Whether or not the circumstances of the teams involved allow for a fair assessment, April 14 may become known as the day the title contenders suffocated.
Liverpool at home to Crystal Palace, Arsenal at home to Aston Villa, two painful defeats at the wrong moment, like two thoroughbreds stumbling near the finish line while the pre-race favorite strolls to victory despite 115 penalties for fooling around.
In some ways, both outcomes could have been predicted. Liverpool’s vulnerable defense and their propensity to fall behind, be it against Luton Town, Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester United, Manchester City or Atalanta (all in the last two months), would sooner or later hamper their title challenge.
Arsenal differed significantly in that they had not fallen behind in a Premier League game in 2024 (this was their 12th league game in the calendar year), but this came between their massive, draining double-header against Bayern Munich and against FC Bayern Munich’s fourth-best team in the country and Unai Emery’s narrative meant it was never going to be easy.
All the logic of English football in recent years says the title race is probably over. Manchester City have the easiest run-in, they’ve won three titles in a row, they have the best coach in the country/world, the top goalscorer in the league, Arsenal were struggling this time last year, etc.
That’s why the mood at the Emirates Stadium (which quickly began to empty after Villa’s second goal, despite eight minutes of stoppage time) and at Anfield yesterday was sour.
Because of this, Mikel Arteta stated that in any other league they would now be six or eight points clear at the top of the table.
This is why you can get odds as low as 1/3 for Man City to win the league, while Liverpool are already at 6/1.
But wait. The lead is only two points. Two! There are still six games left…any newcomer to English football, anyone who doesn’t follow the league very closely, would think it’s foolish for the title to be over.
City travel to Tottenham Hotspur, a league game in which they have not scored a goal or picked up a point since 2018. You still have to travel to Brighton. Like their title rivals, they have a big European Cup game midweek, but also an FA Cup semi-final next weekend. When they next play in the league, Arsenal and Liverpool will have played twice each and could increase the pressure again.
Arsenal fell short of expectations but are still just two points behind (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
This was probably City’s weakest season of the last four. Erling Haaland was compared to a second division player last weekend, Kevin De Bruyne’s superpowers are on the wane.
And yet the feeling remains that perfection is needed to beat the Manchester City machine. It’s a crazy idea, but it’s probably true.
What Arsenal and Liverpool cannot do at this point is let their seasons wind down; If Man City actually lose points, it would be sacrilegious if they didn’t take advantage.
This requires an extreme level of mental strength. Both have proven it time and time again over the last few months, but now it really matters. As City have shown us so many times.
Alonso’s Leverkusen title is a truly great achievement
In the excitement/obsession over Xabi Alonso’s career progression – that is, thinking about when he will leave the club where he is doing wonders – perhaps what has been lost is what Bayer Leverkusen has achieved.
Not only did they win the league for the first time in the club’s history (you can read the inside story of their season here), they also wiped out the competition; Champion with 16 points lead and five games remaining.
They have won 10 straight league games to storm over the finish line, they are unbeaten in their 43 games in all competitions and they ended Bayern Munich’s 11-year monopoly on the Bundesliga title in a year in which Bayern signed one of the world champions The best striker is Harry Kane, who scored 32 league goals in 29 games.
The Athletics House style is to avoid exclamation points, but it seems one is appropriate at the end of every sentence here.
Fans storm the field at the end of the game (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
Then they had to bear the heavy burden of never having won the German championship before, the Bayer tag “Neverkusen”. They also only have the fourth-highest wage bill (Borussia Dortmund’s wage expenses are twice as high, Bayern’s are more than four times as high) and are the fourth-highest spenders this season (third-highest net spend). Oh, and last year they placed sixth.
It is astonishing what they have achieved, something that stands alongside the most impressive achievements in Europe’s major leagues in recent decades.
Leicester City in 2016 is obviously the standard bearer for an unlikely title, but other examples include Napoli last year, Deportivo La Coruna winning La Liga in 2000, or Montpellier’s only French title in 2012.
However, none of these teams went undefeated, and if Bayer Leverkusen continue to avoid defeat in all 34 Bundesliga games, they will join the great AC Milan team of 1991-92 and Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ of 2003-04 and Antonio Conte’s Juventus of 2011 to 2012, the only undefeated teams in major European leagues in the last four decades.
For Alonso it won’t be Bayer Foreverkusen, but this may be the best thing he will ever do in his career.
Ten Hag’s unruly students
There was always a teacher at school that all the children loved to see graduate.
You know the type: They were easily upset, could never fully win over the class, and failed to properly discipline the unruly troublemakers.
At an exorbitantly expensive school in Manchester, Mr. Ten Hag struggles to exert his authority.
Perhaps he thought that when head boy Cristiano Ronaldo moved to a new private school in Saudi Arabia, his classroom would be easier to manage.
Instead, factions of unrest keep emerging, be it the daydreamer Anthony Martial, the little pest Jadon Sancho, who was struggling to recover from his previous school, or now Alejandro Garnacho, who (we’re switching to real life now) is in authority by Erik ten Hag undermined by liking tweets which criticized the coach’s decision to substitute the Argentine at half-time in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth – and which suggested that Ten Hag was using Garnacho with his Comments after the game threw him overboard.
“There was a big gap on the right side…that’s clear and obvious,” Ten Hag said. “We had to fix the right side (at halftime). We had to get a submarine there.”
Ten Hag added that Garnacho had not trained during the week, but then stepped up his criticism, saying United needed “collaboration and cohesion” on the right, where Diogo Dalot had been isolated during a series of Bournemouth attacks (and two). be goals).
Garnacho liking the tweets is stupid. Can’t he accept criticism? This isn’t the first time United’s players have taken a passive-aggressive approach to criticizing Ten Hag on social media. Garnacho did the same last week for tweets criticizing Ten Hag for withdrawing him from Chelsea. And Amad posted a zipper mouth emoji on Instagram after Bournemouth.
You might think they’re being subtle or clever by not being explicit about their grievances, but especially in the case of Garnacho, Ten Hag was absolutely right, wasn’t he?
Dalot was completely exposed as Garnacho repeatedly failed to track the runners and offer them support, and the problem was compounded by the fact that the inexperienced young man Willy Kambwala was standing next to Dalot. While Garnacho may have been a threat going forward, setting up Bruno Fernandes to make it 1-1, Ten Hag’s biggest problem was Bournemouth exploiting the right side of their defence.
Garnacho was blamed after failing to chase runners (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Regardless of which side of this particular argument you are on, there was a feeling, if not mutiny, at United this weekend, something like widespread discontent at a point of potentially no return.
Garnacho and Diallo swipe on social media, or Dalot contradicts Ten Hag by saying that United are conceding too many shots (and that the gap between defense and midfield is too big), or Ten Hag may be asked by a press conference question excited about United They are facing their worst ever Premier League result… it all feels awkward.
Ultimately, if players don’t have Ten Hag – and if, in turn, the Dutchman essentially resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in Kindergarten Cop, failing to control his unruly children – then that’s more than 300 shots per game, more than the prospect of ending up outside European positions should probably worry INEOS the most.
Modern art
Hell hath no fury like football fans who insult a despised former player.
There is no love lost between Wolves fans and their former academy star Morgan Gibbs-White – and in this incredible picture there is, well, no love at all after Gibbs-White scored a goal for Nottingham Forest and celebrated just before the away game has .
Fans react to Gibbs-White’s provocative celebration (Getty Images)
It’s worth taking a minute to zoom in on the variety of faces and gestures and choose your favorite. Some can see the funny side, but the guy in the fluorescent orange jacket a few rows above Gibbs-White’s head definitely can’t.
Mount it The Louvre Contemporary Art Gallery in Nottingham.
Coming this week
- The Premier League offer tonight is awesome. Visitors like Everton are poor at scoring goals (only Sheffield United have scored fewer than 32 goals). Hosts Chelsea are terrible in defense (they have conceded at least two goals in their last seven games, against opponents such as Burnley, Leicester, Sheffield United and Leeds). It is the easily stopped force against the incessantly leaking object.
- People in the media (the damn media, Honestly) and broadcasters in particular tend to overstate the importance or appeal of football matches, but Wednesday’s perfectly prepared Champions League quarter-finals – Bayern Munich (2) vs Arsenal (2) and Manchester City (3) vs Real Madrid (3) – are as tempting as it gets. It’s a shame we can only see one live.
- Tuesday could be just as good as Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain try to make up for deficits against Atlético Madrid and Barcelona.
- Speaking of making up for deficits: Liverpool need a footballing miracle on Thursday in Bergamo when they are 3-0 down against Atalanta. And yet, despite being at home and trailing 2-0, West Ham United face the more daunting prospect against the brilliant Leverkusen.
Essential reading
(Top photo: Getty Images)
