Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 10

FA Cup takes centre stage again as Palace and Villa enjoy old-school Wembley day | Jonathan Wilson

The Premier League’s middle class is burgeoning, and none more so than Palace who ruthlessly disposed of Aston Villa

Which is the competition that exists in a state of permanent crisis again? As the Premier League drifts to a conclusion that has felt inevitable for several months, the FA Cup has started spewing out classic after classic, storyline after storyline, games in which the emotions are raw and the jeopardy real. Maybe the polarities have flipped once in the new economic environment and this has become the main event once again.

You’d probably need a few more aspirational Championship sides to start taking the FA Cup more seriously before you made that argument too seriously but, equally, the Premier League’s middle-class is burgeoning. With the gulf to the second flight growing, they can afford to be a little less troubled by the prospect of relegation, while qualification for the Champions League remains a distant prospect. In the circumstances, the only viable goal for that tier of sides is to take the FA Cup seriously.

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Psychodrama of José Mourinho’s ‘most beautiful defeat’ changed game for ever | Jonathan Wilson

As Inter and Barcelona meet again in a Champions League semi-final, it’s hard to ignore their epochal clash in 2010

Has there been a Champions League tie since that has felt more consequential? As Inter travel to Barcelona for Wednesday’s semi-final first leg, the mind turns inevitably to their 1-0 reverse at the Camp Nou 15 years ago – “the most beautiful defeat of my career” as José Mourinho has described it.

Playing with 10 men for a little over an hour, Inter secured a 3-2 aggregate victory. Suddenly it became apparent that it didn’t matter whether you had the ball or not: you could win even with 19% possession. But the outcome was only part of it. The whole tie was played out amid an apocalyptic atmosphere symbolised by the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, whose eruption made it impossible to fly over western Europe, forcing Barcelona to travel to Milan for the first leg by bus.

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Aston Villa have all the tools to establish themselves among the elite | Jonathan Wilson

Unai Emery has built a side with high standards and a squad with depth – they’ll need both in the coming weeks

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Most teams in the battle for Champions League qualification are staggering to the line, battered, exhausted, done in by a season that feels like it finished in February but somehow still has a month to run. But as they falter, Aston Villa have seemingly found another gear.

Liverpool are secure in the Champions League qualification slots and Arsenal soon will be, which leaves the remaining three places between five contenders who are separated by just two points, although Nottingham Forest face Tottenham on Monday. Forest, though, have won just three of their last eight in the league. Newcastle had won six in a row in all competitions before Saturday’s 4-1 defeat to Villa. Manchester City are unbeaten in five in the league. Chelsea have won five of their last 11 in the league and have a notably tough run-in. But Villa have won 10 of 11 in all competitions, the only blip their Champions League defeat away to Paris Saint-Germain. There is no question that they are the side in form.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

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Liverpool one victory from title and Villa win big in race for top five – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Jonathan Wilson as Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea secure important wins in the race for the five Champions League spots

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Jonathan Wilson as Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea secure important wins in the race for the five Champions League spots.

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

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Acquiescence trumps apocalypse as Leicester’s demise is confirmed | Jonathan Wilson

Home fans have long been resigned to the inevitable and applauded Liverpool, who are now three points from title

The sky, bible black, was rent by lightning. Great belches of thunder reverberated around the East Midlands. Rain thudded from the sky as the angels, overcome, could not contain themselves and, in sympathy with despairing fans in the stands, sobbed in torrents. The gods were distraught, the heavens trembled. Demons and witches wrestled in the moonlit sky. In Loughborough and Kettering, doves set themselves against eagles while, all across the Market Harborough area, horses turned and ate themselves.

Or at least that’s how relegation is supposed to be. As it turned out, Leicester’s return to the Championship was sealed on a pleasant spring afternoon in a game of almost no incident beyond the Trent Alexander-Arnold goal that took Liverpool to within three points of the title. The mood was of glum acquiescence. They have been nowhere near good enough to stay up this season and relegation has seemed distinctly probable since they lost 3-0 against Wolves three days before Christmas.

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Never mind the late drama, Amorim and Postecoglou still face the Ten Hag trap | Jonathan Wilson

The Australian could leave after Spurs win the Europa League, while United may stick with their coach after winning nothing

Erik ten Hag has gone, but his shadow looms over English football still. The mistake was understandable enough: high on the euphoria of beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, Manchester United renewed his contract. Three months into the new season, more than £180m spent on summer transfers, Ten Hag was dismissed with United 14th in the table on 11 points from nine games.

The sporting director, Dan Ashworth, and various members of Ten Hag’s backroom staff also left, at a total cost of £14.5m. Or, to put it another way, keeping Ten Hag cost United £200m and in effect undermined this season. Nobody wants to be caught in the Ten Hag trap.

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Barcelona sneak through after Serhou Guirassy’s treble gives Dortmund hope

In the end, it was comfortable enough for Barcelona, despite Serhou Guirassy’s hat-trick. They were unable to hold the ball and command through possession as they might have liked but they always had clear water. There were spells, though, when they were distinctly uneasy and, but for an own goal that came at just the right time for them, this might have been a very awkward evening.

“I had a feeling something like that would happen today because I know the stadium well,” said the Barça manager, Hansi Flick, once of Bayern. “Things didn’t go too well for us, but Dortmund played very well. The things we played out weren’t what we normally do.” It was a tie, though, that raised doubts about Barcelona as potential champions. There is much to admire about Flick’s Spanish league leaders but theirs is a high-risk game and more precise opponents than Dortmund might have exposed them.

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Manchester City may now be just another very good team | Jonathan Wilson

Pep Guardiola’s side appear to have corrected the worst of their problems but the days when they conquered all before them are probably over

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There was something very familiar about Manchester City’s 5-2 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday. In August 2022, Palace went 2-0 up at the Etihad, the second goal a header from a corner but City came back to win 4-2, Erling Haaland scoring a hat-trick in a dominant second-half performance. Saturday’s game followed a similar path, with the exception that the City comeback began before half-time. This time the key figure wasn’t Haaland, but Kevin De Bruyne, who produced a display to remind everybody just how worthy he was of the tributes that have followed the announcement that he will leave the club in the summer.

Does this, then, mean that City are somehow suddenly back? They’re unbeaten in five games, three of them won. The January signings, Omar Marmoush in particular, have enabled them to stabilise. They are back in the top five and should qualify for the Champions League next season (with all the usual caveats about the Premier League charges they are facing, which they deny). That is a significant step as they look to rebuild, not only in terms of being to attract players but for future PSR calculations.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

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Salah’s continued presence sets up Liverpool to make rebuild a little easier | Jonathan Wilson

As victory over West Ham shows, if Van Dijk also stays, Arne Slot can focus on refining squad rather than filling two voids

A flinch towards the ball that drew in Ollie Scarles, a duck to get out of the way of it and a spin and burst that took him away from the 19-year-old. Perhaps his cross on the run with the outside of his left foot was intended for Diogo Jota rather than Luis Díaz, who converted, but it hardly mattered. At the very least the ball had been delivered with an awkward shape that took it away from the goalkeeper into an extremely dangerous area. And it wasn’t about the cross anyway; it was about the turn.

It may be that in two years’ time as a 35-year-old Mohamed Salah clanks about, huffing and puffing, slowing down attacks and generally getting in the way, there will be questions asked about why Liverpool gave him a two-year extension. But nobody at Anfield on Sunday was doubting the deal. It’s not just that this was Salah’s 55th goal involvement of the season, it was the nature of that spin, the imagination and the execution; there are very few players who could conceive of such a move, let alone pull it off. Even if Salah’s legs do begin to fail him, having a few months more of that improvisational potential feels worth it.

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Pereira flourishes at Wolves until the boom-bust cycle repeats itself | Jonathan Wilson

Manager’s predecessor, Gary O’Neil, also enjoyed a fine start before things took a seemingly inevitable downturn

Managers rise and managers fall and often there isn’t much reason for it. It was only a year ago that Gary O’Neil seemed one of the brightest young managers in the Premier League, but by December it was over. This is how football is: when a blip becomes a slump becomes a spiral, the only solution is the sacrifice of the manager. It often works: Wolves have improved dramatically under Vítor Pereira and, while they may not yet be mathematically safe from relegation, they surely soon will be.

The life of man, the folk carol reminds us, is but a span; the life of a manager is even shorter (but a spanager?). O’Neil had replaced Scott Parker at Bournemouth four games into 2022-23, after their 9-0 defeat by Liverpool, and had kept them up comfortably, only to be jettisoned for Andoni Iraola. He took over Wolves less than a week before last season began and had them in the top half in March.

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