Going up
Liverpool
Top of the Champions League, top of the Premier League, Arne Slot’s start to his Liverpool tenure is beginning to shake off those doubters who pointed out the man succeeding Jürgen Klopp had yet to face anyone good yet. A draw with Arsenal has been followed by defeats of Brighton and Leverkusen, with Tuesday’s 4-0 victory over the latter the best performance yet. Liverpool first took the sting out of Leverkusen’s pressing, and then went in for the kill. Luis Díaz scored his first Liverpool hat-trick, a reminder of the high quality of a player too often underrated. Xabi Alonso was the coach most heavily linked with replacing Klopp yet chose to stay at Leverkusen, who are bearing the scars of last season’s record-breaking achievements. The official word is that Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes was a Slot fan from the start. Slot’s Liverpool, who pair patience with quick, deadly counters, handed Leverkusen a lesson. The new manager’s confidence is so high he managed to negotiate the raucous CBS studio gang with a couple of quips that cut Jamie Carragher down to size.
Sporting
Manchester United are not in this season’s Champions League but Tuesday was perhaps the club’s best night in the competition since they downed Paris Saint-Germain in 2019. It was a night to live vicariously through the performance of the team coached by their incoming manager, Rúben Amorim. He said tchau to Estádio José Alvalade with a crushing 4-1 win over Manchester City that showed off his chops. Initially, Sporting had to suffer as City dominated possession. Then, thanks to the speed of their counterattack, and the precision of their pressing, they ran in four goals, forcing City’s ragged defenders to concede two penalties. “It was written, it had to be like this,” said Amorim. In the UK, TV viewers had to listen as City ultra, Oasis’s Noel Gallagher, was handed co-comms duty on TNT. Initially full of chat, he was reduced to near silence by the second half.
Monaco
Another week in which the French clubs held their end up. That is, aside from Paris Saint-Germain who lost to Atlético Madrid, and were decidedly lacking in goal threat. Monaco, by beating Bologna 1-0, jumped to third in the table, one place ahead of Brest, who are still unbeaten, on goals scored. It took a late goal from former West Ham player Thilo Kehrer, not someone too fondly remembered at the London Stadium, to break down the Italians. Adi Hütter’s team, a combination of canny imports and youngsters, had previously been denied by Bologna keeper Łukasz Skorupski. Eventually Kehrer bundled home a corner. Monaco are 22 places above PSG in the Champions League table.
Slipping down
Real Madrid
Time has perhaps clouded the fact that the club’s first Galáctico era often brought disappointment. A star name does not guarantee an improvement in the team, particularly when another mainstay has departed. For all the talk of Kylian Mbappé’s struggles, Toni Kroos’s retirement has been especially damaging. His departure, paired with Luka Modrić’s advancing years, has left a gap in midfield. In winning 3-1 in the Bernabéu, Milan made full use of the space and time they were offered, with Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão outstanding, the latter causing real problems for stand-in full-back Lucas Vázquez. Madrid are still reeling from being hammered by Barcelona in the Clásico, their galaxy of stars operating as satellites of each other. Yes, Vinícius Júnior scored a penalty against Milan, but he and Mbappé look nothing like a viable partnership; between the 13th and 43rd minute, the Frenchman did not touch the ball once. The usually unflappable Carlo Ancelotti is under pressure.
RB Leipzig
Firstly, credit needs to be given to Celtic for a glorious night at Parkhead, where the noise from fans must have left Leipzig’s ears ringing. Celtic’s purposeful 3-1 win was a stark contrast to the latest flop from Leipzig, who have lost all four of their group stage games. Marco Rose, their coach, had pulled a pre-match open training session for fear of “spies” but to little avail. Nicolas Kühn, who played for Leipzig’s youth team but was allowed to leave by Ralf Rangnick because of his unsuitability to the pressing game, scored twice for Celtic. On their current European form, Leipzig’s remaining fixture list of Inter, Aston Villa, Sporting and Sturm Graz looks daunting. Still, at least baby brother Red Bull Salzburg got the conglomerate off the mark, with a handy 3-1 win at Feyenoord. That averted eight straight losses for the Red Bull empire.
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Arsenal
A glimpse of Martin Ødegaard, on as a late substitute, was the best news in some weeks for ailing Arsenal. Losing 1-0 at Inter was no disgrace – Simone Inzaghi’s team are full of quality, battle-hardened veterans. And Arsenal fans will point out that the ball bouncing unluckily off Mikel Merino’s hand to award the Italians a winning penalty was a case of the letter of a law many believe is too harsh. The real concern lies with a lack of fluency that coincided with Ødegaard’s absence and has worsened as the weeks have rolled on. That too much onus is placed on Bukayo Saka borders on cliche, as does the lack of a top finisher; Kai Havertz was guilty of missing decent chances, though his late curler almost caught out Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer. Arsenal are stalling, and a week in which Edu, their popular sporting director, departed the club continued with more uncertainty.
A good week for
Viktor Gyökeres, Sporting
The Swedish striker, whose hat-trick consigned Manchester City to a third successive defeat, may be Europe’s hottest property. Gyökeres became the first Swede to score a Champions League hat-trick since Zlatan Ibrahimović and is top of the Champions League scoring charts with five goals and an assist. He is 26, having belatedly come to prominence at Coventry City, after he was rejected by Brighton. He has rattled in 23 goals in 17 appearances this season, a rate Erling Haaland would be proud of, and Gyökeres overshadowed his fellow Scandinavian in Lisbon. There was one glaring miss in the first half and he will be very expensive if a club does move for him, but surely his goals would be useful to Amorim if he follows his coach to Manchester United. One wrinkle: it was United sporting director Dan Ashworth who ushered Gyökeres out of Brighton.
Luis Diaz, Liverpool
To consider the Colombian conjures images of Díaz speeding down the wings and creating havoc for full-backs. The latest Slot innovation was to play “Lucho” through the middle, and it delivered instant, excellent results with that hat-trick against Leverkusen. There have been occasional doubts about Diaz’s finishing, that his rate of scoring does not tally with the amount of space and chances he creates for himself. That idea can be discarded for the moment. Klopp never fielded Díaz in the middle in two and a half seasons working together. “I really enjoyed playing in that position,” Diaz said after the game. “The manager makes it very clear exactly what he wants from us.” Slot continues to impress in his regeneration of the squad he inherited from Klopp.
Matteo Darmian, Inter
There were a few clean sheets in the fourth week of action, and though Inter saw theirs out against Arsenal with some discomfort, the job was completed with satisfaction. The security detail against Mikel Arteta’s team will always have stopping Saka as a priority, and in Milan he was kept quiet by a two-man job of wing-back Darmian and Yann Bisseck, the left-sided central defender of a trio. Darmian is one of the great survivors. A decade ago, he was one of the first signings of Louis van Gaal’s failed Manchester United revival; he played for Italy at the 2014 World Cup, when they crashed out in the group stage. At 34, he is one of Inzaghi’s adaptable and willing foot soldiers. In his later years, he has developed the canniness Italian defenders are recognised worldwide for. If Saka is struggling with his workload, the double-team on him made his struggles even deeper.
