• Erik Ten Hag is under severe pressure to produce results and he again partnered Christian Eriksen and Scott McTominay in training and played them together for the match against Fulham.
• Despite an Eddie Nketiah hat-trick against Sheffield United, Arsenal have missed Jesus’ goals. They crashed out of the Carabao Cup against West Ham and failed score against Newcastle last weekend.
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Jack Grealish cemented his place in Manchester City’s starting line-up against Manchester United with an excellent display against Swiss side Young Boys in the Champions League.
Jeremy Doku has also hit the ground running with a superb display in the 6-1 demolition of Bournemouth when he made four assists and scored. Next up is Chelsea, confident again given their win against Tottenham on Monday evening despite playing against nine men.
Everyone at City wants to play against Chelsea including Grealish and Doku. It is Guardiola’s problem with two first-class players fighting for the same position but he has raised the possibility of playing both men in the same team although both excel on the left wing.
They played together against Young Boys but never in the Premier League. Guardiola was giving nothing away when I asked for his Chelsea line-up and it will be interesting to see how he solves his left wing riches problem. However, he revealed this week that he is considering moving Grealish to a more central role.
John Stones has again been unlucky and this time Guardiola says he could be out for some time. Stones suffered a recurrence of his hip injury that has restricted the defender to play 90 minutes only once this season.
Erikson and McTominay partnership to replace Casemiro?
Casemiro arrived at Manchester United with a golden pedigree. He had been a star at Real Madrid and likewise for Brazil.
He seemed to be the defensive rock needed by United and was worth the £70million transfer fee. Last year, he reigned supreme. What a difference this year… his performances have been considerably below the high standards he set last season but injuries have also played a big part in his lack of form.
Erik Ten Hag is under severe pressure to produce results and he again partnered Christian Eriksen and Scott McTominay in training and played them together for the match against Fulham. It is however not a new set up as the two played together last season and were included in four victories before Casemiro moved in and replaced Scott.
Ten Hag pointed out that with the Brazilian out for a few weeks with a hamstring problem, Eriksen and McTominay could strengthen their positions within the team to be regular starting partners and Casemiro might find it difficult to win back his place.
It is likely both Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez will not return before the end of December. Martinez recently underwent a second operation on his metatarsal fracture suffered in April. United face Aston Villa at home on December 26 and Nottingham Forest on December 30.
Left backs Tyrell Malacia and Luke Shaw are likely to be back and available after the November internationals. Malacia had knee surgery in the summer and Shaw sustained a hamstring injury in August.
Sheffield in dire straights with injuries
Sheffield United are in dire trouble down in the relegation zone. Paul Heckingbottom’s team have a medical room littered with injured players on tables receiving treatment.
Their first league win last weekend against Wolves is not really a pointer towards a turnaround in form and every now and then a good result will happen. But to survive in this league, you need to put a run together and Sheffield look incapable of achieving that.
At present Cameron Archer is the club’s only fit experienced striker with Oli McBurnie and Rhian Brewster both injured and not training this week. There are 10 players currently being treated for injuries.
Heckingbottom’s only other striker option is the untested William Osula, who needs match experience and a confidence building programme. Heckingbottom was able to make only two substitutions last weekend which says everything about the state of the playing staff.
Arsenal protect Jesus
Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus will not be rushed back into Arsenal’s frontline despite a lack of goals for the Gunners. Arsenal are worried that if they put him back into the team too early, he will be called up by the Brazil national team.
Jesus has missed the last three games with a hamstring injury and although he is recovering well, if he plays this weekend against Burnley, he could be called up for two World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina.
Despite an Eddie Nketiah hat-trick against Sheffield United, Arsenal have missed Jesus’ goals. They crashed out of the Carabao Cup against West Ham and failed score against Newcastle last weekend. As I reported to you, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal’s recruitment team have clearly set their sights on signing Brentford’s Ivan Toney in January.
However, over at Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino has recognised that despite his hat-trick last weekend against Tottenham, Nicolas Jackson is a good centre-forward but lacks Premier League experience whereas Toney ticks all the boxes for Chelsea. It will be an interesting bidding fight.
Liverpool target Leverkusen wonderkid
Liverpool have contacted German club Bayer Leverkusen regarding their 20-year-old ‘wonderkid’ Florian Wirtz. The German forward has attracted a whole host of enquiries from European clubs and despite Liverpool’s interest Bayern Munich and Manchester City appear to be favourites to sign him.
Jurgen Klopp is an admirer of the left-winger who has proven to be a lethal goal-scorer and are talking in the region of an £80million offer. Klopp also believes he might lose Mo Salah next June and Wirtz could be the answer to fill his boots.
A big point in Liverpool’s favour is Klopp’s close contacts in Germany and he could yet pull off a surprise instead of Bayern and City.
Ballon d’Or should have gone to Haaland
This is controversial, something I do not normally involve this column in, but I am afraid I cannot agree with Lionel Messi winning the Ballon d’Or this year.
Messi is, of course, one of the greatest to ever play our favourite game but winning the prized Ballon d’Dor because he captained Argentina’s winning World Cup campaign is not what the coveted prize is all about.
It is meant to recognise the best performing and most impressive player in Europe during the year and Argentina winning was a team effort not exclusively by Messi although he played well. His performances in America’s MLS have been good this season but the standard is that of League 1 or 2 and an MLS club could not compete with a Premier League team.
Manchester City say Erling Haaland stands head and shoulders above anyone else in Europe with his incredible goal-scoring record against top European and Premier League teams. Messi might arguably be the greatest but not this last 12 months.
One thing we do all agree on is the Young Players’ award going to Jude Bellingham, who has started his Real Madrid career with astonishing success and the ever demanding supporters at the Bernabeu have taken him into their hearts already.
Kompany says life not treating Burnley fairly
If last year was surprising in the way Burnley, under Vincent Kompany, left every other Championship club way behind in much the same way Max Verstappen has taken Formula One by storm this year, then their current situation underlines the huge difference between the Premier League and the Championship.
Moving up a division with almost the same players rarely works and a coach needs an upgrade in quality and experience. Kompany insists that Burnley are not getting their just rewards after they tasted defeat for the sixth time in a row — a record in the top-flight.
Burnley are joint-bottom with Sheffield United on four points with only a superior goal difference separating the two clubs and they have now played a third of their home fixtures for this season.
Kompany said in defence of his players: “They have worked really hard in every game, and worked hard in training and behind the scenes. They are getting the performances right but to get the rewards we just have to keep going…I won’t deviate and take myself into anything other than making sure that we stay on plan, we stay ready to get the best out of our team.”
Burnley played possession-based football and attacked with every opportunity last season and that is his strategy again this year. Kompany believes he can turn things around but performing in the same way is proving difficult against talented midfielders and defenders.
One admirer of both Burnley and the way Kompany has his team playing is Crystal Palace coach Roy Hodgson. The experienced and wise 76 year-old said: “I thought they defended extremely well and Vincent will turn things around. We’ve been watching them in our preparation to play against them and we weren’t surprised in the way they played and the quality of their play. There aren’t going to be many teams who leave Burnley with three points if they keep playing their current football. They will get better and better.”
Forest coach Cooper shows class
Many critics have said many times this season that Nottingham Forest coach Steve Cooper is one game away from getting the sack. So far they have been wrong and the Forest hierarchy have backed him.
Personally, I think Forest will survive the drop this season and watching and talking to them last weekend, I was impressed with the way Cooper set his team up to play and beat Aston Villa — who have been flying high lately.
Cooper’s team is better than last year and he did his homework on Villa’s strategies and recent winning games. He set up Villa’s approach in his training sessions which resulted in his midfield stopping many of the Villa moves forward. His players knew how Villa were going to play due to clever coaching.
Forest made the mistake of buying lots of players who were not top grade. However, Cooper has improved many of them and last weekend, Taiwo Awonyi led the forwards with a sparking display and Ola Aina and Moussa Niakhate were excellent in defence.
Mitrovich needs replacing at Fulham
Fulham were always going to find it difficult to replace Aleksandar Mitrovic. Their current main strikers Raul Jimenez, Rodrigo Muniz and Carlos Vinicius are nowhere near as effective and Marco Silva’s team are struggling despite expecting to win or draw with Manchester United given their current problems.
Fulham fans pay for the most expensive season tickets in the Premier League and expect the best players which they clearly do not see in front of them at the moment. Silva has made representations to the club board of directors to spend on new talent in the coming January transfer window to enable him to compete with clubs in the top half of the table.
At the moment, with the current crop of players, Fulham are in danger of being sucked down into a relegation fight, something their supporters do not deserve.
Brain charity calls for head injury temporary substitutes
Harry Maguire’s head injury last weekend at Fulham has caused much controversy in the medical world.
The brain charity Headway have questioned the wisdom and medical decision to allow Maguire to continue playing after falling to the ground in the first minute of play following a clash of heads with Rodrigo Muniz when he suffered a cut above the eye.
He then surprisingly played on until the referee checked his condition after 58 minutes when Maguire appeared to be in difficulty. However, I was told the stoppage was unrelated to his head injury.
Headway said: “An opponent’s shoulder strikes the side of his head; minutes later he goes down on his haunches showing clear signs of discomfort.”
They continued: “We are not privy to discussions with his medical team, nor should their professionalism be questioned. This is an issue with the very culture of football and its stubborn refusal to put players’ health above all else. Temporary concussion substitutions would immediately help return some credibility to the process, but an evolution of attitude is urgently needed.”
A game for the oldies!
I had to smile last weekend. Everton played Brighton in an entertaining match and one of the highlights was matching Everton’s 38-year-old full-back Ashley Young against Brighton’s right-sided midfielder 37-year-old James Milner.
Yes, that’s a combined age of 75! The two played together in England’s Under 21 team 17 years ago. In those days, both were speedy midfielders. Young, unfortunately, turned in an own goal but they both said they are looking forward to meeting again next year and who knows, even the following year!
Liverpool face selection headache
Jurgen Klopp is facing a difficult team selection for the match against Brentford this weekend. In midfield, Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones were left out of the midweek clash against Toulouse due to injuries.
Club captain Virgil van Dijk has reported to the medical staff that he has been taken ill. Gravenberch suffered a knee injury in training this week and Jones has not recovered from his hamstring injury sustained in the League Cup against Bournemouth last week.
Gravenberch is doubtful for the Brentford match but Jones is definitely out. Alexis Mac Allister is suspended and Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajectic are also injured. That means five midfielders are unavailable for selection this weekend.