Liverpool at the top
After twelve days, Arne Slot’s ‘Reds’ are watching their pursuers from afar, having amassed a spoils of 31 points out of 36 possible. This is eight more than the quadruple defending champion Manchester City, bruised by a severe 4-0 defeat on Saturday against Tottenham, and who visits them next Sunday at Anfield. And that’s nine more than Chelsea, Arsenal and Brighton.
“It’s a nice feeling, but it’s the start of the season. We just have to keep going and not think about what the other teams are doing“, commented midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai on ‘Sky Sports’.
The Hungarian took advantage of a feverish defense to pave the way for a success that appeared easy (30th, 1-0), but the ‘Saints‘ showed courage and perseverance to get back into the game. The red lantern equalized on a penalty scored in two stages by Adam Armstrong (42nd, 1-1) then led thanks to a counterattack concluded by Mateus Fernandes (56th, 1-2).
But Liverpool has a formidable striker in its ranks with Mohamed Salah: the Egyptian played the superhero by scoring a double (65th, 83rd) which brought his total to ten goals this season in the Premier League. “For me his first goal is the most important, because we scored out of nowhere, and after that we just had to wait for us to score another goal,” Slot commented.
Amorim returns to earth
He described himself as an ambitious “dreamer” on Friday, but the new coach of Manchester UnitedRuben Amorim, quickly came back to earth on Sunday in Ipswich (1-1). The 39-year-old Portuguese was given a dream start when Marcus Rashford scored after 81 seconds (2nd, 0-1), but Omari Hutchinson played spoilsport (43rd, 1-1) and offered the promoted a deserved point.
“When you start a match like this, you score and then you have to control the ball. You have to control the tempo of the match“, he regretted. “We can’t do it at the moment, but they tried,” he commented on ‘Sky Sports’.
In the standings, this fourth draw of the season (against four wins and four defeats) keeps the ‘Red Devils’ in twelfth place, six points off the podium. At Portman Road, he lined up a three-man defense as expected, with Diogo Dalot, Jonny Evans and Matthijs De Ligt, and chose to align winger Marcus Rashford at the forefront of the attack, rather than No.9 Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee.
The choice to (re)launch Rashford, in poor form for a year and a half, was bold and it paid off in the second minute, when the England international victoriously took over a cross from Amad Diallo. But Manchester United was not able to kill the match, nor to dominate a long-term opponent.
The young winger Hutchinson (21), pivoting in front of Casemiro, equalized by curling a marvelous shot, under the eyes of singer Ed Sheeranlong-time supporter of the ‘Tractor Boys’. The Mancuniens could even have tasted defeat without decisive saves from André Onana in front of Sammie Szmodics (11th), Liam Delap (40th) and Conor Chaplin (87th).
“In understanding the match, I think we need to improve a lot,” noted Amorim. The 12th day will end this Monday (9:00 p.m.) with the match between Newcastle and West Ham.
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