Great weekend in in the EPL . Arsenal remain top. A good win for the Gunners but one you would expect them to win, but again it came at a cost as Viktor Gyokeres gets a muscle injury. Burnley in the second half showed signs of life but the Gunners defense shows why they are thought of as the best currently. Liverpool had a tough fixture with Villa but came out on top. Interesting that the side Slot fielded looked much like what we would have seen on the pitch last year, not many newcomers, that might be the key to get them back on track. Man City are starting to look like Man City again Haaland & Cherki have formed a connection that I feel the rest of the Premier league would hope they would have not found. Watch for those two moving forward they look like a very special link up. Man U came back to earth a bit, playing at the City Ground is never easy but with the form Forest have been in a rising ManU should have taken the points, as I mentioned last week, I am not convinced yet. Spurs looked toothless against Chelsea , Caicedo was everywhere as he always is and Joao Pedro took his chance and probably could have had more. This bring up an interesting observation on creative players adapting to the EPL from Germany. In the past Timo Werner for Chelsea never seem to make his mark after taking the Bundesliga by storm at Leipzig. He never recovered from his spell at Chelsea , never was able to reacquire the form that made him such a large money signing. Now Florian Wirtz & Xavi Simmons are in that same boat. Now I am not saying they will end up the same way not at all in fact I hope they come good. Wirtz I have watched play and when he plays for Germany is the player I am expecting for Liverpool. Simmons has been through the ringer a bit already having gone through Baraca’s academy then to PSG, PSV then Leipzig. Both have talent and are the type of player that with the ball have that bit of magic that makes the game dreamy, I hope they don’t have the Werner curse!
Milan took a big step in Italy this weekend with the win over Roma. I wondered going in on paper Milan looked ok but Gasperini has gotten Roma so well organized as he did Atalanta I knew this game would be tough. With Leao and Nkunku and new look front line let alone not knowing if Nkunku had found his form, I worried where the bite would come from. Roma owned large parts of the game, they pressed well. Ricci and Fofana looked out of sorts. They were both trying to fill the boots of Rabiot and its wasn’t working. Modric and Salemaekers played as they have been all year effectively. Davide Bartesaghi I thought might get pulled at the half. He was just having a nightmare but Allegiri stuck with him which for the boys confidence might have been a good thing but it was a gamble , he was one more bad decision away from gifting Roma a goal. The back line played well and got them selves out of trouble but it wasn’t clear how the break through might come. In a moment of genius up stepped Rafa Leao with one of his runs with that smile on his face knowing he would make the difference and so he did. I would really like to see him play with Pulisic, I bet those two would work very well together. Once Rabiot , Pulisic and Jimenez are back Milan should keep cooking. Juventus with Spaletti taking charge got that new manager bounce, and for the first time its seems a manager has taken to Weston McKennie quickly and found maybe his best position. Although it was said to be a right wing, it looked more as how he was playing for the US in a dual ten role. He took to it well putting people in on goal. I like this for Weston , of course its helps the US so I am a bit bias.
After all of the drama from El Clasico Madrid as you would think Alonso would keep moving forward with a 4 – 0 win. Maybe the only knock was and I hate to bring it up , Vini Jr. missing a PK that Mbappe should be taking. That was something that really I hated seeing after all the drama from last weekend , me included as I am not one that hypes Vini but he didn’t need that to happen. Barca win as they should , loved seeing Antony with a brace and assist for Betis, he seems to continue to shed the Amorim/Man U curse as many players across Europe are doing.
Bayern played a second string line up this weekend and still cruised! Their record is impressive. I have heard allot of chatter that is more a reflection on the current state of the Bundesliga. That may be true but I will hold judgement until after they play PSG in champions league this week. If they win in Paris then I might be thinking we are looking at something very special.
Big game this week Liverpool/Real Madrid , PSG/Bayern ! Special shoutout to Tyler Adams on his goal at the weekend vs Man City !
Happy Watching!!
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