Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 9

Arsenal’s statistical victories only hide some very obvious flaws | Jonathan Wilson

Mikel Arteta has explanations for his team’s shortcomings that may hold water, but ultimately the Gunners simply couldn’t get it done when needed

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The problem is that when the game doesn’t matter, other elements begin to take over. In other circumstances, Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at Liverpool on Sunday would have been an intriguing minor classic; but then, in other circumstances, it might not have gone like that. As it was, with the title won and Arsenal secure in the Champions League qualification slots, a clash between the top two became the stage for discussion of the booing of Trent Alexander-Arnold and a weird confected online fury about whether Myles Lewis-Skelly had applauded Liverpool with sufficient gusto in the guard of honour.

At least, from Arsenal’s point of view, the game followed the opposite pattern to the one with which we’ve become familiar. Arsenal have dropped 21 points from winning positions this season (Liverpool just 13), while Liverpool have gained 22 (Arsenal just 13). If they’d matched each other in those respects, Arsenal would be two points clear at the top of the league; that essentially is the difference between them.

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Nicolas Jackson’s petulance leaves Chelsea’s top-five bid in jeopardy | Jonathan Wilson

Striker’s deserved red card at Newcastle left his teammates in the lurch, though their display improved without him

There are thousands of details that go into determining the outcome of every game, every season, every career, and yet sometimes everything can turn on a moment. If Chelsea fail to qualify for the Champions League this season, it will have been for a host of reasons, but one incident, not entirely fairly, will stand out: the moment 10 minutes before half-time on Sunday when Nicolas Jackson stumbled, righted himself, looked over his shoulder at Sven Botman and then thrust his right forearm into the Dutchman’s face.

As the wheels of VAR slowly turned, Enzo Maresca, wearing a salmon-pink sweatshirt that gave him the air of a dad on his way to B&Q on a Saturday morning, turned to the bench, spread his arms and swore with a slight shake of his head. How could they be out of the specific bracket he needed? His diatribe at the fourth official felt performative: in his heart he knew he probably should have bought the necessary hardware more than five minutes before starting to put the shelf up, and that Jackson was bang to rights.

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El Clásico, Liverpool v Arsenal and FA Trophy final buildup – as it happened

Previewing the day’s Premier League action and beyond as the season draws to a climax

1983: Aberdeen beat Real Madrid in the Cup Winners’ Cup final

1986: Peter Reid goes awol after FA Cup final misery

1996: Eric Cantona wins the FA Cup final against Liverpool’s Spice Boys

1999: Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink tilts an epic title race Man Utd’s way

2001: Internazionale 0-6 Milan (NFT)

2003: Jesper Gronkjaer changes the face of football history

2013: Wigan stun Man City in the FA Cup final

Arne Slot is planning to turn Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Anfield departure into a positive for Liverpool, the head coach has said. The right-back will leave Merseyside this summer for Real Madrid on a free transfer, meaning the Dutchman will need to find a way of replacing him.

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Antonio Conte is a title machine but the Awkward One leaves Napoli’s fans cold | Jonathan Wilson

Murals of McTominay in Naples? Don’t rule that out with the volatile manager who never stays long despite serial success

There’s always a Tottenham exception. Since leaving Siena in 2011, since he got his first break with a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies, Antonio Conte has won league titles with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Going into Sunday’s matches, with three games remaining, his Napoli lead Inter by three points. In a decade and a half he has won a trophy with every club he has managed, apart from Tottenham.

Maybe Tottenham simply aren’t a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies. Certainly it’s not as familiar to them as it is to Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Napoli were Serie A title winners the season before last. Conte led Tottenham for 17 months and although he has the fifth-best win record of any Spurs manager, although he took them to fourth in his first season, having replaced Nuno Espírito Santo in the November, and although they were fourth when he left in March 2023, by the end the situation was so toxic as to be unsustainable.

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Why Premier League position is a focus for only eight teams right now

In a freakish season at the top and bottom of the league, competing incentives for the rest are unusually fractured

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As Eddie Howe delivered his post-match press conference after Newcastle’s draw against Brighton on Sunday, Chelsea, his club’s rivals for Champions League qualification, took an early lead against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. Howe gave a wry smile and was immediately asked whether it annoyed him that Liverpool had made six changes to their lineup from the side that had sealed the league title against Tottenham last week. Being Howe, and therefore both unflappable and impossibly earnest, he replied that team selection was their business: “Liverpool have got to do what Liverpool have got to do for them. I’m not involved in their football club, so I’ve got no opinion on that.”

And of course he was right to say so, partly because it’s true and partly because criticising other managers’ team selections is a slippery slope. All clubs have their own priorities and their job is to do what is right for them, with all due nods to the integrity of the league and satisfying those who have paid for tickets or broadcast rights. Liverpool have won the title early: giving fringe players a run out is a prerogative they have earned, and it’s not their concern how that affects other sides. But at the same time, Chelsea were given an easier game than they probably would have been had they met Liverpool a week or two earlier before the league title was wrapped up.

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Chelsea trip up the champions in hunt for Europe – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Dan Bardell as Chelsea secure a vital win over Liverpool in the race for Champions League football next season

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On the podcast today; Chelsea inflict a third defeat of the season on Liverpool to help them in the race for fifth place, Cole Palmer returning to form and Roméo Lavia back in the centre might just be enough to get them over the line.

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Chelsea humble the champions in hunt for Europe – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Dan Bardell as Chelsea secure a vital win over Liverpool in the race for Champions League football next season

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

On the podcast today; Chelsea inflict a third defeat of the season on Liverpool to help them in the race for fifth place, Cole Palmer returning to form and Roméo Lavia back in the centre might just be enough to get them over the line.

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Alexander Isak on the spot to help Newcastle share the spoils at Brighton

Three times the referee Craig Pawson awarded penalties to Newcastle in the second half. Twice they were overturned by VAR but the third one stood, and Alexander Isak converted to earn Newcastle a vital point in the race for Champions League football. They had not played well, but they never do against Brighton, and in that context a draw earned with an 89th-minute equaliser was extremely welcome.

“Keeping our composure and making sure our performance wasn’t affected by the outcomes [of the VAR decisions] was key,” said the Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, who acknowledged the VAR was right to rule out the first two penalties. “If you look at the season as a whole we probably haven’t dug out enough points from games that are in the balance.

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Real Madrid’s toxic targeting of referees is a symbol of the Spanish grandees’ decline | Jonathan Wilson

Super League patron Florentino Pérez sets the tone with his destructive acts of pettiness, dragging down a once noble club

Referees have never been so disdained and despised as they are now. Those who do not think they are corrupt, think they are incompetent. Standards, apparently, have never been lower. Clubs and their fans rage about conspiracies. But even in the present context, the scenes at the end of last Saturday’s Copa del Rey final were unprecedented as Antonio Rüdiger threw an ice-pack at the referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea.

And to think this is a club that used to pride itself on its sense of its señorio, its gentlemanliness, to the extent that in Steve McManaman’s day players were given a code of conduct; the familiar line used to be whingeing about referees was for the cry-babies of Barcelona.

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Was Liverpool’s title Klopp’s final masterpiece or Slot’s foundation stone? | Jonathan Wilson

After a drama-free title race, the legacy of Liverpool’s 20th league triumph will be determined in the years to come

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It was probably just as well the decisive match came against Tottenham. Liverpool fans object to the suggestion this season has been anti-climactic, as though that somehow diminishes their achievement, but it is not a criticism to point out no side has come close to staying with them, that the title was in effect won on the January afternoon when Darwin Núñez scored twice in injury time to beat Brentford then Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead to draw against Aston Villa.

That was the season in microcosm: Arsenal carelessly squandering points, Liverpool always having enough, turning games their way in the second half. Nine times this season in the league, Arsenal have led in games that they have failed to win. On 13 occasions, Liverpool have improved their result in the second half (that is, turned a draw into a win, or a defeat into a draw or a win). It has not been a thrilling conclusion – they’ve wrapped the title up before the end of April with four games to spare and have looked probable champions for at least three months – but at least they had their day of celebration of Anfield.

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