HTHEY ALL LOSE CONSTANTLY
There are too many notable similarities between the defeats of Man.City, Arsenal and Aston Villa. Starting point: these are all unexpected failures. Man.City not only lost, but also lost heavily 1-4 against Sporting Lisbon. Arsenal lost to their powerful opponent Inter, which means this result also seems normal. And Villa lost to Club Brugge – a weak opponent in every respect.
Arsenal (the left) lost to Inter Milan after controversial penalty situation
The most notable common point: they are all consecutive defeats, on different battlefields. Man.City lost to Tottenham in the League Cup, Bournemouth in the Premier League and Sporting in the Champions League. Also in these three tournaments, Villa lost to Crystal Palace, Tottenham and Brugge respectively. Arsenal lost to Newcastle in the Premier League and to Inter in the Champions League. It is still said: what happens three times in a row is always more scientific than chance. The story here is clearly problematic. There must be a reason why the 3 strong teams Man.City, Arsenal, Villa have lost absolutely in a total of their last 3 matches?
Liverpool are the only English representatives not to lose in the recent series. By winning 4-0 against German champions Leverkusen, Liverpool became the only team to win their first four Champions League matches this season. This is a contrast, but also a similarity to the results of the three remaining British representatives. Other teams continually lose and Liverpool continually win, to lead both the Champions League and the Premier League. The similarity is this: if you look closely, it is pure performance. Winners and losers make it clear that their victory or defeat is no coincidence. These are all results that faithfully reflect their current professional status, even if the individual issues of each team may be different.
LRIGHT HOLE RODRI and OFEUILLES DE DEGAARD
In top-flight football, few things are more obvious than Man.City’s failure without Rodri in the team. Champion Man.City’s 3 defeats in the Premier League last season happened in Rodri’s absence. This happened again a long time ago when Pep Guardiola’s team lost continuously in the last 3 matches.
In fact, Man.City loses quite a few good players due to injuries, not just Rodri. But the best player of EURO 2024 is the most important. This is the central link in the entire Man.City combat system. Without a leader in midfield, Man.City’s players completely lost their senses when Sporting – in theory a much weaker team – changed the way they played and turned things around, winning big in the second half (after having lost first). and appeared “outsider” in the first half).
As important as Rodri is to Man.City, Martin Odegaard is also important to Arsenal. The only difference is that Odegaard (injured during the “FIFA Days” in September) will recover soon and not before the end of the season like Rodri. Observers once praised Arsenal for “always winning without Odegaard”. It turns out that’s not the case.
Coach Mikel Arteta (and everyone who cares about Arsenal) criticized the referee’s penalty decision, helping Inter score the only goal of the victory at the San Siro stadium (Italy). To say the least, it could be said that this was a controversial sanctioning situation. The problem is that without Odegaard, Arsenal’s attack is lacking in ideas and creating very few meaningful opportunities. They have not scored in the last 2 consecutive defeats.
For Aston Villa (in group number 4 when UEFA draws the Champions League this season), it’s pure class. This team is not strong enough to be a hero in both major tournaments. Villa continues to play but still doesn’t lose in the Champions League, it’s strange!
