Issue 28 - Time To Breathe

The referees are taking heat. The title contenders are already stumbling. And the early-season excuses are running thin. Welcome to week three of the Premier League.

This week, the talking points aren’t about who’s flying high, but who’s already wobbling and how quickly the pressure is piling up on those at the bottom. Issue 28. Go.

Ten Takeaways

A look at the main stories from last weekend’s Premier League action. Get yourself some Tuesday night takeaway.

Chelsea vs Fulham

Saturday took us to Stamford Bridge and an experiment in just how high Marco Silva’s blood pressure could go before serious illness. Turns out the reading was quite high after witnessing not one but two refereeing decisions that did not go Fulham’s way.

The second that doubled Chelsea’s advantage you could say was more debatable. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it does not. However, the decision to rule out Josh King’s goal because of a ‘foul’ in the build up, well we may as well call it a non-contact sport.

The takeaways per game only usually get two paragraphs but this certainly deserves a third. Micro-managment of the game was meant to be removed by a higher VAR threshold. From what we witnessed on Saturday, football may as well be a non-contact sport.

Tottenham vs Bournemouth

Just when Tottenham lure you in and think things are going to be different this season, do they then lose at home to Bournemouth. The ugly after the good of beating Manchester City at the Etihad and the bad of giving PSG a run for their money in the Super Cup.

At the same time, defeat for Tottenham under Thomas Frank should not take the focus off the performance of Bournemouth on Saturday and after just falling short on the openiny day of the season, Andoni Iraola’s men have since won both home and away.

Wolves vs Everton

What is they say - never fall in love with a loan player. It looks as if Everton supporters have fallen in love with Jack Grealish and to be honest you can understand why. Four league assists in two starts, some transfers are just written in the stars aren’t they.

Everton removing the shackles from the past few years, both Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall playing free and easy at Molineux on Saturday. The same cannot be said for Wolves who prop up the table as we go into the September international break.

Sunderland vs Brentford

I referenced a couple of weeks ago, that Sunderland could not have been given more perfect opposition to start their return to the Premier League season. West Ham at home was always going to be favourable, the same could be said about Brentford’s visit.

Two home wins for the Black Cats, one could argue that they have missed a perfect opportunity to also make a perfect start to the season after defeat to Burnley. Six points going into the break but the difficulty curve is only going to get steeper from here.

Manchester United vs Burnley

Manchester United end their embarrasing week on a relative high but considering they needed a 97th-minute winner to get the better of Burnley at Old Trafford, the fist pumping that came from the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Ruben Amorim was laughable.

Laughable, bordering on shameful. I get the emotion that comes from winning a game in such circumstances but considering the League Cup defeat to Grimsby and the difficulty of getting the better of Scott Parker’s men, they should have been straight down the tunnel.

Leeds vs Newcastle

The only bore draw of the weekend and when you summarised the game it was as simple as this. Both teams looked like they needed a striker to settle the game and whereas Leeds will have this as an ongoing issue, Newcastle have looked to resolve the problem.

Nick Woltemade in the stands, more recruitment that followed just over 48 hours later - more of that on Friday but now the biggest saga of the summer is behind Eddie Howe and his remaining players, the season starts as soon as the international break ends.

Nottingham Forest vs West Ham

Pressure? What pressure? If Graham Potter was top of the pressure rankings before Sunday, overseeing an emphatic win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground was the ideal tonic for what has been an ailing West Ham side in the opening weeks of the season.

Not only was it a win for West Ham on enemy territory but it was one that saw Nottingham Forest capitulate during the last six minutes of the game. Three unanswered goals for the Hammers, I would not want to be Nuno Espritio Santo at full time.

Brighton vs Manchester City

Is this Manchester City side nothing more than normal? That is probably a slight overstatement at this stage of the campaign but after suffering back-to-back is not the bounce back that Pep Guardiola would have envisaged after a summer splurge.

Like Tottenham’s loss to Bournemouth, maybe not enough credit will be given to the Seagulls and manager Fabian Hurzeler but if the German is going to get the stick after overseeing defeat to Everton, he should be given the carrot for getting the better of City.

Liverpool vs Arsenal

The heavyweight clash that saw the champion retain its belt thanks to an 11th round knockout. Liverpool picking up the victory that although is not title defining in any way, it certainly puts out a statement as we go into an enforced international break hiatus.

Dominik Szoboszlai the hearthrob as much as the heartbreaker on Sunday as his 30-yard freekick was nothing short of dreamy. Considering he played out of position at right back and scored from a set piece, Liverpool fans may be saying ‘Trent Who?’ even more.

As for Arsenal, they actually looked more of a threat before Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze came on. For all the talk of Arsenal being in the hunt, at one point they are actually going to have pull the trigger. Failure to do so on Sunday could be costly.

Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace

If you saw the pre-match interview from Unai Emery, the name Marco Bizot was obvioulsy going to play a key role. A role that saw him give away a first-half penalty and then pluck the ball out of the net after Jean-Philippe Mateta slotted from 12 yards.

As per usual, Mateta did his BOOM celebration which sees the corner flag being kicked. Only this time, the French forward also picked up a yellow card. Seems as if you can do that at Selhurst Park but do that away from home and you are inciting a fanbase.

Pressure Equal Crisis?

Or does it?

For those who have been reading these past few months, you will know that there are two ongoing concepts that will be stitched through as newsletter narratives across the season. The Premier League Manager Under Pressure Rankings (#plmup) and the Crisis Baton.

Before the weekend, it was Graham Potter at the top of the former and Newcastle in possession of the latter.

Now, with Wolves propping up the table going into the international break, I think its fair to say that Vitor Pereira is now the manager feeling the most heat - even if he is the fourth shortest odds to get the sack.

No points from nine and nothing you can do about for nearly a fortnight is a terrible situation to be in. If that becomes no points from 12, then the mood around Molineux is going to worsen even further.

Pereira at the top of the #plmup but I don’t think I’m going to put Wolves in possession of the Crisis Baton just yet, for this I think Newcastle have still got a relatively tight grip on the tool.

Admittedly transfer business points to things should be rosy in the end and the crisis status over Tyneside should be lifted. However, two points from nine is far from the summer expectation of their support and work still needs to be done.

Why not Wolves you ask? Well, the fact they are zero from nine is not as big a surprise when you think about it. They are probably only three points under par (or is that over?) the gap between fiction and reality is not as big than at St James’ Park.

I’ll tell you some other teams that are waiting to collect the baton:

Aston Villa if this form continues
Whoever loses the Manchester derby
Wolves if they lose to Newcastle that same weekend.

Listen To The Sister Podcast

Real Football Cast - Season 8 Episode 4

The Filter Five

Five hanging baskets to water over the international break.

Dreadful Derby

I referenced the high stakes of last Sunday’s Old Firm derby in the previous article and it seems as if nobody wanted to put their chips in at Ibrox. A dreadful 0-0 draw sees Rangers still looking for a league win under Russell Martin and six points behind Celtic.

A turgid affair where neither manager could afford to lose. A sign of just how far these two teams have dropped off in terms of quality and if there was ever any remaining argument for these two sides to join the Premier League, it is now dead in the water.

Mourinho Moving On

Earlier that weekend, Jose Mourinho was relieved of his duties as Fenerbahce boss and with him already flirting with Rangers in the past, now may be the perfect time for the Rangers board (overseen by the San Francisco 49ers investment) to flex their muscle.

Then again, there could be a case of who blinks first north of the border as Brendan Rodgers is on just as much of a shoogly peg and if the ‘Special One’ (can we still call him that?) fancies a return to the Premier League, West Ham may also be watching.

Even More Grim

We have all had a laugh at Manchester United’s League Cup woes by now but have you heard the one about the ineligible player? Well it turns out this is precisely what happened in the build up to Grimsby’s hosting of the Red Devils.

The League Two side brought on midfielder Clarke Oduor, who had joined on loan the day before from Bradford City, as a substitute but later realised he had been registered one minute and 59 seconds after the 12:00 BST deadline. Oh well :-)

Watch This

A group of former Premier League footballers say they lost tens of millions of pounds because of their financial advisers.

Danny Murphy, Michael Thomas and Rod Wallace are part of the V11 campaign group, which comprises 11 footballers who invested with Kingsbridge Asset Management in the 1990s and 2000s.

Former England midfielder Murphy - now a Match of the Day pundit - believes he lost roughly £5m because of "financial abuse".

The iPlayer is the destination for this rather interesting documentary (UK-only)

The Cheek Of It

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been added to the England squad for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia, seven years after his last cap. Talk about back in from the wilderness for the former Chelsea and current AC Milan midfielder.

I’ll be brutally honest, I had totally forgot about Loftus-Cheek as a viable option in England’s midfield but with so few opportunities to actually test players in an international enviroment, manager Thomas Tuchel has to think outside the box in terms of call ups.

Admin

Right, that’s the end of issue 28 as word continues to spread around the football world.

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Issue 29 will be out on Friday September 5th - Transfer Analysis Special

Thanks for reading

Dan