10 points worth studying in the fifth round of the English Premier League
Manchester City continued its strong start and cling to the lead when it achieved its fifth consecutive victory by defeating its host West Ham. Manchester United was in dire need of a victory to calm the fans against Brighton, but they lost for the third time in five rounds.
Chelsea’s suffering in front of goal continued in the match against Bournemouth, although the team created many chances in the match, which ended in a goalless draw. The Guardian highlights here the 10 most important points worth studying in the fifth round of the English Premier League:
Onana reflects Manchester United’s decline
After the final match of the Champions League last season between Manchester City and Inter Milan, the UEFA technical report described Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana as “playing as a defensive midfielder,” due to his constant advancement from the goal to help build attacks for his team. Will Onana repeat the same thing with Manchester United now? In fact, Manchester United needs it now, fast. The Cameroonian goalkeeper shone remarkably in the match that Inter Milan lost to Manchester City 1-0 in Istanbul, but during the match that Manchester United lost to Brighton by three goals to one, Onana’s long passes were wrong, which put more… Pressure on his colleagues.
Manchester City’s goalkeeper, Ederson, is the best goalkeeper who plays long balls that pass four or five opposing players and give his team another attacking dimension. The Brazilian goalkeeper rarely makes a mistake in passing the ball the way he wants. After Manchester United lost three times in the first five matches this season, the team’s coach, Eric Ten Hag, is in dire need of the Cameroonian goalkeeper to regain his ability to make long passes accurately. (Manchester United 1-3 Brighton).
Callum Wilson is still the perfect penalty taker
Callum Wilson took 10 penalty kicks during his career with Newcastle and succeeded in scoring them all. The England national team striker, who averaged one goal in every two matches during his career with Newcastle three years ago, said: “Implementing penalty kicks depends on practice, repetition and calm.” His final goal from a penalty kick, albeit a controversial one, helped Newcastle end a run of three straight defeats by beating Brentford 1-0. Although Brentford failed to take advantage of some good opportunities during the first half, they deserved a draw, but that will not worry Newcastle’s coach, Eddie Howe, after his team ended its losing streak. (Newcastle 1-0 Brentford).
Sheffield United must listen to the referees’ instructions
Sheffield United’s coach, Paul Heckingbottom, described the refereeing during his team’s match against Tottenham as “horrible.” The problem Heckingbottom faced was that his team wanted to play goal kicks short but the Tottenham players were working to prevent this, which meant that his goalkeeper, Wes Foderingham, had to change his mind and play goal kicks differently, but he was finding it difficult He did so because the referee, Peter Banks, asked him to play the ball quickly to avoid wasting time. It may be true that referees have been overly enthusiastic about enforcing time-wasting instructions this season, but how much time should be given to any team trying to find a way to adapt to the opposition closing off all passing options? When a goal kick is taken, no player from the opposing team is allowed into the penalty area, so a short pass from the goalkeeper gives the defender 12 yards or so of space to move or pass. If that’s not enough for him to start moving, a long pass may be the best option. This was such a problem that Foderingham was shown a yellow card during the first half, but the right way to avoid this is not to pass the ball short outside the box. (Tottenham 2-1 Sheffield United).
“Heart and passion” are the key to success for Aston Villa
Aston Villa succeeded in making a strong comeback after falling behind in the score against Crystal Palace by a goal without a response, to turn the tables, score three goals in a row, and achieve victory by three goals to one. In fact, Aston Villa’s coach, Unai Emery, showed his ability to adapt tactically throughout: he was happy with the way his team controlled the course of the first half without scoring any goals, but he was forced to change the method of play after his team trailed in the score by one goal without a response, and relied With Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailly on the flanks, with John Doran and Ollie Watkins up front. Furthermore, he played some periods of the match in a 3-3-4 formation, with Boubacar Kamara dropping deep as a third centre-back. Emery admitted in the end that he needed three factors to win that match: the 15 minutes that the referee counted as stoppage time in the second half; And “communicating” with the enthusiastic Aston Villa fans who never stopped encouraging and trusting their players. Finally, “the heart and passion” that helped inspire his players. (Aston Villa 3-1 Crystal Palace).
Vinicius could be a solution to the outright striker problem
Replacing Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, who scored 109 goals in 190 matches in the English Premier League, was not easy at all for Fulham’s coach, Marco Silva, and the difficult victory over Luton Town showed that Silva has not yet found a replacement for Mitrovic. Raul Jimenez participated in Fulham’s starting lineup in all five matches that the team played in the English Premier League so far this season, and led the attack after playing with his country Mexico in midweek, and Carlos Vinicius appeared wonderfully immediately after his participation as a substitute. The Brazilian player has only participated in the starting lineup 11 times since his move to Fulham, but he may be ready to lead the team’s attacking line during their next match against Crystal Palace next weekend, as Silva hopes that there will be a fierce competition between Jimenez and Vinicius throughout the season. Silva said: “The competition between them is always important to us. “They have to compete, and then it will be up to me to decide who is the better striker for each match.” (Fulham 1-0 Luton).
Manchester City forms a modern attacking partnership
Manchester City’s new attacking partnership between Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez looks very promising, because they complement each other, as Haaland is characterized by tremendous physical strength and is an outspoken striker who is good at positioning and finishing attacks, while Alvarez is distinguished by his agility and playing behind the outright spearhead. Thus, this new partnership looks like a new tactical success by the distinguished Spanish coach Pep Guardiola. Against West Ham, Alvarez spent most of the ninety minutes playing directly behind Haaland, as he ran alongside him or on the flanks, and sometimes he moved forward to make Manchester City play with two open attackers.
This was the fifth match in a row that Guardiola included them in the starting lineup together. This partnership has so far succeeded in scoring and assisting 11 goals out of the 14 goals scored by Manchester City in the league. One of the most important features of this partnership is that Alvarez is exceptionally good at doing things that Haaland is not good at. Alvarez appeared in a wonderful and impressive way against West Ham at the London Stadium, making two goals, sending nine crosses, and touching the ball 67 times, compared to Haaland’s 22 touches.
Figures and statistics indicate that Alvarez has now completed 192 passes in the league, twice the number of touches of any other advanced striker in the competition. The partnership between Haaland and Alvarez appears exceptionally effective. After Guardiola succeeded in redefining the role of the outright striker, he seems to be doing the same thing with regard to the attacking partnership between two strikers who possess completely different abilities from each other. (West Ham 1-3 Manchester City).
Wolverhampton must turn good performances into positive results
It has become common recently for Wolverhampton, under the leadership of its coach, Gary O’Neill, to perform well, and then fail to come out at any point in the match. In the opening round of the season, Wolverhampton gave an impressive performance against Manchester United at Old Trafford, but left empty-handed, and the same thing happened last Saturday against Liverpool. Wolverhampton was great during the first half at Molineux Stadium, but its performance declined severely during the second half, and the painful truth is that the team has only three points from five matches. Hence, this weekend’s trip to Luton looks like a very important game for both teams. Regarding the defeat against Liverpool, O’Neill, who began his coaching career by working in the Liverpool Youth Academy, said: “We should not be judged based on the result of this match, and we have a big match next week and we are looking forward to winning it.” (Wolverhampton 1-3 Liverpool).
Ogochukwu is looking good for Chelsea
Of the midfielders Chelsea have signed for astronomical sums over the past 12 months, few were interested in the arrival of Leslie Ugochukwu, who joined the Blues from French club Rennes for a relatively small fee – by Chelsea standards – of £23 million. Perhaps many did not expect him to get a chance to participate in the starting lineup in light of the presence of big-name players in the same position, such as Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lafia and Enzo Fernandes, but the 19-year-old Nigerian player participated in Chelsea’s starting lineup for the first time in the English Premier League under… Mauricio Pochettino’s leadership against Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium.
The young player appeared confident in front of Bournemouth’s experienced midfield, and was not bothered by the fast pace of the match. Pochettino was initially planning to loan the player to a club in order to gain more experience, but it is clear that the young Nigerian player has left a good impression on the Argentine coach. Chelsea’s recruitment officials have been ridiculed, but Ugochukwu looks set to have a promising long-term future at Stamford Bridge. (Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea).
Brighton are flying high with limited resources
If we look at what Brighton offers in light of the financial resources available to them, they are one of the greatest teams in the history of English football. During the past 18 months, Brighton has achieved unprecedented success on the field, achieving financial profits exceeding 150 million pounds sterling, and the cost of the starting lineup that crushed Manchester United in its home stadium did not exceed 20 million pounds sterling, which is an amount less than what Chelsea paid to sign him. Former Brighton manager, Graham Potter! Brighton has become superior to strong competitors despite its limited financial resources, and it is as if you are watching a featherweight boxer crush heavyweight boxers one after another over and over again! Brighton’s victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford was its twelfth victory over a team from the “Big Six” in just the last 18 months. In fact, Brighton defies all the rules of logic, gravity and a league culture that has become dependent on spending huge amounts of money. There have been success stories with small budgets in the Premier League before, but never with a team playing as entertaining and modern football as Brighton currently plays. But we all have to realize that this won’t last forever!
Stealth is too complicated for a simple game
Gabriel Martinelli’s disallowed goal against Everton at Goodison Park was another example of an offside law that has become too strange to be applied properly. The game began with a pass from Gabriel Magalhaes to Declan Rice intercepted by Everton’s Beto, before the ball bounced 40 yards in a completely different direction to Eddie Nketiah, who was running wide from goal and did not interfere at all with the play while being offside. The ball was returned to Fabio Vieira, who passed it to Martinelli, who put it into the net wonderfully. The goal was disallowed due to his teammate Nketiah falling into the offside trap before the Brazilian player scored his goal, even though Nketiah was not participating in the play and was in an offside position. No one disputed the validity of the decision, but the talk revolves around the stupidity of the law itself! (Everton 0-1 Arsenal).
* The Guardian service
