Player of the week
After a month without victory, Arsenal bounced back with a 5-0 thrashing of a limp and uninspired Crystal Palace. Gabriel Magalhães steered Arsenal into an early lead (and effectively ended the game in the 11th minute) when he nodded home Declan Rice’s inswinging corner. It was almost as if the centre-back had enough of his team’s strikers failing to find the net, so he took the goalscoring role upon himself. Why should Mikel Arteta bother to look for a new striker when he’s got Gabriel to get the job done?
Saturday was Gabriel’s best performance of the season to date. He was the total package: a leader, a rock on the backline and fierce presence in the air.
Bigger picture, Gabriel’s individual excellence is only a small piece of what Arsenal need if they are to remain in the title race. The win looked impressive on paper, but their performance wasn’t perfect. Mind you, they didn’t need to play at their best. All they had to do was enough – considering how defeated and confused Roy Hodgson’s side looked.
Arsenal ran out of steam during their title bid last season. For prolonged stretches this season, they’ve been more jagged and arrhythmic than their individual talent suggests they should be. Saturday showed that Arteta’s team can still string together the kind of combinations that can rip through any opponent. Maintaining that sense of confidence and control over the next month will be crucial to sustaining a title challenge. Next up: A tricky visit to Nottingham Forest. After that, it’s Liverpool at home, before trips to West Ham, Burnley and a home game against Newcastle. The next five games – the performances as much as the results – will define Arsenal’s season.
Goal of the week
Speaking of Arsenal, it only took 10 seconds for the ball to zip from one end to the other at the Emirates. At the hour mark Leandro Trossard’s cool finish made it three for the Gunners. But it’s the buildup that deserves the plaudits:
Raya ➡️ Jesus ➡️ Trossard 💥
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 22, 2024
📺 Enjoy the best touchline reactions from Saturday's win with Bench Cam👇
From David Raya’s quick distribution to Gabriel Jesus’ perfectly timed pass, it was one of those team moves that ceases being sport and borders on art.
The Undertaker award for the most dramatic Premier League return
After a long eight months for Brentford fans, prized goalscorer Ivan Toney stepped back on to the pitch for the first time after being banned by the FA for breaching gambling regulations. As if no time had passed, Toney scored his club’s first goal – albeit in controversial circumstances – in a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest.
Toney appeared unburdened by expectations – which is exactly what the Bees need right now. Thomas Frank’s side are struggling, but the return of their talisman has comes at the right time. Before Saturday’s win, Brentford had taken only three points from their last eight Premier League games. Since the start of the season they’ve looked disjointed without Toney leading from the front, so it’s no surprise that in his return he was greeted by a WrestleMania-like atmosphere. How best to get your crowd pumped up for your star striker’s return than blaring out The Undertaker’s legendary music?
As the music roared around the Gtech Arena and Toney’s goal montage rolled, no one seemed to care that the striker has taken every public opportunity to lobby for a transfer to a ‘bigger’ club. Nor did anyone of the Brentford persuasion care that Toney respotted his free-kick before bending it around Forest’s wall.
Ivan Toney really got away with it. 😅 pic.twitter.com/9umCSrz6jL
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) January 20, 2024
Call it deception or gamesmanship or getting away with one, depending on your perspective. The referee missed it in real time, and the VAR was unable to intervene. Forest responded to Toney’s sleight-of-hand in the most British way possible: writing a strongly worded letter.
Brentford won’t care how the goals flow, so long as they keep coming. And they’ll be hoping to fend off the vultures in the final days of the January transfer window in order to keep Toney until the summer.
VAR controversy of the week
Sticking with the theme, it wouldn’t be an edition of the Premier League Awards if we didn’t bring up VAR a couple of times. Chalk this one up on this season’s growing list of inconsistencies:
After first challenging Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert flew into Luis Diaz, delivering a high tackle to Diaz’s right leg. While Liverpool players screamed for a red, VAR didn’t deem it a foul and Kluivert escaped without a card.
Jurgen Klopp is FURIOUS this challenge by Justin Kluivert goes unpunished on the field and then is cleared by VAR.#beINPL #AFCB #LFC pic.twitter.com/DBHy0ZL9gA
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) January 21, 2024
Curtis Jones was sent off for a near-identical challenge against Spurs earlier in the season. As with the Jones incident, Kluivert rolled over the top of the ball. One was viewed as reckless; the other, seemingly, as unfortunate. How does one player get a red card, while the other gets nothing? $2 in the inconsistency jar, please, Paul Tierney.
The ‘Energizer Bunny’ award
Liverpool plucking Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton last summer for $45m stands as one of the deals of the year.
Mac Allister had been the headline act of Jürgen Klopp’s revitalized midfield, but, early in the season, the Argentinian’s lack of mobility at the base of midfield compromised some of Liverpool’s vaunted pressing structure. Klopp’s side has returned to an all-out, front-foot, pressing machine this season. They’re conceding just 7.51 passes per defensive action on average, a measure of a team’s pressing intensity, which is by some distance the most intense figure in the league.
Mac Allister typically played further up the pitch for Brighton, and struggled to adapt to the demands placed on him by Klopp’s style. Injuries and a suspension took him out of the team as soon as he was beginning to find his footing. With Wataru Endōs slotting in to Mac Allister’s role, Liverpool were able to crank up the pressure even more and the side looked more balanced when chasing after the opposition.
But Mac Allister’s performance against Bournemouth showed why he was Klopp’s top summer target – and why he was asked to assume the deeper role vacated by Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. “He’s better than all sixes,” Klopp said post-match. “He didn’t play the simple six at Brighton, but he’s incredibly smart player. Incredibly smart. And as long as you can create a compact formation mark he is an outstanding six.”
Despite not registering a goal or assist on Sunday, Mac Allister was influential in linking play from the midfield as Bournemouth attempted to get higher up the pitch themselves. And the midfielder’s assurance allowed Klopp’s side to press even more intensely than they have at even their most frenetic this season.
Liverpool pressed at a season-high rate against Bournemouth, allowing just 5.61 passes per defensive action. With Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold out, Klopp’s gameplan was clear: win the ball high up the pitch and let the team’s structure serve as its chief creator.
Such an intense approach pressing from the front can only work if there’s a stable base behind. Mac Allister has taken some time to settle in. But his performance against Bournemouth was just what Liverpool were looking for when they snapped him up in the summer.
The ‘so close, yet so far’ performance of the week
Ever seen the meme where the dog is casually drinking coffee while the room is engulfed in flames? That’s probably how David Moyes felt watching his team concede the opening goal against Sheffield United and then concede a 103rd (!) minute equalizer.
Moyes was incensed by the late penalty decision that allowed Sheffield United to make it 2-2. But he should be just as incensed by his team’s inability to see out a lead. Previously, West Ham had not conceded a goal in a month and a half of Premier League action. They coughed up two to a Sheffield United side that had managed just 15 goals all season heading into Sunday. Just as concerning: Sheffield United got the better of the Expected Goals matchup, in no small part thanks to Oliver McBurnie’s late penalty.
Moyes can point to the injuries to Edson Álvarez and Lucas Paquetá as to why his team was so overwhelmed in the middle of the pitch – and the absence of Mohammed Kudus (on Africa Cup of Nations duty) took some sting out of the team’s attacking play.
Moyes’s side remain in sixth. They have a strong, distinct identity: they create a ton of chances from set-pieces, and rely on moments of individual magic to open up opportunities in the final third. Those are all the hallmarks of a typical Moyes team. What’s not: lapses in concentration at the back and losing the midfield battle.
For all their success this season, West Ham continue to give away too many chances – and too many good chances. They’re conceding an average of 1.81 clear chance shots per 90, according to StatsBomb. That puts them in the 82nd percentile among Premier League teams. And the vast majority of those are coming on turnovers rather than the team getting pulled apart by creative attacking sides; they are conceding 0.64 clear counterattacking shots per 90, the lowliest mark in the league.
Enter: Kalvin Phillips. Word on the street is that West Ham are looking to wrap up a loan deal for Manchester City’s forgotten midfielder. If they can get the move over the line, Phillips should bring more balance and control to West Ham’s midfield. Without that kind of solidifying presence, Moyes will be left to trudge through games knowing his team will continue to concede valuable chances.
