Managerial crises abound – Sherwood, Mourinho, maybe even Arsene Wenger isn’t safe with his side top of the league. On the field, here are 5 things we learned:
Persist with Chelsea, if you dare
The Chelsea recommendations I made last week did not factor in just how dire the situation has gotten at Stamford Bridge, compounded by their collapse away to West Ham. Reports of Jose Mourinho’s demise were not greatly exaggerated.
In the weekend build-up there had been recent discussions of Chelsea going back to their roots as Mourinho picked consecutive sides with the primary aim of repelling the opposition. Without that prior contextual reading, no one would have known any change had taken place. If only they had their summer target John Stones, who is clearly masterminding Everton’s defence still…yes, he would have sorted this mess out.
Persistence might be key here. Although the world does seem to be crumbling around one certain Portuguese man, the apocalypse could just create some nice differentials. Azpilicueta is still a Spanish fullback, so he’s always a consideration. You think Baba Rahman is due his first Chelsea goal? You go for it.
Simmer down with Everton
The fixtures for the Toffees have many drooling but there will inevitably be one week where Ross Barkley will go for 1 solitary point. As evidenced by the league table, an away game against Arsenal is the one of the most imperious tasks a Premier League team could be set right now. Even so, Everton created far from an optimum amount on Saturday and took their consolation through a deflected shot from Mr. End Product himself, Ross Barkley. Looking at the next two games:
Sunderland (H) – Allardyce stops Sunderland from receiving the Andrex award for porous defence, which now goes to Bournemouth. Not the sodden dying puppy of a team they were at the start of the season, unfortunately for Everton.
West Ham (A) – Will possibly end up being the best team outside of the recognised top 7, should not be viewed as an easier fixture.
To be fair after that they face Bournemouth and Aston Villa, which could be referred to as ‘Points Galore’. Yet as obvious as this advice is, don’t blindly follow the fixture list. Crystal Palace at Goodison Park seems like another banana skin lying in wait in for GW15.
Tough to say what’s up with Swansea
While the questioning of Garry Monk’s job security was certainly undeserved, Swansea’s stodgy performances have been puzzling. Not ‘what-on-earth-has-gone-on-with-Chelsea-and-who-swapped-Eden-Hazard-with-his-lazy-twin’ kind of puzzling, more ‘Ashley Williams looks a little off his game‘ pondering.
As aforementioned in this column, these midtable teams are streaky. (See Palace, Crystal.) It has already begun to even itself out with their condemnation of Sherwood at the weekend. After a well-fought win over Manchester United Swansea looked set to inflict their Welsh possession-based attack on the whole league.
Gomis was universally praised for his role in the United game, but his form right now looks more representative of his ability. The Frenchman was poor for large swathes of last season before only picking it up towards the end and his monstrous crawling celebration might be a rarer sight in this campaign than we originally thought.
Watford showing importance of defensive midfield
Watford’s defence is becoming more heralded as the season goes on and they’re showing that to create a rock solid spine the place to strengthen is actually in front of the back four. The centre-half pairing has been a Championship regular and a Werder Bremen squad player. It would be unfair to completely dismiss their roles during the season so far, but the midfield should take more credit here.
Two new signings have inspired this clean sheet machine of a team. Valon Behrami, when he has played, proved to be the better of veteran Napoli midfielders compared with the sluggish Gokhan Inler, now struggling at Leicester. Surprisingly Etienne Capoue has been impressing after a washy spell at Spurs. If QPR had made the exact same signings however I can guarantee both would be playing terribly right now.
Talking of washy spells at Spurs, how about Heurelho Gomes! The oft-mocked Brazilian is a top 3 keeping option right now, given his value. After the Manchester derby dud, start looking forward to the battle of budget attack vs budget defence when Watford continue their psuedo-rivalry with Leicester on the 7th November.
Avoid Derby games – weird things happen.
Cue up the X-Files music whenever a local rivalry pops up in the fixture list. Strange events are about to occur. This weekend Manchester City re-morphed into a rugged side at the back with few mistakes. It took place only a couple of hours after Sunderland became the first team to ever ‘steal’ a 3-0 win. Although it did come against Newcastle so the spookiness was foreseeable.
In all seriousness though, the cliché ‘The form book goes out the window for these games’ is applicable. Another catch is the high volume of cards, of both red and yellow persuasions, that are dished out to teams of close proximity. A North London derby comes bearing its rivalry witchcraft in two weeks time. The fantasy manager inside you should be wary.
3yardscreamer 