The Football Week
November 6, 2022
Under Pressure
Around this time every year, we see managers fall foul to the dreaded backing of the board statement only to see the axe swiftly descend upon them after their team’s next poor result.
The Christmas period is usually when owners assess the likelihood of their club’s premiership survival under current managers. With the fear of a drop to the championship & a loss of the vital TV money a place at the top table of English football generates for clubs, we can expect some under-pressure coaches to receive the bad news over the coming weeks.
The first of them to be relieved of his duties was Southampton coach Ralph Hasenhuttl, and he can’t have many complaints as The Saints have been very inconsistent this season and languish in the relegation zone after 14 games. So Sean Dyche might be the obvious man to steady the ship down at St Marys and help them retain premier league status. Still, the early favourite for the role is Nathan Jones, someone who may not be familiar to many readers but a young coach who has worked miracles with a small club like Luton to propel them to the fringes of the championship playoff places.
David Moyes is another manager who may feel under the microscope at West Ham. They currently sit only 2 points above Southampton in the league standing and, realistically, only one poor result away from slipping into the relegation zone. West Ham fans have high demands, and although European results have been the glimmer of light on a thus far underwhelming season, Moyes knows that will have to change soon before the Hammers fans turn on him completely.
Two Horse Race
The weekend results confirmed that the only title challenge reigning champions Manchester City will receive this season will come from Mikael Artetas Arsenal. At the same time, City stuttered to a 2-1 home victory to Fulham, which in fairness, owed much to having to play most of the game with ten men due to Joao Cancelo’s first-half dismissal.
Although Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over London rivals Chelsea was as slender in terms of margin, it was an awful lot more convincing, and if truth be told, they were valued for more than just Gabriel’s winning goal. This result seemed like Arsenal taking on the baton from Liverpool as City’s only real challenge to an unopposed march to another title.
Newcastle continued their impressive start with a 4-1 away win at Southampton and ultimately hammering the final nail into the aforementioned Hasenhuttl’s coffin. However, although this victory helped them leapfrog Antonio Conte’s Tottenham into 3rd place, I don’t think any realistic fan, either Newcastle or otherwise, would seriously suggest Eddie Howes’s team could muster a genuine title challenge into the new year.
Although somewhat unlucky, Spurs defeat to Liverpool seemed to underline their shortcomings under Conte, and they will surely be more focused on obtaining Champions League qualification for next season.
Champions League Draw
The draw for the knockout phase of the 2022-23 competition took place on Monday in Switzerland, with eight matches due to take place in February of 2023.
Two of those eight ties caught the attention more than others, and those were PSG vs Bayern Munich & last season’s final opponents Real Madrid vs Liverpool.
PSG has been unstoppable in their domestic league in recent seasons. While occasionally looking like they could translate that dominance to European football’s biggest cup, they have disappointed too often in the big games and moments in the latter stages of this competition. Munich, however, have a much more significant European pedigree, with 6 Champions league victories to their name. Although going through somewhat of a transitionary period in terms of recent stalwarts of the team coming to the end of their careers, they remain top dogs in the Bundesliga this season. As a result, they will be confident of progressing to the quarter-finals.
If Real Madrid vs Liverpool doesn’t get the juices flowing, this competition isn’t for you. With 20 European cups between them, there aren’t any other ties with a heritage that these two clubs can bring to an occasion like this. Last season’s final resulted in a 1-0 victory to the Spaniards in which a heroic MOTM performance from goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois denied Liverpool on umpteen occasions. The general feeling was that Liverpool could have played throughout the following days and nights without making the breakthrough.
This season tells contrasting stories of the two teams, with Madrid having their usual title battle with Barcelona for La Liga. In contrast, Liverpool have accepted they are out of the English title race at this relatively early stage of the season. Still, with these games more than three months away, The Reds will be confident of being in a better place come February.
The remaining ties are:
Ac Milan Vs Tottenham
Club Brugge VS Benfica
Dortmund Vs Chelsea
Eintracht Frankfurt Vs Napoli
RB Leipzig vs Man City
Inter Vs Porto
Midweek Action
The EFL cup takes centre stage this week, with the 3rd round games being played between Tuesday and Thursday evening.
There are some tasty all-Premier League clashes, with Everton travelling to Bournemouth tonight and Wolves hosting Leeds. Arsenal welcome Brighton to the Emirates and Man City take on Chelsea tomorrow evening. The EFL cup actions culminate in a reversal of Sunday’s premier league clash with Aston Villa heading to Old Trafford on Thursday night.
In that game, Villa raced to a 2-0 early lead before eventually running out comfortable 3-1 winners in Unai Emery’s first game in charge. Although this completion is not really where a club the size of Manchester United’s priories should lie, Eric Ten Haag will be conscious of the fact it may be the Red Devils’ best chance of silverware this season, and a home defeat to end those chances will never go down well with the home fans.
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