madrid’s third goal with a key defensive block and his excellent run also led to his side’s fourth – scored by Valverde after 66 minutes.
“He is a player with different qualities to Casemiro,” Ancelotti said. “He played well, he did what he shows in training: personality, good on the ball, enjoying the team’s good game.”
Madrid won another penalty late on, but substitute Eden Hazard saw his spot-kick saved after he was handed the opportunity to score by Benzema.
No matter. Real Madrid have six points from their two fixtures so far, both away from home as renovations continue at the Santiago Bernabéu. Business as usual – with or without Casemiro.
Ansu Fati the inspiration for Barcelona
Barcelona needed a response – and a goal – after being held to a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou by Rayo Vallecano in their first LaLiga game. And it took less than 45 seconds for Robert Lewandowski to open his account for the Blaugrana, netting with a clinical left-footed finish to give the visitors the lead following a pass from wing-back Alejandro Balde.
That was a perfect start, but Barça have had difficulties at the Reale Arena in recent years and Alexander Isak levelled just a few minutes later. Real Sociedad also had a goal disallowed later on.
The scores were still level when Ansu Fati came on for Ferran Torres in the second half, but the young forward’s introduction changed everything. Within two minutes, he had set up Ousmane Dembélé for Barça’s second. Within two more, he had assisted Lewandowski for the Pole’s second of the night – on his 34th birthday – to make it 3-1. And with 11 minutes left, he latched onto an extraordinary elastic ball from the former Bayern Munich striker to score himself.
Ansu is still only 19 years old, but has seen his progress interrupted by injuries since he burst onto the scene so impressively in 2019-20. Now, all of that looks to be behind him – and it should be his time to shine again.
“He can make the difference,” Xavi said. “He didn’t start out of precaution (following his injury problems) and because we have competition for places.” On this evidence, he will be starting much more often from now on.
The win was key, leaving Barça just two points behind the leaders after two rounds of LaLiga.
“It was a tough game,” Xavi said. “Winning in this stadium is always hard. It is a very important victory for us, which reinforces the work we are doing.” Onwards and upwards.
Tensions mount at Atlético Madrid
There was tension on and off the pitch at the Wanda Metropolitano as Atlético Madrid were beaten 2-0 by Villarreal. Diego Simeone’s side looked flat in their first home match of the season and conceded twice late in the game as all the optimism from the previous weekend’s 3-0 win at Getafe quickly evaporated.
The Rojiblancos never really got going here and goals from Yéremi Pino and Gerard Moreno sealed a 2-0 win for Unai Emery’s side – the second of those after Nahuel Molina had been sent off for hitting Alex Baena in the neck.
Frustration in the stands boiled over after the final whistle and defender Mario Hermoso had to be held back as he argued with some of the club’s ultras for several minutes following the final whistle.
Meanwhile, a clause in Antoine Griezmann’s contract stating that Atlético will have to buy him back from Barcelona if he completes 45 minutes in at least half the games he is available for this season means the club cannot afford to play the French forward as much as they would like to.
“We have to work,” Simeone said. “They were some good things and others we can improve.”
The Argentine also refused to blame LaLiga’s lack of goal-line technology after Yannick Carrasco thought he had headed them level late on. “We trust in the technology that LaLiga has,” the Argentine said. But he added: “That was the move for 1-1.”
Meanwhile, this was Emery’s first win over Simeone and the Basque said: “That shows you how good he is. And he is getting better.”
Villarreal are joint top of the table after back-to-back wins and Emery added: “We have to look at achievable objectives, but aiming as high as we can.” So far, so good.
Betis win again; Sevilla struggling
Despite an array of absences, Real Betis followed up their win over Elche last weekend with a 2-1 victory at Mallorca. Borja Iglesias scored the goals – both penalties – for the Andalusians and afterwards, coach Manuel Pellegrini said: “It’s not easy to prepare for two matches with 11 players missing, but this group grows in adversity.”
Sevilla lost 2-1 at Osasuna last weekend and Julen Lopetegui’s side struggled again in their second match – a 1-1 draw at home to Real Valladolid in which Isco made minimal impact as a substitute. Once again, Sevilla could have taken a win, but Lopetegui said: “In football, it’s not about what you deserve… you need goals.”
Ernesto Valverde got his first win since returning to Athletic Club as the Basques beat Valencia 1-0 at San Mames, thanks to Alex Berenguer’s first-half goal. Athletic drew 0-0 at home to Mallorca the previous weekend and Valverde said: “We’re just getting started. There is a lot to improve on.”
Rayo Vallecano followed up their impressive draw at Barcelona with another excellent result in the Catalan capital – this time a 2-0 win at Espanyol – to make it four points from six for Andoni Iraola’s side.
Also in Catalonia, promoted side Girona beat Getafe 3-1 and it looks like it will be a long season for the Madrid team, beaten 3-0 at home to Atlético in their opener the previous weekend.
(Images from IMAGO)
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It’s hard not to get swept up in the hype surrounding Kvaratskhelia’s start to the season with Napoli. After all, in two rounds he’s already scored as many goals (3) in open play as Lorenzo Insigne had in the entirety of last season. It’s hard to remember the last time a new signing had this type of impact straight away in Serie A. Tons of credit has to go to Napoli’s scouting department, given that ‘Kvara’ was playing his 2021/22 campaign with a small Georgian club called Dinami Batumi.
On the field, Kvara has looked unstoppable. He’s a left winger who always wants to take his man on, but instead of doing it with flashy dribbles and flamboyancy, it’s his simple chops in either direction which look impossible for a defender to stop. What makes it so difficult to mark him one-on-one is that the Georgian winger looks so comfortable on either foot. Take a look at his two goals against Monza over the weekend – the first was a stunner from distance on his right foot, bending into the top corner with curl and power. The second, a fake on his right only to chop it back onto his left foot and drill it across goal. The fact he’s two footed means the defender never knows whether or not to show him inside or outside.
Roma’s disastrous injury history continues
Every season it seems like one of Roma’s most important players goes down with a devastating injury. From Leo Spinazzola’s achilles problem, to back-to-back ligament injuries to their young starlet Nicolo Zaniolo, which kept him out of football for nearly two years. Roma’s bad luck with player injuries has now struck their new summer signing Georginio Wijnaldum.
The dutch midfielder, who joined the Giallorossi just last week, fractured his tibia in training and is now expected to miss the next three months of action. This means that one of Roma’s key midfield pieces, who was expected to be a versatile box-to-box presence, won’t likely be available for league play until after the World Cup.
Rumors have started swirling on Monday about potential last minute replacements, including Austrian midfielder Florian Grillitsch, who has been linked with the club in the past.
Allegri is feeling the pressure
If you sat down for the 90 minutes that it took Sampdoria vs. Juventus to finish, my condolences. It was a grim 0-0 affair; one that fans especially did not appreciate. Juventus didn’t seem to have any sort of coherent plan to play football, or any sort of identity to their play.
There were murmurs in the summer that Allegri was ready to change his conservative philosophy and finally take a few more risks to help out last season’s eleventh best attack in Serie A. So far, we’re seeing the same passive Juventus that so often looked content to play for a draw. Against Sampdoria, Juventus had zero creativity. Just to put this into perspective, their striker Dušan Vlahović only recorded three touches total in the first half, with none coming inside the opposition’s box. While it’s true that there are injuries to key players, this can’t be used as an excuse. Every team deals with periods of injuries, and this style of play isn’t exclusive to just this round, but also dates back to last season and beyond. Even when Juventus won their last Scudetto under Allegri (2018/19), there was plenty of criticism about their dull playing style.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Serie A season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.
We’re just three weeks into the 2022/23 Premier League campaign but Arsenal are the only team with a 100% record after yet another round of interesting results. Newcastle United stunned champions Manchester City at St James’ Park to take a point while Manchester United recorded their first victory under Erik ten Hag as the Old Trafford faithful witnessed a 2-1 win over rivals Liverpool. But what were the biggest talking points from Matchday 3?
Following his appointment as manager, Ten Hag set about putting his stamp on things at Old Trafford. The Red Devils wanted to dominate the ball and play out from the back. But that approach was their downfall in losses to Brighton and Brentford.
The former Ajax tactician switched it up against Liverpool. David De Gea was going long with his goal kicks and United looked to play on the break. The hosts had 30% of the ball and attempted just 176 passes. By comparison, Jurgen Klopp’s men attempted 515 and had a significantly better pass success rate (84% to United’s 67%).
Yet the home side had the better chances and more of them. They racked up an expected goals total of 1.67 and created four big chances to Liverpool’s one.
Ten Hag’s flexibility played a big part in him getting his first win as United manager.
The 100 Club
William Saliba attempted 73 passes in Arsenal’s comfortable 3-0 victory over Bournemouth on Saturday. The Frenchman found a teammate with all 73.
The 21-year-old is now in an exclusive group of players to have a 100% pass success rate when attempting over 50 in a single Premier League match.
The youngster spent last season on loan with Marseille but has started all three league games for the Gunners this term in Mikel Arteta’s new-look Arsenal team. He may have had a forgettable game against Leicester last weekend but Saliba and his teammates have kept two clean sheets in their three outings this term.
Solid foundations for a Champions League push.
A goal frenzy at Fulham
Just one week ago, Brentford were lauded for their ruthless showing against Manchester United. Thomas Frank’s men romped to a 4-0 win and would have been full of confidence heading to Craven Cottage.
They were no doubt shellshocked when they found themselves 2-0 down inside of 20 minutes. Marco Silva’s side started like a freight train and showed that their performance against Liverpool on Matchday 1 was not an exception, but the norm.
Now, the Bees did level the game with 20 minutes remaining on the clock but the hosts forced home a last-minute winner courtesy of Aleksandar Mitrovic. In truth, it was deserved.
Fulham had more shots (18 to 13), more big chances (fives to three), a higher expected goals haul (2.54 to 1.8) and almost double the expected goals on target total (2.92 to 1.52).
Lacklustre Leicester
If reports are to be believed, Brendan Rodgers might be the first manager to be sacked this season.
The Foxes have claimed just a single point from their three outings this season and surrendered a 1-0 lead against Southampton on Saturday to lose 2-1, with Che Adams notching twice to win it for the Saints.
A surprising stat from the match was that Leicester accumulated an expected goals total of just 0.04 in the second half to go with their 0.25 haul in the first half. A poor offensive showing in front of an expectant home crowd.
Thomas Frank’s men were ruthless and fully deserved the emphatic victory, their first of the season.
Top of the Toon
Allan Saint-Maximin ran riot against Manchester City.
There is no other way to describe it. The 25-year-old gave Kyle Walker a torrid time on Sunday afternoon with City manager Pep Guardiola saying the Frenchman was “really dangerous”.
The Newcastle No10 two of the three goals, created four chances and had three shots in total. He also completed five of his six attempted dribbles in what was by far one of the standout showings of the 2022/23 campaign. It might not even be bettered this season.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Premier League season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.
With the 2022/23 season well underway now, we are starting to see storylines develop across Europe in the early stages of the league campaigns. We will keep you up to speed with all of those through our Last Weekend columns, and this time around, Leeds, Barcelona and Napoli are among the sides at the top of our agenda.
Jesse Marsch’s Leeds United tenure has had its ups and downs so far. He helped the Yorkshire-based club narrowly avoid relegation last season, but fans were not entirely convinced about his style of play.
Public opinion will certainly have been massively swayed after their most recent result, as they completely outmatched Chelsea this weekend. The Blues may have kept more possession, but Leeds’ intense press unsettled them from the very start. They were rewarded for their endeavours in the 33rd minute when Brendan Aaronson profited from a mistake by Édouard Mendy and scored in to an empty net. Four minutes later, they doubled their lead through Rodrigo’s header from a set-piece situation.
Chelsea switched to a back-four system in the second half, but Leeds continued to cause problems with their pressing. Jack Harrison’s goal in the 69th minute put the result beyond any doubt, and Elland Road celebrated a thoroughly deserved victory over Chelsea for the first time since 2002.
Marsch’s high-octane style of play, epitomised by American internationals Aaronson and Tyler Adams who were brought in this summer, is being dubbed ‘Major Leeds Soccer’, and clearly, Chelsea were not ready for it.
Barcelona have been busy pulling levers this summer as they have continued to spend big even in times of apparent financial difficulty, and now they seem to be reaping rewards on the pitch.
After a disappointing draw against Rayo Vallecano in their season-opener, the Catalans faced a tough trip to the Reale Arena to face Real Sociedad. Things got off to the perfect start when Robert Lewandowski scored his first La Liga goal less than a minute into the match, assisted by young left-back Álex Balde. La Real responded within five minutes through Alexander Isak’s chipped finish, but then there were no more goals until half-time in spite of a good number of chances at both ends.
The match remained very open in the second period, so Xavi turned to his bench in search of goals. Ansu Fati was sent on alongside Raphinha in the 64th minute, and the teenage winger stole the show thereafter. In his first four minutes on the pitch, Fati set up a goal each for Ousmane Dembélé and Lewandowksi, and he went on to score one for himself in the 79th minute.
The 19-year-old winger clearly came on and turned the game in his side’s favour, reminding Barcelona fans of his quality. Even though they have made a number of attacking reinforcements in recent months, Fati looks set to be a key figure in Barcelona’s future.
When Khvicha Kvaratskhelia joined Napoli from Dinamo Batumi this summer, he was a relatively unknown figure to most. It is easy to see why – prior to this move, he had only played in the Georgian and Russian leagues and was yet to make an appearance in a continental club competition.
Those who had been following the 21-year-old’s career knew that Napoli were signing a real gem, but perhaps even they did not expect Kvaratskhelia to acclimatise to Serie A so quickly. The Georgian winger has already shown what he is all about just two matches into the season, returning with three goals and an assist from those games. He opened Napoli’s account for the season against Hellas Verona last weekend and went on to assist their third goal, before bagging a brace this Sunday against Monza.
The first goal was a thing of beauty, as Kvaratskhelia picked up the ball outside the box, created a bit of space for himself and picked out the far corner with a curling finish.
He showcased his dribbling ability for his second, beating his man at the edge of the box before slotting a left-footed finish past the keeper. Remember the name (even though it might be a bit tough).
The Bundesliga coverage in this column has only focused on the top-two so far this season, but we’ve probably heard the last of them. Dortmund created history when they became the first-ever team to concede three goals in a match after the 89th minute as they threw away a two-goal lead against Werder Bremen, and after Bayern smashed Bochum for seven, we might as well consider the title race done and dusted.
But of course, there is more to any league than just the champions, and the Bundesliga is never short of storylines outside the title challengers. Bayer Leverkusen appear to be providing one of them early on this season. Die Werkself have consistently been one of the better sides in the league of late. In fact, they have finished lower than sixth on just one occasion since 2009/10 and qualified for the Champions League on eight occasions in that period of time.
Following a lofty third-place finish last season, things have not started well for them this time around. After three rounds, they sit at the bottom of the table with no points to their name after narrow losses to Dortmund and Augsburg, and a heavier defeat to Hoffenheim this weekend. Add to that their DFB Pokal first round defeat against 3. Liga side Elversberg, and you get Leverkusen’s worst-ever start to a season since promotion to the top flight in 1978. It is not as if they have lost any star players in the transfer window or shaken up the squad massively – things are pretty much as they were in 2021/22, but results are firmly going the other way.
Leverkusen’s next fixtures include a tough trip to Mainz and a home match against high-flying Freiburg, but they will need to start picking up positive results from those games if they are to get their season back on track.
Paris Saint-Germain matched Bayern München in scoring seven this weekend when they defeated Lille, so we might as well focus on other storylines in France too. One of those is from Nice, who are not having a nice start to the season.
After Christophe Galtier left for PSG in the summer, Nice brought in Lucien Favre to coach the squad. The Swiss tactician had taken the South France-based club to a third-placed finish in his previous spell at the club, and that was probably set as his target for this season too.
Things have not started well at all for the 64-year-old manager, as Nice are winless four games into the season. They started their league campaign with draws against Toulouse and Strasbourg and followed that with a loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa Conference League play-offs.
The match against Clermont Foot presented a good chance for Nice to turn their fortunes around, but just six minutes in, they found themselves trailing. They were still behind at the half-time break after struggling to pose a serious goal threat, but things started to get better as the second half wore and substitutes were sent on. But just when they started to build some serious momentum, everything fell apart after Mario Lemina was sent off, and Jean-Clair Todibo followed him down the tunnel two minutes later.
Nice are just one spot above the relegation zone in the early table, so they need to get their act together quickly.
There was a big clash in Portugal very early on in the season, as two of their big-three clubs squared off this weekend when defending champions Porto hosted rivals Sporting at the Estádio do Dragão.
Sérgio Conceição had switched to setting his side up in a 4-1-3-2 formation for the initial matches of the season, but he reverted to his trusted 4-4-2 for this big game. Sporting, meanwhile, sprung no surprises in their 3-4-3 system and started the match well as they kept a considerable majority of possession, but chances were hard to come by. The deadlock was eventually broken in the 42nd minute after Antonio Adán misjudged a cross, leaving an open goal for Evanilson to score.
The result was effectively sealed in the 75th minute after Pedro Porro saw red for a handball offence on the goalline to prevent the home side from doubling their lead, but his efforts were in vain because Mateus Uribe did so from the spot anyway. Porto were awarded another penalty late on when Adán brought Wenderson Galeno down in the box, and the Brazilian striker made no mistakes from twelve yards out.
This was a classic counterattacking performance from Porto as they defended resolutely and posed a serious goal threat despite not keeping a lot of the ball. The match statistics show just that.
With three wins from three games, Porto’s title defence is off to a flyer, so it is once again up to the rest of the league to catch them if they can.
🏴 There’s no Friday night game in England’s Premier League this week so we start Round 3 with six fixtures on Saturday. And amazingly, despite being just two games in to the season, only two sides maintain a 100% record.
One of those two sides are the latest stars of Amazon’s All or Nothing series – Arsenal, who play at Bournemouth in the last of the day’s games. The Cherries are in the midst of a really tough run with this game coming in between last weekend’s defeat to Man City and next week’s trip to Liverpool. The newly promoted side will be really glad of that opening day win over Villa, especially if they come up against the same Arsenal side who’ve been fairly convincing in their wins over Palace and Leicester.
At the other end of the scale, there are only four Premier Leagues sides who’ve yet to win a game so far. Wolves are one of those four, so they’ll be hoping their new record signing Matheus Nunes will have an instant impact as they face Spurs earlier in the day. Frank Lampard’s Everton are also searching for that first win and they entertain the free-spending Nottingham Forest.
🇩🇪 You’ll probably be less surprised to hear that the situation in the Bundesliga is the same in that only two sides here have won their opening two games of the new season. The league’s big two – Bayern and Dortmund – have started well, albeit Dortmund’s six points have been harder fought than those of Bayern, who’ve been at their free-scoring best.
On Saturday, Dortmund face newly-promoted Werder Bremen. Bremen have drawn both their opening fixtures but this will be by far the biggest test of their credentials back in the big time. Elsewhere, there’s an intriguing clash between polar opposites Union Berlin and RB Leipzig – the two sides who couldn’t be more different off the pitch but finished last season divided by a single point; fourth and fifth in the final standings.
Leverkusen were the side who came in third last term but they have started the campaign terribly, losing to Dortmund and Augsburg. They’ll be looking to get off the mark, at home, against Hoffenheim.
🇪🇸 The first week of the new season in LaLiga gave us plenty of interesting storylines – which you can recap here in one of our new regular columns from Spanish football expert Ben Hayward. One of those was Champions Madrid only just managing to battle through their game against newcomers Almería – with a 2-1 win coming thanks to David Alaba’s late free-kick, scored just 28 seconds after he’d come on as a substitute!
Carlo Ancelotti will be hoping for a more fluid performance from his side as they visit Celta Vigo on Saturday.
In contrast, Real Betis really impressed in their opening weekend win over Elche so their fixture against Mallorca – who looked tough to break down against Athletic Club – could be another game to look out for on your match feed.
🇮🇹 Similarly to Madrid, Inter Milan were another of the continent’s big clubs to make hard work of their opening game – only winning at Lecce when Denzel Dumfries netted deep in to stoppage time. Boss Simone Inzaghi didn’t hold back in criticising his players so expect a reaction when they take on Spezia at the San Siro.
There wasn’t a single draw in the first round of Serie A fixtures so at the risk of jinxing the outcome in any other matches we highlight here – Lazio’s trip to Torino looks nailed on to be an entertaining game!
🇵🇹 They’re not messing about in the Liga Portugal, where they’ve scheduled one of the biggest games of the season for this, the third round of games. Defending champions FC Porto play Sporting Club, the side who finished as runners-up last season, but who beat them to the title in the previous campaign.
Porto, who lost one solitary game en route to winning the league, have obviously won two from two so far in 2022/23 but Sporting have been less convincing – beating Rio Ave but enduring a high-scoring draw with Braga despite having taken the lead three times.
🇺🇸 Finally for Saturday, two fixtures of interest for the respective leaders of the Western and Eastern conferences in MLS.
LAFC sit nine points clear in the West having won their last seven games in a row, and they take on Californian rivals San Jose Earthquakes – who, in contrast, are without a win in six. Meanwhile, Philadelphia Union have quietly gone about building a five point cushion in the East. They’ve actually lost two of their last three but will be confident going into the weekend’s trip to the capital, where they face bottom side DC United. New coach Wayne Rooney has so far failed to turnaround their season and they’ve failed to score in each of their last four matches.
Sunday
🇪🇸 All three of Sunday’s games in LaLiga look enticing – starting with the afternoon clash between Ernesto Valverde’s Athletic Club and Valencia, one of his former sides.
Later, two of the three clubs who top the (far to early to mention) league table after 3-0 wins in their opening games play each other – Atlético Madrid and Villarreal. Both looked super strong in those matches and Villarreal’s form continued with a 4-2 win over Croatian side Hajduk Split in a Europa Conference League qualifier on Thursday night.
Atleti will be hoping not to lose any more of their prize possessions before the close of the transfer window, particularly if the strike partnership of Álvaro Morata (two goals) and João Félix (three assists), can continue to produce similar results to last weekend.
In the last of the day’s games Barcelona go to Real Sociedad with Xavi’s new-look side looking to notch their first goal of the season after drawing a blank against Rayo Vallecano.
🏴 Back in the Premier League, there are also three fixtures to look forward to. As mentioned above, Manchester City are the only team, other than Arsenal, to have won both of their first two games but they could face a stiffer test at Newcastle United.
We currently have Newcastle as the joint best-rated side in the division after they’ve kept successive clean sheets in the win over Forest and draw with Brighton. Can Eddie Howe mastermind an early season upset in this, the clash of two of the richest clubs in the world?
They’ll be no love lost in the day’s earlier game between Leeds United and Chelsea, two sides who’s mutual dislike for each other is based on a rivalry that developed way back in the 1960s, when both sides were fighting to get in to the top division. Both have started with a win and a draw to their name so perhaps something will have to give at Elland Road?
West Ham face Brighton in Sunday’s other game, with the visitors looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign under Graham Potter. David Moyes’ side are winless in the league but they did beat Viborg in the home leg of their Europa Conference League qualifier on Thursday and will look to build on that before heading to Denmark, where they’ll hope to seal a place in next week’s Group Stage draw.
🇮🇹 Serie A holders Milan probably headline Sunday’s schedule in Italy as they visit the always overachieving Atalanta. Both sides rattled up three points in their opening games of the season – Atalanta winning 2-0 at Sampdoria whilst Milan eventually overran Udinese to win 4-2. The champions’ potential title defence is something discussed in another of our new regular columns here – provided by Italian football expert Matteo Bonetti.
Elsewhere, look out for Napoli‘s first home game of the new campaign against newcomers AC Monza. Luciano Spalletti has been busy rejuvenating his squad to bring about a younger, fresher side – even adding proven goalscorer Giovanni Simeone in midweek – despite how well his side played in their 5-2 win at Verona last weekend.
🇫🇷 Famously, Christophe Galtier was the man who masterminded Lille’s Ligue 1 title winning campaign in 2020/21, a triumph that upset perennial favourites PSG in the process. After a frustrating season spent at Nice last year, Galtier is now the man entrusted with the Parisian superclub – and now, just three games in to his reign, he returns to Lille on Sunday evening.
It’s going to be a heated affair, no doubt worsened by Galtier’s signing of one of Lille’s biggest stars, Renato Sanches, just before the season start. That said, Lille have fared well under their new coach Paulo Fonseca and they go in to the game second in the table, head of the pack behind PSG, who perhaps dauntingly, have already scored 10 goals in two games.
🇩🇪 Speaking of sides who dominate all others in their respective domestic leagues – Bayern München have started the Bundesliga with a bang, averaging four goals a game in wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Wolfsburg.
This weekend Bayern will test that early season form on the road, at Bochum who themselves have shipped five goals in the two defeats, that have started their campaign.
In the day’s only other game, FC Köln will attempt to shake off a shock Europa Conference League defeat to Hungarian side Fehérvár, when they visit Frankfurt, who currently boast the division’s most porous defence.
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After the first round of the new season wrapped up with three back-to-back games in Spain’s top flight on Monday night lets look back at who fared well, who didn’t, and which players impressed.
Barcelona failed to score at home four times in LaLiga last season – all under Xavi Hernández – but following the arrival of forwards Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha in the summer, fans will have been expecting goals in the Catalans’ opener against Rayo Vallecano at Camp Nou on Saturday. The Polish striker did have the ball in the back of the net early on, only to see his effort ruled out for offside. Another new signing, Franck Kessié, also saw his celebrations cut short by the assistant’s flag when he thought he had scored the winner in the closing stages. But Rayo could have won it themselves in added time, with Radamel Falcao offside when he poked home at the far post after Pathé Ciss was unable to convert from an excellent position moments earlier.
“I understand the disappointment,” Xavi said afterwards. “We had generated a lot of expectation. We have to analyse the match, improve and carry on growing with our model, and keep working.”
Xavi also called for patience and this was only one match. More signings are also expected: Barça are in the market for a right-back and perhaps even another attacker, with Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva strongly linked.
Preparations for the Rayo match were not helped by the fact that the new players were not registered until the day before the game, while midfielder Frenkie de Jong’s future still has not been sorted and Xavi therefore opted to leave the Dutchman on the bench until the second half. Everything is a little chaotic at Camp Nou right now and the signings will also need time to gel, to assimilate Xavi’s ideas and style of play.
All of that said, the coach was right: this was disappointing after a positive pre-season campaign and next Sunday’s trip to Real Sociedad will be another big test.
Madrid find a way past Almería
For a while, it looked like Real Madrid might not win their opening match either. Coach Carlo Ancelotti made changes after the midweek win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Super Cup and his side struggled early on at Almería, going behind to a Largie Ramazina goal after six minutes. It took some time for Los Blancos to get back into the game. Unsurprisingly, that happened following the half-time introduction of Luka Modrić. Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s go-to guy for goals in the past few seasons, Karim Benzema, did everything but score as he was frustrated by the excellent Fernando Martínez in the Almería goal. However, the Frenchman did manage to flick a loose ball to Lucas Vázquez – who started at right-back with Dani Carvajal absent through injury – for the equaliser after 61 minutes and the champions claimed the three points courtesy of a David Alaba free-kick a quarter of an hour before the end. The Austrian had only been on the field for 28 seconds!
“The match affected the youngsters on an emotional level,” Ancelotti said afterwards in reference to Eduardo Camavinga and debutant Aurélien Tchouaméni. And on Alaba’s winner, he said: “The ones who would usually take it were Benzema or Toni [Kroos]. But Alaba came on and he takes free-kicks really well. Davide [Ancelotti, Carlo’s son and assistant] said he should go on quickly, so he could take it.”
That quick thinking won the match for Real Madrid and at the end of the season, those two extra points could be very valuable indeed.
Atlético dominate on Monday night
Atlético Madrid impressed more than either of their title rivals and the Rojiblancos boasted the weekend’s outstanding player in João Félix. The Portuguese winger has struggled for consistency since his big-money move from Benfica in 2019, but shone in an unselfish role against Getafe as he set up all three goals for Diego Simeone’s side. The 22-year-old dinked the ball into the path of Álvaro Morata for Atlético’s first, before winning it back himself and finding the striker with an exquisite reverse pass for the second and setting substitute Antoine Griezmann away for the third. A hat-trick of assists. Sublime.
“He looks more mature and stronger,” Simeone said. “He is growing. We saw that in the first goal and the second with his passes. He is in the best moment of his career.”
Morata also impressed with his brace and although the Spain striker has been heavily linked with a transfer this summer, Simeone made his feelings clear. “I’m not the owner of the club, I’m the coach,” he said. “But he’s doing really well, he worked with a lot of humility and everyone at the club hopes he will stay.”
And asked if this is the best squad Atleti have had, Simeone said: “We’ll see at the end of the season.” Partido a partido.
Villarreal and Betis impress; Sevilla struggle
Sevilla will not be the only big team to lose away to Osasuna in 2022-23 and the Andalusians’ 2-1 defeat in LaLiga’s opening match on Friday came via a controversial penalty, the type of decision LaLiga referees had vowed not to award this term. Contact between Papu Gómez and Jon Moncayola had been minimal. The decision upset coach Julen Lopetegui and striker Rafa Mir. They called it a penaltito. A little penalty. “We have to accept it with certain scepticism,” Lopetegui said. Other than that, Sevilla had done quite well, although issues remain in central defence following the summer sales of Jules Koundé and Diego Carlos.
If Sevilla drop out of the top four this season, Villarreal will be one of the teams in contention to take their place. The Yellow Submarine started with a splash, thrashing promoted Real Valladolid 3-0 away from home. All of the goals came in the second half and two in the final 10 minutes — both of those scored by the excellent Alejandro Baena and the second a screamer into the top corner from outside the box. Golazo! “The result is probably bigger than it should be, but that’s because we were effective in front of goal,” Emery said. And after the game, the return of midfielder Giovani Lo Celso on loan from Spurs was announced. “I’m pleased,” Emery added. “Now is the time to be ambitious.”
Real Betis, with top-four aspirations of their own after an impressive 2021-22 season, also won their opening match 3-0. At home to Elche, the verdiblancos were helped by a red card inside 16 minutes after midfielder John Nwankwo fouled Aitor Ruibal with the Betis right-back through on goal. Midfielder Nabil Fekir was alert to dispossess Enzo Roco as the Chilean waited for the ball to go out for a throw-in and went on to set up Borja Iglesias for the first. And Juanmi showed great skill to score the second and third either side of the break. “I’m happy for the win, for the goals and the clean sheet,” coach Manuel Pellegrini said afterwards. “It has been some time since Betis won on the opening weekend.”
Meanwhile, the promoted clubs all lost on the opening weekend of LaLiga. Real Valladolid were beaten 3-0 at home to Villarreal, although the manner of the result was harsh and they were frustrated by the excellent Geronimo Rulli; Girona did better but ended with no reward as they were beaten by a Carlos Soler penalty in a 1-0 loss at Valencia: and Almería (winners of Segunda last term) put up an impressive display despite defeat at home to Real Madrid.
Credit goes to Mallorca for a plucky draw away to Athletic Club, where Ernesto Valverde was making his return as coach. Also to Celta Vigo and Espanyol following a 2-2 draw at Balaidos, with the Galicians inspired as ever by Iago Aspas and putting a difficult summer behind them, albeit frustrated in the end as the Catalans mounted a spirited late comeback from 2-0 down.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the 2022/23 LaLiga season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.
The Serie A season kicked off over the weekend, with some of the biggest games held over to Monday night – meaning it’s taken us until now to digest everything that happened. But here’s our take on the major talking points from an intriguing set of results.
The bookmakers currently have Milan as a near 4/1 (+380) underdog to win the Scudetto. Compare that to Inter and Juventus, who are hovering around +170, or less than 2/1, and it’s easy to see why the reigning Scudetto champions may be getting unfairly overlooked.
Losing Franck Kessié to Barcelona was a blow, but adding Charles De Ketelaere more than makes up for it even if they play completely different positions. The Belgian wonderkid is a special talent. Elegant with the ball, versatile and gifted with the type of technique that gives him a limitless ceiling. He instantly fixes one of Milan’s two weaknesses from last season (right wing and attacking midfield), so it’s fair to say Milan as a whole have strengthened. Yacine Adli and Tommaso Pobega are two new arrivals that can also play in the midfield. With Kessié gone, more will be expected from Ismaël Bennacer as the partner alongside Sandro Tonali. While none of these players have the muscle and aggression of Kessié, they are mostly tidy, ball playing midfielders that should give Milan the type of control we saw last season in most games.
Last season’s number one defence is as strong as ever and is further reinforced by the return of Simon Kjær, who was injured for the majority of the previous campaign. Pierre Kalulu stepped up in the Dane’s absence and should only continue to get better with more playing time. The chemistry being built within the club is special. When I visited Milan last season to cover a game at San Siro, I had the chance to speak with a lot of people behind the scenes, who all raved about the superb atmosphere in the locker room. They also spoke about Zlatan Ibrahimović, who despite being injured, had become a sort of spiritual leader and assistant coach, mentoring the younger players and showing them the type of mentality needed to win at the highest level.
Two new signings that adapted well to their new league
Two summer signings in particular stood out in Round One: Juventus’ Ángel Di María and Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratshkelia (he said he’s fine being called Kvara, so we’ll go with that for now). Both players notched a goal and an assist in victories for their respective sides.
Di María started off as a sort of second striker alongside Dušan Vlahović, but quickly moved to his favourite position down the right flank. His cuts inside onto his favoured left foot caused Sassuolo all sorts of issues. Pinpoint crossing, great movement, and – perhaps, most importantly for Allegri – a great work rate off the ball. Di María hardly plays like a 34-year-old winger; as we saw with a few of his darting runs, his pace and acceleration are still there. The Argentine looks like a player who needed a change of scenery after taking a more rotational role in PSG’s super team. With Juventus, he’s a starter when healthy and someone who will have a massive role in supporting the attack.
The Georgian winger Kvara also got off to a great start in his league debut with Napoli. His dribbling is going to be a nightmare for fullbacks, as he’s constantly looking to take them on with a series of feints and chops to either side to create space. Kvara looks comfortable on either foot, which makes it even harder for a defender to know what side of the field to show him. Fortunately, he’s not all flash and no substance (or as they say in Italy tanto fumo niente arrosto). Every movement was deliberate and purposeful, and every ball sent in for one of his teammates was clever.
The minnows will take points from the giants this season
One of the best things about Serie A is how unpredictable the league can be. Rarely is a result a foregone conclusion before the referee blows his whistle. The three newly promoted teams were overall impressive in their first games. Lecce’s first half against Inter was more reminiscent of a five round mixed martial arts fight than an actual football match, but they gave a positive account of themselves in the second half, drawing level through their big summer signing, Assan Ceesay, who scored an impressive 20 goals last season in Switzerland with Zürich. His pace is going to be a problem on the counter, especially as bigger teams will look to impose themselves against Lecce and pin them back in their own half. Inter barely scraped by with all three points, relying on a 95th minute winner from Denzel Dumfries.
Cremonese were also about to celebrate a hard earned point away to Fiorentina, only to be let down by a howler from their new goalkeeper Andrei Radu. You may remember the name from last season, as Radu was at fault for gifting Bologna a goal in that infamous makeup game that would’ve given Inter a leg up in the Scudetto battle.
Historically, a lot of these newly promoted teams are where young Italian tacticians get their first opportunity to coach at the highest level, which is why we see a lot of these minnows come into Serie A and cause problems for the bigger clubs.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Serie A season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.
The Premier League really lived up to the billing of the best league in the world this weekend. We’re only two weeks into the new campaign yet only two teams have their 100% record intact. But what were the biggest talking points?
The original battle of Stamford Bridge was fought on the pitch, this time around it was on the sidelines with Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte clashing on a number of occasions during the 2-2 draw on Sunday.
Spurs came from behind twice to salvage a point as both managers were sent off after the final whistle. The two tacticians have been at the centre of it all in the aftermath but one interesting takeaway from the match was the fact no player had more shots than Kalidou Koulibaly.
The centre-back had three efforts – one of which was a superbly placed volley for the opener. Tuchel’s side were heavily reliant on defenders chipping in with goals last term and it might be the same this time around.
Reece James netted the second goal for Chelsea and he finished the match with two shots, the same total as his colleague on the left flank, Marc Cucurella. The wing-backs for the home side had as many efforts as Chelsea’s front two.
Same old Chelsea, relying on their defenders to provide the goal threat.
City, Haaland and inevitability
Erling Haaland scored two on his Premier League debut against West Ham United.
There was an expectation that he would feast at the Etihad on Saturday as champions Manchester City faced off against Bournemouth.
Now, Pep Guardiola’s men did feast as they coasted to a 4-0 win having scored three in the opening 37 minutes. They had 19 shots in total compared to the visitor’s three. However, Haaland was on the peripheral throughout.
The former BVB forward completed just two passes during his 74 minutes on the pitch. Despite this, he still chipped in with an assist to make it three goal involvements in two outings.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Haaland wasn’t signed to be the game-changer against the likes of Bournemouth. He was signed to be the difference-maker in crucial games and he likely will be.
Arsenal’s No.9
Gabriel Jesus put on an attacking clinic against Leicester City as Arsenal romped to a 4-2 win at the Emirates.
The Brazilian attacker, a summer arrival from Manchester City, had a hand in all four goals. He scored the first two and then assisted the latter two in what was perhaps the performance of the weekend.
Jesus attempted an astonishing seven shots and racked up an expected goals total of 1.9, while also creating three chances and completing 75% of his attempted dribbles.
The 25-year-old has added a new dimension to the Arsenal attack and you do have to wonder just how many goals he can score as the main man for the Gunners this term.
The Brentford blitz
In what was the result of the season so far, Manchester United were stung by the Bees on Saturday evening, with Erik ten Hag’s side suffering yet another defeat.
Brentford scored four times in a stunning first-half performance and then managed the game out with great maturity after the break.
The hosts amassed an expected goals total of 1.32 in the opening 45 minutes while limiting the visitors to just 0.4. United could only muster opportunities worth 0.52 expected goals despite wholesale changes at half-time.
In many ways, it was similar to what happened to the Red Devils in their opening game against Brighton (1.29 expected goals in the first half). Swarmed before the break, certain players crumbled under the pressure and were punished.
Thomas Frank’s men were ruthless and fully deserved the emphatic victory, their first of the season.
Filling the void at Brighton
Graham Potter lost Yves Bissouma to Tottenham Hotspur this summer and yet the midfield for Brighton have looked as solid as ever.
They dominated a Manchester United team last week at Old Trafford and kept a clean sheet against Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United side. One key reason for this has been the performances of Moisés Caicedo.
Signed last summer, the 20-year-old spent the first half of the season on loan before being recalled early in January. He impressed from the off and he’s now one of the first names on the team sheet.
Against Newcastle, the dominant midfielder won 75% of his tackles, made two interceptions and completed eight ball recoveries.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Premier League season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.
